I’m fortunate to have a family doctor, one that I trust. For routine monitoring and common issues she’s good. She refers patients to a specialist when needed. That’s as it should be as, good as she is I wouldn’t want her performing heart surgery.
Library and Archives Canada management think differently. Try and get expert advice on newspapers or maps and LAC offers a general practitioner. That was not always the case and there are legacy items, like finding aids, that can be helpful. However, many of those are only available in print versions meaning, with current restrictions on entry to the building, you’re faced with a minimum two-week delay just to see the finding aid.
It may be quicker to make an access to information request although their track record the last decade seems to be to do whatever they can to secret their archives from Canadian citizens. They have never been good at transparency anc certainly aren’t doing much of anything to make it easy to use their services.
There is also a federal culture of stonewalling all requests for Information. Some of my favourite clients in government departments and central agencies, from my perch in HR, routinely turned down every request for information under the law. Even in LAC, this should not be a surprise. Cheers anyway, BT