While I’m not seeing a lot of comment on the new LAC website my impression is that the awareness is high and the experience is on the positive side.
Moving to new does mean bookmarks, and the directions on where to find things in publications no longer work as they did. It’s particularly annoying for someone who, having just completed an article, now has to edit it.
If the site structure stays as it is, and you don’t need to see again the four items highlighted with pictures on the main page, consider bookmarking https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/Pages/collection.aspx or https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/Pages/research-help.aspx/ — it would be helpful if the “Search the Collections” search box were at the top of that page too.
I wrote to LAC asking about maps, newspapers, and directories. A prompt reply from Andrea Eidinger, Team Lead – Web, LAC Communications and Marketing Branch, informed
“We are currently working on creating new guides for the maps, newspapers, and directories. In the meantime, we have a new page with information on our microfilm newspaper holdings (Newspapers (canada.ca)), the old directories page remains accessible (Canadian Directories Collection – Library and Archives Canada (bac-lac.gc.ca)), and a new guide for maps will be coming soon.”
Let us know what you think.
I came across the new website at work the other day after trying to link to the National Union Catalogue, Voila – the link was broken and, in front of a patron, I was landed on the new home page, which left me flummoxed. Not fun.
Then yesterday, I tried (again in front of a patron) to search for a book in Voila…only Voila didn’t load.
In both cases I just took the patron’s name and ordered the book when I was able to access Voila, but it was frustrating.
I noticed the Census search is still back on the old site…will be interesting to see how this develops. Also, the home page isn’t as obvious as I thought it would be with respect to connecting to specific collections.
We’ll see how this goes. I know part of it is just that it’s new and different and right now any change can be annoying – I need to take time to explore it more fully.
My first crack at just finding the list of historic newspapers that are in the LAC collection was completely unsuccessful – I shot off an email to them in frustration…
I feel your pain…I thought it was supposed to be easier to find collections?
Posted for Ken McKinlay
“I think the new site holds some promise but I feel that they may have rushed the public release of the new site since it is a mess of the old and new with interesting quirks like what Teresa has encountered. I’m also trying to treat the new site as a brand new genealogy resource and take the time to explore the new look and feel and how it has been put together.
The one page that has saved me much grief so far has been the ‘A to Z tools and guide’ page. It has allowed me to find the new locations of pages I had previously bookmarked.”
The site is very disappointing. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought I was still on the old site.
Worst of all, when I did find an image, there was no way to enlarge the irritatingly small view so that it was legible and there was no link on the page for downloading tho the information about the set of images said they are downloadable as jpegs.
I’ll try again, but for now, my feeling is it’s been a waste of taxpayer money that would have been better spent actually digitizing material that is at present inaccessible to most Canadians because it’s on film, and that’s only at LAC.