Library and Archives Canada (LAC) – Burnaby Regional Office

Yesterday, I got a chance to visit the Burnaby LAC office as I worked with a couple of the archivists there while at NRCan. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures, but the tour wasn’t the focus of my visit.

The office is made up of about 5 staff members on the archives side and a few more for the records management side of the facility. The warehouse is pretty big, but stores mostly inactive files still in the custody of the originating department, managed by the records side of the office.

Apparently, the big area of interest for researchers and the public are the Indian Affairs documents including residential schools records.

While the building and facilities are much less impressive than the Ottawa ones, it was really nice to see that everyone knew each other and considered the team their “little family”. I must admit that there are always pros and cons to working in any work place, but it seemed like a more inclusive environment.

Canadian Police College (RCMP) Library Tour

This week’s tour was to the Canadian Police College Library at the RCMP compound and college campus.

Collections

As you would expect, the collections are focused on law enforcement, particularly the investigative component with only a minor amount of materials on criminology. Other than books and journals, they also have microfiche (most has been weeded though), audio/visual materials, theses, studies, and reports.

Services

Standard services of reference, ILL, specialized bibliographies, training are available. It’s not a very big library, but is specialized in supporting all police agencies and organizations across Canada (and some international) as well as the students attending the college. It’s a nice, quiet space with a reading and working area open 24/7! Reference and A/V are only available during regular hours naturally.

Sorry, no pictures this time. Camera ran out of batteries and out of spares! The website has a Virtual Library Tour though.

Stables Tour

As part of our tour of the library and campus, we got to go on the stables tour. Having seen the musical ride, it was interesting to learn about how things work behind the scenes. Sadly, they only tour Saskatchewan and east of it. The most interesting part was learning that they have 8 months to train (that includes learning how to ride if they have no experience!) and then get to stay for (usually) 2 years. No touching the horses unfortunately, but for anyone who has any interest in horses and/or the ride, I would encourage them to go. It’s a public and free tour.

War Museum Research Centre Tour

This week’s tour was to the War Museum‘s Research centre. The research centre is an amalgamation of the library, archives, and photo archives. All of their collections are searchable online and you can get in-house access to them. Borrowing of library materials is also available through interlibrary loans.

Library

The library provides all the usual services including reference and ILL. There is always a staff member on the reference desk whether it be a staff who works on the library side of things or the archives.

The library collects materials relating to military, history, biographies, cartoons, technical manuals (e.g. carrier pigeons, bugle songs), newspapers, etc. with a focus on Canadian materials (many of which are self published), but also materials from/on countries that had a lot of interaction with Canada. Much of their collection (library and archives) is acquired through donations.

The space is nicely furnished with a reading room (which is for the viewing archives and rare books), Canadian war art, mix of regular and compact shelving, and a study area with a wonderful view of the river. Just outside the windows is a landscape model of a battlefield where a family of groundhogs live.

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The Archives

The archives area is divided essentially into two areas. One is the work room and the other consist of three vaults (books, maps, photo). The work room is used for basic conservation tasks while anything extensive or complex is contracted out. The vault itself was the usual temperature controlled area with shelving for storing materials. The 3D maps shelving was interesting in that it included rubber pieces (each piece is kept in a bag in case the temperature control breaks and it starts to melt), and very large pieces (the shelf has extra large stoppers so that the pieces do not hit the wall since they are wider than the shelving).

The archives collects a lot of different old and current/contemporary materials including rare books (pre-1900 or significant/interesting one offs), letters, maps (smallest of which is approximately 4″x6″, largest of which is the NORAD map approximately 8’x10′), blueprints, records, scrapbooks, photos, and video/film. Generally, official records are collected by the national archives while the war museum collects more personal ones. As mentioned, most of the acquisitions are done through donations (some of which is from people cleaning out their attic), while a few are purchased.

Some interesting pieces that were shown to us (see pictures in slideshow) including silk WWI postcards, letter of mourning (with the king’s real signature), WWII war time logs, WWII terrain model (made of cotton on cardboard), colour uniform book, treatise on artillery (the oldest book from 1628),  book on uniforms’ lace patterns, photos from the Afghanistan war, military man’s scrapbook including his medals of award.

Short Reflection

The tour was great since we got to see both the library and archives, particularly how they work together. The staff’s enthusiasm really showed and made it seem like a great place to work (which I am certain it is) beyond working with interesting material. The materials were also carefully chosen by staff (and volunteers), so it gave it a more “personal” touch. Finally, the tour was nicely timed on a Thursday afternoon so that we could enjoy the museum for free afterwards. This was definitely one tour not to be missed!

Industry Canada Library and Knowledge Centre

This week’s tour was to Industry Canada‘s Library and Knowledge Centre. The library at Industry Canada focuses on meeting the needs of their users through partnerships, providing easy access to content, and providing a space for collaboration and sharing of information.

Services

Much like any library, they provide:

  • reference services through e-mail, telephone, and in-person at the desk
  • in-depth reference services  provided by portfolio (subject) librarians
  • online resources, such as subject and research guides
  • current awareness, such as weekly Radar (news), news in departmental newsletter, blog (events, resources, news)
  • access to print (via catalogue) books and serials (in-house and interlibrary loans), subscription databases, etc.
  • training and learning (which helps employees fulfill their personal learning plans), such as orientations for the library and research, viewing and participation of external webinars

Much of the development of their services is based on feedback and the needs of their users, focusing on the subjects you would expect at Industry Canada (business, economics, statistics, management, etc.) and information that is very current. For example, one area they focus on for new articles and resources are what they refer to as ThinkTanks, information coming out of organizations such as universities and research councils, since this is an area that people are generally unfamiliar with and perhaps where alert tools are not as readily available.

Library Space

The library has also just moved to a new physical space (last May). Library staff worked with a designer to improve on the old space based on staff comments and feedback. The focus with the new design was on creating an information commons, and more areas for people to use the space rather than having it taken up by shelving. As a result, the library has a mix of compact and regular shelving, but much less of it. An estimated 29% of the print material was weeded.

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When you enter, you are immediately greeted with promotional materials on the side and the front desk always staffed by a librarian. It is amusingly dubbed the “hotel desk” as it was purposely designed with a different set of lights and lettered wallpaper to make it feel more approachable and welcoming.

The new space also has an additional training area so that more than one training session can be done at once, and a few study carrels were added based on user feedback. A nice reading area includes cushy chairs, magazines, journals, new books, and a couple of TVs on news channels.

Personally, the best part of the tour really was seeing the difference between the old space (which we got to see pictures of in a video) and the new one, and hearing about the considerations that were put into why and how design considerations were made.

Recordkeeping Methodology Day (RKM Overview)

At the 5th RK Day hosted by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), speakers from LAC and the consulting firm OSTA (On Second Thought Advisory) gave an overview of the methodology including some background, why it’s being done, and some of the benefits. I’ve provided here a brief summary and some thoughts.

Disclaimer: Please note that this is a personal explanation and may sometimes involve interpretation based on my own understanding and experiences. This is not an authoritative guide in any way. Links used here are not necessarily the most detailed or most authoritative links, but are used here because most documentation is internal to the Government of Canada. As always, opinions expressed are my own.

Recordkeeping Methodology

Trends and Shifts

LAC speakers spoke much on the shifts and trends happening in and outside the government that helped to push forward this initiative:

  • renewal and modernization of the office
  • culture change to convergence of policy, technology, etc.
  • rapid technology development
  • increasing difficulty in finding and accessing (definitive version of) information
  • reducing dependencies on paper

Policy

The initiative goes hand in hand with the policy that has been created. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) put into effect the Directive on Recordkeeping a couple of years ago mandating that all government departments need to be compliant by 2014.

The methodology is also to help departments align themselves with various frameworks and structures, such as:

New Approach

LAC is also taking a new approach to recordkeeping with this methodology. A few key differences:

  • New terminology: Information Resources (IR) to encompass everything instead of just records.
  • Focus on value: Business Value (BV) and Enduring Value (EV, what is more or less equivalent to archival value) instead of by format or medium.
  • Valuation is at time of creation not at the time of disposition or later.
  • Prioritization at a high level based on existing plans and structures of the department means that it is risk informed.
  • General valuation disposition tools (GVDT) that allow LAC to apply a disposition authority (RDA) to multiple institutions as a template with flexibility to ‘customize’ it for departments that need it. e.g. 60+ RDAs to 8? GVDTs to cover the same amount of IRs (don’t quote me on these numbers though).

The Methodology

The RK methodology focuses on using what the department already knows and has, and implementing everything based on existing knowledge, resources, and tools while filling in any gaps. So, if a department already has everything more or less in place, the project should take a relatively short time.

The methodology itself has 3 phases and 7 steps as shown in the diagram:

Recordkeeping MethodologyI’ll give a brief overview at a very high level just to give people an idea of what it’s all bout. There are a lot of documents, questionnaires, spreadsheets, etc. related to each stuff which they talked about at the presentation, but I won’t go through all of them here.

Phase 1 & Step 1: Planning

High level analysis is done at the department level to see where the department stands in terms of recordkeeping. There is an Initiation Survey, which is supposed to be a quick (approximately 15 yes/no type questions) assessment of the department’s current practices. A more in-depth Diagnostic Tool allows an analysis of the readiness and complexity of the project for the particular department as well as an initial evaluation of time and resources requirements. More questionnaires and reports build on these in looking at the current state of things, prioritization, building a project plan, and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LAC.

Phase 2 & Steps 2-5: One Time Effort Phase

If the diagram confuses you at this stage, it is essentially supposed to show that the steps are non-linear as things go back and forth and an organization can be in multiple steps at once. Allow me to explain.

Step 2 mentions engagement and of course, the department will begin the project, and with LAC’s assistance, focus on the highest priorities. Communications and presentations will be made to the department. Along with awareness and training throughout this process, obviously, documents to help staff on identifying information resources that have value and what to do will be created.

Once into Step 3 (Data Collection Exercise), more in-depth questionnaires are done at the sector level focusing on value, controls, risk, and capacity. Particularly for large organizations, those working on the project will have to engage each sector to collect information, and depending on how quickly one sector is completed at this step, they may move forward to the next before another sector.

Step 4 build reports and essentially an inventory of repositories, records, information resources, and what controls are in place to manage the information. Supporting documentation is also created with rationale on how to identify what information resources are of business and/or enduring value.

Step 5 puts it all together into one spreadsheet (Recordkeeping Accountability Instrument) listing program sub activities and outcomes, whether it has (or likely to have) business and/or enduring value, which disposition authority applies and how, and who holds responsibility among other things like security and risk (but I have listed the essentials to give the general ideas).  This spreadsheet would become a reference document for all staff, particularly those involved with information management (in any way, not necessarily in the IM branch only).

Other documents are also created at this stage to identify any gaps and actions to address these gaps.  Recordkeeping roles are also identified and committed to by the department. Plans are also created for the final phase.

Phase 3 & Steps 6-7: Ongoing

Finally, the department is to maintain the reference materials and follow through on the action plan. Results are reported, information is managed, change is monitored, and things are revised as needed.

The Benefits to the Department

I think benefits to the department should be fairly obvious, but here are a few:

  • compliance to the TBS Directive, Policy on Information Management, and LAC policies
  • (almost definitely) compliance with internal policies on information and records management
  • alignment with Management Accountability Framework (though I believe this is still in the works)
  • decrease in storage and management of unnecessary information
  • increase findability of authoritative information, including fulfilling Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) requests
  • (likely) support of clean up and disposition of legacy records

There are others, mostly surrounding information and records management, and some which are more related to the archival side, such as preventing lost of information with enduring value.

Benefits to Government

Other than the myriad benefits related to information management within a department and compliance by all government departments, I believe that applying this methodology to the government as a whole has some added benefits. For the most part, these benefits stem from collaboration:

  • reuse of documentation, tools, reports, etc. including training and awareness tools
  • development and refinement of the methodology such that the process should go faster for those implementing the project later
  • development of general disposition authorities (versus institution specific) means quicker roll out of authorities

Timeline

Certainly for anyone in the Canadian government who was not already aware of all this would be most interested in the expected timeline.

Summer 2011 – Preparation

Initiation surveys have been sent out with the diagnostic tool available this month. Selected departments will be contacted to be early adopters and begin the project. LAC will also be training their staff and certifying consultants.

Fall 2011 – Phase 1 for GC

LAC will be getting all departments through phase 1 by the end of the year with early adopters moving into phase 2.

Winter 2012 – GC Wide Implementation

Projects will begin in clusters of institutions (presumably similar ones will be grouped together). LAC hopes to finish by June 2014 in order for all departments to be compliant with the directive by the ‘due date’.

Sounds very ambitious, but it also sounds like they thought it through. One can only see if it works out, I hope it does!

Some Thoughts and Reflections

The Event

The event itself was well organized for the most part. There was definitely a good turn out. I think there’s room for improvement for the next time they do something similar though.

Considering the audience and that most people will not have been exposed to the methodology before, I thought the presentation went into a bit too much detail at times, overwhelming some. Talking about the tools at a high level is great, but showing people unfamiliar with the project an actual spreadsheet struck me as something that would simply confuse people.

The presentations were also done in both English and French. I understand the importance of having the presentations in both languages, but considering that most people are bilingual, hearing each slide done first in English and then in French is repetitive to most. If the presenters are worried about presenting in someone’s primary language, is it not common practice to simply have two presentations, one in English and one in French separately? On the upside, I got to learn some of the French vocabulary related to the project, which I had not been previously exposed to.

Some things were simply logistical in nature, but I think made a difference:

  • if you are going to advertise a twitter hashtag, make sure your presenter knows what it is (and advertise it before hand)
  • if you have a twitter hashtag, have it projected somewhere so people can see the conversation
  • either make people hold extra questions until later or allow more time for questions so as not to go overtime
  • have the event in the afternoon so that people west of Ontario can participate at a reasonable time (it was a morning half day)

Nevertheless, overall, I think the presentations were well organized, and the presentations on presenting the rationale for the project and the timeline were definitely well done, giving people a good sense of why the initiative is happening and how LAC will lead the departments into compliance.

Personal Value

Attending the session really helped me get an overview of the methodology and to put my work into context. Having entered the RK Project in the middle of the pilot made it so that I had to do a lot of catch up work, and unfortunately, I will not see the department complete phase 2 either. The overview gave me the big picture of the project as well as informed me on the status with the rest of the government, which was great. I also go to report back to our team with the information that the presentations were done in both languages, which I think will be of use to us.

National Resources Canada (NRCan) Libraries – Booth Complex

I actually went to tour the NRCan libraries 2 and 3 weeks ago, but haven’t gotten around to getting pictures off my camera. After the other two tour posts though, I don’t feel like there’s much to say. Still, some neat things, especially at 615. Hopefully I got it all correct. I forgot to take notes, and two of them were on the same day…

555 Booth

The library at 555 takes care of Minerals and Metals sector, namely CANMET (and related areas). Since there’s a new CANMET facility out in Hamilton though, a chunk of their collection went over there. They also sport a “dungeon” (the basement) with lots of compact shelving. They have a few different numbering systems though depending on whether it’s a report, serial, etc. (Sorry, no pictures because I didn’t have my camera with me.)

580 Booth

580 takes care of Energy, and Policy and Management. Not much to say beyond that. Standard compact shelving with a small meeting area and some nice art. It has a nice reading area with cushy chairs!

601 Booth

Half of Earth Sciences resides at 601. They do have a large collection of physical materials, particularly serials, with different numbering systems as well for material catalogued before and after Library of Congress was in use.

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615 Booth

In terms of things to show off, the 615 Booth Library probably has the most. As the other half of the Earth Sciences collection, they have all the Geomatics related material, the maps collection, the photo collection, and the books archive. They have some great photos going back to the first photographically documented geological surveys. There also a ton of maps as well as some interesting globes, including a tectonic plate globe with moveable pieces! The books archive has a number of pieces written by Logan himself.

All the NRCan libraries are open to the public, so feel free to visit and browse the collections physically or virtually!

National Research Council Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI)

Yesterday (Wednesday), we got not only a tour, but also a big talk on the various services and projects that NRC Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) is working on. For those who don’t know who they are, most people would know them as the National Science Library.

The Library

The library itself is fairly standard, except that it’s not open even to staff. They have three floors of closed stacks (which are fairly narrow to save space), so only library staff are generally allowed in. Any access is done through digital scanning of articles or by providing an electronic source. Generally, what they have in print is the older material, and newer material is electronic only (that’s my understanding anyway).

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The artwork in the building was nice. One wall on the ground floor is a 365 plexiglass boxes wall (sorry, no picture, it turned out blurry). The other notable piece is the waves design (by a Japanese artist), one which is turbulent (picture in slideshow), the other which is calm. So, depending on your mood, you might go and look at one or the other.

Services

They provide a lot of services to both internal and external clients. Mostly through document delivery. Interestingly, they currently have a partnership with Infotrieve, whereby Infotrieve can use the facilities in return for doing the day-to-day operational services, such as circulation and document delivery (including scanning). This has allowed CISTI to provide better, faster access to their information, and its more financially sustainable. They also have partnerships with other libraries, such as Health Canada, and they are participating in many national initiatives. Obviously, they provide reference services as well, mostly in terms of more complex questions with a focus on “actionable” information.

Data Services

Staff members also provide analysis and reports on trends based on text and data mining (using VantagePoint and TouchGraph) among many other data services, including:

CISTI Labs

Maybe because I’m a techie, but I think some of the coolest stuff they’re doing at CISTI is shown on CISTI Labs. The recommendation search (Sarkanto) is pretty neat, and so is the coloured cluster searching (Ensemble). The problem, of course, is the uptake and getting people to use it. Still cool.

Recently, they also launched their mobile site. The number of GC sites that have a mobile version are few and far between, so it was great to see. They even have a parred down version of their link resolver page for their internal mobile users. Great job!

Library of Parliament – Parliament Block (Part 2)

So I briefly talked about the Library of Parliament in my Doors Open (Part 2) post, but Tuesday, I got to go on a private tour (it was just me and my coworker) getting more history and information on the library.

Services

The library provides a lot of services, primarily reference and news collation, but the research department also create internal reports, briefs, and publications for House and Senate members. More on their services can be found on their website.

Collections

As to be expected, a large portion of their collection are legislative and legal in nature for federal and provincial, as well as other commonwealth nations, particularly the UK. Obviously, there are also a lot of parlimentary documents including committee decision and evidence, and copies of MPs’ Questions and Answers. However, since they don’t have a lot of space, in terms of more contemporary reference material, they only have a specific range (E-L? I thought) with the rest in storage or at other locations (which apparently total 8).

Most of it was kept on the main library floor or in the basement using compact shelving. Most of it was pretty standard, but they had some neat shelving for microfilm.

You will also notice that some books have new binding and some old. We were told that that’s because they are focused on preserving content and not necessary the book itself, so if the book is brittle (especially if it was printed on pulp paper), they might even photocopy the pages and bind them into a new book.

Rare books are probably exception to this. The library has some really interesting pieces including old books about Canada printed in Europe in the 19th century, and early copies of exploration books. Their rare books has very restricted access though so we unfortunately didn’t get to see it.

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The Library

I previously mentioned that the library is the only surviving part of the original building, but on this tour, we got much more information on some of the smaller details. Due to remodelling, renovations, and whatever else over the years, the library was changed a few times. However, in most recent years, they have been trying to restore the library to the original look.

The railing was painted almost all black in the 50’s, but they now sport a bit more colour. The glass floors and on the tower-looking structures were also ‘put back in’ so to speak since in the 50’s they had made them all wood. Can you also imagine how bland the ceiling would look if it was all beige? Well in the 50’s it was, so they repainted it with the blues. The library also has square wood cuts along the walls, each of which is unique (100+). The reading room is an addition though, since the original reading room is now the largest party’s gathering room.

Additions were also made to make sure the building was following building codes and to help with overall maintenance/survival of the library and its books. So, brass windows were custom made for all 100+. Apparently in the past, the windows didn’t always keep out the rain especially during high winds, so they had to use tarps to keep the water off books! Some of them have evidence of water damage now. Ventilation and fire sprinklers were also added, but in an inconspicuous way so that they aren’t really noticeable (took me 2 minutes to spot a sprinkler even when it was pointed out to me).

The one thing that was removed was the card catalogue along with one wall of drawers in each area, which is a bit strange though since they left the side walls intact.

It was a great tour and if people get a chance, I would highly recommend it!

National Public Service Week

I had a fairly eventful National Public Service Week last week.

Kick-Off
To begin with, there was a ‘kick-off’ event here with a video in honour of public servants. It was interesting to watch, because although I realized that the government does a lot for the country, it helped me realize that literally all sectors of our country likely have a related government department or agency (beyond finance/taxes).

Appreciation Wiki
To celebrate NPSW, our communications branch (I believe) set up wiki pages (via yours truly and coworkers) for people to add comments thanking other people’s hard work. I am proud to say that I added a comment as well thanking everyone, particularly the team, in helping me get settled in. I also greatly appreciate my coworkers putting up with my newbie questions.

W2P Event
For some context:

w2p stands for Web 2.0 Practitioners of the Government of Canada, a “community [which] focuses on sharing, identifying, helping and providing best practices within the Government of Canada, and share those leading examples across the public service.” You can follow the discussion on twitter: #w2p

Wednesdays of last week was a #w2p event and it was great. My first meetup with the group (since I missed the last one at the War Museum). I didn’t know anyone there, but the hosts were really friendly and so were all the other people I met. It was nice putting faces to names. I found it funny that half the people there either work or worked at NRCan at some point. A lot of good discussions and finding out what other people are doing. In particular, the accessibility web work that’s happening is quite interesting. I was also introduced to the @UXWG which is a government working group coming up with web guidelines. See Laura Wesley’s blog post summarizes UXWG.

Young Professionals Network Mixer
YPN organized an interdepartment mixer to encourage people to meet with young professionals in other departments. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a little more structured. They basically provided a place and time, but that was it. No introductory remarks, no ice breaker games, nothing to encourage people to actually mix. I was happy that I met new people from another department, but they were essentially coworkers of acquaintances. Still, it was great fun meeting other co-op students I hadn’t met before.

So, that was my NPSW. I’m glad I took the opportunity to go out to as many events as I could manage. It makes me all the more thankful that I had the opportunity in the first place. Thanks GC!

Doors Open Ottawa (Part 2)

So, to continue from last time. Here is the other half of the places I visited (in alphabetical order):

For the full list and a map with the actual order I visited places in, see Part 1, the previous post.

Embassy of Hungary

I think the Hungarian Embassy was the highlight of the weekend for me. It’s a smallish place as far as embassies go (is my impression anyway), but it had a great atmosphere and look that I really liked.

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The house part of the building was restored to the original look including all the wood paneling and ironwork. It was elegantly decorated. The study had a cool map of Austria-Hungary (from 1867 I think it was). The dining area had a small table set up with photographs of traditional Hungarian dishes. Best part was when one of the other visitors asked if the beautiful china was used for formal or special occasions. The response from the staff, “No, no, he uses it everyday.” I went early (just before it opened) so I got some pictures without anyone in them.

First Church of Christ, Scientist

Honestly, I only stopped here because it was on my way to Blackburn after the Hungarian Embassy. There was really not much to see. I was hoping to see their organ, but it was behind a wall. Oh well.

Government Conference Centre

Government Conference Centre

The Conference Centre was really nice to see, because it’s the old train station essentially. There was a presenter talking about the history of the station and how it was modeled on the (now no longer existing) NYC Pennsylvania station. We got free popcorn too! (Sorry, no pictures from me. They didn’t turn out well.)

Library of Parliament (Parliament & Sparks St.)

So the Parliament library inside the Parliament you can see if you got on a Centre block tour. The Sparks St. one, however, I believe is not normally open to the public.

Library of ParliamentLibrary of Parliament

(Apologies for the quality of the pictures, but with the sun coming through the windows, it wasn’t easy.) The statue of Queen Victoria stands tall more or less in the center of the circular room with walls of books. At intervals, there are large wooden towers with the coat of arms of the 7 provinces that existed in 1876. It’s the only part of the original parliament that wasn’t burnt down, so it’s quite special.

Library of Parliament at Sparks

I spent little time at the Sparks St. Parliament Library, but I took a couple of pictures. It’s housed in the old Bank of Nova Scotia done in the Beaux-Arts style, so it has a nice open atmosphere to it. It’s quite grand in a modern way, and rather impressive, though I found the one in Parliament more interesting.

Maplelawn Garden & Keg Manor

Maplelawn

Maplelawn was really nice. How often do you see a (what used to be private) acre garden in the city? It actually had a lot of flowers that I don’t remember seeing elsewhere (at least not in bloom). It was great to just get “out” of the city for a little while, especially out of the downtown/core area. One of the volunteers even cut a few flowers and gave it out to the ladies.

Keg ManorKeg Manor Entrance Hall

The Keg Manor is the house next to the garden where the original family lived. It was originally owned by the Thomson family, but is now called the Keg Manor since it houses the Keg Restaurant. It was nice to see the inside since even if you were to dine there, you don’t exactly get to wander around.

National Capital Commission

The National Capital Commission (NCC) is housed in a restored building. Apparently, it was so old and unmaintained that it was pretty much falling apart and unlivable. However, they didn’t have enough money to get it restored, so they made a deal with the management company that the company would get a fixed number of years ownership and would get all profits during that time before it was given back to the city.

NCC buildingInside NCC

The paint colours and everything were restored to the original based on shaving down the layers, historical documents, etc. The style of the building is a really interesting mix including Japanese tea rooms (seen in the railing). The offices that lease that part of the building are really allowed to do more or less what they would like as long as they restore it to the original when they leave.

7 Rideau Gate

7 Rideau Gate

This is where they house foreign dignitaries and it’s pretty much right next to Rideau Hall. In a way, it’s just another house, except that it’s furnished with rather varied cultural decorations and styles. They also have their own chef! Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed on the inside.

Rideau Hall

Rideau Hall

Rideau Hall is the Governor General’s house (and again you can’t take pictures inside, don’t know why). Heads of State and Royalty will stay here, so Queen Elizabeth II stayed in 2010 during her tour. The rooms were quite vast, obviously meant to hold large groups of people and for functions. The tent room was especially neat since it’s an indoor room but is made to looks like you are inside a colourful tent. The highlight of my visit though was seeing Glenn Gould’s piano.

St. Andrews Church

St Andrews ChurchSt Andrews Church Stainglass

This church was near C.D. Howe so I thought I’d take a few minutes to check it out. It turned out to have a really nice looking altar as well as some nice stainglass. (Excuse the poor quality shot of the stainglass, it’s hard without a SLR.)

Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts

Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts

This church is probably one of the nicest I’ve seen in Canada. It has a grand but not overwhelming sense of presence to it (it’s hard to explain). The organ was impressive especially with the stainglass behind it, which would have made a very nicely framed picture if I had a camera that could have captured it properly in the kind of lighting I was working with. What I liked most though was the triple altar with its nice paintings. Of course, I have yet to visit the Notre-Dame in downtown.

Studio of Canadian Landscape Artist Gordon Harrison

No pictures. I just stopped by here since it was on my way to the bus stop. It was interesting though not art that I would purchase regardless of the rather high prices. On the up side, they had a bit of free food and wine! (though I opted for perrier since it was the middle of the afternoon.) The cottage itself was really small, but cute. The garden was made for lounging.

Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of CanadaSupreme Court of CanadaSupreme Court Foyer

The Supreme Court of Canada was a really interesting place to visit, especially with the speakers who were there to talk about how everything works. It was educational learning about what kind of cases would be heard and that each side only has one hour to make their case unlike in lower court proceedings. The Federal Court of Canada is in the same building, and thought I could have guessed, I didn’t know that criminal cases are tried at the federal level, but only federal crimes, such as treason and terrorism.

Phew~ Finally, that was my Doors Open Ottawa 2011 experience!