Government of Ontario

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Customer Feedback banner

We asked. You commented. We listened.

In 2017, the Archives of Ontario conducted a public Customer Service survey to evaluate overall customer satisfaction and to identify key factors currently influencing customer experience at the Archives.
Over 500 people graciously completed the survey. Thank you to everyone for your valued feedback!

Click on the tabs below for more information about the survey results and what we have done to enhance customer experience.

The Results

Overall, customer satisfaction ranked very high with 85% of respondents satisfied with the service provided by the Archives of Ontario. Your input also identified the following three areas as opportunities for improvement in our services:

  • Customer Experience and Access
    • 21% of respondents find it difficult to access records at the Archives
  • Increased Digital Content Online
    • 45% of respondents aim to access records online
    • 25% of respondents cited limited “availability of records” as a barrier to access
  • Website Experience
    • 80% of respondents rely on the website and online databases when searching for records
    • 22% of respondents indicated that the website is not easy to navigate

What We Heard

Over the last year, the Archives developed a three-year Customer Experience Strategy to address these areas. The goals of the strategy are to enhance:

  •  Customer Experience and Access
    • Continually improve  user experience and access to collections
  • Increased Digital Content Online
    • Increase availability of popular archival records online
    • Expand digitization of popular collections through partnerships
    • Increase use of social media and YouTube
  • Website Experience 
    • Refresh the look and feel of our public website integrating with other channels
    • Continue to improve our website for French language customers and those  requiring accessible formats 
    • Improve access to the Archives of Ontario web pages by enhancing search engine optimization

What We’ve Done

On a yearly basis, we aimed at sharing our progress on how we are reaching our goals to enhance your experience with and access to the Archives of Ontario!

Since developing our Customer Experience Strategy:

2017-2018

  • Successfully completed another annual release of marriage and death records online through Ancestry.ca
    • Free access to the records are available in our Reading Room and through Ontario public libraries
  • Provided access to over 50 previously inaccessible sound and moving image records through our YouTube channel
  • Launched a review of our services to determine ways of improving customer acces

2018-2019

  • Released five new Archives of Ontario data sets on the Government of Ontario Open Data Catalogue. They include:
      • Archives Descriptive Catalogue
        • We are the first archives in Canada to make its archival catalogue available as an open data set!
      • Government of Ontario art collection
      • Archives of Ontario photographs and maps
      • Immigration Records (1865-1883)
      • Second Heir and Devisee Case Commission Files
    • Combined, these data sets have been downloaded over 1,200 times. An open data webpage on the Archives’ website was also created and provides easy access to our data sets.
  • Uploaded another 25 new videos from our collections to the Archives of Ontario YouTube channel.
  • Digitized and posted the Ontario Budgets, dating back to 1893 on the Digitized Government Publications page of our website.
  • Released the 1929 to 1932 and 1937 Ontario marriage registration records and the 1939 to 1942 and 1947 Ontario death registration records on Ancestry.ca website.
    • Free access to the records is available in our Reading Room and through Ontario public libraries

We also acquired and processed the following collections now available through the Archives’ Reading Room:

  • F 4704 John McNeill Fonds
  • Fonds consists of the professional and personal records of press photographer, John M. McNeill.
  • F 4464-11 Ontario Dairy Princess program records
    • Series consists of records created by members of the Ontario Milk Marketing Board responsible for the daily operation of the Ontario Dairy Princess program.
  • F 4355 Paul W. Bennett fonds
  • Fonds documents the activities of the Ontario School Board Reform Network and its impact on the education system in Ontario.
  • F 4432 Robert W. Runciman fonds
    • Fonds consists of records documenting the political and legislative career of Robert W. Runciman, Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly for Leeds-Grenville from 1981 to 2010.
  • F 4700 J.C. Smith fonds
  • Fonds includes negatives documenting people, architecture, animals, and other subjects in and around Ridgetown, Ontario by amateur photographer J.C. Smith.

What’s New! 2020-2021 (Update!)

We first want to thank you for your continued support and interest in the Archives as we navigate the current COVID-19 situation. In order to keep our clients and staff safe we have temporarily closed the doors to our in-person services and transitioned to providing more access and services online.
Over the last year, we have worked as an organization to find creative ways to facilitate access to more digital records and increase our online presence.

Some of the projects we focussed on include:

Digital Access to Records:


Access to Digitized Microfilm

We expanded our partnership with FamilySearch International to make over 4 million of our microfilmed archival records available online, free of charge, on the FamilySearch website.

Click here for more information about our digitized microfilmed collections.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of laptop showing a photo
of a man looking at a microfilm
reel with a magnifying glass


GLAM WIKI

We initiated a GLAM Wiki project to enhance our presence across Wikimedia platforms and to make our records more widely available.

So far, we uploaded 2,009 high-resolution TIFF files from 7 separate collections, including the Alvin D. McCurdy fonds, the War posters collection and the Elizabeth Simcoe sketches.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of GLAM WIKI
and Archives of
Ontario logos


Access to Digitized Publications

We enhanced 250 BIBLiON catalogue records with links to digital copies of originals held in the Library collection.

Click here to access the BIBLiON Library catalogue.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of Ottawa Normal School
students reading Our Canada
in the library, 1950.
Ministry of Education. I0021762


Flickr

With more people using video conferencing to connect during COVID-19, we created a new Flickr album containing free, high-resolution downloadable images from our collections.​

To access more of our free digital images on Flickr, click here for the Archives’ Flickr account.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of screen capture
of Archives of
Ontario’s Flickr page

New Online Education Resources

To support learning in any setting and respond to parents’ and teachers’ pressing need for free, curriculum-linked online resources, we created primary source flashcards using images and materials from our collections to help young students learn the letters of the alphabet, new vocabulary, and diverse stories from Ontario’s past.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of students at a
computer. 1988.
Julien LeBourdais
fonds. I0020975


Freedom of Information (FOI) Digital Delivery

We launched the FOI Digital Delivery initiative to support the secured digital delivery of records in response to Archives’ Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

Researchers can also now submit FOI requests for restricted archival records and the $5.00 application fee online. 

For more information, click here to consult Customer Service Guide 109.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of CBC Talks
Department working
around a typewriter.
1948. Gilbert A. Milne
fonds.
I0020080


Web Archiving

We recently entered into an agreement to use the Internet Archive's Archive-it platform as the primary tool for our
budding web archiving program.

This agreement will expand our ability to collect online content and help us provide Ontarians with better and more comprehensive access to evolving information about our government and province.

Stay tuned for more information!

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of woman operating
home computer, Brussels.
1984. Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Affairs
I0003229

Increased Online Presence:


Online Education Sessions

To support educators use of archival materials while still ensuring participants' health and safety during this time of physical distancing, we launched free virtual professional development (PD) sessions for educators of all kinds and at all levels! ​

For more information or to book a session send an email to refrence@ontario.ca.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Shareable image of laptop
showing online
education session


Online Webinars

In partnership Ontario Ancestors, we developed a four-part webinar series about how to research some of our most popular family history records, including pre-1869 vital statistics and early Crown land records.

Click here to access the recordings on the Ontario Ancestor’s website.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Shareable image of laptop
showing online
webinar with the
Ontario Ancestors


Research Orientations and Virtual Tours

We now offer free virtual orientation sessions and tours that help our researchers learn how to prepare for researching at the Archives and get a behind the scenes glimpse into our holdings!

For more information, click here.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of demonstration
of information technology.
[197-]. Julien LeBourdais
fonds. I0012477


Savvy Social Media Content

Without in-person access to original records in our collections, we revised our planned monthly themes for our social media channels to feature already-digitized content.

We also launched a new Instagram account to engage new audiences and share diverse content.  You can follow us on Instagram @archivesontario

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Shareable image of a 19th
century photograph of a
woman on the telephone
with speech bubble
featuring social
media icons


Refreshed Online Exhibit

In the summer of 2020, the Archives launched a refreshed online exhibit about the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9) in collaboration with Mushkegowuk Council and Queen’s University Archives.

The exhibit is also available to download for easy offline access​.

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of the James Bay Treaty
(Treaty No 9)
online exhibit


Virtual Reference Interviews

To ensure the safety of our researchers and staff, we have been looking at ways to provide comprehensive reference services for our in-person researchers from a safe distance.

In preparation for when we re-open, researchers will be able to book one-on-one virtual interviews with Reference staff to help prepare them for visiting the Archives.

Stay tuned for more information!

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of Archives of Ontario
Reading Room.
[between 1951 and 1972].
Archives of Ontario.
I0009053


Website Enhancements

We are continuing to review and enhance website content for relevance and ease of navigation and discovery.
Some of the pages we have refreshed include:

Photo by Stan Wesley featuring the written document of the James Bay Treaty (Treaty No. 9), a photo of Chief Michel Batise and his wife at the Fort Matachewan signing ceremony in 1906, and a flag from the ceremony.
Image of teacher instructing
student at computer. 1988.
Julien LeBourdais fonds.
I0020974

What’s Next? (Update!)

Although the three-year timeframe of the Customer Experience Strategy is up, we remain dedicated to enhancing our service delivery and online access to our holdings.
In response to the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services’ (MGCS) priority goals of Service Delivery Excellence and Digital Transformation and our strategic priority of Building Digital Capacity, the Archives is developing and implementing a digital strategy with the primary goal of providing increased online access to archival collections. This goal will be achieved by focusing on three strategic outcomes:

  • Enabling Digital: Ensuring we have the technology required to help us achieve our business model goals
  • Stewarding Digital: Establishing a process and the capacity to deal with new forms of content, as well as optimizing our services by digitizing portions of our holdings.
  • Discovering Digital: Facilitating access to our holdings, modernizing service delivery to become more user-focused, and enhancing the value of our holdings through active promotion and engagement.

We are happy to announce as one of our biggest digital enablers, we will be implementing a new integrated collections management system, to replace our existing systems that provide access to our collections, including the Archives Descriptive Database and our BIBLiON Library catalogue.
The new system will be:

  • client-centric with user friendly features to facilitate easier access to archival records and collections and enable more records to be made available online.
  • created based on feedback from our users who frequently access the Archives’ collections. 
  • an enhanced integrated solution to also support the Government’s mandate of delivering simpler, faster and better services.

Stay tuned for more information about the new system!

Continued Feedback (Update!)

User feedback is the driving force for the development of our digital strategy and the new integrated collections management system. Please stay tuned for more updates and future opportunities to have your say!
In the meantime, if you have any comments or ideas, send e-mail to reference@ontario.ca .
Thank you!