CSA multimedia centre

A mandate to preserve CSA's audiovisual and photographic heritage

Our main mandate is to manage the CSA's official audiovisual and photographic documents, that is, acquire, organize, process, retrieve and conserve these, in compliance with the standards and acts in force, to ensure that they are preserved. The other aspect of our mandate is to respond rapidly and effectively to the information needs expressed by CSA employees and the Canadian public.

A vast multimedia collection

Our collection consists of official CSA audiovisual and photographic documents, as well as documents from our partners (mainly NASA) in areas of interest to the Agency (Canadian astronauts, Canadian space technology, etc.). It is preserved in a controlled environment according to standard practices.

Our audiovisual collection, dating back to the early 1980s, mainly includes analog documents on magnetic tape (U-matic, betacam, betacam SP, VHS).

Our photography collection goes back to the beginning of the Canadian Space Program (1960s) and includes documents in their original format. We will shortly acquire digital images on CD-ROM or DVD.

Services offered

Information retrieval

To search video sequences, images or photographs, contact our head librarian at the Multimedia Centre. You can also visit CSA's image gallery.

Audiovisual document loans

To borrow audiovisual equipment, someone from the library in your institution or the public library in your neighbourhood must fill in a loan form (Word, 96 KB) and send it to the Multimedia Centre, either by fax at 450-926-4974, or by email. When the form is received, the documents will be sent to the library or institution that requested them. The service is free. However, we cannot pay shipping costs.

Returns

Multimedia Centre patrons are responsible for returning all borrowed documents in good condition and on time. All costs resulting from the failure of a borrower to meet his or her obligations shall be assumed by the patron, the directorate employing the patron, or the borrowing library in the case of an interlibrary loan.

Renewals

The loan period is four weeks. It may be renewed at any time by contacting us by email or by telephone, 450-926-4907.

Copyright

No part of our collection may be reproduced, modified or redistributed, in any form or by any means whatsoever, without the authorization of the Communications Directorate. To request more information, please use this form.

On-site consultation

The Larkin Kerwin Library makes tools for visualizing documents available to internal and external clients. However, only employees or other persons who make a request may, subject to access rights, consult the original photographic or audiovisual documents at the library.

Please make an appointment. We will be pleased to retrieve the documents and reserve the equipment you need.