After Microlog

Abstract

This article explores the history and development of Microlog, a key subscription-based source of Canadian municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal government publications from 1979 to 2018. Microlog was distributed as microfiche and accompanied by a printed and later online index. Microlog’s impact is discussed, alongside the recent termination of the product in 2018 and the implications of this change for long-term access to government information in Canada. A discussion of a selection of alternative continuing sources of Canadian government information follows, offering these tools not as direct successors to Microlog, but as important components of the remaining landscape of Canadian government information resources. The decentralization of government information collection and preservation efforts in Canada is discussed, in particular highlighting the lack of a clear successor resource to replace Microlog in the wake of its disappearance.

Keywords

• municipal, provincial, territorial and federal government information; microforms; Microlog; Canadian Research Index; web archiving; access and preservation