CCI Assessment Criteria

Assessment of service requests

CCI provides expert services to support the heritage community in preserving Canada’s heritage collections. However, demand for these services generally exceeds our capacity to deliver them, and we cannot accept all the requests we receive. To ensure our services are allocated in a manner that is consistent and transparent, we assess all requests against a set of criteria that include the significance of the object or collections, the broader benefits to the heritage community, and the equitable distribution of services across Canada. Note that to be accepted, requests do not have to fulfill all criteria.

Assessment Criteria

When a request for service is received, we first determine that:

• the client is eligible for the service (see Eligible Client Groups)
• the service fits within our mandate, objective, and strategies

If these two conditions are met, we then consider whether or not we have the capacity to undertake the work within the next 18 months. If the required lab has a backlog, the request cannot be considered at this time.

If we are able to undertake the work, the request is assessed against the following three criteria.

Impact on Canadian collections and benefit to the client — We examine the benefits of the service to either the preservation of the collection or an improved understanding of it, as well as the direct benefit to the client (owner of the artifact or collection). There are two aspects to this criterion:

• significance of the object/collection/facility to the country, region, or community
• use that will be made of the tangible outcome of the service by the client (e.g. accessibility of the object in the case of treatment, information required for treatment in the case of analysis, new knowledge that will be used by the client)

Impact on the heritage community — We look at the broader benefits associated with the service, which could include:

• links to current CCI research and development projects
• potential for future CCI research and development projects
• education for other clients through internships, workshops, or publications
• development of new skills that CCI staff could use in future work for other clients
• broader benefits, synergies, and linkages with institutions or groups other than those already mentioned (e.g. benefits to partners of the client, dissemination of knowledge gained from the service within the client’s province or region, or contributions to a body of knowledge that has national or international benefit)

Corporate considerations — We ensure the service meets with the following operational conditions:

• balance of CCI services to all parts of the country, all types of institutions, all client groups, etc.
• alignment with priorities of the Department of Canadian Heritage and Government of Canada
• available resources to carry out the work (i.e. staff members with the appropriate expertise, contractors, equipment, facilities, partnerships, etc.)
• available time and funding to carry out the project