About Us

Operating as a division within the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, NSARM is both a central agency responsible for ensuring the effective management of records across government, and a provincial heritage institution dedicated to promoting and providing access to Nova Scotia's documentary heritage.

Organizational Structure

Archives Management
responsible for the acquisition and preservation of government and private-sector records of provincial significance.

Public Services
delivers archival reference and retrieval services, maintains the NSARM Library, coordinates outreach and volunteer activities and provides administrative support to NSARM.

Records Management
develops policies and establishes standards, guidelines and procedures for effective management of government information resources. Records management services are available to all departments, agencies, boards and commissions of the Nova Scotia Government.

Administrative History (from Government Administrative Histories Online)

The Public Archives was established in 1929 as a crown agency separate from and independent of the public service. The Public Archives commenced operations in 1931 on completion of a dedicated building and the appointment of an archivist. Its principal role was to provide a home for historical public records, which had been vested in the province in right of Her Majesty since the first Public Records Act was passed in 1861. In 1966 the Public Records Disposal Act was amended to give the Provincial Archivist a statutory role in scheduling the final disposition of modern government records. Until 1981 the minister unofficially responsible for the Public Archives was the Premier, since 1930 a member of the Board of Trustees. In 1981 the Department of Culture, Recreation and Fitness assumed ministerial responsibility for the Public Archives. In 1996 the Government Records Act placed the Provincial Archivist at the head of a new Government Records Committee. In 1997 the Public Archives of Nova Scotia assumed responsibility for records management within government and was renamed Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM). A new Public Archives Act entrenching the position of the Provincial Archivist was passed in 1998, and in 1999 all employees became civil servants. Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management is now for all practical purposes a division of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, whose minister is responsible for both the Public Archives Act and the Government Records Act.

For more information about us see:

- Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage

- Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage

- Departmental Business Plan

- Public Archives of Nova Scotia Board of Trustees

- Public Archives Act

- Government Records Act