UBC Library: Winter Update
By Glenn Drexhage.

Collaborative cataloguing project wins CLIR grant

UBC Library is honoured to be a supporting partner in a collaboration led by the University of Washington that has won a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). This marks one of only two international collaborative efforts funded by the CLIR, based in Washington, DC, and the first involving a Canadian university.

The Cataloguing Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant, worth $183,500, is for a project entitled “Discovering Modern China: University of Washington (UW) & University of British Columbia (UBC) Collections.”

This project involves the cataloguing of special Chinese-language materials at the UW’s East Asia Library and UBC’s Asian Library. It is set to begin on June 1, 2014, and wrap up within 18 months; when finished, up to 2,000 special Chinese publications – including pre-modern texts and rare publications of the Chinese Republican era – will be made accessible to scholars worldwide.

More information is available at the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) News blog; stay tuned for more updates from UBC Library on this exciting project.

Transformation and Engagement: 2012/13 Senate Report

The 2012/13 Report of the University Librarian to the Senate is now available. Read all about our highlights from the last fiscal year – including collections, donor support, the digital agenda and more – and find out about our plans for the year ahead.

View the report or download the PDF, and learn about the life of UBC Library.

B.C. Sessional Papers digitized

UBC Library, in partnership with the Legislative Library of British Columbia, has digitized the first 10 years (1876-1886) of the British Columbia Sessional Papers. The collection includes maps, annual reports, land sales, voter records, proclamations and more. Project funding came from the B.C. History Digitization Program at UBC Library’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Members of the British Columbia Research Libraries Group (University of Victoria, University of Northern British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Legislative Library of British Columbia and UBC) have worked together to provide access to these significant documents; the Legislative Library provided the physical volumes that were digitized.

For more information, please visit B.C. legislative history online.

Lam Librarian recognized for service excellence

Jan Wallace, Head of the David Lam Library, has won the Lesley Wilkins Award for Service Excellence. This award is given annually to a faculty member or librarian at the Sauder School of Business. To be eligible, the nominee must demonstrate a positive impact on the faculty and its employees; be consistent in the performance of job duties; and demonstrate initiative in fulfilling job responsibilities. Jan’s nomination included glowing support letters from Sauder faculty and staff, the Library and students. Congratulations Jan!

Digitizing Aboriginal knowledge

Valuable oral histories, traditions and culture from two B.C. Aboriginal communities will be preserved, thanks to the Aboriginal Audio Digitization and Preservation Program (AADPP). Tsawwassen First Nation and the Upper St’át’imc Language, Culture, and Education Society are the inaugural AADPP recipients; both of their projects are planned for completion in 2014.

The AADPP – a pilot initiative led by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, in partnership with the Museum of Anthropology and the First Nations Technology Council – provides matching funds for B.C. Aboriginal organizations to convert audio cassette tapes to digital formats for preservation and access. Current plans are to offer equipment, training and funding support for four to six projects per year, with applications accepted twice a year.

The Learning Centre is pleased to announce the second call for applications to the AADPP, which has been revised with a new application form and some changes to the funding model. Previous and new applicants are encouraged to submit proposals.

Applications must be submitted by Friday, February 28, 2014. Please visit the Indigitization site for details about eligibility, access, guidelines, criteria and more.

Drinking water project, poem podcast win Open Scholar Award

A review of drinking water at UBC and a podcast focusing on a Latin epic poem are the latest graduate student submissions to win the GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award.

Sam Bailey and Shona Robinson were recognized for their entry Aesthetic Assessment of Drinking Water at UBC: A Comparison of Waterfillz and Tap Water; both belong to the Pollution Control and Waste Management Group at UBC’s Department of Civil Engineering. Meanwhile, Christian Brady – a Master’s student in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies – was selected for his entry, entitled Podcasting Lucan and the Classical World.

Authors of each winning submission receive $500, and their work is made publicly available on a long-term basis by UBC Library. Please visit the Library’s site for more information.

The Open Scholar Award is a collaboration between the Graduate Student Society and cIRcle – the University’s digital repository that was set up by UBC Library in 2007. The award highlights UBC as a leader in the open dissemination of graduate student work, and creates an incentive for graduate students to populate cIRcle with material beyond theses and dissertations.

Glenn Drexhage is the Communications Manager at UBC Library.