“1983 Land Use: City of Vancouver,” from the Greater Vancouver Regional District Planning Department Land Use Maps collection, courtesy of UBC Library’s Digital Collections.

In this month’s issue of LibFOCUS, the focus is on campus and urban planning. We celebrate the groundbreaking of a new Library facility, award a book prize for a bio of a renowned local architect, provide walking tours and explore land use maps from decades past. 

David Stouck’s biography of renowned local architect Arthur Erickson is the winner of the second annual Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia. The $1,000 prize, given by UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society, will be awarded at a June reception at UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. 

Stouck was chosen for his book Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life (Douglas & McIntyre). His extensive study details the manifold contrasts and contradictions of Erickson – a one-time UBC architecture professor who became internationally renowned and designed some of Vancouver’s signature buildings (including UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, Stouck’s personal favourite).

“Although Arthur Erickson’s career was global, the biography is first and foremost a book about British Columbia,” says Stouck, who is based in North Vancouver. “Winning the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize is important because this will help make it known to those I consider the book’s first audience – the people of B.C.”  

“Congratulations to David Stouck for winning the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Book Prize,” says Ingrid Parent, UBC’s University Librarian. “His study of a complex man and a brilliant architect offers an absorbing profile of an iconic British Columbian.”

Stouck met Stuart-Stubbs 30 years ago while editing the unpublished writings of Ethel Wilson, the Vancouver writer. “A particular charm attaches to that encounter for both Stuart-Stubbs’s enthusiasm for Wilson’s writing, and for his knowledge of her family’s role in the city’s history,” he recalls.  

Arthur Erickson was one of three shortlisted titles for the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize. The other nominees included Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History by Sean Kheraj (UBC Press) and Charles Edenshaw by Robin Kathleen Wright, Daina Augaitis, Robert Davidson and James Hart (Black Dog Publishing) For the full citations, please visit Shortlist 2014).

Stouck’s winning title was also awarded the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize and the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize at the 2014 B.C. Book Prizes. It was nominated for the 2014 RBC Charles Taylor Non-Fiction Prize.

About the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Book on British Columbia


The Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia was established in memory of Basil Stuart-Stubbs, a bibliophile, scholar and librarian who passed away in 2012. Stuart-Stubbs’s many accomplishments included serving as the University Librarian at UBC Library and as the Director of UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. Stuart-Stubbs had a leadership role in many national and regional library and publishing activities. During his exceptional career, he took particular interest in the production and distribution of Canadian books, and was associated with several initiatives beneficial to authors and their readers, and to Canadian publishing.

UBC Library’s Spring Update in the BCLA Browser features updates on the launch of the much-loved Videomatica film collection; the donation of the exceptional Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs;  the latest winner of the Innovative Dissemination of Research Award; and more.

The BCLA Browser is the online, open access publication of the British Columbia Library Association.

UBC Library and BC Bookworld are now receiving submissions for the annual Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia. 

Entries can be written or edited by any Canadian (s) and the subject matter must pertain to British Columbia. The author need not be formally affiliated with a university or college.  An educational mandate or perspective will be sufficient to merit the term scholarly if the quality of the writing and research is sufficiently high. Books can be deemed eligible only once, on a calendar-year basis. A shortlist of three titles is selected prior to a presentation ceremony hosted at UBC Library during Spring 2014.

There is no entry fee.

Deadline for submissions is December 1, 2013.

To enter, publishers should send three copies of each eligible title to:

Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize
c/o Pacific BookWorld News Society
3516 West 13th Ave.
Vancouver BC V6R 2S3

In the event that a title is not published until December, please email bookworld@telus.net, apprising organizers of a forthcoming submission. 

For more information on previous winners and shortlisted titles, visit the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia website.

UBC Library’s Summer Update in the BCLA Browser highlights the release of the Senate Report and the Community Report, the inaugural winner of the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia, the launch of the B.C. Aboriginal Audio Digitization and Preservation Program, and more.

A round-up of UBC Library staff presentations given at the recent British Columbia Library Conference in Richmond is provided, and the issue also includes a “Conference Reports” section, which features contributions from various Library staff.

The BCLA Browser is the online, open access publication of the British Columbia Library Association. 

The release of the Library’s Community Report and Senate Report are highlighted in the Spring 2013 issue of the CPSLD Newsletter. 

Other news includes a celebration of the inaugural winner of the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize, the launch of the B.C. Aboriginal Audio Digitization and Preservation Program, changes at our hospital libraries and more.

The Library’s submission begins on page 22 of the newsletter, which is published on behalf of the Council of Post Secondary Library Directors, British Columbia.

B.C. author Derek Hayes is the recipient of the inaugural Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia, a new award from UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society.

Hayes was chosen for his 2012 book, British Columbia: A New Historical Atlas (Douglas & McIntyre). The book mixes comprehensive text and annotations with a wide range of maps, photos, prints and drawings that takes us into the world of British Columbia, from pre-contact through the 20th century. Hayes’s work is a welcome contribution to the understanding of British Columbia.

The prize, worth $1,000, will be awarded at a reception on May 7, 2013 at UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. 

Read his reaction to winning this new award and more by visiting: http://about.library.ubc.ca/2013/04/15/derek-hayes-wins-inaugural-basil-stuart-stubbs-book-prize-for-b-c-atlas/.

Did You Know?

In cIRcle, you can find the “Occurrence and utilization of fog” 1970 Master’s degree in Geography thesis written by Derek Hayes, the first recipient of the inaugural Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia. It is found in the Retrospective Theses and Dissertations, 1919-2007 collection at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/831.

Above partial text in italics and image are courtesy of UBC Library

B.C. author Derek Hayes is the recipient of the inaugural Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia, a new award from UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society.

Hayes was chosen for his 2012 book, British Columbia: A New Historical Atlas (Douglas & McIntyre). The book mixes comprehensive text and annotations with a wide range of maps, photos, prints and drawings that takes us into the world of British Columbia, from pre-contact through the 20th century. Hayes’s work is a welcome contribution to the understanding of British Columbia.

The prize, worth $1,000, will be awarded at a reception on May 7, 2013 at UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. 

“I am honoured to have been chosen as the first recipient of the new Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize,” says Hayes, who holds a master’s degree in Geography from UBC. “I have had Stuart-Stubbs’s monumental work (with Coolie Verner) The Northpart of America on my bookshelf for many years, and it was one of the initial books that piqued my interest in maps of the Pacific Northwest.”

“Congratulations to Derek Hayes for winning the inaugural Basil Stuart-Stubbs Book Prize,” says Ingrid Parent, UBC’s University Librarian. “His fascinating atlas is a worthy winner and an excellent addition to scholarly works on British Columbia.”

Hayes’s book was among three shortlisted titles for the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize. The other titles included Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page by Sandra Djwa (McGill-Queen’s University Press) and Father August Brabant: Saviour or Scourge? by Jim McDowell (Ronsdale Press). For the full citations on the books, please visit Shortlist 2013.

“The excellence of the many books submitted for consideration made it difficult for the jury to select a shortlist and then the prize winner,” says Roderick Barman, a member of the adjudication committee and a retired UBC history professor. “Since the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize is intended to recognize both a scholarly work on British Columbia and a book that will make the province come alive for readers outside of British Columbia, the jury concluded that Derek Hayes’s British Columbia: A New Historical Atlas best meets those criteria.”

British Columbia: A New Historical Atlas was also awarded the 2012 Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing from the British Columbia Historical Federation. It is a finalist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize on behalf of the 2013 B.C. Book Prizes.

About the Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Book on British Columbia


The Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia was established in memory of Basil Stuart-Stubbs, a bibliophile, scholar and librarian who passed away in 2012. Stuart-Stubbs’s many accomplishments included serving as the University Librarian at UBC Library and as the Director of UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. Stuart-Stubbs had a leadership role in many national and regional library and publishing activities. During his exceptional career, he took particular interest in the production and distribution of Canadian books, and was associated with several initiatives beneficial to authors and their readers, and to Canadian publishing.

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