UBC Library's Head of Digital Programs and Services, Bronwen Sprout, on best practices with cIRcle, UBC's digital repository for research and teaching materials.

UBC MEDIA RELEASE | JULY 31, 2013

History of the Okanagan comes alive in digital stories for BC Day

UBC Library project makes publications accessible to everyone

Okanagan communities have a special reason to celebrate this BC Day, thanks to a new digitization project initiated by UBC’s Okanagan Library that makes the region’s history accessible to the world.

Now the rich history of the Okanagan is available in digital story form. Nearly 70 volumes of the Okanagan Historical Society’s (OHS) annual reports were recently digitized.  The collection is available online in UBC Library’s digital collections.

This publication is one of the longest, continually published historical periodicals in British Columbia, and includes contributions from branch members including Armstrong-Enderby, Kelowna, Oliver-Osoyoos, Penticton, Salmon Arm, Summerland, the Similkameen and Vernon.

The reports have been used for teaching and learning for decades, with topics ranging from physical geography to cultural studies. The digital collection features more than 15,000 pages, dating from 1926 to modern day, though the most recent years have not been widely published.

“The content that has been made publicly available through this joint initiative between the Okanagan Historical Society and UBC Library will be a tremendous benefit to not only our UBC students, but to all researchers who take an interest in the fascinating history of the Okanagan Valley,” says Heather Berringer, deputy chief librarian at UBC’s Okanagan Library.

“We are incredibly pleased to have been able to support digitization efforts that bring our community to the world.”

UBC’s Okanagan Library proposed the project, and UBC Library’s Digital Initiatives Unit in Vancouver digitized and created the online collection. An official launch celebrating the digitization of OHS Reports is planned for September 2013.

The UBC Library Digital Collections can be viewed at: http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/ohs

For more information, please visit:  the http://about.library.ubc.ca/2013/07/15/history-of-the-okanagan/

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

Glenn Drexhage
Communications Manager, UBC Library
Tel: 604-827-3434 | E-mail: glenn.drexhage@ubc.ca

 

Paul Marck
Manager, Media Relations
University Relations, University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250-807-9278 | Mobile: 250-863-9745 | Email: paul.marck@ubc.ca

 

MEDIA

 

A high-resolution version of this photo can be downloaded from:

http://universityrelations.ok.ubc.ca/News2013/Historical/Cover2.jpg

 

 

A high-resolution version of this photo can be downloaded from:

http://universityrelations.ok.ubc.ca/News2013/Historical/Cover1.jpg

 

An article about the evolution of UBC Library appears in the Ubyssey, UBC’s student newspaper.

You can view the article here.

Stories about the digitization of past issues of the Prince Rupert Daily News (dating from 1911 to 1923) are featured in the Northern View and the Muskeg News. This project has received funding from the BC History Digitization Program, an initiative of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

You can view the articles here and here, and you can read about the BC History Digitization Program here.