On Sunday, June 26, there will be a building wide power shutdown of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre for high voltage maintenance. The building will be closed and the exterior doors locked from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. General study areas in IKBLC will re-open on June 26 at 4 p.m. and will remain open until 1 a.m.

Please check the Library Hours and Locations Portal for information on Library services in IKBLC and plan accordingly. Regular building hours will resume on Monday, June 27.

Each May, Canadians commemorate Asian Heritage Month by recognizing and celebrating Asian Canadians’ rich contributions to our country. The public is invited to the Library at UBC’s Vancouver campus to experience multiple exhibitions and to explore our collections online and in-person!

Attend an exhibition:

The Changing Landscape: Views of Asian Settlement in British Columbia
May 9 – June 24, 2016

Level 2 foyer by Room 241, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
1961 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C.

It’s About Time: A Retrospective of Asian Presence at UBC – an exhibit by UBC’s Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program

May 2 – 31, 2016
Level 2 foyer, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
1961 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C.

MEM: memory • memorial no. 7 scriptorium – a book art installation by Naomi Kasumi

March 15 – May 31, 2016
Asian Centre
1871 West Mall, Vancouver, B.C.

Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection – a permanent exhibition with highlights from more than 25,000 rare and unique items on early BC history and Chinese immigration and settlement

Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Room 110, Rare Books and Special Collection
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C.

Search the collection online

Portrait of Chinese family, ca. 1920 (CC_PH_00330)

Explore some of our collections: 

View of the Chung Collection, a permanent exhibition free and open to the public.

Great Reads at Asian Library
Borrow a new book from our leisure reading collection at Asian Library that includes Japanese manga comics and Chinese cookbooks.

Videomatica
Enjoy movies? Check out our great collection of Canadian and foreign-language films related to the experiences of the Asian diaspora around the world.

Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era
Our Rare Books and Special Collections department holds one of the world’s largest collections of maps and guidebooks of the Japanese Tokugawa period, ca. 1600-1867. The entire collection has been digitized for easy online exploration.

Yip Sang Collection
This collection, located at the City of Vancouver Archives, was digitized by UBC Library. Yip Sang established the import and export firm of Wing Sang Company in Vancouver in 1888. A key figure in the Chinese and business communities, he was a driving force in the establishment of the Chinese Benevolent Association in the city.

UBC Library is proud to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with a new exhibition featuring items from Rare Books and Special Collections’ Alice 100 collection.

Since 1865, this beloved book’s appeal through the years has inspired illustrated editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, as well as countless other artworks.

Detail of Salvador Dalí’s illustrated version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Highlights from the exhibition, curated by children’s librarian and Master’s student Kristy Woodcock, include Salvador Dalí’s original woodcut remarques from 1969 and a nineteenth century facsimile of Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript. Carroll’s classic tale comes to life in this visual journey that is not to be missed.

Join us for this free exhibition open to the public in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, located in both Rare Books and Special Collections (Level 1) and in the main foyer (Level 2). The exhibition is on display until October 31.

For more information, including hours of operation, please visit Rare Books and Special Collections or contact them at (604) 822-2521 or at rare.books@ubc.ca.

From September 22 – 25 between 8 am and 4 pm, there may be a delay of 4-6 hours for the retrieval of ASRS material due to scheduled preventative maintenance. Patrons should contact the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC) circulation desk at (604) 822-8149 before picking up requested ASRS items.

For IKBLC circulation desk hours, please see the Library Hours & Locations portal. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is pleased to award funding to nine new projects as part of the Indigitization: Aboriginal Audio Digitization & Preservation Program (AADP) this summer.

Since 2013, the Indigitization: Aboriginal Audio Digitization and Preservation Program (AADP) has provided grants to B.C. Aboriginal organizations in supporting the conservation, preservation, and access of Indigenous community information resources. The six month program provides equipment, training and funding support to convert audio cassette tapes to digital formats. 

This multi-faceted program provides resources for the digital conversion of at risk audio cassette materials, to support cultural preservation and revitalization efforts. Over the next six months, the following communities will be undertaking their respective projects under the guidance of program staff:

The AADP looks forward to welcoming representatives from each of these communities to UBC for an intensive, week-long training program later this month. Congratulations to all the recipients!

For more information on the Indigitization program, please visit the website or contact Sarah Dupont, Aboriginal Engagement Librarian.

About Indigitization

Indigitization is a collaborative project between the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC), the First Nations Technology Council (FNTC), and three First Nations communities: Heiltsuk, Ktunaxa, and ‘Namgis. Other contributors include UBC’s Museum of Anthropology (MOA), School for Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS), and the First Nations House of Learning (FNHL).