For over a century, there has been a rather curious and unique public lecture event happening every Saturday evening at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

 

From its humble beginnings in 1916, the Vancouver Institute (VI) has been holding free public lectures presented by locally, nationally and internationally recognized, distinguished scholars and notable industry professionals alike from UBC and beyond.

 

Spanning several decades now, the VI lectures’ collection (made available by the UBC Library in partnership with the VI) is steadily growing in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository. This one-of-a-kind mixed collection of audio and video materials is a fine testament to the historical, scientific, technical and academic knowledge, expertise and wisdom accumulated by the VI speakers over the years.

 

The VI lectures’ collection is teeming with a wide range of scientific, archaeological and other intriguing discoveries to philosophical musings and historical biographies to politics, policies and opinions to advanced technologies in education, medicine, and just about everything else in between.

 

This treasure trove of knowledge consists of novel, creative and innovative ideas and notions to the hard-knock school of lessons learned through good (and, at times, not so good), old-fashioned trial and error. Since then, the array of topics presented by past and current VI speakers were, and still are to this day, all-engaging, funny, illuminating, candid and as inspiring as ever.

 

A round of applause is due to Green College at UBC for its administrative management of the VI lectures over the years and transferred seamlessly over to the new Global Reporting Centre on January 1, 2018.

 

Another round of applause goes to University Archives for digitizing the vast majority of the VI lectures, the individual materials are continuing to be digitized and made openly accessible in the VI lectures’ collection in cIRcle via UBC Library’s Open Collections portal.

 

While waiting for upcoming VI lectures, below are some past and present VI lectures to watch now online anytime and anywhere:

 

The next 50 years in engineering http://hdl.handle.net/2429/36288

 

Gold or dross — The romantic past and future potential of B.C.’s mineral wealth http://hdl.handle.net/2429/19745

 

The golden age of astronomy http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15122

 

Ecological reserves in British Columbia http://hdl.handle.net/2429/30981

 

An evening with Mary Hemingway http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20033

 

Life under the sun: The past and future of solar energy http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20760

 

Artists in medieval workshops http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20769

 

Observations and photographs http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20044

 

Virginia Woolf: a personal portrait http://hdl.handle.net/2429/34467

 

Einstein — the man and his work http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35297

 

The coinage of Athens and the ancient world http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35868

 

The mystique of the detective story http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20819

 

Byzantine archaeology: a city revealed http://hdl.handle.net/2429/34338

 

Leonard Cohen: “The only tourist in Havana” http://hdl.handle.net/2429/13026

 

Dogs and people: The history and psychology of a relationship http://hdl.handle.net/2429/32808

 

Dealing with SARS http://hdl.handle.net/2429/32104

 

Journey of the Blue Whale http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61793

 

Digital Dumping Ground : The Global Trade in Electronic Waste http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61570

 

The Human-Animal Bond : Our History With Dogs http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61571

 

Desert Dust and the World’s Environments http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61150

 

Hammering the Klavier : Beethoven’s Earthshaking and Bone-crushing Masterpiece http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62270

 

Media Ethics on the Digital Frontier http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61152

 

Bug Shells and Butterfly Wings : New Materials Inspired by Nature http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62080

 

Stroke : New Evidence on Prevention and Recovery http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62337

 

Cheap : The High Cost of Discount Culture http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62344

 

Let Them Eat Dirt : Raising Children With Their Microbes http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62338

 

Bee Time : What Can We Learn from the Demise of Bees? http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62335

 

 

From the Vancouver Sun

The Library's Digitization Centre has helped UBC and CiTR archive a collection of radio clips from the 1940s and onwards.

Learn how the BC History Digitization Program, the UBC Library Digitization Centre, the UBC University Archives have contributed to this project in this Ubyssey article.

 

Anne Lama may be a Conservator at UBC Library – but you could also call her the book doctor. “We have the same goal,” says Lama, comparing herself to a physician. “Preserve our patients from disease, and limit medication and surgery, if it is possible.”

Since arriving at UBC in 2013 after a decade-long stint at the National Archives in France, Lama has been developing a comprehensive preservation and conservation strategy to safeguard the Library’s vast physical collections. That’s no small task, given the challenges of working with finite materials. Paper and cardboard, after all, degrade. Leather covers dry out. Aging newsprint turns yellow and eventually disintegrates.

In response, Lama has been busy training staff across the Library system in preservation and mending techniques. She’s also worked with Rare Books and Special Collections and University Archives to ensure a high level of collections care, and planned a range of public and staff-related activities to celebrate Preservation Week, an annual spring event. A top priority moving forward is the establishment of a conservation lab in Woodward Library.

“Anne’s contributions are already making a huge difference in terms of staff training, programs and the development of facilities for conservation,” says Alvan Bregman, Head of Technical Services.

The need to preserve collections for generations of scholars, researchers, students and lifelong learners also extends to the digital realm (indeed, managing collections in a digital context is one of the Library’s key directions in its strategic plan). Dizzying changes in formats and software can make it difficult to keep electronic assets – ranging from e-books to archival items – from disappearing into the digital ether.

In response, UBC Library began formulating its digital preservation strategy in 2011. Since then, it has worked with Artefactual Systems, a Metro Vancouver company, on an open source digital preservation system to help ensure that University publications, databases, theses, data sets and other types of digital collections endure.

The Library is also involved in other initiatives, including a collaborative project with Simon Fraser University and the University of Alberta that could lead to a Western Canadian preservation “backbone” and, ultimately, a national digital preservation network.

 

Join the conversation: The Library also depends on its users to help care for its collections. What steps can you take to ensure that Library materials are maintained for generations to come?

Beginning next week, UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) and University Archives will have reduced hours.

Effective July 30 to August 31, RBSC and University Archives, on the first floor of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC), will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday. This includes the Chung Collection exhibition, the special collections reading room (Rm 110) and seminar room (Rm 112), as well as the University Archives (Rm 118).

For questions regarding accessibility, please contact RBSC or University Archives. 

On May 30, a special ceremony was held during UBC’s spring congregation to recognize and honour the Japanese Canadian students whose university experience was disrupted in 1942 when they were uprooted and exiled from the B.C. coast – a violation of their citizenship rights.
 
Honorary degrees were conferred on the students who were unable to complete their education when they were sent to internment camps. Degrees were re-conferred on the students who completed their studies but missed their graduation ceremony because of the internment.

Part of UBC’s acknowledgement of what happened in 1942 includes a UBC Library project to collect and archive stories from individual students. The Library was involved in recording the students’ oral histories, which will be added to the holdings at University Archives.
 
Some of these oral histories were used to create the film A Degree of Justice: Japanese Canadian UBC students of 1942, which tells the story of six former UBC students. They recall growing up in Vancouver, attending UBC and coping with the many hardships caused by their removal. They also speak about UBC’s efforts to formally recognize and honour them. For more information and for viewing options, please visit A Degree of Justice.

The Library is also digitizing Tairiku Nippo, a newspaper documenting Japanese-Canadian life from the early 1900s until 1941, when it was forced to cease publication. This project honours the Japanese Canadian community, as the Nippo is an invaluable resource to those researching Japanese Canadian history, including community members hoping to learn more about their family histories. Visit UBC Library Digital Collections for a preview of the digitized newspaper.

Three UBC campus landmarks are commonly referred to as “cairns,” and each has a unique history. Find out more in this Trek Online article, written by Erwin Wodarczak of UBC Library’s University Archives division.

 

A profile of William Tansley, who started as a janitor at UBC and helped establish what eventually became the Museum of Anthropology, appears in the Fall/Winter 2011 issue of Trek magazine.

This article was written by Erwin Wodarczak from UBC Library’s University Archives division.