BC Books Online, a project that is supported by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and UBC Library, is featured in the online publication The Tyee. You can view the article here.

BC Books Online is also featured in the Globe and Mail, the Nanaimo News Bulletin, the Harbour City Star, the Ladysmith Chronicle and the Prince George Citizen.

The following article – Five voices, two perspectives: integrating student librarians into a science and engineering library – has been published in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, a key open access, peer-reviewed journal on science librarianship.

The article is a collaboration between three students from UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (Samantha Sinanan, Lindsay Tripp and Lindsay Willson) and two UBC science librarians (Eugene Barsky and Aleteia Greenwood).

Congratulations all!

The announcement about the donation of Douglas Coupland’s archives to UBC Library has received extensive media coverage.

The story received national coverage in The Globe and Mail. It was also covered by CTV Online, CBC Online and Metro Vancouver. 

CBC Radio One also interviewed Coupland and Ralph Stanton, Head of Rare Books and Special Collections, and Radio Canada International will interview Stanton on Tuesday morning, May 25.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this story a success.

You can review the latest Business in Vancouver book review below, which features contributions from UBC Library’s Jan Wallace and UBC Bookstore’s Treena Chambers.

This article from Business in Vancouver, April 13-19, 2010; issue 1068

Book Reviews: New approach to management pushes innovation by design

Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience and Brand Value

Edited by Thomas Lockwood

Allworth Press, 2010

Step aside Six Sigma – a new management doctrine has come to town.

Design thinking and its related stages, design management and design strategy, have come to the forefront of global business consciousness.

At a time when customers expect every product and service to be reliable, quality is no longer a differentiator. Innovation is the new differentiator, and design thinking is being seen as a way to drive innovation – not just in product and service design, but in forming corporate strategy and, ultimately, in improving every aspect of business performance.

This book is a compilation of essays by prominent design thinkers from editor Thomas Lockwood – president of Design Management Institute and former design manager at Sun Microsystems and StorageTek – to those at brand agencies, design consultancies and universities around the world.

As an innovation process, design thinking involves several key tenets:

•develop a deep, holistic understanding of the customer – not just consumption habits but the customer’s life outside the product in question;

•collaborate through interdisciplinary teams and with users to evaluate the concept or problem;

•quickly prototype and re-prototype the product, service or process;

•include visualization methods to experiment; and

•throughout the process, include concurrent business analysis to keep the thinking aligned with business opportunities and strategic goals

This kind of integrated breakthrough thinking has led to the dozens of examples described in the book, including the creation of Thinsulate/Goretex, 1st Source Bank’s addition of 50 new branches, Whole Foods’ focus on customer lifestyles and Steelcase’s successful overseas expansion.

Because the book is a dense read it might best be consumed over several weeks. In places, the fervency of the writing has the zeal of religious dogma, but the practical suggestions ring true, and I have already made use of design thinking in planning a service for our new Learning Commons at the UBC Sauder School of Business.

The new design management thought trend is worth knowing and applying to organizational products, services and business processes. •

Jan Wallace is head of the David Lam Management Research Library at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.

The 60 Second Innovator: 60 Solid Techniques for Creative & Profitable Ideas at Work

By Jeff Davidson

Adams Media, 2009

It takes one to know one. In The 60 Second Innovator, Davidson gives you the tools to challenge yourself, your staff and your co-workers to address challenges with a fresh set of eyes looking toward a more creative resolution.

The book is divided into six sections, and each one offers tips that will help you find your own creativity and help you be seen as an innovator in your workplace.

Davidson’s humour and direct approach will help you find your inner innovator and recognize those in your workplace who can support you to achieve.

Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People

By Emily Pilloton

Metropolis Books, 2009

Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People makes the case that smart design can create a better world. In this book you will see how Pilloton’s initial challenge to designers – design products to empower people, move beyond being “stuff creators” to become change-makers – has led to safer baby bottles, DIY soccer balls, low-cost prosthetics for landmine victims and even a better bucket to carry water. Who knew a fire extinguisher could be sexy? Beautiful photos and engaging product explanations point us in the direction design should be going. Inspiring and engaging. •

Treena Chambers is the marketing technology co-ordinator at UBC Bookstore.

The April 2010 issue of College & Research Libraries News, an American publication, features an image from UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections on the front cover. Some additional information about the image and the UBC Library Vault is provided inside the publication.

You can view the issue here.

UBC Library’s exceptional Alice in Wonderland collection, housed in Rare Books and Special Collections, is featured on CBC TV news.

The reporter, Bob Nixon, includes some thoughts and a video clip of the story here.

The Spring 2010 issue of Canadian Art includes a cover story on Althea Thauberger, the Vancouver artist whose photographic mural – entitled The Art of Seeing Without Being Seen – was installed on the main floor of Koerner Library in 2008.

The article begins with a lengthy description of the mural and its location in the library. You can view the article here.

You can review the latest Business in Vancouver book review below, which features contributions from UBC Library’s Jan Wallace and UBC Bookstore’s Treena Chambers.

This article from Business in Vancouver March 16-22, 2010; issue 1064

Throwing (lots of) money at the world’s problems

by Lewis D. Solomon

Transaction Publishers, 2009

Over the past 10 years, a new breed of entrepreneur-philanthropist has emerged. These wealthy billionaires, often from the high-tech industry, use their capital to make social investments that tackle problems that have not been adequately addressed by government or business. In addition to donating to more traditional non-profit organizations, they invest in commercial social enterprises where they can apply their business and entrepreneurial skills to help create viable businesses, take risks and impose professional performance measurement techniques.

This book describes how tech billionaires are designing new philanthropic patterns that differ from those created a century ago by John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. The new philanthropists give while they are alive and participate in shaping the projects they donate to. They create new frameworks for investment, from microfinance organizations to non-profit venture capital funds. They invest in social enterprises such as low-cost health-care clinics, filmmaking with a social message and water purification innovations. They test new forms of social enterprise and withdraw their investments from businesses that are not profitable.

Solomon profiles the philanthropic activities of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pierre Omidyar’s microfinance network, Jeffrey Skoll’s work with motion pictures, Stephen Case’s Revolution LLC and the work of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in creating Google.org to invest in companies that tackle systemic societal problems.

Social equity stock markets are already starting to form, with Brazil’s BOVESPA providing an early example of a social stock exchange that matches non-profit organizations with donors. The line between business and social well-being is becoming blurred as new hybrid forms of philanthropy create new partnerships.

Social entrepreneurs, philanthropists and anyone hoping to win philanthropic investments will find Tech Billionaires well worth reading. •

Jan Wallace is head of the David Lam Management Research Library at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.

By Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

Princeton University Press

Don’t be put off by the size of this book. In This Time is Different, Reinhart and Rogoff walk us through our current economic problems. Then they look back 800 years, and illustrate how each crisis has been described as different from the one before. They urge us to look at our actions in the good times and prepare for the inevitable decline. Debate debt and defaults around the water cooler, with the facts to back you up. Oh yeah – they throw in funny stories as well.

By Martin Lindstrom

Broadway Business

Marketing may not be brain surgery, but in Buyology Lindstrom makes it neuroscience. He challenges many of our assumptions about why people buy. Combining real-life experience and scientific research, Lindstrom weaves together an entertaining and informative tale. He explores our relationship to brands, logos, product placement, rituals and other sensory inputs and examines the roles they play in creating brand loyalty. Before you decide where to invest your ad dollars, invest in this book. Buyology might not change your game plan, but it will give you something to think about.

By Erica Pinsky

Self-published; first edition

“Do unto others.” In Road to Respect, Pinsky illustrates how valuable that lesson can be in today’s workplace. Personal reflections are combined with case studies in an engaging read. The lessons in Road to Respect give you a roadmap to take your policies from paper and apply them to people. In today’s ever-changing and multicultural world, retaining and recruiting employees is crucial to a company’s financial success. If your goal is to be an “Employer of Choice,” Road to Respect can help you get there.

Treena Chambers is the marketing technology co-ordinator at the UBC Bookstore.

An exhibition of First Nations portraits, on display during March 2010 at the Learning Centre Gallery, is featured in the latest edition of UBC Reports. B.C. artist Patricia Richardson Logie recently donated the portrait collection to UBC Library.

You can view the article here.