Twenty-one projects from around the province have been named as successful recipients of the 2011 B.C. History Digitization Program (BCHDP) funding awards.

The digitization program, an initiative of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, was launched in 2006. It provides matching funds that help libraries, archives, museums and other organizations digitize unique historical items, including images, print and sound materials.

Learning Centre funding totalled nearly $180,000 for the 2011 round. Altogether, BCHDP funding has totalled more than $820,000 for 98 projects throughout British Columbia.

This year’s wide range of projects includes the digitization of First Nations materials, historic photographs and oral histories of BC communities, pressed plants specimens and entomological collections, items chronicling Vancouver’s punk rock scene, material highlighting the feminist movement in the West Kootenays, archival maps and newspapers, and more.

Congratulations to this year’s recipients! You can view a complete list of grant recipients and project descriptions here.

Eugene Barsky, a Science and Engineering Librarian at UBC Library, has won an award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE, Engineering Libraries Division) for his work involving the digitization and promotion of decades of information on mine reclamation.

Barsky was given the Innovation in Access to Engineering Information award for the project, a collaboration between UBC Library and the British Columbia Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation. The effort resulted in free, open access to more than 30 years of symposium proceedings that are hosted on cIRcle, UBC’s information repository, at https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/6934.

An article on the project appeared last year in the Northern Miner. You can view the article here.

Certificates will be awarded in June at the American Society for Engineering Education Conference and Exposition.

Congratulations Eugene!

The Vancouver Institute Presents

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Lecture

Eaarth:
Making a Life On a Tough New Planet

April 9, 2011 – 8:15 p.m.

Professor William McKibben
Scholar in Residence
Middlebury College, Vermont

Described by the Boston Globe as “the nation’s leading environmentalist,” Professor McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age and Deep Economy. A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes often for Harper’s, National Geographic and The New York Review of Books, among other publications.

McKibben is the founder of the environmental organizations Step It Up and 350.org, a global warming awareness campaign that co-ordinated what CNN called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history” in October 2009.

Vancouver Institute lectures are free and open to the public.

Location:  Woodward Instructional Resource Centre, Lecture Theatre #2.  Directions are available here. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

The Vancouver Institute was established in 1916 to serve as a liaison between “town and gown” in providing lectures of general public interest.  For more information about the Vancouver Institute, please visit http://vaninst.ca

Spring is back, and so is the Asian Library’s annual book sale! This sale, which is part of the Asian Library Open House, features new, used and hard-to-find books and magazines in different Asian languages (mainly Chinese and Korean), with some in English. Prices range from 10 cents to $10, but most titles are only 50 cents! So come along and bring a tote bag with you. ALL ITEMS CASH and CARRY.

The book sale takes place on Saturday, April 9 at the Asian Library from noon to 4:30 p.m.

Same day at Asian Centre:

IDENTIVERSE: Group Exhibition of UBC 3rd Year Painting & 4th Year Art Theory

Some of the exhibit shown in part one of the Open House continues to be on display on the Library’s upper floor.

Vancouver Mokuyokai’s 27th Annual Ohanami
(Cherry Blossom Viewing Festival)

Celebrate spring under the cherry blossoms with a tea ceremony, garden tour, haiku writing, kamishibai (Japanese storytelling), origami, yukata-dressing, Japanese food and traditional music at UBC’s Nitobe Memorial Garden, an authentic Japanese garden illuminated by lantern for this special event. At 6 p.m., ring the Pacific Bell outside the Asian Centre and send your prayers to those affected by the earthquake in Japan.

For more details please visit the Vancouver Mokuyokai Society.

Monday April 4 – Friday April 22, 2011

At its most basic, copyright means the right to copy. Owners of copyright are the only ones allowed to copy their works or give permission to others to copy their works.

But while the definition may seem simple, copyright issues are often complex, and the landscape is undergoing major change. At UBC Library, we’re committed to keeping you up to date with the latest developments, thanks to our copyright site. If you have questions, or would like to know more about copyright, make sure to visit the site – it includes information on the Copyright Act, the Access Copyright issue, copying and scanning at UBC, a licensing database, the Google Book settlement and more.

In March 2010, UBC Library completed its third LibQUAL survey, which assesses user satisfaction with our services, collections and spaces. This helps us compare current perceptions of services with those from earlier surveys.

UBC Library took significant steps to respond to gaps identified in 2009. This latest survey identified new issues, and we have continued to make improvements. Here are a few examples of our efforts.

Learning

You told us you would like improved navigation of our websites.

The Library:

• launched Summon, a new discovery tool, to make it easier to find new resources across collections.
• launched a new interface and access portal for subject research guides.
• created online tutorials for the David Lam Library website.
• converted online inventories of archival collections to PDF format to make them more findable via Google.
• made it easier to find UBC theses and dissertations by including cIRcle items in Summon.
• is revamping the Xwi7xwa Library website to make information about courses with Indigenous content, First Nations languages and Aboriginal resources easier to find.

You told us you valued our teaching to help you with your research. We have continued to enhance our teaching and learning services by customizing content to better match your information needs.

The Library:

• revamped the instruction module for ASTU 150 (Arts Studies in Research and Writing) to focus on resources in the Arts.
• reviewed and updated all online instructional materials.
• taught classes to help further your interdisciplinary studies. For example, medical students learned about business information resources.
• embedded a “Library Research Skills for Biologists” tutorial in Vista for 3,500 students.
• joined other campus services to create a one-stop referral and support centre in the Chapman Learning Commons to help you with academic, technical and directional questions.

• programmed cross-unit training classes for staff to enable a broader knowledge base.

Collections

You told us you would like more electronic and print materials.

The Library:

• bought more e-books in business, science and engineering.
• bought the Adam Matthew digital collection, emphasizing research materials in the arts, humanities and social sciences for undergraduates (collections include “America, Asia and the Pacific”; “Confidential Print: Middle East”; “Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History” and more).
• bought the SAE Digital Library collection
• made Books 24×7 more accessible online
• prioritized the cataloguing of international resources – including the most important collections in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and  Punjabi.

Student Learning Spaces and Equipment

You told us you liked the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC) for study and socializing. But you’re also concerned about overcrowding and the lack of quiet spaces in the Library system.

The Library:

• designated a Graduate Research Room in IKBLC for Art History graduate students.
• dedicated zoned quiet and silent study spaces in the new Canaccord Learning Commons at the Sauder School of Business.

You told us you would like more computers with newer software and easy-to-use tools.

The Library:

• updated software on Mac multimedia workstations in the Chapman Learning Commons.
• opened the multi-purpose GIS/Research Data Lab in Koerner Library.
• installed a scanner in the Learning Centre (north wing).
• renovated the Woodward Library Garden Level and replaced 20 computers.
• opened the Canaccord Learning Commons and replaced 18 computers.

Access

You told us it was difficult to find books and materials in the stacks.

The Library:

• completed inventories of collections in Koerner Library, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, the Education Library and other branches.
• started to identify “hidden” collections and develop a plan to make them more visible.

You told us you valued easy-to-use tools.

The Library:

• improved self-serve checkout machines.
• offered a post-to-Web service for document-delivery articles.

Visibility

You told us the Library’s service could be more visible.

The Library:

• provided onsite drop-in reference services
• published articles in student newsletters, local newspapers and other publications.
• reached all incoming medical residents through a systematic liaison program.
• exhibited students’ creative works at the Asian Library “Identiverse” event and the Art History Graduate Symposium.
• engaged new partners in the Community Historical Recognition Program.
• continued to run the BC History Digitization Program.
• launched the Small Business Accelerator program.

These are some good steps. But we always want to know how UBC Library can serve you better. Thank you again for participating in the LibQUAL 2010 survey – and if you have feedback, comments or questions, please contact us at margaret.friesen@ubc.ca.

Margaret Friesen

Assessment Librarian

It may be a year since the 2010 Winter and Paralympic Games ended – but cIRcle is keeping the spirit, debate and dialogue that helped define the event alive.

cIRcle – also known as UBC’s information repository (https://circle.ubc.ca/) – is a digital storehouse for the University’s intellectual output. The site, which launched in 2008 by UBC Library, now features more than 30,000 items.

A key highlight is cIRcle’s Olympics and Paralympics collection, which features an array of UBC research and events related to the epic sporting event.

“For the most part this is unique material – it’s stuff that hasn’t been published anywhere,” says Tara Stephens, the Librarian overlooking the cIRcle Olympics Project. “Giving an extended life to this material is something that we’re really proud of.”

Keen to find some noteworthy contributions? There’s plenty to choose from, including a study on real estate and the Olympics from Tsur Somerville and Jake Wetzel, an Associate Professor and Ph.D. student, respectively, at the Sauder School of Business.

Or you could check out a presentation of the influential Olympic Games Impact Study, given by Rob Van Wynsberghe, a Human Kinetics Professor.

There are plenty of riveting events to experience as well. Missed the Sport and Society Dialogue the first time around? Don’t worry – you can simply visit cIRcle and listen to high-profile speakers such as Rick Hansen, a Paralympic athlete and the pivotal figure of the Man in Motion World Tour, and Stephen Lewis, former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, discuss the power of sport for social change.

Or you could tune into a sound clip from the welcome and introduction to a graduate student conference entitled “Ideology in Motion: On the Relationship of Sports and Politics.” “That was a really good example of how we went out and partnered with the students,” Stephens says.

Users from around the world, led by those in the United States, have viewed the Olympics-related research and materials stored in cIRcle. Perhaps not too surprisingly, some viewers have also hailed from Russia – the site of the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Stephens, who joined the cIRcle team in mid-2009, is still involved with the project, and is following up with contacts to see if there is further material to submit.

If you would like more information, or have UBC-related material that you would like to submit to cIRcle’s Olympics offering, please contact tara.stephens@ubc.ca.

The Asian Library and its partners are pleased to present two displays – Identiverse and Dimensions of the Asian World at UBC – as part of the Asian Library Open House 2011.

The Asian Library worked with UBC’s Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory on the project. Viewers are invited to conceptualize “Asianness” as a construct in Canada by examining various cultural products – paintings, writings, photographs, quotations, images and video clippings, facts and figures. Alongside the growing Asian student population at UBC is a rich array of Asian-themed activities, the ever-expanding Asian Studies programs and research, and the participation of non-Asian students and staff in these initiatives.

By featuring the 2010 Maclean’s article entitled “‘Too Asian’?” alongside B.C. responses to the segregation of coloured students from Caucasian children in the 1920s, viewers are prompted to ponder the tension between coercive practices of exclusion and assimilation. Excerpts of UBC’s forum on the thought-provoking Maclean’s article, as well as quotes from the Library’s Diversity Caucus discussion on the same piece, capture some thoughts about the Asian world on campus.

The displays are augmented by the creative works of Associate Professor Gu Xiong and his students. Identiverse, a combination of “identity” and “diversity,” explores the transitions and struggles of ethnic groups regarding their individual and cultural identities. The identities of university students are also examined.

The exhibits will be on display at the UBC Asian Centre Auditorium and the upper floor of the Asian Library at the following times:

March 13: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

March 14 to 17: noon to 5 p.m.

Mar 18: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

All are welcome to attend the debuting party, which takes place on March 13 at 4 p.m. in the auditorium.

For more information, please contact Eleanor Yuen at eleanor.yuen@ubc.ca or Phoebe Chow at phoebe.chow@ubc.ca

Co-organizers

Asian Library, UBC

Art History + Visual Art + Theory, UBC

Sponsor

Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society

Collaborators

Institute of Asian Research

Chinese Language Program, Asian Studies Department

Punjabi Language, Literature & Sikh Studies, Asian Studies Department