UBC Library is partnering with UBC Library Vault, Rare Books & Special Collections and the UBC Bookstore for Word on the Street – an annual day-long event celebrating the diversity, quality and originality of writing and publishing in BC.

The event will be held on Sunday, Sept. 26 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Library Square in downtown Vancouver.

Our goal is to raise awareness of UBC Library, the UBC Library Vault, Rare Books & Special Collections and the Robson Reading Series, and promote all that they have to offer to the greater Vancouver community.

This year UBC Library is sponsoring author Charles Campbell, who will appear in the Authors Tent to read from The Maquinna Line, the lost novel from Norma Macmillan.

The UBC Library Vault and the Robson Reading Series are also participating in the Treasure Hunt – the first 250 participants get a free gift!

Last year’s event was a great success – more than 170 new community members joined UBC Library that day.

So come out, see what we have to offer and celebrate BC publishing!

UBC Library teaches more than 1,400 classes and workshops to over 30,000 students and faculty each year as part of its instructional programming. In addition to its extensive in-class and computer lab classes, the Library will offer an online workshop series in mid-September to get you ready for research.

Upcoming online workshops include:

• Introduction to the Web of Science
• Introduction to Health Sciences databases on EbscoHost: Cinahl and PsycInfo
• Introduction to PubMed
• Getting Started at UBC Library
• Google & Google Scholar

To register for any or all of these workshops go to:  http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/series/38

For more information on how to prepare for an online class, see: http://toby.library.ubc.ca/webpage/webpage.cfm?id=810

Check out the Library’s full workshop calendar at: http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/calendar/

UBC Library now has trial access to an absolutely fabulous new database:  the Berg Fashion Library. Please note that the trial is available until September 23, 2010.

Anchored by the 10-volume Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, the Berg Fashion Library is the first online resource to provide access to interdisciplinary and integrated text, image, and journal content on world dress and fashion, and will be useful to anyone researching or studying fashion, anthropology, art history, history, museum studies and cultural studies.

Key content includes:

* The full text of Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion –  the only place the Encyclopedia will be updated.

* E-Book collection: full text of approximately 60 Berg fashion e-books with regular updates bringing in-depth coverage of key topics alongside the breadth of the Encyclopedia.

* An extensive colour image bank, including 3,600 images from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s internationally renowned fashion collection and the print Encyclopedia, many with 360 degree images, and with more images scheduled in the update program.

Enjoy your explorations and be sure to provide feedback via the form on the resource page or directly to UBC Library’s very own fashion icon, Keith Bunnell.

Whether you are investigating the meteoric growth of Internet usage in Canada, the shifting demographics in Vancouver’s downtown core, or mapping the coastal temperate rainforest cover in British Columbia, Abacus represents a significant service enhancement for all academic researchers.

Its launch coincides with the opening of UBC Library’s new GIS/Research Data lab in Koerner Library. This new space brings together data gleaned from Abacus and visualization resources that will enhance scholars’ ability to discover, interpret and present their research.

Developed by UBC Library in partnership with Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria and the University of Northern British Columbia, Abacus is a platform to access research data from a central interface. It allows students, researchers and faculty from British Columbia’s major universities to discover and download numeric data from organizations such as Statistics Canada.

“We’ve moved to a newer, better way to search and organize material from Statistics Canada, DMTISpatial and other data providers,” says Mary Luebbe, Data Services Librarian at UBC.

“We’ve also expanded our services to the partner universities. This means that librarians in Prince George or Victoria can direct their students there to download the files they need.”

“This will allow faculty members to browse, find and download data on various subjects,” says Walter Piovesan, SFU Librarian for Research Data Services. “There never was an easy way to get at all these resources. But with Abacus, researchers can search all available datasets using nothing more than a Web browser. All that’s required is a login using their university IDs.”

Abacus’s collaborative and centralized nature makes it easier for researchers across the province to access the extensive survey data made available through Statistics Canada’s Data Liberation Initiative (DLI). The DLI is a Canada-wide effort to provide post-secondary institutions with unlimited and cost-effective access to Statistics Canada’s household surveys, censuses and geospatial data for GIS applications.

For more information, please contact Data Services at 604-822-5587 or visit http://data.library.ubc.ca.



The Summer 2010 issue of Friends is now available – you can view a PDF version at Friends Summer 2010.

UBC Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of Emerald Management Plus, a new e-journal collection.

Emerald provides online access to a growing collection of more than 120,000 articles from over 250 journals in 22 management disciplines, including:

• Accounting and Finance
• Advanced Automation
• Built Environment
• Business Ethics and Law
• Economics
• Education
• Enterprise and Innovation
• Health Care Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industry and Public Sector Management
• Information and Knowledge Management
• International Business
• Learning and Development
• Library and Information Studies
• Management Science/Management Studies
• Managing Quality
• Marketing
• Operations and Logistics Management
• Organization Studies
• Performance Management and Measurement
• Strategy
• Tourism and Hospitality

Authors from more than 145 countries publish via this collection, ensuring users gain a global perspective on issues. Over 85% of these journals are double-blind peer-reviewed, guaranteeing verified, quality research.

To get help using this collection, ask us.

Come see the combined vision of six Vancouver artists whose photography transcends the traditional. Inspire your senses with images that include architecture, pop art, nature and the evocative beauty of remote lands.

Artists include Andrew Mok, Gina Botelho, James Yip, Marek Gronowski, Pennie Lou and Ron Lee – please see below for more information on the photographers.

Join us to celebrate this engaging exhibit. The grand opening will be held at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC Vancouver on June 29, 2010 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Creative Outlets runs until July 30, 2010 at the Learning Centre Gallery, located on level two of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, adjacent to the Circulation desk.

Hours:

Mon, Thurs, Fri – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tues and Wed – 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sat – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For further information, please contact Allan Cho, UBC Library, at 604-827-4366 or allan.cho@ubc.ca.

The Artists

Andrew Mok began his career as a telecom engineer and studied photography in his native Hong Kong. Andrew stays close to his passion for photography by working as a professional digital editor. Henri Cartier Bresson, Alfred Stieglitz and Diana Arbus are among his photographic inspirations.

Gina Botelho’s imagination overflows into her beautiful imagery. She takes her photographs beyond the snapshot with her unique and creative digital transformations. This not only provides self-fulfillment, but also intriguing visuals for her audience to enjoy.

James Yip’s driving force is his heartfelt love of birds, which he photographs in their natural habitat. James has the ability to transform ideas into artistic ventures.

Marek Gronowski’s focus as a professional photographer involves international hotel photo shoots for Internet marketing and the travel industry. However, his real passion starts after hours when he ventures into the darkroom of his mind.

Penny Lou is an original visionary thinker, always ready to experiment. Her fresh approach results in innovative and fascinating photography.

Ron Lee’s photography reveals his architectural mind in motion as it embraces finely balanced details, colours and elegant lines. He chooses to retain the inherent beauty of his subjects and tends to eschew digital manipulation.

In March, UBC Library completed its third user survey. Entitled LibQUAL, the survey assesses user satisfaction with services at UBC Library – we want to find out what’s working for you, what isn’t, and how we can make your experience more enjoyable and effective.

The Library received 619 responses and 276 comments. Responses were received equally from respondents in the sciences and non-sciences, and undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members participated.

Encouragingly, respondents gave the Library a rating of 81% in overall quality of services, and even higher grades for courteous services and knowledgeable staff.

Yet respondents continue to express concerns about remote access from home or office, the difficulty of navigating the Library website, the availability of e-journals and e-books, and wayfinding inside Library buildings.

As in previous surveys, a number of collection gaps were identified, including the need for both print and electronic materials. Gaps in access to modern equipment and easy-to-use tools were also cited as concerns by respondents.

Theme teams – focusing on access, collections, customer services, space, and teaching and learning – are now determining steps to address the concerns raised in the LibQUAL survey and support UBC’s new strategic plan.

We’ll make sure to keep you up to date on developments. For more information, please contact Margaret Friesen, Assessment Librarian, at margaret.friesen@ubc.ca.

UBC Library is thrilled to announce the opening of its new GIS/Research Data Lab. The facility, which celebrated its grand opening on Wednesday, June 16, houses six workstations that allow users to manipulate data and produce graphic representations of the results in geographic settings (GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems).

This means, for example, that users can track changes in sea levels, display the complexities of overlapping territories in First Nations land claims, or analyze movements of improvising modern dancers. All this can be depicted visually and used for disciplines such as health policy, geography, political science, forestry, economics, history and social policy.

The lab is serviced by Library staff whose responsibilities include maps, GIS and data services. Interested patrons should review the “Terms of Use” document, which is found here.

Users are invited to sign up to access the lab’s resources and services. For more information, please contact GIS Librarian Tom Brittnacher at tom.brittnacher@ubc.ca or 604-827-4450.

The murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk by schoolmates in Victoria., B.C. aroused deep concern about violence among children in our society. Throughout the ensuing trials, courtroom artist Heather Spears recorded these children and their stories in an attempt to understand what happened and why.

Spears’s sketches are now on display until June 25 in the Learning Centre Gallery, located on level two of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, adjacent to the Circulation Desk.

As part of the Gallery’s exhibition programming, Heather Spears will read from her new book of poems, Required Reading: A Witness in Words and Drawings to the Reena Virk Trials, 1998-2000. You can read more about the book here.

The reading takes place at the Lillooet Room, located on the third floor of the Learning Centre, on June 24 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. To ensure a seat, please RSVP to ikblc-events@interchange.ubc.ca or call 604-827-4366.

Following the exhibition, Spears’s drawings will be added to the Heather Spears fonds at UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections, where they will join more than 6,500 other sketches and drawings. Spears’s work includes other trial drawings, as well as drawings from writers’ festivals, music festivals and various other professions and activities. For more information, please see Heather Spears fonds.