Explore unique highlights from UBC’s Open Collections, as well as insights into the work of the Digitization Centre. From announcements of new projects and collections to behind-the-scenes looks at our digitization process, we share the stories and hidden gems that inspire us in our efforts to preserve and make accessible diverse materials.
Newspaper Comic Strips published on Christmas Eve
Posted on Dec 24, 2021 by Kin Man Leung
Which section of the daily newspaper do you read first – Local News? Sports? Advertising? If you go for advertising part first, you can check out our previous blog which features advertisements from the BC Historical Newspapers, Tairiku Nippō (Continental Daily News) and Ubyssey (UBC’s student newspaper). If the comics strip is your favourite part, […]
Historic Hotels around the World
Posted on Dec 06, 2021 by Kin Man Leung
The holiday season is upon us, and it is time to celebrate. If you’re considering a staycation, you should check out our previous blog posts: Hotel Vancouver and the Empress Hotel, two largest surviving Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) hotels with more than 100 years of history in B.C. This post uses images from The Chung […]
Textual Records of World Wars
Posted on Nov 11, 2021 by Kin Man Leung
Today is Remembrance Day, originally called Armistice Day. In memory of those who served during the wars, we are sharing the written records relating to World War I and World War II from the Open Collections. Book This record from the BC Historical Books collection mentions the history of H.M.C.S. Naden naval barracks from […]
Sports in Open Collections: Part II
Posted on Nov 01, 2021 by Kin Man Leung
In this two-part series, we compiled images of various sports from our Open Collections. You can view Part I here. For Part II, we explored both competitive and recreational sports from the UBC Archives Photograph Collection. Archery This photograph captures the moment the archers were ready to release their arrows. Women’s archery team, 1939-01-01 […]
Sports in Open Collections: Part I
Posted on Oct 25, 2021 by Kin Man Leung
Whether you’re a professional athlete, sports lover, or non-sports fan, we would agree that sports bring us together. In this two-part series, we gathered historical images related to different kinds of sports from our Open Collections, hoping to provide you with some amazing sports moments. Croquet The Tremaine Arkley Croquet Collection contains the following […]
The Digitization Centre Impact Report 2020-2021
Posted on Oct 07, 2021 by Kin Man Leung
The Digitization Centre is celebrating its 10th anniversary and the end of an unprecedented year by publishing this report. It highlights our key activities of the Digitization Centre over the past year and since March 2011 including: COVID-19 impact, partnership network, collections, software enhancements and upgrades, and user engagement statistics. Our Response to COVID-19: In […]
Expanding the BC Historical Newspapers Collection: Reflections on my Co-op Work Term
Posted on Sep 30, 2021 by Laura Moberg
This blog post was written by Laura Moberg, a graduate student in the Dual Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies program at the UBC School of Information. From May to August 2021, I worked as a co-op student with UBC Library Digital Initiatives. As the Digital Projects Student Librarian, I researched […]
Expanding the “COVID-19 Pandemic and the University of British Columbia” Web Archive
Posted on Jul 27, 2021 by Sarah Gallagher
The following is part of a series on web archiving at the UBC Library. This post was written by Sarah Gallagher, a graduate student in the Master of Library and Information Science program at UBC’s iSchool. For all posts about web archiving, please see https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/tag/web-archiving/ From January through April 2021, I worked with the Digitization […]
New item on Open Collections: A Recollection of my Indian Career
Posted on Jun 28, 2021 by stuart hill
A new item is now available on Open Collections in our UBC Library Digitization Centre Special Projects. “Recollections of my Indian Career” is an autobiographical account of Lieutenant-General John Matthew Cripps’ experiences serving in the British Indian Army from the mid to late nineteenth century. During the course of his service he was personally involved […]
5 titles from Chinese Rare Books
Posted on May 25, 2021 by stuart hill
One of the most common assumptions about digitization is that entire collections can be scanned without prioritization. Collection assessment and evaluation is essential before proceeding with any project. In the case of Chinese rare books, as more and more volumes are scanned and made accessible online, it is important to evaluate proposed digitization projects to […]
