Digitization Centre

Since this April is National Poetry Month, we’ve gathered together selected poetry and related items from Open Collections for your enjoyment! Our recently added Historical Children’s Literature Collection includes several poetry chapbooks. This chapbook, The butterfly’s ball, and the grasshopper’s feast, includes beautiful engraved illustrations:     Our BC Historical Books collection also contains several […]

The Digitization Centre has digitized several collections of maps, as well as several collections that contain maps among other materials. This post provides a summary of those collections, showcasing some of our favourite maps from Open Collections! Greater Vancouver Regional District Planning Department Land Use Maps This collection contains more than 1,800 maps of the […]

Now that spring is well underway, we’re thinking about ways to enjoy the beautiful sunshine! For this post, we’ve gathered together our favourite images of bicycles from Open Collections. Recently added to the Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs, this photograph album documents Clara Wilson’s cycling trips across Canada. Check out the full […]

The Tremaine Arkley Croquet Collection contains 1,483 paintings, illustrations, engravings, advertisements, photographs and other ephemera depicting the game of croquet, dating from the 1760s to the 1950s. Tremaine Arkley, formerly a U.S. National Croquet Team player, donated the collection to UBC Library in 2011, with a second accrual in 2013. Funding for digitization was provided […]

Have you ever wondered about what library catalogues used to look like – or what books were in your local library’s collection many decades ago? We’ve come across a handful of historical library catalogues in Open Collections, which we’ve gathered here for your perusal. You can click on the title or cover of any of […]