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.


Teach me how: Using Open Collections for Genealogy Research

Posted on Nov 06, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
Have you ever looked for information on your family history? Whether you are simply curious about a few relatives or embarking on an in-depth genealogy research project, there are many online resources that can help your search. If you have relatives from British Columbia, or relatives who are UBC alumni, UBC Library’s Open Collections can […]


Happy Halloween from the Digitization Centre!

Posted on Oct 30, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
In celebration of Halloween coming up tomorrow, enjoy these spooky and festive images from Open Collections. From the Tremaine Arkley Croquet Collection, three “modern” witches gather around a cauldron:   This woodcut of a shrouded skeleton, by the artist Walter Crane, could serve as some last-minute costume inspiration:   Watch out for this creepy spider […]


UBC Library-sponsored registration for DHSI 2019

Posted on Oct 25, 2018 by Larissa Ringham
DHSI – the Digital Humanities Summer Institute – is a humanities training program held every summer at the University of Victoria. Delivered over a week, each course is an intensive series of classes interspersed with colloquiums, unconferences, and other community-based events, and provides an ideal environment for influencing teaching, research, dissemination, creation, and preservation in […]


Explore Open Collections: Meiji at 150

Posted on Oct 23, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
The Meiji at 150 Project commemorates the 150th anniversary of Japan’s 1868 Meiji Restoration. As part of the project, UBC Library digitized works from the Meiji period (1868-1912), including 21 woodblock prints, 1 hand-painted kimono book, over 41 photographs, a 7-volume book on the Ainu, and more. As part of the newly launched Meiji at […]


Importance of web archiving for government information

Posted on Oct 16, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
This is a series on web archiving at the UBC Library. For all posts about web archiving, please see https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/tag/web-archiving/ From the new report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to the new NAFTA (USMCA) Agreement to Vancouver’s housing crisis, government information is all around us. Historically, government information was sent to […]


Web archiving: a student’s experience

Posted on Oct 09, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
This is a series on web archiving at the UBC Library. For all posts about web archiving, please see https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/tag/web-archiving/ The Digital Initiatives unit at UBC Library offers an opportunity every term for students to have a Professional Experience project in web archiving. During the Summer of 2018, I had the chance to work with […]


Planning a web archiving project

Posted on Oct 02, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
This is a series on web archiving at the UBC Library using the Internet Archive’s Archive-it service. For all posts about web archiving, please see https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/tag/web-archiving/ Proposal Web archiving projects can be proposed by anyone: community members, students, researchers, librarians etc. We have also completed larger collaborative projects that were proposed by a group of […]


Web Archiving at the UBC Library

Posted on Sep 25, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
Estimates put the current size of the internet at around 1.2 million terabytes and 150 billion pages. Sites go up, sites come down, pages are removed, content changes continuously. And an increasing amount of this information is available only online. You might not care if you can no longer access the comments about watching someone’s […]


Subjects in Our Collections: Canadian Studies

Posted on Sep 18, 2018 by Kelly Stathis
British Columbiana and Canadiana are two of our largest areas of collection development. Our collections hold items that explore a range of disciplines related to these topics, including history, business, sociology, literature, and more. For example: BC Historical Books: This collection contains almost 2,000 books about and/or published in British Columbia. Three bibliographies of British […]


Get all caught up with the new Digitization Centre Impact Report!

Posted on Sep 11, 2018 by eirian vining
Start off the new school year by getting all caught up on what the Digitization Centre has been up to over the past year. You can read all about it in the Digitization Centre Impact and Activity Report for 2017-2018! This report highlights key projects, partnerships, and content development trends for the 2017-2018 fiscal year This year, […]


a place of mind, The University of British Columbia

Emergency Procedures | Accessibility | Contact UBC  | © Copyright The University of British Columbia