Here at the Digitization Centre we are fascinated and excited by the vast amount of primary-source material that our digitization work exposes us to. Whether a document of historic significance, a beautiful illustration, or even a particularly fine typeface, we are frequently amazed by the materials we’re working to share with the world. So much so, that not only will we crowd around to ogle a particularly interesting specimen, but we’ve started decorating our workplace with copies of some of our favorites. But why stop there? Surely, we can’t be the only ones geeky enough to appreciate such “gems” in our collections, and so we’ve decided to share them here with you. Below you will find some of our favorites, hand-picked by staff from both existing and upcoming collections. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
TIP: To view full resolution versions of the images on any size screen, click to view in Open Collections.
OCR and non-Latin text
Posted on Jun 05, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
The UBC Digitization Centre is responsible for the creation of more than 50 collections, all available through the Open Collections website. Our collections are diverse in formats, information and languages. Having non-English materials, or materials that are not written using the Latin-based alphabet, may be a barrier to access and retrieving information. But technology can […]
Eight Business Lessons From the Canadian Pacific Railway
Posted on May 29, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
Lately, we’ve been highlighting some important lessons that can be learned in our collections, including the history of typography, how surgery was performed in the 16th century, and which artists are responsible for the art in the Chung Collection. But did you know that our collections also contain important business lessons? That’s right, business lessons […]
Explore Open Collections: Greater Vancouver Maps
Posted on May 22, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
Do you ever wonder what Vancouver was like just a few decades ago? What used to exist where you live or work? If you want information about Greater Vancouver, you can check out our Greater Vancouver Regional District Planning Department Land Use Maps Collection. The collection has over 1,800 detailed maps—produced in 1965, 1980 and […]
Objects of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Posted on May 15, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
Did you know that we have some of the items in our collections because of a lazy dishwasher? Several Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) items in the Chung Collection were bought by Dr. Chung from a scuba diver. The CPR had many diverse businesses, including cruises, and apparently some crew members were so tired of washing […]
How Are Collections Made?
Posted on May 08, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
While browsing through our digital collections, you might start wondering how all of these items originally came together. Every collection has its own unique story, and we’ve chosen to highlight two such stories in this week’s post. Maybe it will motivate you to start your own collection! Chung Collection The Chung Collection currently has […]
Typography in early printed books
Posted on May 01, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
We here at the Digitization Centre were wondering: “What can I learn from the Early printed books and Western manuscripts”? We found the answer: “A lot of things.” This time, we chose to discuss what we found out about the history of typography. The earliest printed books were produced to be similar to handwritten manuscripts […]
Explore Open Collections: Harry Hawthorn Fly Fishing & Angling Collection
Posted on Apr 24, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
The Harry Hawthorn collection contains more than 2,200 books about fly-fishing and angling, including rare and valuable items from the 1700s to the 1970s. Harry Hawthorn was a UBC professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, and even though the collection carries his name, he was not the only one responsible for collecting the […]
Utagaruta: a poetry game
Posted on Apr 17, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
Our One Hundred Poets Collection contains 20 different card sets of the utagaruta (uta = poem; karuta = card), a variation of the Japanese game called “Karuta” (which originated from “Carta,” the Portuguese name for “Card”). The Utagaruta is a poetry game, that exercises your reflexes and memory. The karuta is a combination of two […]
Chung Collection Menus: A Flavour Throwback
Posted on Apr 10, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
Restaurant and hotel menus are windows to the past. When looking at old menus, you can learn about what kinds of foods people used to prefer, what kinds of produce was available, what was considered to be an elaborate dish, and how much people used to pay for food. The Chung Collection contains hundreds of […]
Pixelating
Posted on Apr 03, 2018 by Paula Arasaki
Pixelating: A Digital Humanities Mixer is a program facilitated by Susan Atkey, Larissa Ringham and Allan Cho, at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The program is a forum for discussion to develop UBC Library-based digital humanities projects. Digital humanities is an emerging area, which combines technologies and digital tools with the objects and methods […]
