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.
Remembering with Photographs
Posted on Nov 04, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
On Tuesday November 11th, 2014, British Columbia will be celebrating Remembrance Day along with the rest of Canada and Commonwealth countries to remember the men and women of the armed forces who died in the line of duty. Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the United States) is a memorial day created in 1919 to remember the […]
How We Digitize: Multipage Scanners
Posted on Oct 28, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
Another machine that we use on a regular basis here at the Digitization Centre are our Fujitsu fi-6670A multipage scanners. The Fujitsu scanners are high-speed, sheet-fed machines that can scan up to 90 pages per minute on both sides, which is approximately 180 images per minute. These multipage scanners can handle a range of material […]
Costume Ideas Inspired by Our Digital Collections
Posted on Oct 22, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
Still trying to decide on your epic Halloween costume? Then look no further! The Digitization Centres’ photographic collections have a plethora of images that can provide inspiration for costume ideas. Whether your budget is thrift-store-chic, you have some cash to spend, or, you are looking for costume ideas that you can base off your current […]
Introducing the One Hundred Poets Project
Posted on Oct 14, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
In an earlier post in our How We Digitize series, I spoke with UBC Library conservator, Anne Lama, about her role here at UBC and at the Digitization Centre. Anne was here again a couple of weeks ago to work with students and the project leader of the One Hundred Poets project to determine what […]
Puban Project Complete and Online!
Posted on Oct 03, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
The Puban project in collaboration with Sun Yat-Sen Library, part of the Guangzhou library in Guangdong Province in China, is complete. There are 29 digitized titles each with multiple fascicles. The scanning process primarily involved the use of our ATIZ scanners (a How We Digitize blog post about these scanners is coming soon!). The core […]
New album featuring photographs from Carlo Gentile
Posted on Oct 01, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
Another album from the Uno Langmann BC Historical Photograph collection has been uploaded onto our Digital Collections web page! Thirty-six of the photographs in this album were taken by Carlo Gentile (1835-1893), an Italian photographer who immigrated to North America. In 1863 he traveled through the wilds of British Columbia where he photographed Pacific Coast Indians […]
Images make for great seminar materials
Posted on Sep 29, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
The Uno Langmann BC Historical Photograph Digital Collection, consisting of over 15,300 photographs and postcards, is being used in ARTH 443 Issues and Problems in Canadian Art and Photography: Photo Fever and the Uno Langmann Archive, taught by John O’Brian from the Department of Art History.The seminar in Canadian art aims to critically think about how photographs and archives raise […]
How We Digitize: Conserving Materials With Anne Lama
Posted on Sep 22, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
Did you know that the Digitization Centre requires some materials to be assessed and handled by a conservator before they are digitized and put online? Well I sure did not know this until I met Anne Lama, library conservator, for UBC Library’s extensive physical collections. Lama, who has worked at the National Archives in Paris, France, as […]
How We Digitize: Flatbed Scanning
Posted on Sep 11, 2014 by Emily Chicorli
How We Digitize – A new blog series that will reveal some of the tools and machines we use to digitize materials. Some of the most commonly used machines in the Digitization Centre are flatbed scanners (Epson Perfection V750 Pro). These scanners are typically used for photographs and documents that are 8.5 x 11 inches […]
Recreating Croquet History
Posted on Sep 02, 2014 by Matthew Murray
Last month we announced that we had completed the second phase of our Arkley Croquet Collection digitization project. Some of the images in the collection are pretty amusing, so we thought it would be fun if we re-enacted some of them! I’m sure you’ll agree that they’re more or less identical
