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.


BC Historical Newspapers Update

Posted on Feb 01, 2013 by mikec
Update: A list current in May 2017 can be found here: https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/uncategorized/bc-historical-newspapers-update-2017/ The BC Historical Newspapers portal is one of our most heavily used digital collections. Occasionally we are delightfully surprised to find out about the creative ways people find to use the collections. Two of our favourite projects come to us courtesy of the […]


A view of the provincial parliament buildings in Victoria, BC.

Picturesque Victoria, British Columbia

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 by Rob
From the book Picturesque Victoria, British Columbia. These photographic souvenir books were popular with tourism and development organizations from the late 19th and in to the 20th century. Have a look at the entire book here. Part of the British Columbia Bibliography project.


Keenlyside

Posted on by pughchr
This image is from the Augustus Pemberton collection, one of two collections donated to Rare Books and Special Collections by John Keenlyside in 2008. We are currently digitizing both collections, and they should appear on the Rare Books and Special Collections website in the near future. The image is of a calendar of prisoners who […]


The Prolific David Conde

Posted on Jan 22, 2013 by pughchr
One of our current projects is to digitize the David Conde fonds in partnership with the University of Tokyo. We are discovering first hand that David Conde was a hugely prolific journalist who had much to say about a lot of subjects. As such, the David Conde fonds contains vast quantities of manuscripts for books […]


Letter from Edmund Meredith to Jean Langevin. 6 March 1875

RG 10: Department of Indian Affairs Letterbooks Project

Posted on Jan 15, 2013 by Peter D James
Update on project: Due to various reasons, the RG 10 Departmental Letterbooks Project did not move beyond the pilot stage. The RG 10 Departmental Letterbooks Project is a collaborative venture between the University British Columbia Library and the University Library, University of Saskatchewan to digitize, describe and provide online access to a volume of Department […]


Kinesis, May 1976

Kinesis Digitization Project

Posted on Jan 11, 2013 by Larissa
A new year brings with it new projects, and we’re excited to spotlight an upcoming digitization project with valuable local content. Kinesis is an important local women’s newspaper that was published by the Vancouver Status of Women organization from 1974 to 2001 (the early iteration of the publication is entitled Vancouver Status of Women).  It […]


DI Projects Gantt Chart 27Nov2012

Digitization projects – current and upcoming

Posted on Dec 19, 2012 by Larissa
In order to track the digitization projects that are underway, we’ve put up a Gantt chart on our site that shows the timelines and overlap of all current projects. We will be updating this regularly, so check out our http://diginit.library.ubc.ca/projects page under the Current tab to view the most recent Digital Initiatives project list. Note […]


Siwash Rock, Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C.

Early 20th Century View Of Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia

Posted on Nov 29, 2012 by Rob
A beautiful glass plate negative from the Rosetti studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This image depicts Siwash Rock located on the northwest edge of Stanley Park in Vancouver. These negatives have a great depth to them yielding lustrous digital images. Check out the other images in the collection (N.B. We are in the process […]


Photograph of Victor Wong

Story of Victor Wong

Posted on Nov 14, 2012 by Mayu
Victor Wong is a WWII veteran from Victoria, BC. He was one of thousands of Chinese immigrants enlisted by the Canadian forces during the war and assigned to the British forces. The British territories in Asia had been occupied by Japan, and English speakers of Chinese origin were sent there to engage in guerrilla warfare […]


CP Hotel menus

Posted on Nov 09, 2012 by Larissa
Have you ever ordered food from hotel room service and were shocked when your clubhouse and coffee came to $30?  Well, it looks like steep room service prices aren’t a recent phenomenon. Take this 1962 menu from the historic CP Empress Hotel in Victoria.  Billed as a typical winter menu for the hotel dining room, […]


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