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.
Exceptions
Posted on Jan 27, 2014 by pughchr
A frequent challenge when making digital collections is determining how best to represent a digital object, so that it is true to the original object but still functions properly in its digital form. For example, in the case of newspapers, it can be a challenge to determining how best to represent the two page spread. […]
BC Sessional Papers available online
Posted on Jan 08, 2014 by mmlam
Digital Initiatives in partnership with Humanities and Social Sciences and the Legislative Library of British Columbia has completed digitization of the first 10 years (1876-1886) of the British Columbia Sessional Papers. The Sessional Papers are important provincial legislative documents that capture the economical, historical, political and cultural atmosphere of British Columbia history. The collection includes […]
The Arkley Croquet Collection has gone digital
Posted on by mmlam
A former player on the U.S. National Croquet Team, Tremaine Arkley started collecting illustrations, engravings, photographs, cartoons, paintings and other materials around the game of croquet with the sole idea of “saving the history of the game through art”, as he said in a interview with Croquet World Online (http://www.croquetworld.com/people/collecting.asp). Now that a large selection […]
Holiday Images in UBC Library’s Digital Collections
Posted on Dec 19, 2013 by mikec
‘Tis the season to unearth a few Christmas themed gems from our digital collections. Happy Holidays from the digitization team!
Creston Review: New in BC Historical Newspapers
Posted on Nov 29, 2013 by mikec
In partnership with Creston & District Musuem & Archives we have added issues of the Creston Review from 1909 to 1935 to the BC Historical Newspapers. The Creston Review was established in 1908 by J. J. Atherton, and was the first newspaper serving the Creston Valley. For many years, the Review was Creston’s […]
On the Crest of the Wave
Posted on Nov 27, 2013 by esquin
The Digital Initiatives Unit has digitized thousands of rare books and images, and still, in the midst of all these fantastic items, many images stand out and never cease to amaze us. We had not thought of this series of 12 photographs of Igor Stravinsky in a while, and when it was mentioned during a […]
Upcoming Project: Asian Rare Books
Posted on Nov 15, 2013 by Rob
In January 2014 the UBC Library Digitization Centre will start a project to digitize titles from its Asian Library rare book collection. The project is a collaboration between the UBC Library and the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong province in China. There are many rare and unique titles in the collection which makes is of […]
So Old, and Yet So New
Posted on Nov 05, 2013 by esquin
The Spanish Chant Manuscript is one of our oldest digitized books, dating from sometime between 1575 and 1625. Chant manuscripts from Renaissance Spain can be richly illuminated, like this particular one, which features gold leaf and a very ornamented design. At the time, most antiphonaries (or choral books) used a four-line staff for the notation […]
Explore Open Collections: Kinesis
Posted on Oct 21, 2013 by esquin
Gender and social justice researchers worldwide –as well as the general public interested in the feminist movement in Canada– will be happy to know of this digital collection that is now freely available online: Kinesis: News about women that is not in the dailies, published by the Vancouver Status of Women (VSW) from 1974 to […]
Explore Open Collections: Emma Crosby Letters
Posted on Oct 11, 2013 by esquin
Beyond our personal reservations regarding evangelism and the missionary enterprise, Emma Crosby Letters collection is exceptionally interesting because it lets us see two very different perspectives on how women lived in the 19th century and on their personal struggles. On one side, we can see how the gender limitations of the time made it impossible […]
