UBC Okanagan + DI = Gold Mine of Information
Digital Initiatives is at it again with UBC Okanagan Library, to provide you with new historical resources from the resource industry!
Employees at DI helped to consult and work collaboratively with Arielle Lomness, Collections Librarian at UBC Okanagan and Dual MAS/MLIS candidate Paige Hohmann, in digitizing two collections belonging to the UBC Okanagan Library: the Simpson Family fonds and Doug and Joyce Cox Research Collection.
Along the way UBC Okanagan also set benchmarks for their upcoming digital collections. Overall digitization of both donations will continue over the coming year, but are available currently for in-person research at the UBC Okanagan Library
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The newly renovated UBC Okanagan Special Collections Room opened November 2014. This space holds the monographs, serials, and some audiovisual material of the Okanagan-focused collection.
Simpson Family Fonds
In July 2014, Sharron J. Simpson donated her family papers to UBC Okanagan Library’s developing Okanagan Special Collections (OSC). The Simpson Family fonds, documents Ms. Simpson’s grandfather, Stanley M. Simpson of Kelowna, his wood processing plants known collectively as S. M. Simpson Ltd. and its corporate successors. For almost fifty years, S. M. Simpson oversaw one of the largest and most important forestry and wood processing operations in the Okanagan Valley. At the time the company was also one of the most relied upon employers in the area.
The collection features a photographic record of the changes of the forestry industry in B.C.’s interior during the first half of the twentieth century, and includes collection of labour and union related documents, including collective agreements and administrative documents.
Part of the Simpson Family fonds housed in the Okanagan Special Collection (OSC) – Archives.
Doug and Joyce Cox Research Collection:
In January 2015, Doug and Joyce Cox donated the aggregate of Mr. Cox’s records supporting Mr. Cox’s career as a writer and self-publisher (Skookum Publications), 12.2 meters of material, to the Okanagan Special Collections’ (OSC). The material collected ranges in dates from 1870 to 1960.
The Cox Collection features a wealth of collected materials, including those of prominent pioneers: F.X. Richter (Kelowna, B.C), Valentine Haynes (Osoyoos B.C.), and J.M. Robinson (Naramata, B.C.). In addition to family photo collections, there are other aggregations collected on a basis of subject (i.e. ranching, mining) and geography in the region.
Example artifact from the Simpson Family fonds – a framed pencil. These were created for use in S.M. Simpson’s various businesses around the Okanagan.
Full descriptions of the collections are available now online – http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/. In addition to the digital collections, a website featuring the newly updated Special Collections and archival collections will be available this fall through the UBC Okanagan Library website. More information will be made available shortly through http://library.ok.ubc.ca/.
