Asian Library | Space Renewal | Collections | Technology | Digitization
Asian Library
A hub of scholarship, learning and community connection, today’s Asian Library at UBC embodies the vibrancy of the Asia Pacific region as well as the evolving multicultural identity of Pacific Canada. With a collection of more than 600,000 volumes dating back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and access to thousands of online academic resources, this is Canada’s premier Asian Library and one of the top Asian research libraries in North America. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South and Southeast Asian languages and cultures co-exist and cross-pollinate, bridging the past with the present.
UBC is seeking partners to re-develop the Asian Library as a centre for research excellence and community engagement. A proposed Pacific Canada Family History Resource Centre is the centerpiece of the vision for the renewed Asian Library and will serve to validate and recognize trans-Pacific migration as part of Canadian history as well as collect stories and document family histories of Asian Canadians.
This revitalization will align the Asian Library’s physical space with world-class resources and expertise, underlining a commitment to education and cultural knowledge.
Total Renovation: $12 million
Naming: $5 million
Space Renewal
Woodward Library: Creating a Modern Life Sciences Research Library at UBC
Woodward Library is the primary branch in a network of four life sciences libraries at UBC. It houses the largest biomedical collection in western Canada with materials in the health and life sciences, including biology, botany, dentistry, forestry, land and food systems, medicine, nursing, nutrition, pharmaceutical sciences, rehabilitation sciences, zoology and related fields. Since opening its doors in 1964, Woodward Library has supported students, faculty, visiting scholars, practitioners, clinical faculty and the general public in an increasingly interdisciplinary and progressive research environment.
Upgrades to the library over the past 48 years have included only minor repairs until the renovation of the lower level in 2010, which has seen students flock to the natural light and welcoming ambiance of the new space. The remainder of the building is in need of physical and technological upgrades, moving some of the lower-use collections offsite to reclaim our spaces and create a dynamic, inspiring environment for research and learning. This opportunity coincides with Woodward Library’s 50th anniversary in 2014.
Renovation: $5 million
Koerner Library Research Commons: Enhancing Research Excellence
UBC’s Koerner Library is home to advanced data services and a rich collection in arts, humanities and social sciences. To fulfill the need for more interdisciplinary collaboration, common facilities and infrastructures and centralized support for researchers, Koerner Library is developing a progressive Research Commons for use by faculty and student researchers.
The Research Commons will provide a dedicated setting with the latest in new technology and software for scholars to work, meet informally, request research assistance and engage with library staff. Services will include advanced research help, equipment for graduate and faculty use only, workshops, training sessions, secure study space and opportunities for academic networking.
The purpose of the new Koerner Library Research Commons is to meet the sophisticated demands of 21st century scholarship and provide tools, assistance and support in one convenient location to accelerate and enhance research excellence at UBC.
Renovation: $2.5 million
Music Library
Home to one of Canada’s finest collections of music materials, UBC’s Music Library supports the Music School’s growing curriculum and research needs. Technology is dramatically increasing the range and capacity of music students and faculty to produce and manipulate sound. At the same time, many musical endeavours are becoming increasingly collaborative. The Music Library envisions the renewal of its facilities in response to these trends. A revitalized Music Library would include updated recording and audio equipment, editing rooms and collaborative study space to engage and promote the musical imagination for the 21st century and beyond.
Renovation: $1.5 million
Collections
Collections form the heart of UBC Library and an investment to preserve and enhance our collections will directly impact the future of learning both within and beyond the university.
Our collections are large and diverse, including over 6.3 million volumes, 5.3 million microforms, 880,000 maps, audio, video and graphic materials, and more than 164,000 serial titles. Campus and community users borrowed more than 2 million items in 2011, placing UBC Library among North America’s top research libraries in the volume of print materials circulated.
The Library’s growing online services and electronic resources serve to complement traditional formats. Many Library services can be accessed online, with 157,545 full‐text e‐journals, 875,670 e‐books and over 1,000 indexes and databases made available any time of day or night. UBC Library’s collections support research and teaching in every aspect of the university, from English to climate change, dentistry to First Nations history, Alzheimer’s to Asian Studies and fine arts to engineering.
Among the Library’s prized special collections is the world‐class Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection, 25,000 rare and unique items relating to the discovery of British Columbia, the development of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Chinese immigration to Canada. The unparalleled Puban Collection, now housed at UBC’s Asian Library, contains 45,000 hand-stitched volumes of Chinese literature, history and thought from the 12th to 19th centuries.
UBC Library is grateful to our generous donors who help to ensure we can continue to offer the rich collections and services required of a top‐tier academic library in the 21st century.
Your gift to UBC Library’s collections could support one of these current projects:
- Uncovering “hidden” collections
- Developing an innovative preservation services program
- The acquisition of rare and significant works including cultural artifacts, items pertaining to local and regional history, literature, licensed digital archives and other unique treasures
Technology
Students in Chapman Learning Commons
Over the past several years, technology has been a major driver in the evolution of services offered by UBC Library. Today, students and other library users don’t even need to set foot in the library—or on campus—to gain access to the Library’s vast repository of e-resources. Databases, digital collections and full-text journal articles are all available online.
Reliable computers, wireless access and technology support are part of the new core services paradigm for academic libraries. The challenge is to meet the ongoing demand for new, cutting-edge technology while providing a robust and stable system. Anything we adopt, we must have the ability to maintain, explain and support.
Research indicates that library resources and their accessibility play a pivotal role in attracting graduate students and faculty to leading universities. Continued technological improvements and innovations in Library service underlay UBC’s academic productivity and strong international rankings. We invite you to help UBC Library grow and evolve to keep pace with the needs of 21st century learners and scholars.
Generous contributions from our donors have supported equipment purchases such as computers, monitors and scanners as well as innovative tools.
Your gift to UBC Library technology could support one of these current projects:
- Library Technology Endowment Fund
- Upgrading equipment for renovated spaces in branch libraries
- Developing an Innovation Lab for experimenting with the latest technology
Digitization
With the adoption of new technologies and the provision of e-resources and services, UBC Library is meeting the challenges of the digital age, ensuring that students, faculty, alumni and the wider community can tap into its vast repository of knowledge from any place, at any time.
The Library’s BC Bibliography Project, for example, combines the tools of bibliography with the new tools of the digital world to transform our understanding of and insight into the history and life of British Columbia. The goal is to put the access and delivery of primary source material into the hands of educators and social science students, including K-12 students in rural areas across the province. The BC Bibliography Project will consolidate and digitize published works, including books, journals, pamphlets and early newspapers, so that the textual record of BC becomes searchable and viewable via the Internet to anyone from anywhere.
Thanks to generous contributions from our community of supporters, the BC Bibliography Project has embarked upon a pilot project to preserve the rich and varied stories of British Columbia and present them in easily accessible formats to audiences near, far and around the world.
Your gift to UBC Library’s digital initiatives could help to support one of these current projects:
- Woodward Library Memorial Room letters – transcription and digitization of a collection of correspondence, notes and ephemera from prominent researchers and authors in the history of medicine.
- BC Historical Newspapers – continue to digitize microfilm and add titles to our collection of historical newspapers.
- Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era - increase accessibility of our digitized Japanese maps by adding Japanese language metadata and search functionality
