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An aggregation of UBC Library blogs that highlight the Library’s collections, services, spaces and events.

June 2025
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Records management at UBC: What are university records and how do I manage them?

By Library Communications on June 16, 2025

An illustration of a laptop, books, folders and papers, together against a blue background.

Excerpted and adapted from “What does the Records Management Office do?” on the UBC Records Management Office (RMO) blog.

Each time you write an email, buy material for your unit, or propose a new project in a departmental meeting, you’ve created a record. That email, that purchase requisition and payment receipt, and those meeting minutes are all types of records that may need to be referenced again at some point in the future.

Besides UBC’s human resources, records are one of the most valuable resources at UBC. They provide evidence of decision-making, detail rights and responsibilities, show legislative and institutional compliance and document our celebrations—in short, they represent all the work we do. UBC’s university records encompass all recorded information—physical and electronic—created through administrative activities. The Records Management Office (RMO) at UBC provides services that can help faculty and staff improve their record keeping practices.

Do I need to keep every record forever?

Records come in several flavours. In general, records can be:

  • transitory (temporary, not important after a while)
  • operational (important for years to satisfy administrative, government, audit or legal commitments), or
  • archival (important to the history of the unit and should be kept permanently at the University Archives).

At UBC, we don’t keep all of these records types indefinitely; instead, records are managed according to UBC’s Retention Schedules, which are published on the RMO website. A Retention Schedule guide is available here (insert link to blog post)

How do I know what types of records I have?

The Records Management Office can help you identify any records of archival value and can work with your unit to conduct annual record surveys to identify what types of records currently exist within your unit, and what to do with them. Reach out to the RMO team to get started.

Looking for more records management tips and best practices? Find more on the RMO website.

The Records Management Office (RMO) at UBC provides a unified approach to records management, supports overall effective information management, and leads the transition to electronic records management at UBC in an efficient, secure, and sustainable manner. Learn more about available services, training and best practices on the RMO website.

Posted in Carousel, General, records management | Read More | No Comments

How language revitalization boosts Indigenous health

By Anna Moorhouse on June 12, 2025

New research shows that reviving Indigenous languages may do more than preserve culture—it may also improve public health.

Posted in Carousel, General | Read More | No Comments

2025 Employee Recognition Award winners announced

By Library Communications on June 12, 2025

From left to right: James Bachmann, Anton Nonin, Caitlin Lindsay, David Cumming, and Dr. Susan E. Parker.

UBC Library is pleased to announce that Caitlin Lindsay, David Cumming, Alexandra Kuskowski, James Bachmann, and Anton Nonin are the 2025 recipients of UBC Library Awards. Each year, the Library Awards Program shines a light on faculty and staff who have demonstrated exceptional creativity, innovation, leadership, excellence and a dedication to customer service through their work.

The awards were presented during the 2025 UBC Library Summer Recognition Awards Ceremony, held on Tuesday, June 10, 2025.

Congratulations to this year’s award recipients, and thank you to everyone who participated by submitting nominations.

Employee Excellence Award – Caitlin Lindsay

Caitlin Lindsay (Access Services Librarian, Borrower Services) is the winner of the 2025 Employee Excellence Award, which recognizes those whose track record for quality work is matched only by the kindness, compassion and respect that make their contributions so effective.

Caitlin exemplifies UBC Library’s core values of openness, belonging, connection and curiosity. She is known for being collaborative, working closely with the Head of Koerner Library and Koerner teams, as well as other branches and units across UBC campuses. She consistently works to make processes clear and effective, improving access to resources and even updating signage.

Innovation Awards – Alexandra Kuskowski and James Bachmann

Alexandra Kuskowski (Learning Services Librarian, Chapman Learning Commons) and James Bachmann (Instruction Librarian, Law Library) are the winners of the 2025 Innovation Award, which recognizes Library employees who have demonstrated new and innovative ways of performing existing processes or who introduced a new library service or program that benefits employees and library users.

Alexandra serves as the Chair of the UBC Library Basic Indigenous Reference Training, and has shown ongoing and crucial support for this program. Her work on this training supports both UBC Library’s Strategic Framework and the Indigenous Strategic Plan. She has also disseminated the core learning through conferences. Her work has demonstrated an innovative and proactive response to the critical goals set within the Indigenous Strategic Plan.

James helped to found and develop the new Canadian Access Legal Citation Guide, an open access, bilingual legal resource. This new citation guide is a free, inclusive alternative to the standard legal citation guide, which exists behind a paywall. He led approximately 15 law librarians from across the country to develop and finalize the guide, which is now available to anyone needing to cite legal materials.

Unsung Hero Award – David Cumming

David Cumming (Information and Reserve Assistant/Facilities Liaison, Woodward Library) is the winner of the 2025 Unsung Hero Award, which honours colleagues who keep UBC Library’s programs, services, and infrastructure running. When they do their jobs well, their work is seamless and often goes unnoticed.

David helps to ensure that his branch facilities are well maintained to support the needs of students, faculty, staff, researchers and community. From monitoring equipment and supplies to stack maintenance and even trouble shooting technology, his work is crucial to the library functioning smoothly.

Leadership from Within Award – Anton Nonin

Anton Nonin (Senior Rights and Permissions Assistant, Digital Initiatives) is the winner of the 2025 Leadership from Within Award, which recognizes library employees who demonstrate leadership through their ability to inspire engagement in others, and who goes above and beyond for the betterment of their workplace.

Anton’s leadership shines through his actions, by fostering collaboration and providing mentorship to his team in an inclusive environment. He is a calm presence, who brings a detail-oriented and solutions-focused attitude to his work to improve systems and support his colleagues.

Congratulations to this year’s Library Recognition Award winners!

Posted in awards, General, recognition | Read More | No Comments

Library Catalogue is Down

By ryan regier on June 11, 2025

UBC Library Catalogue is currently not working https://webcat.library.ubc.ca

IT is working on it. Links to print books from Summon and other sources will not work while it is down.

Posted in eResources Blog | Read More | No Comments

Chung | Lind Gallery Summer Hours

By cshriver on June 11, 2025

Due to staffing changes, the Chung | Lind Gallery will have reduced hours for summer 2025.

The planned summer opening hours are:

  • June 11-14, 2025: Open from 10 am-5 pm
  •  June 17-28, 2025: Closed
  •  July and August, the Gallery will be open Wednesdays to Saturdays from 10 am-5 pm

As opening hours are subject to change, please check the hours portal for the most up-to-date information.

During our reduced hours, we will have limited availability for guided tours and class visits.

We invite you to enjoy our audio highlights tour, our audio guide, or our 360-degree virtual tour. You can also browse digitized materials from the Chung and Lind Collections, and enjoy stories from the Chung | Lind Gallery Blog.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the RBSC contact form or by sending an email to rare.books@ubc.ca. Thank you again for your understanding and interest in the Chung | Lind Gallery!

Posted in Uncategorized | Read More | No Comments

It’s the Cream of the Crop!

By Jacky Lai on June 9, 2025

Many thanks to guest blogger Gabriella J. Cigarroa for contributing the below post! Gabriella is a graduate student at the UBC School of Information and recently completed a Co-op work term with Rare Books and Special Collections Library.

It’s the Cream of the Crop!: The B.C. Dairy Historical Society Collection

As a Co-op Project Archivist in Fall 2024, I processed the B.C. Dairy Historical Society collection. Since 1998, the B.C. Dairy Historical Society (BCDHS) has collected a breadth of records documenting the history of the provincial dairy industry. Used to write books including Jane Watt’s Milk Stories: A History of the Dairy Industry in British Columbia, 1827-2000 and High Water: Living with the Fraser Floods, this collection includes a wealth of journals, photographs, and records from provincial dairy organizations and producers. Materials originated from the Fraser Valley Milk Producers’ Association (now known as Agrifoods, and owners of Dairyland until 2001), Palm Dairies (a dairy local to Vancouver that was bought by Dairyland in 1989), and assorted dairy industry professionals and enthusiasts. 

Some photos of my favorite finds in the collection are shared below: 

RBSC-ARC-1875-AR-04: St. Charles Evaporated Cream [cow-shaped clock]

RBSC-ARC-1875-AR-07: [Movie camera and attachments]

A movie camera owned by Neil Gray, who was a driving force in the B.C. dairy industry as a previous General Manager for the Fraser Valley Milk Producers’ Association, Director of the National Dairy Council of Canada, President of the B.C. Dairy Council, and member of the B.C .Dairy Historical Society.

 

RBSC-ARC-1875-SPLP-07 – Approaching Prospects. One of two LPs from the 1940s, records of salescasts presented by the Milk Industry Foundation that were used to evaluate and teach dairy salesmen. Each is a one-of-a-kind reference recording, used to test the master recording before making copies to distribute.

 

 

As of 2023, dairy was the top agricultural commodity in B.C. This collection documents the work of dairy co-operatives, producers, and other industry professionals to develop that market.  

If you think about us the next time you visit the dairy aisle at your local grocery store, please contact RBSC about making a research visit. 

Posted in Announcements, Collections, Exhibitions, Frontpage Exhibition, Newest-Collection, Research and learning | Read More | No Comments

UBC Library receives the David Suzuki fonds

By Anna Moorhouse on June 9, 2025

Photos of Dr. David Suzuki and Dr. Tara Cullis

Image credit: David Suzuki Foundation

UBC Archives has received the David Suzuki fonds, an archival collection that chronicles the professional work of internationally recognized scientist, environmentalist, and broadcaster Dr. David Suzuki.

The collection is a treasure trove that includes book manuscripts, handwritten notes for speeches delivered by Dr. Suzuki throughout his career, correspondence relating to his published articles, his broadcasting and literary career, and his work in the Department of Zoology at UBC, materials from the David Suzuki Foundation, audio cassettes, research materials, photographs, video recordings of his CBC television series The Nature of Things, and much more.

We sat down to talk about the archive with Dr. Suzuki and Dr. Tara Cullis, award-winning author, former faculty member of Harvard University, president of the board and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, and partner of Dr. Suzuki. Regarding their ties to UBC, Dr. Suzuki is a UBC Professor Emeritus and Dr. Cullis is a UBC alumnus and recipient of the 2016 UBC Alumni Global Citizenship Award.

Our conversation explores how they decided to donate these materials to UBC, highlights from the archive, and how these materials can support future climate research.

Q: What motivated you to donate this archive to UBC?

Cullis: We are inundated with stuff, so we’re always trying to clear house somewhat and find a better home for some of the treasures that we have. But also, [these materials are] a record of a lot of interesting things that have happened over the years, and we don’t have a place for them. We don’t have the skills of an archivist… We chose UBC since that’s where David had been based for so long and had such a vibrant lab.

Image: Dr. David Suzuki in the Department of Zoology lab, 1978. UBC Open Collections.

Suzuki: I’d never thought about my legacy, and it was really Tara who saw the opportunity. I thought if I was going to leave it somewhere, UBC was the obvious place to leave it to, because I’d spent my whole life here. And maybe there’s a PhD student that might actually find it of interest.

Q: What would you say are some of the highlights of the archive for you? Are there any particular materials you’re excited for people to discover?

Cullis: I know one of them is David’s letter from Prince Charles—he was then Prince Charles—which David got about 40 years ago… I think [that letter] really opened our eyes to how profound an understanding of the environment, and the issues involved, Prince Charles had… That letter that he sent, which I think is about 11 pages, handwritten, it’s one of our treasures.

Suzuki: That’s a whole thesis in itself. That letter was so revelatory. He was a young prince, the king-in-waiting… He was still a young man then, but he had nailed the environmental issues. He said at the beginning [of the letter] that someone had put a speech that I had given on his desk, and he had read it. And he kept pulling things out of my speech that he agreed with.

“We chose UBC since that’s where David had been based for so long and had such a vibrant lab.”

Q: How have your views on environmental issues evolved over the years?

Suzuki: I began my public speaking career as a geneticist, and I was very concerned about the way genetics had been applied in the past and the potential of genetic engineering. So I was really focused on my discipline of science and the effect on the public, but over time, increasingly, I became more involved in environmental issues.

And so my speeches, which all began [with a focus on] genetics, became more of an introduction into my more recent concerns…. When I began speaking about genetics in the 1960s, I thought cloning was going to take decades. The speed with which scientists have acquired technological control [over genetics] has been absolutely amazing. Who could have ever dreamt that we would not only be able to decipher the entire human genome by the year 2001, but that we can now make genes at will. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was unthinkable that we would have the technology to actually go in and alter specific genes.

“I began my public speaking career as a geneticist, and I was very concerned about the way genetics had been applied in the past and the potential of genetic engineering.”

Q: How is this evolution reflected in the archives?

Suzuki: My speeches are very interesting because I write out all of my speeches longhand. If you look at a speech I gave in 1965, and one that I gave in 1970 and in 1975, I think it would be a very interesting to see the evolution of my thinking, because certainly my ideas now about the environmental impact are fundamentally different from 1962.

Cullis: I would like to look back at early warnings, and just see how far along we are on that kind of checklist of things that were going to happen. That’s a bit of research I would like to do.

Image: Dr. Suzuki delivering speeches in 1971 (right) and 1990 (left). UBC Open Collections.

Posted in archives, Carousel, General, University Archives | Read More | No Comments

Meet Joshua Bransford, recipient of the UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research

By Library Communications on June 5, 2025

About the prize

The UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research is a way to showcase students’ effective and innovative use of library services, information experts and resources provided by the UBC Library. Applications for these prizes also provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their information-seeking experience, showcase their research beyond the classroom, and promote scholarship excellence at the undergraduate level at the University of British Columbia.

The Prize was established by UBC Library to encourage more and deeper use of its resources and collections, to advance information literacy at UBC, and to promote academic excellence at UBC.

Q: Could you tell us a little bit about your project?

My project (The Neoliberal Production of Urban Space and Urban Subjects in India and Bolivia) looks at two cities in the Global South, and the effects of neoliberal restructuring on their inhabitants and spatial planning. The first case is an ongoing megaproject development in Bangalore, India, which aims to turn Bangalore into a “global city” by attracting foreign investment. The second case is an informal market in Cochabamba, Bolivia, which has dramatically expanded since the imposition of neoliberalism in the 1980s. I especially aimed to look at how the residents of these places were responding to the changing political-economic conditions around them in ways that were not always intuitive. By drawing mainly upon the work of Louis Althusser and Verónica Gago, I argue that in order to adequately understand ‘neoliberalism,’ the daily experiences and practices of neoliberal subjects need to be meaningfully considered. I consulted library databases to find Bolivian economic history, census data, and World Bank reports, and acquired much of the theoretical background from texts available in the UBC library. The full paper can be found in Volume 19 of Trail Six, the UBC undergraduate geography journal, which is available here: https://trailsix.geog.ubc.ca/.

Q: What does winning this prize mean to you?

This prize is an amazing opportunity for students seeking to take their research beyond the classroom. It is very assuring to have your work recognized and appreciated, and I’m so grateful to the UBC Library for giving me this opportunity. I am also so happy for my other prize winners, Sophie, Ciara, Ethan, and Ridhwanlai—their projects sounded amazing!

Q: What are your plans for the future?

I’d like to go to graduate school at some point, and this paper actually helped clarify much of my research interests. I am interested in economic geography and political economy, with a specific focus on the geographies of privatized warfare. I want to explore how the outsourcing of war to private companies plays out, and how that changes the dynamics of war and accumulation in a globalizing world. In the meantime, I’d like to work doing action-oriented research on foreign policy, immigration, or something similar.

Q: Do you have a favourite research spot at UBC Library?

Probably the Ridington Room in IKB MAA. Second place would be the reading room on the fourth floor of IKB, or the fifth floor of Koerner. I enjoy a comfortable chair and some quiet.


Posted in General, library research, prize, research, UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research | Read More | No Comments

Meet Sophie Pavey, recipient of the UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research

By Library Communications on June 5, 2025

About the prize

The UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research is a way to showcase students’ effective and innovative use of library services, information experts and resources provided by the UBC Library. Applications for these prizes also provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their information-seeking experience, showcase their research beyond the classroom, and promote scholarship excellence at the undergraduate level at the University of British Columbia.

The Prize was established by UBC Library to encourage more and deeper use of its resources and collections, to advance information literacy at UBC, and to promote academic excellence at UBC.

Q: Could you tell us a little bit about your project?

Cosmographia is a 1574 cosmographical text, which contains five movable volvelles (rotating circular slide charts). UBC has a copy in its Special Collections. My project situated Cosmographia in early printing history, trade networks and paper production systems. I was also interested in how the reader’s ability to manipulate the volvelles disrupts the linear reading experience generally expected of early modern readers.

Q: What does winning this prize mean to you?

I am delighted that others enjoyed reading my project as much as I enjoyed working on it.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

In September I’ll be starting law school here at UBC — I look forward to making use of some new and different library resources!

Q: Do you have a favourite research spot at UBC Library?

I enjoy spending time in the Education Library in the Neville Scarfe building. The plants are lovely and it’s very quiet.


Posted in General, library research, prize, research, UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research | Read More | No Comments

Meet Ethan Lui, recipient of the UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research

By Library Communications on June 5, 2025

About the prize

The UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research is a way to showcase students’ effective and innovative use of library services, information experts and resources provided by the UBC Library. Applications for these prizes also provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their information-seeking experience, showcase their research beyond the classroom, and promote scholarship excellence at the undergraduate level at the University of British Columbia.

The Prize was established by UBC Library to encourage more and deeper use of its resources and collections, to advance information literacy at UBC, and to promote academic excellence at UBC.

Q: Could you tell us a little bit about your project?

My project, originally prepared for a course on the history of medicine taught by Dr. John Christopoulos, examined how a 16th century work on anatomy by Andreas Vesalius was received by his contemporaries. The book, which I got to see in-person through a workshop with the UBC Rare Books and Special Collections was pivotal in reshaping academic thought about anatomy and the teaching of medicine. With the help of UBC’s collections, I was able to illustrate what I thought was an overlooked narrative in tracing the history of this work. Where current literature had highlighted the revolutionary nature of the work and its demonstration of Vesalius’ genius, I decided to write about how its revolutionary nature also garnered a noticeable response by critics, which gives us further insights on how such a monumental work that challenged traditional academic discourse was received.

Q: What does winning this prize mean to you?

I’m immensely grateful and honoured to receive this award because it affirms that there is value in going the extra mile in consulting a variety of resources local to our institution when preparing an assignment. I am also happy to see undergraduate research be acknowledged and celebrated in our community.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

In the short term, I want to continue learning as a student researcher in the arts. Whether it be work in engaging with communities, analyzing policies, or constructing a history, I really want to contribute to and be inspired by the complex world we live in. I’m currently doing some of this in a community-focused research project at UBC and would also love to continue some of the volunteering I did before completing my program. In the long term, I want to study law. I think there are several aspects of law school and being a law student that suit my interests and passions, and law has been a topic that I’ve wanted to focus my studies towards for a while.

Q: Do you have a favourite research spot at UBC Library?

I really like the Woodward Library. From the memorial room with its beautiful tapestry, to the study carrels with plenty of light, or nooks with lush plants, I think there is a space for everyone, which makes it my favourite.


Posted in General, library research, prize, research, UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research | Read More | No Comments