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An aggregation of UBC Library blogs that highlight the Library’s collections, services, spaces and events.
By ryan regier on April 3, 2024
OpenAthens is seeing issues with the Sage website not loading. Users will see a blank screen or a HTTP ERROR 500.
OpenAthens is working to resolve the issue.
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By Jillian G. on April 2, 2024
The Historical Children’s Literature Collection contains eighty-five works of children’s literature spanning from the late 18th to late 19th Centuries. The collection is a collaboration between UBC’s School of Information, Department of English Language & Literatures, Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) and Digitization Centre. The physical materials are from both RBSC’s historic children’s literature holdings as well as the Arkley Collection of Early Historical Children’s Literature.
Many of the stories featured in this blog post are variations of classics that you will likely recognize as stories from your own childhood. Others are less well known and may be tales you’ve never heard before!
UBC’s collection contains many chapbooks and early Canadian children’s literature materials. The books featured in this blogpost are all chapbooks, which McGill Rare Books states are “small, unbound, paper-covered books that were carried and sold by itinerant peddlers known as ‘chapmen’”.
I hope you enjoy perusing these historic children’s stories!
Jack and Jill, and Old Dame Gill:
This chapbook of “Jack and Jill, and Old Dame Gill” is thought to be from 1820. There is a pattern in the poetic meter (the number of syllables in each line), with the poem generally following a four-four-seven structure.
This chapbook of “The History of Cinderella” is from 1840. The story is a narrative poem written in iambic pentameter, and rhymed in heroic couplets.
The History of Giles Gingerbread, A Little Boy, Who Lived Upon Learning
Children’s literature often contains strong moral messaging in an effort to teach young children about societal values. As these values and morals change through time and differ between cultures and geographic regions, readers can discern which values were commonly bestowed upon children during any given time period.
Giles Gingerbread is a great example of this as it is a moral tale thought to be from around two-hundred years ago (1820). The story highlights the importance of honesty, charity, goodwill, and hard work and follows the classic ‘American dream’ formula of inspiring upward class mobility, particularly through learning to read and write.
One interesting observation that can be made from the chapbooks featured in this blog post is the difference in how class mobility opportunities are presented to male and female characters in these tales. Cinderella is an example of a young girl who is beautiful, obedient and kind and through these traits she achieves upward class mobility by marrying a rich prince. In contrast, the male child in Giles Gingerbread is encouraged to learn to read and write in order to become wealthy. Of course, this observation is not a new one, it is an obvious and well documented trend in children’s literature, and one that unfortunately persists into contemporary children’s media. Although there is certainly progress being made!
That’s all for this week’s blog post, I hope you enjoyed reminiscing on some childhood stories and exercising some very light critical analysis.
Thank you for reading!
Posted in Carousel, cinderella, Digitizers' Blog, historical children's literature, Jack and Jill, open collections, ubc rbsc | Read More | No Comments
By ryan regier on April 2, 2024
We are seeing slow loading issues and sometimes no access with our CNKI databases.
We are investigating, please use access through our Resource Pages in the meantime
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By elimwong on April 2, 2024
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By epederso on April 1, 2024
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By ryan regier on March 28, 2024
Ethnologue: Languages of the World database is current not working and a “HTTP ERROR 503 Cannot contact upstream server” error is appearing.
We are working to solve the issue.
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By elimwong on March 26, 2024
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By elimwong on March 22, 2024
March 29 | Closed |
March 30 | 10 am - 6 pm |
March 31 | 10 am - 6 pm |
April 1 | Closed |
Regular hours resume April 2.
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By elimwong on March 19, 2024
LAW LIBRARY level 3: HV6535.C32 N647 2023
J. Michael MacDonald, Leanne J. Fitch & Kim Stanton, Turning the Tide Together: The Final Report of the Mass Casualty Commission (Halifax: Joint Federal/Provincial Commission into the April 2020 Nova Scotia Mass Casualty, 2023).
Online access: https://masscasualtycommission.ca/final-report/
LAW LIBRARY level 3:K1094.3 .W66 2019
Philip R. Wood, International Loans, Bonds, Guarantees and Legal Opinions, 3rd ed. (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2019).
LAW LIBRARY reference room (level 2): KD432 .I58 2012
Simon Halliday, An Introduction to the Study of Law (Edinburgh: W. Green, 2012).
LAW LIBRARY reference room (level 2): KD680 .D5 2022
Lord Collins of Mapesbury & Jonathan Harris, Dicey, Morris and Collins on the Conflict of Laws, 16th ed. (London: Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters, 2022).
,
LAW LIBRARY level 3: KE3734 .F65 2023
Lorne Folick, Michael Libby & Paul Dawson, Liquor and Cannabis Liability Law in Canada, 2nd. (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2023).
LAW LIBRARY level 3: KE9335 .H37 2023
Robert S. Harrison & Richard B. Swan, Skillful Witness Examinations in Civil and Arbitration Cases: Discoveries, Directs and Cross-Examinations (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2023)
LAW LIBRARY level 3: KEO261.C65 A87 2023
Harvey M. Haber, Robert D. Malen, eds., Assignment, Subletting and Change of Control in a Commercial Lease: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Thomson Reuters Canada, 2023).
LAW LIBRARY level 3: KJE3387 .P46 2022
Frans Pennings, European Social Security Law, 7th ed. (Cambridge: Intersentia, 2022).
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By Jillian G. on March 19, 2024
It’s not every day that you hear of a librarian reuniting a composer with their long-lost work. Incredibly, this is exactly what happened when a paper score that needed some TLC was brought to UBC Music Librarian Kevin Madill late last year. I spoke with Kevin, who is the Music Librarian at UBC’s Music, Art & Architecture Library, to get the behind-the-scenes story of how Taiwanese composer Ya-Wen Lien was able to be reunited with a long-lost score through UBC Library, and how two of his scores were subsequently made available through UBC’s Open Collections.
In late 2023, a UBC percussion ensemble who were performing the piece Overture for Six Drummers by composer Ya-Wen Lien brought the score to Madill to be replaced due the paper having become creased and crumpled from repeated use. Unfortunately, there was no readily available information on the publisher of this score or where a new copy could be procured.
At this point, Madill turned to the Taiwanese Composer Database to investigate with hopes of simply contacting the composer, and determining the publisher information. Luckily, he was able to contact Lien, the composer of the piece, and spoke with him through a third party who translated their communication. This is when he learned that Lien himself was no longer in possession of the score as it had been lost over 20 years ago in a flood. Lien then asked Madill if UBC would be able to digitize the score and send him the scans.
Madill then got into contact with our very own Rob Stibravy, one of the Digital Projects Librarians here at the Digitization Centre! The score did not need any restoration or preservation intervention and Photoshop could be used to enhance the image and reduce any signs of wear and tear in order to make the piece easy for musicians to download and read. Ultimately, with some collaboration, the score was digitized and Lien was able to have possession of the score he thought was lost all those years ago.
As a gesture of thanks, Lien gave UBC permission to publish the score, along with another of his scores, Overture (2012), to UBC’s Open Collections. In order for any item to be made available through Open Collections there must either be express consent from the copyright holder, or the item must be within the public domain. In the case of Lien’s scores, the items could not have been legally uploaded as open access without express consent since they are not (and are nowhere near being) in the public domain. So, Lien’s permission was paramount to these scores now being available for download and able to be played and enjoyed by many.
Overture for Six Drummers is a full score, meaning that each line contains the music for a specific instrument. The piece was written to include snare drums, bongos/congas, tom-toms, timpani, wood drums, and a bass drum.
Overture (2012) is the additional Score that Lien provided permission for UBC to publish in Open Collections. This is also a full score, and includes music for eleven percussion instruments: tom tom, wood Block, bongos, conga, cowbell, timpani, Chinese cymbal, Chinese paidrum, Chinese yiun-gong and bass drum, and tambourine.
Libraries and archives are integral to the preservation of art, culture, history, and knowledge, and it is paramount that professional relationships be born of respect, collaboration, and care. Otherwise, beautiful stories such as this one would not be possible.
I would like to express my gratitude to Kevin Madill for taking the time to speak with me for this blog post.
Thank you for reading!
Posted in Carousel, digitization project, Digitizers' Blog, open collections, scores, Special Projects | Read More | No Comments