Library history

Learning, knowledge, research, insight: welcome to UBC Library, a leading institution in North America and a high-ranking member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The Library has 15 branches and divisions, including on- and off-campus locations and its Okanagan campus location.

In 2011-2012, UBC Library:

• Saw over 2.8 million visits to its branches and more than 5.5 million visits to the UBC Library website
• Answered over 140,000 questions answered at its service points, including almost 93,000 reference questions and almost 15,000 questions answered via virtual interactions (including AskAway chat service, email, telephone, and text message)
• Lent almost 28,000 items to other institutions through interlibrary loan, ranking it 5th in ILL lending among Canadian ARL institutions

UBC Library Collections include:

• Nearly 6.5 million volumes
• Nearly 1 million e-books
• More than 212,000 serial titles (print and electronic)
• More than 5.3 million microforms
• Nearly 878,000 maps, audio, video and graphic materials

And UBC Library has provided:

• More than 1.8 million loans to UBC student, faculty and community borrowers
• More than 11.6 million e-book and e-journal downloads

Actively partner with faculty in curriculum design, teaching critical thinking, digital literacy and information fluency

• Nearly 40,000 participants in more than 1,600 classes on topics including: information literacy, citation management, thesis formatting, copyright, social media, and using digital collections.

Provide new technologies to enhance student learning and productivity, wherever users are

• Access to variety of technologies including more than 630 computer workstations (including Macs and PCs), as well as laptops, camcorders, projectors, SMART boards, scanners, voice recorders, audio mixers, speakers, and more for students to borrow

Develop user-centered spaces and services to promote informal learning, study and reflection, collaboration and dialogue

• 27 student-bookable study rooms, each of which can accommodate 4 to 9 students and some of which are equipped with SMART boards and LCD monitors
• Over 1500 tutoring and coaching interactions at Chapman Learning Commons

Expand support for Aboriginal students and encourage all students to learn about Aboriginal issues and perspectives

• Home to Xwi7xwa Library, the only Aboriginal branch of a university library in Canada.

Increase the impact of UBC research by making it widely available in open access digital repositories

• cIRcle, UBC’s institutional repository, was recently ranked 32nd among institutional repositories around the world, and 2nd among Canadian institutional repositories.

Establish a research commons, including specialized services to enhance research productivity

• Over 1700 questions were answered at the Research Commons desk
• Research Commons staff delivered 24 workshops on bibliographic citation tools (Mendeley, Zotero, and RefWorks) (12 classes), interdisciplinary research exchange (2), thesis formatting (10) to over 200 (208) participants

(between September and December 2012

Implement a comprehensive digitization program to provide unlimited online access to materials of research and teaching value

• UBC Library has digitized more than 30,000 UBC theses as part of the Retrospective Theses and Dissertation project. When combined with the Electronic Theses and Dissertations program, UBC Library provides full-text access to almost 37,000 UBC theses.
• Since 2006, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre has provided support for 120 digitization projects as part of the BC History Digitization Program.

Actively support the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and all Library branches in their community engagement initiatives

• Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is a partner on the Indigitization project which provides a toolkit for “conservation and digitization of First Nations community information resources.”

Increase the Library’s global presence

• Effective 1 December 2012, UBC Library and Peking University Library have signed an agreement that “involves the exchange of staff and expertise related to cataloguing and conservation, especially for Asian materials.”

• Features the first automated storage and retrieval system in a Canadian library, with a capacity of more than one million volumes.
• Holds the first book published in B.C., a legal work that was the personal copy of David Cameron, the one-time Chief Justice of Vancouver Island.
• Has digitized more than 30,000 UBC theses as part of the Retrospective Theses and Dissertation project. When combined with the Electronic Theses and Dissertations program, UBC Library provides full-text access to almost 35,000 UBC theses.
• Holds the extensive archives of Douglas Coupland, one of Canada’s most renowned authors and an internationally recognized visual artist who popularized the term “Generation X.”
• Is home to Xwi7xwa Library, the only Aboriginal branch of a university library in Canada.
• Is home to the outstanding Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection, a designated national treasure.

For a complete listing of on- and off-campus Library branches and divisions, please visit the Hours and Locations page.