Math scholars anywhere in the world can now access the workshops and lectures of the renowned Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS), thanks in part to UBC Library’s information repository, cIRcle.
The BIRS lecture series produces 20 lectures per week for 48 weeks of the year, totaling approximately 1,000 files – all of which are freely available on the BIRS website. BIRS’ collaboration with cIRcle provides robust and long-term digital preservation for these videos, as well an enhanced accessibility for scholarly researchers worldwide through UBC’s online library service. Their digital archival system will guarantee the content is discoverable and indexed in popular search engines, thus helping to increase the global reputation of BIRS.
“BIRS is delighted to have its lecture recordings at UBC’s digital repository. The UBC Library has the resources and expertise for proper long-term archiving and preservation of BIRS’s extensive scholarly output, so this is a big win for the world’s mathematical science community!” remarked BIRS’ Director and UBC professor, Dr. Nassif Ghoussoub.
The end result is the first large scale project to digitally preserve and disseminate mathematical research output in video format. The BIRS videos launched in cIRcle this summer and has already experienced more than 11,000 downloads. New videos continue to be digitally preserved and uploaded.
“This partnership represents an exciting opportunity to develop the kind of unique collections in cIRcle which showcase UBC’s research strengths and global profile,” says Bronwen Sprout, Coordinator, Digital Initiatives for UBC Library. “In this instance, cIRcle is the destination for high quality mathematical peer reviewed research.”
To view the current inventory of BIRS videos in cIRcle, visit the BIRS community page.
About UBC’s cIRcle
cIRcle is UBC’s digital repository for research and teaching materials created by the University community and its partners. Materials in cIRcle are openly accessible to anyone on the web and are preserved for future generations.
About BIRS
BIRS is one of the most prominent mathematical research institutions in the world with strong associations to notable UBC mathematicians and its Board includes UBC President Arvind Gupta. Members of BIRS represent 400 institutions from more than 60 countries, creating a content-rich network for sharing research, knowledge and information.
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Cover image from Arifmetika by Leontiĭ F. Magnit︠s︡kiĭ (QA35 .M345 1703).