UBC faculty, staff and students now have access to an extensive list of new digital archives, databases, ebooks, print resources and more through UBC Library, thanks to funding provided by the UBC President’s Academic Excellence Initiative (PAEI).
The PAEI was established to increase the complement of UBC’s research faculty and fund much needed academic support and infrastructure investments, including essential new library resources. In November 2022, UBC Library was granted $580k divided between both campuses, to add more than 80 new library resources to UBC Library’s collections as part of the PAEI’s 2022/23 budget.
Making a list and checking it twice
“This was an exciting opportunity to subscribe to a number of new resources that had been requested by faculty and students,” says Kristina McDavid, a librarian who works with the undergraduate medical program at UBC Vancouver.
Many of the acquisitions funded by the 2022/23 PAEI disbursement had been on library branch desiderata lists—lists of collection requests made by UBC faculty, staff and students—for years. But due to rising renewal costs and other budgetary pressures, the library had not been able to add these items to its collections until now.
McDavid says that in some cases, the PAEI funding made it possible to purchase ongoing access to e-resources that the library had previously been paying for with one-time funds, year after year. “This added level of [funding] stability is especially valuable for resources that are part of the curriculum in a program of study.”
In other cases, electronic versions of print resources were acquired by the library in order to expand online access. “Two of the new health sciences resources we subscribed to are built around key texts that are not otherwise available electronically,” says McDavid. “In the past, our only option for providing access [to library users] was print. As several of our health sciences programs are distributed throughout BC, it is essential to be able to offer learners robust and varied online collections, so they can access the information and tools they need from any location.”
Branches also worked together to purchase resources that would benefit library users at multiple branches, like the NAACP Papers digitized collection, which was purchased jointly by UBC Law Library and Koerner Library.
“We sought cost-sharing partnerships with other branches to purchase resources of mutual interest and to expand the impact of our PAEI purchases… Many of the PAEI choices will benefit users from across the entire library,” says Susan Paterson, Government Publications Librarian at Koerner Library. “As we couldn’t purchase everything on the desiderata list, selections were made thoughtfully and with the cooperation and involvement of the librarians.”
“[At UBC Okanagan Library], selections were made that would benefit different user groups across both UBC campuses,” says Arielle Lomness, Interim Associate Chief Librarian, Research and Collections at UBCO Library. “As with any amount of new funds, prioritization of needs is always difficult. We selected these as a means of meeting the timeliest needs of our users.”
Behind the scenes
“It was a huge project for us,” says Ellen George, Collections Services Librarian at UBC Library. “There was a really big team that worked on this for three to four months.”
Purchasing library materials—whether print or electronic resources—is a time-consuming process. “It’s not as straightforward as writing to the vendor and asking what it will cost,” says George, who notes that you also need to factor in licensing considerations, price negotiation, and library user access.
“Our main authentication tool is called OpenAthens. Essentially it does communication in the back end between UBC, Open Athens and the publisher,” says Ryan Regier, Collections Services Librarian at UBC Library, and previously the eResource & Access Library Specialist during this project.
OpenAthens, an identity-based authentication system, was implemented at UBC Library in 2021, to provide access to the Library’s licensed online resources using single sign-on (SSO) technology integrated with campus-wide login (CWL), both on and off-campus.
With existing UBC Library vendors, the authentication process for new resources is easy—it’s a little like flipping a switch to turn on library user access. “The challenge is that a lot of smaller publishers don’t have the ability, or the people, to get set up on OpenAthens,” says Regier, who worked with those publishers to find alternative methods and set up access.
“There’s a lot of things that happen behind the scenes to make those resources available to the [UBC community],” adds George.
Get in touch with your subject librarian to learn more about all the new materials now available at UBC Library.
New PAEI resources at the Library
Journals
- Selections from AIAA
- Annals of the American Thoracic Society
- ASHRAE Journal
- Biopreservation and biobanking
- BMJ journals Collection
- Chem Catalysis
- Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Diachronica Backfiles
- GEN Biotechnology
- Indian journal of agronomy
- International Journal of Comic Art
- International Journal of Corpus Linguistics Backfiles
- International Journal of Taiwan Studies
- Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Complete Package
- Journal of Digital Media Management
- Journal of endourology
- Journal of Epigraphic Studies
- Journal of women’s health
- Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology
- Various Nature Journals online
- New Soundtrack Archives
- PLoS
- Quantum Information & Computation
- SAGE journalsBackfiles
- Soft robotics
- Telemedicine and e-Health
- Translation and Literature
- Year’s work in English Studies
Ebooks and Ebook Packages
- ASCE Research Library
- Brill Encyclopedia of Buddhism
- de Gruyter ebook package
- Contribution towards the purchase of the de Gruyter University Press eBook Collections
- Selections from Elgar eBook Backfiles
- Encyclopedia of Jewish Christian RelationsOnline
- Iwanami Shoten eBook package
- Various Japanese eBooks
- Selections from Oxford Bibliographies Online
- Selections from Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Databases
- AccessPharmacy
- Acland’s Anatomy
- All4Maternity package
- Curio BBC
- Curio National Geographic
- History Vault NAACP Papers
- JAMAevidence
- JoVE Research
- Novelist
- PitchBook
- Policy Commons – North American City Reports
- SAE Standards Complete
- Scopus
Print Resources
- Various Persian print books
- World with ist inhabitants
Other
- Membership in the National Indigenous Knowledge and Language Alliance (NIKLA) Respectful Terminology Platform Project
- READ application
This project is part of UBC Library’s strategic direction to create and deliver responsive collections.
Learn more about our Strategic Framework.