The British Columbia Digital Library

Digital Content in British Columbia's Cultural Institutions

The focus of this set of links is on collections of electronic texts (not individual titles) preserved through libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and corporate or private initiatives. Listings here are therefore primarily for the written word as expressed in manuscripts, books and periodicals, including newspapers. Non-book digital library collections may also be included. Readers wishing further leads to non-book digital content should also consult one of the directories or guides.

Unless indicated, access to these Web sites is free and open to the general public.

See also Digital Collections by Subject for digital publications that form part of a larger Web site.

Academic/School

• Malaspina University-College, Centre for Digital Humanities Innovation. A digital production unit for humanities computing projects and research into the effectiveness of computer-based teaching resources in the humanities. The CDHI also works in partnership on other projects with the University of Victoria's Humanities Computing and Media Centre. Date accessed: 2005-06-18. Date added: 2005-06-18.
• Malaspina University-College, History Department, The Canadian Letters and Images Project: An Online Project to Preserve Canada's Wartime Experience Through Letters and Images. Transcriptions and digital facsimiles of letters, along with photographs, relating to Canadians in various wars.
• Malaspina University-College, History Department, The Homeroom: British Columbia's History of Education Website. Provincial statutes and other publications pertaining to education are available through the Topics section. Date accessed: 2002-02-09. Date updated: 2002-02-09.
• Simon Fraser University, School of Computing Science, Internet Electronic Library Project at SFU. The project is a collection of papers on the management of electronic serials by Professor Robert D. Cameron who is also system architect of the Bibliographic Protocol (BibP) and Universal Serial Item Name (USIN) project at USIN.org. Follow the USIN.org link for further information on this important project to achieve persistent reference linking on the basis of existing standard numbers and the Internet Domain Name System.
• Simon Fraser University Library Electronic Document Centre (EDC). Among its British Columbia-content projects are The Doukhobor Collection, 1898-1930 Len Norris Collection, and Multicultural Canada, a joint project with the University of Calgary. See also Digital Collections by Subject for non-BC content.
• University of British Columbia, Center for the Study of Historical Consciousness. Directed by Peter Seixas. Officially opened November 1-2, 2002, this research centre facilitates the scholarly study of the understanding and teaching of history. Site includes a searchable bibliography of full-text conference papers in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The Web site was developed as a prototype under the Public Knowledge Project. Date added: 2002-01-29. Date updated 2002-11-06.
• University of British Columbia Library provides access to electronic journals, monographs and other online publicatiions available to the general public via the Internet/Web. Most of the Ejournals collection, however, is restricted to faculty, staff, students or on-site library users. See also UBC Library Digital Collections and Services. Date updated: 2007-12-30.
• University of British Columbia Library, British Columbia Reports. A digitization project with the British Columbia Courthouse Library Society to provide   online access to this serial published between 1884 and 1948. Date accessed: 2006-01-27. Date added: 2006-01-27.
• University of British Columbia Library, Digital Collections and Services. This site " provides an overview of the various digital collections created and maintained by the University of British Columbia Library. They have been roughly grouped into four categories: Digital Collections, Digitized Publications and Documents, Faculty and Student Research Projects, and Websites." See also Digital Collections by Subject. Date added: 2003-01-03. Date updated: 2007-12-30. University of British Columbia Library, Electronic Text Service. The texts are available as a single compressed downloadable file. Date updated: 2005-06-18.
• University of British Columbia Library, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Date accessed: 2003-01-19. Date added: 2003-01-19.
• University of British Columbia Library, Music Library, British Columbia Sheet Music. Multimedia site documenting over 100 examples of sheet music about or published in BC. Contains digital facsimles of the sheet music and audio files, along with detailed catalog records. Date accessed: 2004-05-20. Date added: 2004-05-20.
• University of Victoria, British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies (BCICS). In addition to researching and promoting the co-operative movement, the BCICS maintains a library of publications, chiefly in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format files,  about co-operatives. The BCICS also  acts as an international registry for co-operative publications. Date accessed: 2002-04-11. Date added: 2002-04-11.
• University of Victoria, The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 1846-1871. Summary: " This digital archive contains the original correspondence between the British Colonial Office and the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. This project aims to digitize and publish online a complete archive of the correspondence covering the period from 1846 leading to the founding of Vancouver Island in 1849, the founding of British Columbia in 1858, the annexation of Vancouver Island by British Columbia in 1866, and up to the incorporation of B.C. into the Canadian Federation in 1871. All the material on this site originates in the work of Dr. James Hendrickson and his team of collaborators at the University of Victoria, which resulted in the publication of 28 print volumes of correspondence several years ago." The site was officially launched on November 3, 2008. Date accessed: 2008-04-05. Date added: 2008-04-05. Date updated: 2008-11-04.
• University of Victoria, Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory. Opened in the spring/summer 2005 and directed by Dr Raymond (Ray) Siemens. the ETCL is both a research and a digitization facility located in the Humanities Computing and Media Centre. Date accessed: 2007-08-03. Date added: 2007-08-03.
• University of Victoria, Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Multimedia production facility with links to digital content projects for which the centre provided development assistance, such as Beginning Salish (Linguistics Department), Who Killed William Robinson? (History Department), and Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History (History Department). Includes a set of links relating to humanities studies. Date updated: 2005-06-18.
• University of Victoria, McPherson Library, Special Collections. Digital text presentations include the Victoria's Early History Collection, the British Colonist newspaper, the diary of Robert Graves a facsimile of the John Lydgate 15th century manuscript Fall of Princes, along with an XML transcript a 13th century manuscript, De Proprietatibus Rerum, by Bartholomeus Anglicus, and the 16th century book Sancti Epiphanii ad Physiologum. Date added: 2001-12-04. Date updated: 2008-04-19.
• University of Victoria, TAPoR@UVic. Hosted by the University of Alberta and based at McMaster University, the University of Victoria in association with Malaspina University College are the two British Columbia participants in this project.  The TAPoR Web Portal is the central node for all the partner institutions. Other information on TAPoR can be found through the TAPoR Canada site. Date accessed: 2002-04-12. Date added: 2002-04-12. Date updated: 2008-04-05.

Corporate/Private

• Bowen Island GeoLibrary. Bowen Island, BC: Bowen Island Forest & Water Management Society. The society,  established  in  1992, created both a CD-ROM and a Web site consisting of digitized and digital maps, images, and docouments that assist in understanding the Bowen Island human and natural communities. Date accessed: 2004-09-16. Date added: 2004-09-16.
• FirstVoices Aboriginal Language Resource (First Peoples' Cultural Foundation, Victoria) is a Web-based language training tool featured multimedia content contained within phrasebooks for various languages. Date accessed: 2002-05-15. Date added: 2002-05-15.
• The Great Canadian Tunebook (Compiled by Barry Taylor, Victoria, BC). Transcripts of lyrics to public domain Canadian folk songs. The MIDI sequences, which can be downloaded, are copyrighted by Barry Taylor. Date updated: 2004-04-20.
• Johnston, Ian C. johnstonia (Hosted by Liberal Studies Department, Malaspina University-College). This retired instructor's site includes an original collection of public domain electronic texts in HTML format of various works (fiction and non-fiction) in English and other languages. Several of the works pertain to the history of science. Date updated: 2005-06-18.
• Malaspina Great Books (Created and maintained by Russell McNeil, Liberal Studies Department, Malaspina University-College). Established on December 12, 1995, this site contains an interactive database to over 1,000 works. Designed for library and Web research, this unique site includes a site-search and an external search engine for more ambitious users. A hyperlink guide to the authors represented in the database is organized by time period and thematic categories.
• Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (Vancouver). Among its digitization projects is the four-volume report of the McKenna-McBride Royal Commission on Indian Affairs. Some of UBCIC's own publications, such as Researching the Indian Land Question in BC and Chief Kerry's Moose: A Guidebook to Land Use and Occupancy Mapping, Research Design, are also made available in Adobe PDF files.

Government

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (Ottawa, ON), PubliCentrale. Central database of all online and print publications issued by the department. Date added: 2005-06-19.
• BC Archives Amazing Time Machine. Victoria: BC Archives. Produced for Canada's Digital Collections (formerly Canada's SchoolNet Digital Collections), site includes a complete digital facsimile of artist Emily Carr's humourous tribute to one of her dogs, Studio Billie's Calendar a wide selection of World War One and Two posters   and digitized selections of motion pictures, as well as many digitized photographs and artwork preserved by the archives. Date accessed: 2002-02-09. Date added: 2002-02-09.
• BC Government Publications Index includes links to digital publications available through BC Government Web sites. Most electronic publications are Adobe PDF files.
• BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries InfoBasket contains various electronic documents and Internet resources relating to the agri-food industry in BC and elsewhere. Date accessed: 2004-04-21. Date added: 2004-04-21.
• BC Ministry of Energy and Mines Reports and Publications consists of all annual reports back to 1874 (Adobe PDF), three consolidated indexes to the annual reports for the years 1874 to 1964 (Adobe PDF), and many other reports in Adobe PDF on provincial geology, mineral and petroleum exploration, and mining activities. Date added: 2001-12-04.
• BC Ministry of Forests Library E-Publications includes a complete set of annual reports back to 1911 (Adobe PDF and HTML), along with annual reports for the Ministry of Environment, its predecessors and various agencies between 1914-2001, all five Royal Commissions on forest resources between 1909 and 1991 (Adobe PDF) and many other publications issued by this ministry. Date updated: 2005-06-18.
• City of Richmond Archives includes a digital facsimile edition of an unpublished history of Richmond and Adobe Acrobat PDF transcripts of letters written by W.H. Barker, General Manager, British Columbia Packers. Date update: 2007-10-18.
• CORDLink Digital Library (Geological Survey of Canada, Pacific Division BC Geological Survey and UBC Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences). Date updated: 2003-03-20.
• Fort Steele Heritage Town, Online Exhibits. One of the exhibits is the  Travel Diaries of R.V. Bing and consists of an illustrated HTML transcription of 1921 and 1923 narratives by a Saskatchewan-based land agent who traveled to British Columbia by automobile. Another exhibit that includes digitized text-based components is A Web of Understanding, based on the physical exhibit The Back Streets of Kootenay (2001). Date accessed: 2002-05-05. Date added: 2002-05-05. Date updated: 2007-11-03.
• Pacific Agri-food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Electronic Publications Index. Browse for publications relating to agricultural research performed by these  two British Columbia research centres operated by the Federal government. Date updated: 2005-06-19.
• Queen's Printer (Government of BC) hosts several sites which contain electronic texts, among which are the searchable and browsable Revised Statutes and Consolidated Regulations of British Columbia in HTML format. Date added: 2001-12-04.
• Royal British Columbia Museum. Several of its publications are available online in the Research section in HTML format and as Adobe PDF files.
• Strengthening the Communities: Public Libraries of British Columbia (Public Library Services Branch, BC Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services). This site hosts several BC-specific electronic publications and library-related Web resources, including the Electronic Law Library and the Virtual Reference Desk. Date updated: 2001-12-15.

Network/Consortia/Multijurisdiction Partnerships

• Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries (CIDL). Several BC libraries are members. Among the collaborative projects under discussion is Kaleidoscope on Canada: A National Multimedia Digital Library Project. A request to fund a  Canadian Digital Local History Site (CDLHS) under the Canadian Digital Cultural Content Initiative, Partnership Fund, administered by Heritage Canada was submitted on May 15, 2001. The Our Roots: Canada's Local History Online project resulted from this funding.  Links to various digital library resources, including an important bibliography on e-preservation and members' digital projects, are available. According to the May 2005 newsletter, CIDL is rebranding itself as Digital Canada numérique as part of a new vision to develop a comprehensive digital information infrastructure and preservation strategy. Date updated: 2005-06-19.
• The Georgia Basin Digital Library Project. Vancouver, BC: Georgia Basin Futures Project. A public/private sector partnership multimedia collaborative research and resource project centered on the Strait of Georgia (Georgia Basin), including Puget Sound. Additional information relating to the GBDLIB can be found on the Georgia Basin Futures Project site. Date accessed: 2002-12-18. Date added: 2002-12-18.
• Living Landscapes (Royal BC Museum and partners). Multimedia collaborative research and resource projects documenting aspects of the Thompson-Okanagan, the Columbia Basin, the Upper Fraser Basin, and Peace River-Northern Rockies. See also Digital Collections by Subject. Date updated: 2005-06-19.
• Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance. UBC Library is a member. The alliance is establishing a Pacific Exploration Archive from member libraries' collections.

Public

• New Westminster Public Library maintains a New Westminster Heritage Web Site with multimedia digital content.
• Vancouver Public Library, British Columbia City Directories, 1860-1901. A collection of digitized city directories covering BC, various individual BC cities and parts of the US Pacific Northwest. Date accessed: 2008-08-06. Date added: 008-08-06.
• The Virtual Reference Desk, " a collaborative project of British Columbia's public libraries" to classify (Dewey Decimal Classification System) and describe Internet/Web resources. The VRD is searchable and browsable.

BC Digital Content Facilitators

These are BC agencies or organizations which finance or otherwise facilitate the production of,  management  of or license existing and newly created digital content on behalf of BC's libraries and the general public under the Open Access model.   The  federal  government has a few programs which help finance the production of digital content.

See also Financing in the Digital Library Construction Tools section.

• BC Electronic Library Network (Hosted by Simon Fraser University). Date updated: 2004-05-26.
• Community-University Research Alliance (CURA). Helped fund digitization projects developed by arts and heritage organizations. Date updated: 2005-06-19.
• Public Knowledge Project. Founded in 1998 by University of British Columbia Professor John Willinsky, " The project seeks to integrate emerging standards for digital library access and document preservation, such as Open Archives and InterPARES, as well as for such areas as topic maps and doctoral dissertations." PKP has developed widely used software for the production of Open Access Journals (Open Journal Systems), for conference scheduling (Open Conference Systems) and for metadata harvesting (PKP Open Archives Harvester). Date added: 2002-01-29. Date updated: 2007-08-03.
• Public Library Services Branch, BC Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services. On June 16, 2005, responsibility for this branch was transferred to the Ministry of Education. Date updated: 2005-06-19.
• Synergies Network. An academic library consortium and Open Access distribution network that will make available scholarly research funded by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, along with Canadian humanities and social sciences research available through other sources. As of August 2, 2007 close to when it was founded, one of fhe five regional nodes is Simon Fraser University, and the University of British Columbia and University of Victoria are one of 16 affiliated universities. Date accessed: 2007-08-03. Date added: 2007-08-03.
• University of British Columbia, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, BC History Digitization Program. Program inaugurated in the fall 2006 the first grant year was 2007. Date added: 2006-11-15. Date updated: 2007-05-25.

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