Exploring the Vast Resources of the University of British Columbia Library
The University of British Columbia (UBC) Library stands as one of Canada's largest academic libraries, consistently earning its place among the top university research libraries in North America. With a comprehensive network of 14 branches and divisions spanning two campuses (Vancouver and Kelowna), an off-site hospital library, and the innovative Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, the UBC Library provides extensive resources and services to students, faculty, and the broader community. The Library's commitment extends beyond physical boundaries, fostering digital literacy and offering diverse workshops to enhance research and learning experiences.
Overview of UBC Library
The University of British Columbia Library system boasts an impressive collection of over 7 million items, providing a wealth of resources for academic pursuits. This vast collection includes 1.4 million e-books, 229,020 electronic journals, and 850,000 maps, audio, DVD/video, and graphic materials. Additionally, the library offers access to 1,703 bibliographic and full-text databases, ensuring researchers have access to a wide array of information. The UBC Library also functions as a depository library for publications from the governments of British Columbia, Canada, Japan, and the United Nations.
With a substantial budget of CAD 51.8 million for the Vancouver Campus in 2025, the UBC Library allocates resources strategically, with 41% dedicated to collections, 39% to salaries, 11% to other costs, and 9% to benefits. In 2025, UBC Library ranked 32nd among members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) for the number of physical volumes, solidifying its position as the third-largest Canadian academic library.
Branches and Divisions
The UBC Library system includes numerous branches and divisions, each catering to specific disciplines and research needs:
- Asian Library: Housing one of the largest research collections in Asian languages in North America, the Asian Library contains over 710,000 volumes in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Tibetan, Persian, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Urdu, and Indonesian. Special materials include Japanese government publications, research materials on Chinese Canadian settlement in British Columbia and the Pearl Delta Area, and Japanese Canadian studies collections. The Asian Library's rare book collection, stemming mainly from the Puban collection, ranks first in North America.
- Education Library: This library provides curriculum materials and other resources for education, including lesson plans geared for Elementary and Secondary schools, and children's books. The ERIC database is accessible through the Education Library, hosting citations, abstracts, and some full text for approximately 1,000 education-related journals, primarily from America, as well as ERIC Documents, including conference proceedings, curricula, research reports, and theses.
- Walter C. Koerner Library: Designed by Arthur Erickson, Koerner Library houses humanities and social sciences materials, government publications, journals and microforms, numeric data files, and the Map & Atlas Collection, and the UBC Research Commons. It is home to nearly 1.3 million items.
- Law Library: Contains Asia-related law materials.
- Irving K. Barber Learning Centre: This multi-purpose facility houses the Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) and University Archives divisions, as well as the Music, Art and Architecture Library.
- Okanagan Library: Serving the university's Okanagan campus in Kelowna, this library assumed responsibility for campus writing services in 2014 and launched a new Writing & Research Services unit.
- Woodward Library: The Woodward Library's collection supports learning and research in the Faculties of Applied Science, Dentistry, Forestry, Land & Food Systems, Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Science.
- X̱wi7x̱wa Library: One of the only Aboriginal branches of a university library in Canada, X̱wi7x̱wa Library houses a collection of 12,000 items relating to First Nations in British Columbia and Indigenous peoples worldwide.
Special Collections
UBC Library is home to several unique and significant special collections:
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- Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC): The RBSC houses rare books, archival materials, historical maps, photographs, broadsides, and pamphlets. The principal focus of the collections is British Columbia: history, exploration, settlement, business, politics, ethnicity, literature, culture, and labor. Manuscript collections include materials documenting the economic, political, cultural, labor, literary, and artistic history of British Columbia. Holdings of cartographic archives and historical maps are especially strong in pre-1800 world/hemispheres, pre-1900 North America and Pacific Rim, fire insurance plans of BC towns and cities, and Edo-period Japan. The RBSC reading room provides access to resources such as the Ubyssey student newspaper, The Totem student yearbook, and British Columbia directories dating from 1882 to 1994. The Chung Collection exhibition space is also located here.
- The Chung Collection: Containing more than 25,000 rare and one-of-a-kind items, this collection relates to the discovery of BC, the development of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Chinese immigration to Canada.
- Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs: This collection comprises more than 18,000 rare and unique early photographs of British Columbia.
- H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection: The largest collection of its kind in Canada, it includes more than 130 items documenting the work and life of Igor Stravinsky.
- Douglas Coupland Collection: The library holds the archives of Canadian author and artist Douglas Coupland.
- Puban Collection: Formerly owned by Yao Junshi of Macao, this collection contains some 3,200 Chinese titles in about 45,000 volumes in thread-stitched binding.
Access and Services
UBC Library offers a range of services to support users:
- Community Borrower Card: Guests not affiliated with UBC can obtain a "Community Borrower" card for borrowing and Interlibrary Loan (ILL) privileges.
- Photocopying and Printing: Self-service photocopying and printing are available using a UBC Guest Card.
- Online Resources: Regent students have borrowing privileges throughout the University of British Columbia's library network and beyond, with their UBCcard serving as their library card. Online library access is updated each term, requiring users to be registered for courses to maintain access.
- Workshops: UBC Library provides various workshops to enhance digital literacy and research skills, including topics such as AI for coding, data manipulation with dplyr, data visualization with Tableau, GIS and mapping, StoryMaps with ArcGIS Online, and thematic mapping with QGIS.
Library Preservation and Archives (PARC)
In October 2015, UBC Library opened Library Preservation and Archives (PARC), a modular storage facility designed for the future growth of library collections. Located at UBC Vancouver's South Campus, PARC provides 2,280 square metres of high-density collection storage.
Digital Initiatives
UBC Library is committed to enhancing access to historical resources through digitization projects. The Digitized Okanagan History project, a partnership with local museums and archives throughout the Okanagan region, exemplifies this commitment.
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