Library news

“I lived in the library during my geography degree at UVic,” says Michael Dunn (BA ’74), the libraries’ nomination for a 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award. On April 13, the UVic Alumni Association celebrated the remarkable accomplishments of 16 graduates across three categories: the President’s Alumni Award, the Emerging Alumni Award, and the Indigenous Community Alumni Award. Michael was honoured as a Presidents' Alumni Award winner for his long commitment to environmental stewardship.

Read about a day in the life of Indigenous Initiatives Law Librarian Jessie Lampreau: "I have enjoyed learning about the different services that the library has to offer, and learning about different initiatives that my colleagues are involved in. I also really enjoy meeting with students and hearing about the projects they are working on, and sharing information about resources and services that will support them."

UVic Libraries is pleased to announce the availability of a new digital collection, Victoria Feminist Newsletters, via our digital asset management platform, Vault. As with our previous collections of digital primary sources, the creation of this new resource was a team effort with libraries personnel from the Digitization Centre, Metadata Unit, and Special Collections & University Archives.

As part of the renovation of the first floor of the Mearns - McPherson Library, we have installed four Tek Booths. Tek Booths are private, enclosed booths perfect for Zooming into classes or focusing on solo work. They provide power, wireless Internet, and an ergonomic work surface. Four booths will be installed around the main floor of the library, available for booking through our existing room booking system. Look for our new Tek Booths in late March, and for an opportunity to give us feedback about them soon after that!

With generous funding from the British Columbia Historical Digitization Program from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC, Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce the availability of the Alan Hodgson architectural plans and drawings collection, via UVic Libraries’ digital asset management platform, Vault.

In the summer of 2022, Coast Capital Innovation Centre (CCIC) opened their doors to walk-in traffic at their new location in the Mearns Centre for Learning – McPherson Library. An on-campus venture incubator, CCIC helps entrepreneurs – students, faculty and alumni – get the support and mentorship they seek to take their next idea from conception to execution.

Learn how to use generative A.I. tools like ChatGPT, Bing Search, DALL-E 2, and others in academic settings ethically and in accordance with standards of academic integrity, and how to reference content created by them or with their assistance.

"Since becoming a librarian at the University of Victoria, I’ve also come to appreciate the diversity of roles that academic librarians can play in facilitating research. Not only do librarians support students and faculty through teaching and research consultations, but we also ask interesting research questions and engage in scholarship ourselves. To that end, I have found academic librarianship to be a dynamic and varied profession, and I am so glad to have landed here."

"If I were to describe the work culture of the academic library in one word, I would say that it’s “inspirational.” I left this experience feeling inspired to learn, inspired to be my best self, and inspired to be an active community member. Working at the library this past semester has been the biggest influence on my learning and development, and I realized that my external environment has a huge impact on my motivation, curiosity, and creativity."

"My educational and professional career is very typical of an East German of my generation, full of turns and detours, but this circumstance has also granted me many insights and experiences that I would not have gained otherwise, and I am very glad that my path eventually led me here, to the place that is now known as Victoria."

"Prior to arriving at UVic Libraries I worked as a research and learning librarian at the University of Calgary, initially as a joint business and medical librarian, and eventually shifting over to solely support the undergraduate business programs. It is here that I learned and obtained extensive experience supporting evidence synthesis in a variety of disciplines."

We were saddened in the Libraries by the recent passing of David Harris Flaherty, a cherished friend, donor, and sponsor of the David Harris Flaherty Undergraduate Student Library Scholarship, an annual student award at UVic Libraries that recognizes student academic excellence using library resources.

The Historic Computing Lab supports a range of UVic initiatives, including data recovery from obsolete computer media in the University Archives, research and instruction in the Digital Humanities, and an ongoing project to restore a lost school of Canadian digital art. It’s an impressive collection, thanks in part to Rob Ferguson’s generous donation of historic computing equipment.

This year UVic recognized and thanked 130 colleagues who have dedicated a cumulative of 3,895 years of service to the university.

This fall, UVic’s community will have the opportunity to participate in an innovative student-led “Living with Climate Change” project culminating during the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 27. The intention of this project is to help address climate anxiety and inspire constructive local action.

Starting this fall, getting expert research help is even easier. Now students and other researchers can book a research help appointment with a librarian on the UVic Libraries website, and meet either in person or on Zoom.

Sonja Pinto was part of the first cohort of student fellows in the Peter and Ana Lowens University of Victoria Libraries Special Collections Student Fellowship Program at UVic Libraries: "Though I had worked with some of the library’s collections and archives in past research projects, I had never worked on a project where I could direct its scope, topic, and output with complete control—even my master’s thesis had recommended word counts and other necessary guidelines to follow! The creative freedom and lack of direct examples on which to base my work in the Lowens-Libraries Fellowship presented me with an unusual and exhilarating chance to form a project from scratch and to challenge myself to apply my years of study in English Literature classrooms to a new context."

UVic Libraries is proud to announce a new award unique to UVic Libraries: The University of Victoria Libraries Honorary Librarian and Archivist Award. The inaugural recipient is Shelagh Rogers, the celebrated veteran broadcast-journalist and Chancellor Emerita of UVic.

Professors Lisa Surridge and Mary Elizabeth Leighton from UVic’s English Department have recently published a new book, titled The Plot Thickens: Illustrated Victorian Serial Fiction from Dickens to Du Maurier based in part on material from UVic Libraries’ Special Collections & University Archives.

Professor Tom Gleeson of UVic Engineering is a global expert on hydrology and groundwater sustainability. He has worked with UVic librarians to create data management plans to ensure that data sets produced by his research projects are open, accessible, and reusable by other researchers, now and in the future.