Library news

In February 2024, the Diana M. Priestly Law Library unveiled a new display that showcases the background, history, and accomplishments of the Raging Grannies nationwide and includes artifacts from the University of Victoria’s Special Collections & University Archives.

My work involves talking to publishers about our renewals, making sure we receive and pay our invoices, ensuring that you're able to find and access electronic resources in our collections, and perhaps most importantly, making decisions to ensure the library collections have what they need to best support UVic's many academic programs.

One of the benefits of this position was how it allowed me to learn about so many facets of the library, from Special Collections to the Centre for Academic Communication to the Digital Scholarship Commons and everything in between. I’ve made so many connections across departments, and the staff at the Libraries have made every day a joy. I feel so fortunate for this opportunity and for all the wonderful people I’ve met along the way.

No two days are ever the same. Most days involve helping students – answering questions over email or having appointments and drop-ins. Depending on the day, I will work on answering questions over email and preparing for student appointments.

My job is to make sense of all of the interconnections between those different platforms and resources and help shepherd us towards a consistent and comprehensible web presence that helps students and other library users find what they’re looking for easily and efficiently.

With In the With Out is an art exhibition by BIPOC artists that examines how aspects of their personhood interact with the larger world.

Using her meditative practice as a base from which to frame this exhibit, Gammon guides us behind-the-scenes to that space between the walls, in the collections' vaults, where women's artworks endure. Captured by partially blurred and obscured black and white photographs, Gammon's self-portraits encourage us to not only consider the passage of time and space, but both the presence and absence of women artists in archives and art historical collections.

The Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES map, the first produced haptic map prototype, was co-created by UVic student Kim Shortreed and W̱SÁNEĆ/Lekwungen artist TEMOSEṈ Chazz Elliott for Shortreed’s PhD project, "Contracolonial Practices in Salish Sea Namescapes."

Learn about waste challenges, management, solutions and the work of informal waste workers with workshops and an exhibit.

The newly established teaching space provides hands-on, dynamic learning opportunities with contemporary and historical book arts equipment, and information technologies more broadly.

Join UVic Libraries for a free, drop-in event on February 14, 2024 and make a Valentine's card for your crush!

The University of Victoria Libraries student podcast award is intended to recognize and celebrate the high-quality work being created by UVic students in the world of podcasting. The contest is meant to highlight and demonstrate the ways students are living UVic’s values of “engaged learning and real-life involvement to contribute to a better future for people and the planet.”

The University of Victoria Libraries is proud to be an essential and integral part of the research life cycle at UVic. Our awards and fellowships recognize and honor the contributions and achievements of all our students, enhancing the sense of personal growth and accomplishment in our academic community.

The Oluna Ceska and Adolf Ceska Collection is comprised of botanical illustrations and scientific illustrations by Oldriska (Oluna) Ceska (1938-2022).

As for a typical day, one of my favourite things about being a librarian is that it’s rare for a day to be ‘typical.’ The variety of projects and responsibilities was one of the selling points for me in working in libraries. Since arriving at UVic, I’ve been into everything from participating in Thunderfest, teaching first-year classes, planning events, and supporting projects that have us engaging directly with students.

In September 2019, former Dean of Law Susan Breau announced a donation to the law school and the law library by Dr Joyce Clearihue in the amount of $434,000 to assist in establishing the Indigenous law collection.

The capstone of the Landscapes of Injustice project’s seven year multi-institutional, community engaged research, Broken Promises puts names and faces to a dark chapter of Canadian history. It is a reminder of the power of racism, the many Canadians who were complicit in this injustice, and the legacies of dispossession that persist to this day. The exhibit is open to the public, and free to visit.

Once thought to have been lost forever, these early examples of networked, interactive digital art and the computing hardware and software required to view them, were painstakingly restored by University of Victoria Librarian John Durno over a period of several years.

Salvage is a collection of driftwood books salvaged from the beaches of Vancouver Island and the Cascadia bioregion of the Pacific Northwest. Collected over a ten-year period, they have not been altered in any way, and suggest through their height, weight, width, depth and shape the conceptual idea and physical embodiment of the codex.

This repatriation project was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant held by the MRSGI membership, Dr. Andrea Walsh (Anthropology), and Ms. Lorilee Wastasecoot (Indigenous Curator of Collections and Engagement, Legacy Art Galleries). Repatriation work was carried out in collaboration with Maureen Matthews at the Museum of Manitoba. Funding for the production of the banners was received through Canadian Heritage.