Extra! Extra!
126 years of BC Newspaper History Now Available Across the Yukon and BC
BC ELN is proud to announce that every BC and Yukon resident now has online access to 126 years of B.C.’s oldest and most respected newspapers: the Vancouver Sun (1912-2010), the Times-Colonist (1884-2010) and The Province (1894-2010). Users have access to nearly 5 million digitized pages – a remarkable trove of content for school assignments, teaching, research, local history, family research and more. This was made possible by the library members of BC ELN, the BC Libraries Cooperative, and Focused Education Resources working with ProQuest, now part of Clarivate. The collection has been opened up to BC and the Yukon via Geo-IP authentication.
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Established in 1884, the Victoria Daily Times was the first perm-anently established newspaper in British Columbia. In 1980 The Victoria Daily Times merged with the British Colonist to become the Times-Colonist.
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Established in 1894 as a literary weekly, The Province is regarded for its early coverage of fishing, forestry and farming trades, as well is for chronicling how the growth of immigration helped shape Vancouver.
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Established in 1912 down the street from its rival, The Province, the Vancouver Sun established itself as a working person's news-paper known for award-winning political cartoons by Len Norris and Roy Peterson.
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Join an upcoming training session:
Thursday, May 5, 2022 @ 11:00am Pacific Time
This 45-minute training session will focus on the Historical Newspapers of British Columbia for academic libraries and demonstrate how to:
- Navigate the platform
- Implement full-text search tricks in place of common ProQuest Platform filters
- Create custom links to search multiple databases
- Share content that might be useful to your community
There will be time for Q&A. To learn more about ProQuest Historical Newspapers, visit the LibGuide.
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Innovation & Success 2021 Report |
BC ELN's 2021 Annual Report has been released, documenting an incredible year of achievement despite continuous disruptions from COVID-19. As in-person services periodically shifted to online, AskAway and WriteAway reached new service heights in order to meet increased student demand. Illume resource sharing streamlined interlibrary loan workflows for over 100 participating libraries, and BC ELN celebrated new partnerships with DataBC and the Indigitization Program, and began developing a new Strategic Plan that will guide development for the next five years.
Read the full report here.
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BC ELN would like to welcome our newest associate member,
Coquitlam College!
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Coquitlam College, with a 40-year track record in academic excellence, is thrilled to join BC ELN as its latest associate member library as of April 2022. The college library is determined to provide enhanced learning and research opportunities for its students and staff through this partnership. At Coquitlam College, the ‘student’ is our primary concern, and therefore we are confident that our association with BC ELN proves our dedication to providing "excellent educational opportunities within an atmosphere of scholarly integrity, cultural sensitivity, and community engagement" to students of all nations, in keeping with our mission statement. Looking forward to an enriching, mutually beneficial partnership!
-Billy Augustine, Librarian, Coquitlam College
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The BC ELN Office regularly welcomes students from the UBC iSchool and Langara College's Library & Information Technology Program to work with us as professional development or co-op student librarians. This issue features student librarian, Sasha Gaylie. |
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Sasha Gaylie (UBC iSchool)
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What are you working on at BC ELN?
I am very grateful to have been able to contribute to a wide range of projects in the short time I've been with BC ELN. In addition to assisting with licensing renewals and staffing AskAway, I am part of the team behind the British Columbia History Digitization Program Support Service that BC ELN offers. My contributions include documentation on best practices in digitizing audiovisual resources, reviews of draft grant applications, and exploratory reports on inclusive description and access for digital collections.
How has your time at BC ELN helped to inform your career aspirations?
Since starting the MLIS program, I've been drawn to work around metadata, digital repositories and collections, and inclusive access. BC ELN has provided a wonderful opportunity to explore Islandora, an open-source repository system that was new to me, and how it can be configured to support academic institutional partners and GLAM sites alike.
What is one surprising thing you have learned about consortial librarianship?
I was very surprised by the range of services library consortia can provide! Prior to this experience, my knowledge of consortial activity was limited to the licensing of eResources. From virtual reference services to interlibrary loans to open repositories, each new day at BC ELN has presented an exciting learning opportunity in a new service area.
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Tell us something interesting about yourself...
I recently had the pleasure of building a virtual exhibit called "I Know We'll Meet Again: Correspondence and the Forced Dispersal of Japanese Canadians", which showcases letters from the Joan Gillis fonds at UBC Library's Rare Books and Special Collections. These letters were written by displaced Japanese Canadian youth, detailing their deep homesickness, their resilience in their present conditions, and their imaginations for the future. To provide visitors with new avenues for exploring the collection, my colleague Mya Ballin and I combined a digital exhibitions tool, CollectionBuilder, with a visualization tool normally reserved for oral histories. You can explore the exhibit at https://ubc-library-rbsc.github.io/gillis-2021/
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Farewell, Jane!
Everyone at the BC ELN Office would like to wish a warm farewell to Jane who has been working as a co-op librarian for the last 8-months. Among Jane’s many contributions, she created the Local Contexts TK Labels and Notice Guide for BCHDP administrators, serialized materials from the UBC Xwi7xwa Library for BCHDP, created a Digital Preservation Alternatives document that offers low-cost preservation strategies for smaller GLAM organizations, and worked on countless e-resource renewals. We are sad to see her go. Good luck, Jane!
"I am immensely thankful for the time I've spent at BC ELN/eHLbc, not only for the incredible learning experiences but also the loveliest of colleagues."
-Jane Jun, Co-op Student Librarian, BC ELN
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Are you an MLIS or Library Technician Program student in B.C.? Interested in learning more about BC ELN and future opportunities for students? We'd love to hear from you! Email Sunni Nishimura, BC ELN Manager at sunnin@bceln.ca.
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Working in partnership with Local Contexts, Arca has launched the Traditional Knowledge (TK) Labels module, which displays customized badges on objects within Arca that belong to projects with Indigenous community connections. Inspired by Creative Commons attributions, TK Labels are an informational strategy to help users of cultural heritage understand its significance and to promote new standards of respect by embedding Indigenous rules and protocols within digital systems. See TK labels in context on the Stó:lō-Coast Salish Community website.
The Arca Admin Centre has launched a major assessment project which includes a thorough analysis of collections, metadata, and projection of Arca’s future needs that will set the stage for migration to Islandora 2.0.
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The first year of the BC ELN-BCHDP Support Service offered vital support to prospective BC History Digitization Program (BCHDP) grant applicants seeking to bring their unique collections online. This 3-year pilot program provides small GLAM sector organizations with a range of support services to help them prepare and apply for BCHDP grant funding.
In 2021/2022, the BC ELN-BCHDP Support Service assisted 24 organizations, providing grant writing assistance, copyright advising, and facilitating relationships with digitization partners. Out of nine organizations that met eligibility requirements and applied for BCDHP funding, eight celebrated successful grant applications!
The BC ELN Office has released the 2021 Arca Partnerships Impact Report which details all the achievements of the BCHDP-Arca Hosting Service, and illustrates just how the BC ELN-BCHDP Support Service works. Interested to know more? Read the report right here.
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After investigating new licensing management solutions, BC ELN and sister consortium eHLbc are excited to move forward with Consortia Manager, an innovative workflow tool designed specifically for consortia that will take our licensing management to the next level. BC ELN is currently importing data and setting up Consortia Manager accounts for partner libraries. Watch for training announcements in the future.
In January 2022, BC ELN offered a new opt-in license for BC ELN libraries: MLA Handbook Plus, a subscription-based digital product that provides online access to the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.
BC ELN worked with EBSCO to bring the Communication and Mass Media Complete pricing model in-line with BC ELN’s standard pricing model which ensures equity and consistency in tier pricing for our institutions.
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A new “Evenings and Weekends Short-staffed” button has been launched so that evening and weekend service providers can easily send a message to the list if a service provider is missing. Now, with two clicks, staff can send an automated message to the list to request help. More information in this blog post: https://askaway.org/blog/new-tool-evening-and-weekend-providers
AskAway service providers can now find the answers to frequently asked questions in one convenient place: the Service Provider FAQs site. To learn more about what’s included, how to search and browse, and more, see the latest AskAway blog post: New and Improved FAQs.
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Recently the Support Centre worked with both post-secondary libraries and InterLINK public libraries to develop and publish ILL policy pages with the aim to expand to all public library participants. Once fully implemented, the Illume website will host a comprehensive directory that allows ILL staff to quickly and easily find policy information on member libraries such as which libraries lend a particular type of media (eg. DVDs).
The Support Centre has also recently added three post-secondary Relais libraries as new ISO-targets, conveniently bringing them under the Illume umbrella. This integration of diverse ILL software ultimately streamlines requests for staff & patrons by promoting interoperability between Illume partners.
In support of eliminating ILL fees, the Illume Support Centre has launched the Best Practices for ISO-Target Libraries which offers insight on improving workflow efficiencies that allow the system to equitably load-balance requests across the BC ELN resource sharing system.
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The January-April 2022 semester saw a 10% increase in student submissions over the same semester pre-pandemic. This includes a noticeable increase in students returning to the service with 2nd and 3rd draft submissions. Students are seeing WriteAway’s value and incorporating the service into their regular writing practice.
The WriteAway Admin Centre continues to use strategic scheduling to create consistency in response times during peak periods of increased student need.
Responding to feedback from WriteAway coordinators, WriteAway training has been improved. By breaking up rather long modules into smaller, more focused sections and revitalizing online resources, training delivery is clearer, more efficient and manageable.
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