Okanagan Special Collections releases Simpson Family Fonds online!

The Simpson Family fonds is the cornerstone of Okanagan Special Collections and is the first archival collection acquired by UBC Okanagan Library. Images in this collection provide a valuable window into an historical era of Okanagan industry. Okanagan Special Collections has now digitized 700+ historical photographs from this collection and made them publicly available through the British Columbia Regional Digitized History portal. Many of these images depict Kelowna in the mid-twentieth century and include many land- and city-scapes which have changed profoundly over the past few decades.

Explore the Simpson Family fonds

Title: S.M Simpson Ltd. Sawmill at Manhattan Beach, Kelowna North End
Description: Photo taken facing north. Showing log booms in Sutherland Bay and foothills of Knox mountain*

Title: Aerial view of Kelowna floating bridge
Description: Kelowna floating bridge adjacent to Kelowna City Park*

Title: Box factory, ca. 1943
Description: Factory workers on the assembly line at a box factory*

Title: S. M. Simpson, Ltd. Mill
Description: Verso of image reads: “S.M. Simpson Mill 1952″*

*Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from UBC Okanagan Library Special Collections and Archives

Project title: Open digital learning and assessment resource for Engineering Mechanics (Dynamics)
Project lead: Peyman Yousefi (UBCO Faculty, Engineering),
Project team: Ernest Goh (UBCO Faculty, Engineering), James Ropotar (UBCO Engineering student) and Akshat Poddar (UBCO Computer Science student); with support from: Firas Moosvi (UBCO Faculty, Computer Science) and Donna Langille (UBCO Librarian).

Background on the Open Educational Resource project.
The goal of this project is to develop a question bank that contains formula-driven questions, including random numerical values, for pre-, post-, and in-lecture activities. Using the open-source online platform, PrairieLearn, all UBC students will have access to these questions, which were previously only available to students with paid textbook access. In this manner, active learning is promoted and students are engaged in lectures and course materials. Instructors explain sample questions during lectures, and students follow along by solving the same questions with different numerical values. Additionally, instructors may use these materials without restriction by a limited access time and adapt or modify them for the courses with similar content.

There are three phases of this project: Phase (I) is the in-lecture activities; Phase (II) is the tutorials and assignments; and Phase (III) is the assessment and practice materials. The team is currently working on phase (I), which will be available for students in UBCO by January 2022. Students and faculty members of UBCO and UBCV, as well as all Canadian universities, will be able to use the learning materials.

Why choose Open?
In a learning environment, equity and inclusion should be prioritized to ensure that learners with different knowledge backgrounds and abilities can flourish. The affordability of commercial learning tools is a concern for students, especially international students. And so, Open Educational Resources (OER) and providing free materials to students are important steps on a path to improving equity and inclusion. The way UBC supports students around the world and provides resources that address these concerns, led Dr. Peyman Yousefi to embark on OER development. OERs are constantly growing and, in many cases, self-modifying over time, and the users (students) contribute to this growth by providing feedback and monitoring their course progress; therefore, OERs help promote more effective learning. Furthermore, active learning allows students to assess their own learning, and the results of their self-assessment practice can be useful in strengthening their understanding of course content.

Project Impact
Engineering Mechanics (Dynamics) is a core course taken by all engineering students in their first year of study. Practice resources developed through this project will be used in APSC 181 Dynamics, with about 400 enrolled students. By providing free access to the learning materials, students will be able to develop a deeper understanding of the course content. The course’s active learning strategy further enhances students’ understanding of engineering calculations.  In addition, students will have access to these online resources in the subsequent years of their studies, so they can refresh their knowledge on engineering. The proposed learning resources can be re-used or updated by a broader community of engineering and science educators, providing students with an alternative to expensive commercial resources.

Advice for those considering OERs
Involve students in the development of OER. The students can use the provided materials and provide feedback to assist their further refinement.

In general, the use of OERs is not limited to the course for which they were originally developed, but can be shared with educators building similar materials in courses that have similar content.

While this project is a small building block of OER, Dr. Peyman Yousefi encourages everyone to take steps to enhance learning environments to create a better experience for students and for the future community.

Explore more Spotlights

Orange Shirt Day is held annually on September 30 to honour, acknowledge, and remember those who have been affected by Residential Schools. Since campus is closed on September 30 and we cannot all be together, library employees will wear our orange shirts and pins on September 29 in recognition of Orange Shirt Day. 

Orange Shirt Day facilitates global conversation and meaningful discussion about the legacy and impacts of Residential Schools in Canada. We call upon our campus to listen with open ears to the stories of survivors and their families, and to remember those who are not with us today. 

We, as a library, wear our orange shirts and pins to signify that we stand in solidarity with survivors and those who have been affected by the harmful legacy of Residential Schools in Canada. We continue to create space amongst our team to learn and acknowledge the ongoing legacy and trauma of Residential Schools. 

Learn more about Orange Shirt Day. Explore the Okanagan Syilx Research Guide.  

What is the library doing beyond Orange Shirt Day?
The UBC Okanagan Library is committed to implementing the Indigenous Strategic Plan and assembled the Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP) Working Group in the winter of 2020. The ISP Working Group has been working to implement UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Plan and more largely the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The ISP Working Group is committed to the important and long-term work of reconciliation.

Learn more about the ISP Working Group. 

The Indigenous Knowledges and Open Education Symposium is part of Open Access Week. Learn about the intersections between Indigenous knowledges and Open Education (OE) at the Symposium on October 22. The goal is to centre Indigenous ways of knowing, cultures, experiences, and worldviews within OE advocacy work. Suitable for students of all levels, staff, faculty, and community members. Learn more and register: https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3623290

Are there any 2SLGBTQIA+ books, movies, shows, or other resources that you wish were available through the UBC Library? During Queer Orientation we are asking UBCO students, staff, and faculty to recommend their favourite 2SLGBTQIA+ literature, films, and more through our social media channels to help develop our collection. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and send us your recommendations in a comment, DM, or simply @UBCOLibrary. We’ll also be offering some of our favourites from our collection. #UBCOLibraryRecs

Reading Lists

UBCO Librarians have curated several reading lists. Check them out!

2SLGBTQIA+ Reading Lists & Resources

Looking for something that we don’t have in our collection? Let us know! We always accept recommendations. Email us: libquestions.ok@ubc.ca

Featured books: 

The Spectacular by Zoe Whittall

Borrow it:
UBC Library – On Order
Okanagan Regional Library – Print, eBook

Review: “Zoe Whittall has this incredible ability to go straight at the honest emotional heart of a story, and yet even with that ferocity, her writing is always graceful, a total joy to read. It makes it so easy to love her characters. In the best books characters feel like my friends, but with the mothers of The Spectacular, they came to feel like my family.”
– Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby

You Are Enough: Love poems for the end of the world by Smokii Sumac

Borrow it:
UBC Library – Print

Description: “In this moving collection, Sumac addresses the grief of being an Indigenous person in Canada, shares timely (and sometimes hilarious) musings on consent, sex, and gender, introduces readers to people and places he has loved and learned from, and through it all, helps us all come to know that we are enough, just as we are.

Winner of the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award in Published Poetry in English and short-listed for the 2020 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers.” (From Kegedonce Press​)

Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi 

Borrow it:
UBC Library – eBook
Okanagan Regional Library – print, eBook

Description: Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interconnected stories of three Nigerian women: Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. After more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward. (Edited from UBC Catalogue)

Review: In this remarkable debut novel, a family of Nigerian women attempt to carefully tiptoe around an unspeakable tragedy. Through masterfully crafted scenes full of sumptuous imagery, readers are moved, just as these characters are, by forces beyond their control, beyond their lifetimes.
-Catherine Hernandez, author of Scarborough

The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

Borrow it:
UBC Library – print
Okanagan Regional Library – print, eBook, Large Print, audiobook 

Description: A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. (UBC Catalogue)

Review: “I’ve loved the writing of Robert Jones, Jr., for years, and The Prophets is an absolute triumph, a symphonic evocation of the heights and depths of pain, joy, and love.”
–R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

Our Work is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer & Trans Resistance by Syan Rose

Borrow it:
UBC Library – eBook

Description: Our Work Is Everywhere is a graphic non-fiction book that underscores the brilliance and passion of queer and trans resistance. (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Review: “In this collection, Syan Rose has created full, lovely and sensitively drawn portraits of the humans who set the world aright.” -Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood, and Brothers of the Gun with Marwan Hisham

See recommendations from last year

Records Manager Michael Stewart will be leading a series of meetings aimed at sharing and discovering best-practices that support and encourage the records management activities performed in every faculty, school, unit, and department of the University.

Do you have questions surrounding the organization and retention of your files? Have you recently made records policy changes and discovered new ways of getting a handle on the growing digital record sprawl? Do you have an article, experience, or anecdote about records management and want a place to share? Then the UBCO Records Management Community of Practice is the place for you.

Interested in joining the conversation? Please use this registration form and a meeting invitation will be sent to you ASAP. The RM CoP will convene on the following dates in 2022: January 31, March 18, May 26, July 28, September 29, and November 24.

Contact Michael Stewart at m.stewart@ubc.ca with any questions or concerns.

Science Literacy Week: CLIMATE

Science Literacy Week is a national, weeklong initiative that aims to highlight the diversity of Canadian science. Each year libraries, museums, science centres, schools, and not-for-profits celebrate a certain aspect in science by featuring books, films, events, and workshops around a specific theme. This year, Science Literacy Week has partnered with Environment and Climate Change Canada to explore CLIMATE. 

Here in the Okanagan, where our summers are sometimes full of smoke from wildfires and the desert-like landscape often suffers from drought, climate is an extremely important and relevant aspect to our lives.

Okanagan-specific Books, Films, and Resources

How does climate and climate change affect us in the Okanagan? How can we make a difference? Check out the resources in this Okanagan-specific guide!

Climate & Climate Change in the Okanagan

Find more resources:

Climate Change  SLW at UBC

Book Displays & Activities

UBC Library has plenty of books, films, and other resources about Climate. Browse the books on display and check out the activities on the main floor of UBC Okanagan Library from September 20-26.

Here are some of our recommendations

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
Borrow it

The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

Borrow it

More Powerful Together: conversations with climate activists and Indigenous land defenders by Jen Gobby

Borrow it

Looking for a book or film about climate that we don’t have in our collections? Let us know!

Suggest a Book

Virtual Workshops

Getting started with Citizen Science: a survey of tools and projects

Civic Engagement in the Climate Emergency Workshop

There are many ways to become involved in politics, but it can be challenging to identify opportunities. This workshop examines civic engagement and provides a brief overview of opportunities to get involved, with a special focus on climate justice work in municipal governments in British Columbia.

Wednesday, September 22
Time: 10:00am – 11:30am

Learn more & register

Thinking through the crap: How to think critically about science in the media – Presented by The (Un)Scientific Method

This session will cover:

• Hands-on critical analysis of controversial science topics
• Discussing how our biases may influence the way we read science media
• Developing a strategy to critically evaluate science media

Thursday, September 23
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm

Learn more and Register

Find more UBC-wide Science Literacy Week events.

Local Events and Initiatives 

Waterways: Take a deep dive into the human relationship with water.
Kelowna Museum is featuring Waterways from September 18-January 29

Waterways

Climate Action: Learn how you can take action against climate change locally.

City of Kelowna Climate Action

This report makes projections on how the Okanagan is affected by climate change.

Okanagan Climate Projections

With campus resumption just around the corner, now is a great time to make sure your unit’s records are as organized as they can be. Following good records management practices and retention schedules ensures that your records will be findable, accessible, and able to meet your business needs. The Okanagan Records Management Office can offer vault space for your records boxes, and consultation services for the organization of your digital records. To learn more, contact Stephanie Plumb at stephanie.plumb@ubc.ca.

Project title: Introductory Thermodynamics: an open textbook for engineering undergraduate students
Project Lead:  Claire Yan (UBCO Faculty, Engineering)
Project team: Amaiya Khardenavis (UBCO MASc student) and with support from: Donna Langille (Librarian, UBCO), Erin Fields (Librarian, UBCV), Claire Swanson (Open Education, UBCV) and Kristen Morgen (CTL, UBCO)

Background on the Open Educational Resource (OER) project.
This project aims to create an open textbook on introductory engineering thermodynamics, which will be published on Pressbooks with Creative Commons license. Over the past few years, UBCO Engineering faculty member, Dr. Claire Yan, has developed learning modules while teaching thermodynamics. Building upon these learning modules, the proposed open textbook will be tailor-made to contain the most fundamental topics of classical thermodynamics suitable for an entry-level undergraduate course and revised to ensure all materials, including tables and graphs, have an open license. In addition, this project will create interactive H5P questions for each chapter of the open textbook intended for students to practice key concepts and perform self-assessment.

Why go Open?
Several years ago, Dr. Yan used an online homework system provided by a book publisher in one of her courses. Students were required to purchase the ebook and the associated code. From students’ feedback, she realized that more than half of the class felt that the ebook was too expensive for a single course. This incident gave her insight on students’ differing social-economic situations. From then on, Dr. Yan looked for ways to not only help students learn effectively, but to make learning materials more affordable. During her search, she came across BC Campus, open education, and Pressbooks. As this open textbook will be published on Pressbooks with a Creative Commons License, other authors and users can freely download the book and reuse or remix the content to suit their course or learning needs.

Project Impact for UBCO Students, Staff, and Faculty?
Thermodynamics is a fundamental subject in many engineering, physics and chemistry disciplines. The outcome of this project will be an open textbook with sufficient content coverage for an entry-level, three-credit, one-term engineering thermodynamics course. Upon its completion, the open textbook can be adopted in APSC 252 Thermodynamics, which typically has an enrolment of about 400. The open textbook created through this project can also be used by upper-year engineering students as a refresher.

This project will allow instructors to transition from commercial textbooks to OER. Being open sourced, the content of the proposed open textbook may be remixed, reused or updated by a broader teaching and learning community in engineering and sciences. The benefit to students is a more concise and freely-accessible alternative to expensive commercial textbooks, which will help reduce the financial stress to many students.

Advice from the team for those considering OERs
Searching for open repositories and Pressbooks formatting takes time. Thankfully, Donna (UBCO Library), Erin (UBC Library), Claire (Open Education), and Kristen (CTL) have supported me by providing necessary resources. More and more people, both instructors and students are joining the community. There are more resources and support than you may think. If you have an idea, make it happen!

Learn more about the Open Educational Resources Grant Program.

Explore other grant funded OER project spotlights: 

Context-Embedded Guided-Inquiry Learning Modules for Large Introductory Chemistry Courses

Introducing Ainu Content to Japanese Language Students

Fostering best practices in reproducible analyses