University of British Columbia Library

UBC Asian Centre, building for the Asian Library and Asian Studies faculty and staff

Since 1959, the Asian Library, located in the Asian Centre since 1981, houses one of the largest research collection in Asian languages in North America. Its holdings in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Tibetan, Persian, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Urdu and Indonesian exceed 710,000 volumes as of June 2020. As of April 2022, the library includes 203,000 Chinese language books and ebooks, 250,000 Japanese language books and ebooks, 42,000 Hindi language books and ebooks and 38,000 Korean language books and ebooks.

Subject material about Asia in English and other European languages, as well as Asian materials in non-Asian languages, are kept in Koerner Library and other branches. Asia-related law materials are located in the Law Library. Monographs in Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Rajasthani, Assamese, Nepali and Tibetan are shelved in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Special materials include Japanese government publications, research materials on Chinese Canadian settlement in British Columbia and the Pearl Delta Area as well as Japanese Canadian studies collections. The Asian Library's rare book collection, mainly from the Puban collection, ranks first in North America. The Chinese collection ranked third in North America in number of volumes at the time of publication of Endymion Wilkinson's Chinese History: A Manual in 2000.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, built around the Main Library

UBC's Main Library underwent major renovations beginning in 2002. In phase one, the north wing was demolished and rebuilt. It now houses the bookstacks of the facility. Once the renovated north wing opened, the old south wing and "heritage core" of the Main Library was closed, with the south wing being demolished and the heritage core stripped to the original frame and exterior from 1925. The South Wing was officially opened to the public on February 25, 2008, with the heritage core opening in late March 2008. The building is now known as the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, named in honour of donor Irving K. Barber.

Notable features include the first Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) in Canada, referred to as the "library robot." The system increases the amount of storage space available, but has been criticized for preventing browsing.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre houses the Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) and University Archives divisions (level one) and the Music, Art and Architecture (levels three and four). The Chung Collection, a designated national treasure, is located in the RBSC space, and focuses on the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Asian experience in Canada, and West Coast history and exploration. The Learning Centre is also home to the Chapman Learning Commons on level three, located in the restored historic core of the old Main Library.

Artwork on display around the Learning Centre includes pieces from noted artists such as John Nutter,[6] Kevin DuBois and First Nations artist Brent Sparrow.[7] The Institute for stained glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at the UBC Main Library.[8]

Okanagan Library Building at UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC Library also serves the university's Okanagan campus in Kelowna. Two library buildings on campus are interconnected with the southern "Library" building containing the Okanagan Library with open collections and access to Okanagan Regional Library, while the northern "The Commons" building containing media labs, special collections and archives.

In 2014–15, the Okanagan campus Library had 688,000 library visits., answering more than 17,000 in-person inquiries at their Library Service Desk.[9]

The Okanagan Library assumed responsibility for campus writing services in 2014, and launched a new Writing & Research Services unit. 2014 also marked the launch of UBC Okanagan's special collections program, with collections relating to the history, literature and culture of the Okanagan Valley.

In 2014, UBC Okanagan's students voted in a referendum to contribute up to $10 million toward the expansion of the campus’ Library and Learning Centre. The renovations will add 45,000 square feet of space, more than doubling the size of the existing library.[10]

In Fall 2015, the Innovation Library - a collaboration between the UBC Okanagan Library and the Okanagan Regional Library - opened to support the Okanagan campus' students, faculty, and staff, as well as community researchers in the Okanagan.[11] The Innovation Library is located downtown in the Okanagan Regional Library's Kelowna Branch.

In 2017, UBC Okanagan partnered with numerous local museums and archives throughout the Okanagan region to initiate the Digitized Okanagan History project. The project digitizes historical photographs and records related to the history of B.C.'s Southern Interior, and provides access to them online.[12]

Koerner Library, designed by Arthur Erickson, was built in 1997, replacing Sedgewick Library. Koerner houses humanities and social sciences, government publications, journals and microforms, and numeric data files, the Map & Atlas Collection, and the UBC Research Commons. It is home to nearly 1.3 million items. Its postmodern architecture contrasts with the Gothic revival design of the original Main Library (now the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre) on the other side of Main Mall. Koerner is also home to the university's Interlibrary loan program.

The Woodward Library's collection covers a broad range of disciplines in support of learning and research in the Faculties of Applied Science, Dentistry, Forestry, Land & Food Systems, Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Science. The collection covers a range of subject areas, including agriculture, biology, botany, chemistry, computer science, dentistry, earth and ocean sciences, engineering, food science, forestry, mathematics, medicine, nursing, nutrition, pharmacy, physics, public health, statistics, wood science and zoology. Woodward Library has the largest biomedical collection in Western Canada and a strong history of medicine and science collection.[13]

X̱wi7x̱wa (pronounced whei-wha)[14] Library is one of[15] the only Aboriginal branches of a university library in Canada.[16] Located adjacent to the First Nations Longhouse, it houses a collection of 12,000 items, including to 6,000 books and 450 videos relating to First Nations in British Columbia, and resources on Indigenous peoples from across Canada and internationally. The name comes from the Squamish Nation word meaning "echo." The name was gifted by Chief Simon Baker of the Squamish Nation.[17] Established in May 1993, the X̱wi7x̱wa Library became a branch of the UBC Library in 2005. The library is the result of a 1984 Stauffer Foundation Grant to the Native Indian Teacher Education Program (NITEP) that provided funds to build the collection. This collection was then gifted to the X̱wi7x̱wa Library when opening in 1993. The library also received a $1 million gift by William and June Bellman the same year. The classification used by the library reflects efforts to decolonize the current library classification systems. The library uses a British Columbia variant of the Xwi7xwa classification system, developed by Kahnawake librarian, Brian Deer, for the National Indian Brotherhood in the 1970s.