Gold Rush in the Digital Age: Immersing UBC Students in Primary Sources in an Online Environment

TitleGold Rush in the Digital Age: Immersing UBC Students in Primary Sources in an Online Environment
Faculty/College/UnitUBC Library
StatusCompleted
Duration3 Years
Initiation04/01/2014
Completion03/31/2016
Project Summary

UBC students benefit from the Library’s digitized collections but they are currently delivered in a passive environment- students can view digital collections and cite them as primary sources in papers, but there is not currently a method for delivering a more immersive experience, such as is practiced in the Digital Humanities. Using a collection of letters from the B.C. Gold Rush era, this project proposes to expose UBC History students studying B.C. history to such an immersive experience by providing an online mechanism for the students to participate in the transcription, description and analysis of the letters. The project will utilize existing technology such as UBC Wiki and Blogs for these digital humanities exercises, but opens the doors for the Library to re-purpose the data and transcriptions the students produce, hence benefiting future course work across departments. The letters must first be digitized and uploaded to UBC Library’s digital collections.

Funding Details
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2014/2015
Year 1: Project TypeLarge TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorLarissa Ringham
Year 1: Funded Amount13,400
Year 1: Team Members

Larissa Ringham, Digital Projects Librarian, Digital Initiatives, UBC Library

Year 2: Project YearYear 2
Year 2: Funding Year2015/2016
Year 2: Project TypeLarge TLEF
Year 2: Principal InvestigatorLarissa Ringham
Year 2: Funded Amount20,900
Year 2: Team Members

Larissa Ringham, Digital Projects Librarian, Digital Initiatives, UBC Library
Laura Ishiguro, Assistant Professor, History, Faculty of Arts
Paul Joseph, Systems Librarian, Digital Initiatives, UBC Library
Krisztina Laszlo, Archivist, Rare Books and Special Collections, UBC Library