University of British Columbia Library

The University of British Columbia Library is the library system of the University of British Columbia (UBC). The library is one of the 124 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). In 2017, UBC Library ranked 29th among members of the ARL for the number of volumes in library (physical volumes), making it the third largest Canadian academic library after the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta. However, UBC Library ranked 23rd for the titles held (physical and online documents) and second in Canada, and had a materials expenditures of $13.8 million, placing it 44th.

UBC Library is one of the largest research libraries in Canada, with 13 branches and divisions at UBC and at other locations, including branches at Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre, and one at the UBC Okanagan campus.

As of 2019, UBC Library's collection comprises 8.3 million items, including 2.8 million e-books, 5.3 million microforms, 440,000 journal titles and more than 923,000 maps, videos and other multimedia materials. During the year 2018–2019, the UBC community downloaded 3.4 million ebooks and 7.4 million journal articles, the equivalent of 89 journal article downloads and 41 ebook downloads per person.

UBC Library has the largest collection of Asian-language materials in North America and the largest biomedical collection in Western Canada. It is a depository library for publications of the governments of British Columbia (BC), Canada, Japan and the United Nations.

The Library's collections of special and unique materials include the archives of Canadian author and artist Douglas Coupland, the Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs (consisting of more than 18,000 rare and unique early photographs of British Columbia), the H. Colin Slim Stravinsky Collection (the largest collection of its kind in Canada, including more than 130 items documenting the work and life of Igor Stravinsky) and the Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection, containing more than 25,000 rare and one-of-a-kind items relating to the discovery of BC, the development of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Chinese immigration to Canada. The collection includes documents, books, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, silver, glass, ceramic ware and other artifacts.

In October 2015, UBC Library opened its newest facility, Library Preservation and Archives (PARC), a new modular storage facility designed to accommodate the future growth of library collections. The building is located at UBC Vancouver's South Campus (in the Research Precinct) and provides 2,280 square metres of high-density collection storage. It can store about 1.6 million volumes and the facility also houses a campus-wide records management service. Provided by Wikipedia