Digital Collections

The University of Alberta Library subscribes to numerous databases that are core for certain disciplines, but also really deserving of wider attention. Whether for class or for a bit of break, check out a selection of our most popular streaming services. Criterion-on-Demand is a collection of more than 20,000 titles, available in both English and French, from Studios, for entertainment and educational purposes. This streaming database offers professors, researchers and students access…

The Henderson’s Directories of Canadian cities are among the most popular resources scanned and maintained by the University of Alberta Library. However, the historical background for the directories is difficult to find online – and as the team maintaining the digital copies, we are hoping to shed some light on this previously-obscure context. Published starting around 1880, the Henderson’s Directories covered many major cities of Canada, especially in the prairie region. The…

Happy World Digital Preservation Day! On the first Thursday of November, the international community of digital archivists, librarians, curators, creators, users, and everyone interested in or responsible for the preservation of digital records celebrates World Digital Preservation Day (#WDPD). The 2024 theme is Preserving Our Digital Content: Celebrating Communities. The WDPD is the initiative of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC). It allows us to connect with colleagues and like-minded people and “celebrate…

The University of Alberta Library is an important stakeholder for scholarly publishing in Canada. Our open access publishing program supports open, sustainable, and responsible models of scholarly communication, and includes more than 70 journals. Check out some of the new issues below! For more information on Journal Publishing at the U of A Library, please visit our website. New Journal Issues ConstellationsVol. 15 (2024): 2023/2024 – student publishedConstellations is a student-run, student-written, and…

Stories of immigration and settlement, homesteading and going to school in the countryside, church life and traditional remedies, folk songs and recipes of old fashioned doughnuts – these are some of the topics covered in the interviews in the University of Alberta Archives’ (UAA) Héritage Franco-Albertain fonds. The fonds consists of 15.4 m of textual records as well as numerous audio recordings generated by the “Projet Héritage Franco-Albertain.” This fonds was acquired…

Histoires d’immigration, vie à la ferme, remèdes traditionnels, chansons folkloriques et recettes de beignets à l’ancienne, tels sont quelques-uns des sujets abordés dans les interviews des fonds Héritage Franco-Albertain des Archives de l’Université de l’Alberta (UAA). Les fonds comprennent 15,4 m de documents textuels ainsi que de nombreux enregistrements audio générés par le Projet Héritage Franco-Albertain. Les fonds ont été acquis par les Archives de l’Université de l’Alberta en 2019 auprès des…

The University of Alberta Library has been pursuing publisher contracts that eliminate Article Processing Charges (APCs) for U of A-affiliated authors, facilitating greater dissemination of U of A research results. We are pleased to announce that two new agreements are now in effect for 2024 and beyond via our national Library consortium, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN). Both the Oxford and Elsevier agreements are in effect for 2024-2026. The Elsevier Agreement…

Written by Michaela Morrow, Digitization Assistant The words “annual business report” likely don’t conjure up the most exciting visions in your head. You most likely think of rows of monetary values, line graphs of stocks, and maybe, if you’re lucky, a photo of a company’s president. However, our library’s unique Canadian Corporate Annual Reports collection shows there is more to annual reports than numbers and suits. These reports offer us a glimpse…

Written by Michaela Morrow, Digitization Assistant The library is happy to announce the launch of a new version of our longtime website, Peel’s Prairie Provinces. This digital collection has been updated and migrated to the Internet Archive for better access, quality, and research. What is Peel’s Prairie Provinces? Peel’s Prairie Provinces (or “Peel”) is a digital collection of materials related to Western Canada. The collection includes rare and hard-to-find primary sources such…