About Primary Sources
What is a primary source?
A "primary source" is the direct evidence or first hand accounts of events without secondary analysis or interpretation. A primary source is a work that was written or created at a time that is contemporary or nearly contemporary with the period or subject being studied. It can include newspapers, various archival documents (business and government records, personal diaries, meeting minutes, manuscripts). A secondary source is a work that comments upon, analyzes, or builds upon a primary source. RBSC is unique mond UBC libraries in that it strives to collect primary sources.
When to consult primary sources?
Conduct research using secondary sources first. Secondary sources will help direct you most efficiently to relevant primary sources. Think of secondary sources as the "bread crumbs" leading you to the goal.
Featured Materials by Authors
- Jim Wong-Chu fonds
Jim Wong-Chu is a writer, photographer, historian, radio producer, community organizer and activist, editor, and literary and cultural engineer. He was born in 1949 in Hong Kong.
He is a founding member of various community and cultural organizations including: Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop (ACWW), Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society/explorASIAN, the Pender Guy Radio Program, Asia Canadian Performing Arts Resource (ACPAR), Ricepaper magazine, and literASIAN: A Festival of Pacific Rim Asian Canadian Writing.Image source: An Afternoon Discussion with Terry Watada, Jim Wong-Chu, and Glenn Deer at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 2014.
- Roy Miki fondsRoy Akira Miki was born October 10, 1942 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His family had been relocated to a sugar beet farm in Manitoba from Haney, B.C. earlier that year. He was editor of the journals Line (1983-1989) and West Coast Line: Contemporary Writing and Criticism (1990-1999). Some of his major works include Tracing the Paths. Reading & Writing The Martyrology (editor, 1988), A Record of Writing: An Annotated and illustrated Bibliography of George Bowering (1990), for which he won the 1991 Gabrielle Roy Prize for Canadian Criticism, and Saving Face: Selected Poems 1978-1988 (1991).
Fonds consists of correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, pamphlets, academic papers, poems, research material, notes, transcripts, reports, submissions, agreements, minutes, programmes, photographs, and other material. Records relate to Miki’s writing and editing activities, his academic career, his involvement and support of the Japanese Canadian Redress movement, his participation in various literary and cultural events and projects, and his personal life. - Helen Potrebenko fonds
Helen Potrebenko was born June 21, 1940 on a farm in Woking, Alberta. Her early writing appeared in "Pedestal," Canada's first women's liberation newspaper, and she has published numerous books, including short stories, poems, plays, and novels.
Considered "one of Vancouver's most uncompromising feminist writers," and a self-described "working-class feminist," Potrebenko deals primarily with the realities and challenges faced by working-class women in the 1970s and 1980s. - Howard White fondsHoward White has spent much of his life on the Sunshine Coast of B.C. and at Madeira Park, B.C. He is the founder and editor of the "Raincoast Chronicles" series of books on British Columbia coast history and culture. In 1984 he incorporated the Harbour Publishing Company. It maintained the direction of "Raincoast Chronicles" as well as publishing more diverse works.
The fonds consists mainly of his personal manuscripts and his activities relating to his work as published by Harbour Publishing Company. - Margaret Cowie fondsBorn in 1886 in Simcoe County, Ontario, Margaret C. Cowie began teaching in Aberdeen Public School, located at 901 Barclay Avenue in Vancouver in November 1914. Moved to Nightingale Public School in February, 1934, was superannuated in 1946, but continued at Nightingale as a substitute until June 1948. During her career as a Grade 5-6 teacher she was instrumental in developing a Canadian Literature library within her school.
The fonds consists of 141 letters written by 83 Canadian authors who received letters from the school requesting their books, a photograph, and a letter relating to their literary career. - Douglas Coupland fondsFonds consists primarily of records created by Coupland from approximately 1980 to 2012, including: drafts of Coupland’s major literary works, personal and artistic photographs, visual art material (such as collages, paintings, printouts of digital collages and sculpture maquettes), items of clothing and leather goods, technical notes and designs for Coupland’s website, conceptual sketches and designs, correspondence, and other records.
- Joy Kogawa fondsFonds consists of material related to Kogawa's writing projects, her participation in literary, cultural, and human rights conferences and events, her involvement in community organizations, and her personal life.
Featured Materials from Presses
- Lazara Press fonds (1982 -)Lazara Press is a small, progressive publishing house located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The publishing house was founded by its current owner, Penny Goldsmith, in 1982. They publish poetry, literature, broadsides, and chapbooks.
- Arsenal Pulp Press fondsEstablished in 1971 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Scriveners Pulp Press Limited was one of several ventures in alternative arts and literature of the early 1970s. In addition to fiction, poetry and drama titles, Scriveners' issued a twice-monthly literary magazine, Three-Cent Pulp, from 1972 to 1978. In 1981 Scriveners' initiated a subscription library service, the Arsenal Collaborative Library, to serve as a central distribution point for readers, writers and publishers. Following the sale of its typesetting and printing operations in 1982, the company changed its name to Arsenal Pulp Press. Although still a literary press, Arsenal gradually began to publish literary non-fiction titles, and it continued to maintain a tradition of commitment to publications about British Columbia.
- Barbarian Press fondsBarbarian Press was founded in 1977 by Crispin and Jan Elsted. The press produced both commercial work (stationery, cards and other job printing) and fine presswork: illustrated monographs, miniatures, pamphlets, broadsheets and keepsakes.
- Intermedia Press fondsThe press specialized in new Canadian writing including fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The fonds consists of business records including correspondence, financial records, subject files, and manuscripts.
- Klanak Press fondsKlanak Press was established in 1958 by William McConnell, writer and Vancouver barrister and solicitor, and his wife Alice McConnell, also a writer. The aim of the press was to publish quality limited editions of works by Canadian writers.
Digitization Projects
The collections featured here are results of projects conducted by students of the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. These projects are developed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the class LIBR 582: Digital Images and Text Collections and represent bodies of digitized materials that form part of RBSC's collections, or are related to RBSC's collections.
- The Sandy Cameron CollectionThe Sandy Cameron (1931-2010) Collection contains selected poems written by the late social activist and poet of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Sandy Cameron. Currently, the collection consists of one of Sandy's published books: "Being True to Ourselves: Downtown Eastside Poems of Resistance". This collection is considered to be a continuation of the Bud Osborn (1947-2014) Collection created in 2015. Cameron was an intellectual mentor to Bud Osborn as well as a colleague and friend to many in the Downtown Eastside and beyond. Cameron was known as “the conscience of the community” who promoted class equality and social justice through his many articles and poems. His poetry, much like Osborn’s, is a cultural reflection of many of the issues still relevant in the Downtown Eastside today including human rights, community, and First Nations issues.
- The Bud Osborn CollectionThe Bud Osborn (1947-2014) Collection contains selected poems written by the late social activist and poet Bud Osborn, with accompanying images by artist Richard Tetrault, and in collaboration with designers David Bircham and David Lester.
Originally from the United States, Bud Osborn moved from Toronto to the Downtown Eastside (DTES) community in 1986. As someone who had the lived experience of addiction and overcame his own struggles, he became an important figure and social activist in the DTES community of Vancouver. A founding member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drugs (VANDU), Osborn’s activism fought boldly against issues of gentrification, social exclusion, and the stigmas that are all too often connected to mental health and drug use. His poetry touches upon many of these themes, and together, they paint an intimate and honest portrait of the struggles that coincide with addiction, homelessness, poverty, illness, death, and drug use. We hope that by fostering access to his work, this collection of poems can help to better educate, inspire, and more importantly, raise awareness of not only Bud Osborn’s life, but of those facing these issues in their everyday lives. - Gilean Douglas FondsGilean Douglas (February 1, 1900 - October 31, 1993) was a prominent Canadian nature author and poet. Additionally, she was renowned for her work as a feminist, politician, historian and photojournalist. The photographs in the Gilean Douglas Fonds, housed in the Rare Books and Special Collections of the University of British Columbia Library, provide viewers with a unique perspective on the author's life and work, and also serve as valuable primary materials for those interested in studying the time periods and locations in which they were taken.