For over a century, there has been a rather curious and unique public lecture event happening every Saturday evening at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
From its humble beginnings in 1916, the Vancouver Institute (VI) has been holding free public lectures presented by locally, nationally and internationally recognized, distinguished scholars and notable industry professionals alike from UBC and beyond.
Spanning several decades now, the VI lectures’ collection (made available by the UBC Library in partnership with the VI) is steadily growing in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository. This one-of-a-kind mixed collection of audio and video materials is a fine testament to the historical, scientific, technical and academic knowledge, expertise and wisdom accumulated by the VI speakers over the years.
The VI lectures’ collection is teeming with a wide range of scientific, archaeological and other intriguing discoveries to philosophical musings and historical biographies to politics, policies and opinions to advanced technologies in education, medicine, and just about everything else in between.
This treasure trove of knowledge consists of novel, creative and innovative ideas and notions to the hard-knock school of lessons learned through good (and, at times, not so good), old-fashioned trial and error. Since then, the array of topics presented by past and current VI speakers were, and still are to this day, all-engaging, funny, illuminating, candid and as inspiring as ever.
A round of applause is due to Green College at UBC for its administrative management of the VI lectures over the years and transferred seamlessly over to the new Global Reporting Centre on January 1, 2018.
Another round of applause goes to University Archives for digitizing the vast majority of the VI lectures, the individual materials are continuing to be digitized and made openly accessible in the VI lectures’ collection in cIRcle via UBC Library’s Open Collections portal.
While waiting for upcoming VI lectures, below are some past and present VI lectures to watch now online anytime and anywhere:
The next 50 years in engineering http://hdl.handle.net/2429/36288
Gold or dross — The romantic past and future potential of B.C.’s mineral wealth http://hdl.handle.net/2429/19745
The golden age of astronomy http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15122
Ecological reserves in British Columbia http://hdl.handle.net/2429/30981
An evening with Mary Hemingway http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20033
Life under the sun: The past and future of solar energy http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20760
Artists in medieval workshops http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20769
Observations and photographs http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20044
Virginia Woolf: a personal portrait http://hdl.handle.net/2429/34467
Einstein — the man and his work http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35297
The coinage of Athens and the ancient world http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35868
The mystique of the detective story http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20819
Byzantine archaeology: a city revealed http://hdl.handle.net/2429/34338
Leonard Cohen: “The only tourist in Havana” http://hdl.handle.net/2429/13026
Dogs and people: The history and psychology of a relationship http://hdl.handle.net/2429/32808
Dealing with SARS http://hdl.handle.net/2429/32104
Journey of the Blue Whale http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61793
Digital Dumping Ground : The Global Trade in Electronic Waste http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61570
The Human-Animal Bond : Our History With Dogs http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61571
Desert Dust and the World’s Environments http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61150
Hammering the Klavier : Beethoven’s Earthshaking and Bone-crushing Masterpiece http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62270
Media Ethics on the Digital Frontier http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61152
Bug Shells and Butterfly Wings : New Materials Inspired by Nature http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62080
Stroke : New Evidence on Prevention and Recovery http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62337
Cheap : The High Cost of Discount Culture http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62344
Let Them Eat Dirt : Raising Children With Their Microbes http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62338
Bee Time : What Can We Learn from the Demise of Bees? http://hdl.handle.net/2429/62335