Welcome
UBC Library invites you to stay in touch and connect with us. Alumni who come to the campus may search the Library's catalogue, connect to online article indexes and electronic texts, consult books, journals and other materials, attend a training session, and obtain basic information and reference assistance, all free of charge. Use the Library's resources to pursue your own goals for learning or to develop new research skills.
UBC Library
UBC Library is the second largest research library in Canada and includes 15 branches and divisions including the UBC Point Grey campus and off-campus locations at Vancouver General Hospital and the UBC Okanagan campus.
The Library's collections include more than 6.5 million items in print and electronic format, not including print and electronic journals and series subscriptions, microform, documents, maps, archived materials, media and other items.
UBC Library also has the largest biomedical collection in Western Canada and the largest collection of Asian language materials in the country. It is a depository library for publications of the governments of BC, Canada, Japan and the United Nations.
For more information, see our Facts & Figures
The Library is pleased to offer free community borrower privileges to UBC alumni who have obtained the Alumni Association ACard. Community Borrower Library Cards normally cost $120 per year.
Where to obtain your ACard
Obtain your ACard from the UBC Alumni Association either:
- in person at the UBC Alumni Association office
6251 Cecil Green Park Road
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6T 1Z1 - in person at the Brock Hall Welcome Centre.
Then, bring your ACard to the Library Cards Desk at Walter C. Koerner Library, or to the Okanagan Library in Kelowna along with one piece of government issued photo ID. Your card will be activated, registering you as a Library borrower.
In addition to free Library privileges, the ACard entitles you to discounts on other campus services. For more information, contact the UBC Alumni Association or the Robson Square Bookstore, 604.822.3725.
Please note that these Library privileges are for Alumni Association members' personal use only, and may not be transferred to other family members or used for business purposes.
Online Access
In the libraries
Most Library web-based databases, including the catalogue, article indexes, electronic journals and full text resources, are available to everyone from guest-access computers in UBC Library branches.
From home
The UBC catalogue, research guides and many other open access resources are available from home as well. However, remote access to most databases is restricted by license agreements with database providers to current UBC students, staff and faculty. The databases on this list and the UBC Library catalogue are available to all on and off campus.
The UBC Library site licence for a research tool called RefWorks (a web-based citation management program) does include access for alumni as well as current students, faculty and staff. Please see the RefWorks guide for more information.
Assistance
Reference assistance and attendance at the Library’s drop-in training sessions are available free of charge. Alumni are welcome to attend many of the other library training sessions. Attendance at some subject-specific sessions may be limited to students and faculty.
Classes for groups of alumni can be arranged, for a fee. For further information contact the UBC Alumni Association.
