Gold rush in the digital age: Immersing UBC students in primary sources in an online environment

Using a collection of approximately 900 letters from the Gold Rush era in British Columbia, this project will expose students studying B.C. history to an immersive experience by providing an online mechanism for the students to participate in the transcription, description, and analysis of the letters. The letters will first be digitized and uploaded to the Library’s digital collections. And the project will utilize existing technology such as UBC Wiki and Blogs for these digital humanities exercises, and will allow the Library to repurpose the data and transcriptions the students produce, thereby benefiting future coursework across departments. This project could also be used as an example of how faculty members can make creative use of the Library’s digital collections in their courses, and in the longer term could give students, faculty, and researchers around the world the ability to access and repurpose the Library’s digital collections.