UVic had an extra reason to celebrate Bloomsday on June 16, the annual celebration of Joyce and his eponymous novel Ulysses. Post-doctoral student Matt Huculak (English) was working for the Modernist Versions Project (MVP), when he spotted an entry for a rare magazine while scanning old library catalogues dating back to the early days of UVic’s precursor Victoria College. An entry in the catalogue revealed the library’s holdings of the first four issues of Two Worlds Monthly magazine, and papers related to Joyce's early struggles to stop pirated copies of his work being sold around the world. This material underlines the significance of UVic’s collection of original Modernist texts, which is among the very best in such holdings across Canada. Read more in The Ring and the Times Colonist.

An oratorio composed by Holocaust survivor A. Peter Gary offers a unique auditory experience to the public as the first donation to a new UVic project. The collection, Building an Archive: Local Stories and Experiences of the Holocaust was initiated to preserve the stories of individuals living on Vancouver Island who experienced the Holocaust directly. Once complete, it will be housed in the UVic Archives and available to everyone. More on the archive project: http://bit.ly/Z6BflW

UVic Libraries are developing a new website to provide improved access to all library resources and services (including the Curriculum and Law Libraries). The new website will use templates developed by UVic Communications who launched its newly-renovated central website last August. There will be no disruption to library website users during the website redesign. Migration to the new site is scheduled for mid-July to mid-August. By the start of the new term in September, all website user groups can look forward to improved website access to relevant resources, information and library services.

UVic Libraries is pleased to announce the publication of The Seghers Collection: Old Books for a New World by Dr. Hélène Cazes. This is the first publication under the University Libraries imprint. The publication explores the bibliographic history of the Seghers Collection, their spiritual and religious significance within the catholic tradition and their attributed owner, Charles John Seghers (26 December 1839 - 28 November 1886), the second Archbishop of Victoria. The Collection consists of approximately 4,000 books on Catholic theology and church history, canon law, liturgy and ritual, canonization and monasticism on permanent loan from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria at the University of Victoria Libraries in Victoria, British Columbia.

The collection is essentially Seghers' personal library complemented by collateral works purchased by the Diocese and is rich in continental imprints from the 16th to the 19th centuries, not only in Latin, but also in French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish and English. The collection, besides his vocation, reflects Seghers' broad interests in philosophy, ethics, psychology, science, Roman history and drama, and music.

The Seghers books are of interest not only for their content, but also for the light that they throw on book production, printing, illustration, and binding, especially on the European continent from 1550 through to the end of the hand-printing era. The publication studies Seghers' influence on the development of the collection while analyzing subsequent generations of users, analyzing marginalia, annotations and artwork.

May 21 to August 12, 2013 - Maltwood Prints and Drawings Gallery, Mearns Centre for Learning - McPherson Library

How are interpretations of literature changing in a digital age? Using James Joyce's Ulysses as its tutor text, this student-curated exhibit engages that very question, with an emphasis on time, place, computation, and speculation. The exhibit brings together traditional physical materials from the University's Special Collections and the University of Victoria Art Collections with 3D replications of objects, as well as a digital environment. Guided by the question of self-remediation –how do we see ourselves as others see us– the exhibit places Ulysses in its contemporary context and engages its long, often unanticipated, afterlife. Audiences are invited to interact with many of the curated materials. http://uvac.uvic.ca/ for more information on UVic art collections, http://maker.uvic.ca/ulysses/ for the index of digital projects created for the exhibit.