UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies

At the iSchool, a number of faculty do research in the new media space: Internet research, online social networks, e-learning, new media literacy, youth and new media, e-books, social media, open data and government, user engagement, social tagging, researchers on GRAND (Graphics, Animation and New Media), as well as faculty associated with the Faculty of Art's Bachelor of Media Studies.

HCI is necessarily an interdisciplinary field, engaging researchers who design, build, test, evaluate and examine the impact of new computer implementations for individual, group and community use across levels of skill, ability, and facility with technology. It addresses multiple contexts from work to learning and includes both fixed and mobile technologies and applications.[6]

Collection, preservation, access and use in library, archival and museum contexts, as augmented and challenged by digitization, digital production (‘born digital’ materials), participatory culture, and access through contemporary media. Cultural Heritage Management addresses what in the cultural realm will be retained, by whom, in what manner, and with what access (i.e. whose history will be digitized, retained and made available). Research addresses both traditional and newly emerging contexts. It includes new access protocols and technologies for physical and digitized cultural artifacts held in traditional institutions, documentation, preservation, and sustainability of cultural knowledge and practices. For example, professors and students from the iSchool at UBC work with the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and others to support the Indigitization program, which provides funding and training for Indigenous communities and organizations to digitize cultural heritage materials.[7][8]

Archival science is concerned broadly with the creation and preservation of representations of transactions (i.e., records and archives) that can provide information and evidence about past activities of individuals and organizations. Archival Science explores the theoretical and practical conditions that lead to, or work against, creation and preservation of persistent and trustworthy records and archives. It also touches on issues of representation, openness, transparency, privacy, security, accountability, internal control, compliance and risk and risk management.

This research depends on a multi-disciplinary approach bringing an understanding of child development, cognition, literacy, and literary analysis to bear on creative and critical evaluation of children's literature and young adult literature in traditional and new media formats.[9]