Featured Resources
The Library subscribes to these resources so you can access them for free with your library card:
Ancestry Library Edition (Available In Library Only) – Provides genealogical and historical research records. With more than 5 billion names in over 4,600 databases, includes census, military, court, land, and probate records; vital and church records; directories; and passenger lists.
BC Historical Newspapers – Access 125+ years of digital news archives at no charge, remotely, anytime – no authentication required. This online access is made possible through a collaboration of academic, public, and school libraries across B.C. Log in straight from this page to search nearly 5 million digitized pages of news, ads, images and more that showcase B.C.’s heritage – a remarkable trove of content for research, teaching, and learning.
Gale Courses
– Offers a wide range of highly interactive, instructor led courses that you can take entirely online. Courses run for six weeks and new sessions begin every month. Check out the Access My Library app on your smartphone or device and connect to your Gale Courses or access the reference library!
LinkedIn Learning – A leading learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Check out the video library of engaging, top-quality courses taught by recognized industry experts.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
What is a MOOC? A wide range of free not-for-credit (some fees apply for credit courses) courses commonly offered through universities and colleges, and open to anyone. Course length and time commitments vary. Teaching is through video lectures, podcasts, online discussions and links to articles and ebooks. Here are some examples where many courses are free (look for auditing options):
- Cognitive Class is an initiative by IBM to spread data literacy through free classes for students and experienced IT professionals alike. Users can pursue coursework at their own pace with no time restrictions for completion. Covers topics like Python for data science, reactive architecture, and digital analytics and regression.
- Coursera – courses that span the humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business and computer science. Notable courses offered through the University of Alberta & Coursera are Indigenous Canada and Science Literacy.
- EDX – partnership between MIT, Harvard, Berkeley and University of Texas. McGill University, the University of Toronto and others, offering courses “designed to be interesting, fun and rigorous.”
- Kadenze - focuses on music, visual arts, creative technology
- MOMA - hear directly from artists and designers, look closely at works in our collection and exhibitions, and join a global community of learners unlike any other. Enroll any time and complete the course at your own pace.