BCIT Archives & Special Collections: Home

The BCIT Library acknowledges the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Nations of xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musquem), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), on which our BCIT main campuses are located.

The BCIT Archives contains the official and unofficial administration, faculty and student created materials, documenting the history of BCIT and its role in local and provincial history. The Archives' database can be searched here.

Popular materials include:

• The British Columbia Institute of Technology fonds consists of the official public records of BCIT, including those created by the Board of Governors, committees, faculties, departments and administrative offices.
• Browse all of our digital objects here
• The BCIT Historical Photograph Collection
• The BCIT Student Association fonds includes:
  • The BCIT Link Newspaper and
  • BCIT Yearbooks

The BCIT Archives acknowledges the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Nations of xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musquem), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), on which our BCIT main campuses are located. BCIT Archives is located in the BCIT Library SE14.

Materials cannot be borrowed or taken out of the Archives. Access to original archival materials is currently suspended.

Archives are where researchers can find primary source materials. Original records and documents created by an organization or individual naturally over the course of time. In an institution such as BCIT only a very small percentage of materials created are deemed to have long term legal or historical value; these are transferred to the BCIT Archives according to Records Management schedules and make up the official historical record of BCIT.

The BCIT Archives collections mandate governs what other BCIT-related materials are collected and made part of the Archives.

The BCIT Archivist acquires, preserves and organizes the materials that uphold the legal and historical memory of BCIT and the BCIT community. Ensuring that this information remains accessible to BCIT, the BCIT community, and when appropriate, the public.

When writing a paper or report it is always important to cite any sources that you consulted. This includes archival sources. Citing sources gives credit to authors for the works you used, provides evidence to strengthen your argument and enables the reader to check your sources, in this case, primary sources.

Regardless of the citation style that you are using (APA, MLA, etc.) there are five key elements required to cite archival materials:

1. Title: the title provided by the archives for a file or item.

Plumbing apprenticeship course outline, October 1983

BCIT Burnaby campus; exterior photograph of students at front entrance to SW1 building (197?)

2. The name of the fonds or collection: this indicates the relationship of the file to a greater archival whole, providing information about context in which the file or item was created.

British Columbia Institute of Technology fonds

BCIT Historical photograph collection

3. Reference code: the unique identifier assigned by the archives to the file or item. BCIT Archives uses a system that identifies a file or item within the hierarchical structure of the fonds or collection.

F01-s04-ss05-f006

C23-a000737

4. Location: the physical location, in the archives, as assigned. In the BCIT Archives database this information is displayed on the far right.

Bay 28, shelf E, box 47, folder 4

Bay 19, shelf C, box 10, folder 7

5. Repository and location: the name of the archives and its’ geographic location.

BCIT Archives and Special Collections, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

• BCIT Archives historic website collections hosted by Archive-It
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  • Daily crawls of BCIT Programs and Courses
  • BCIT Update 2004-2017