University of British Columbia

---
aid: ubc
name: University of British Columbia
description: >-
  The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university in
  Vancouver and Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, ranked #33 in the QS World
  University Rankings 2025. UBC's public developer footprint is led by UBC
  Library, which operates the Open Collections API (an ElasticSearch-backed
  REST API over digitized collections) and the Abacus Dataverse research-data
  repository (a standard Dataverse REST API), along with an OAI-PMH harvesting
  endpoint. Institutional/enterprise data APIs are delivered through the Office
  of the CIO's Integration Enablement Centre via MuleSoft and a Data Access
  Framework, which are gated behind a formal data access request rather than a
  self-service public developer portal.
type: Index
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-productions.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
  - Education
  - Higher Education
  - University
  - Canada
  - Library
  - Open Data
  - Research Data
  - Digital Collections
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-06-03'
# enrichment: real Dataverse OpenAPI 3.0 spec discovered at abacus.library.ubc.ca/openapi
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
  - aid: ubc:open-collections
    name: UBC Library Open Collections API
    description: >-
      Public REST/JSON API over UBC Library's Open Collections, the
      university's digitized historical and research collections. Backed by an
      ElasticSearch index, it exposes search and collection-listing endpoints
      (versioned by ElasticSearch syntax, currently /search/8.5/) with GET
      query parameters and richer POST Query DSL support. Returns JSON by
      default; no API key is required for read access.
    humanURL: https://open.library.ubc.ca/docs
    baseURL: https://oc-index.library.ubc.ca
    tags: [ Library, Digital Collections, Search, Open Data, ElasticSearch ]
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://open.library.ubc.ca/docs
      - type: GitHub
        url: https://github.com/ubc-library/docs-open-collections-api
  - aid: ubc:abacus-dataverse
    name: UBC Abacus Dataverse API
    description: >-
      Abacus is UBC Library's research-data repository running on the open
      Dataverse platform (version 5.9 confirmed live), which exposes the
      standard Dataverse REST APIs for discovering, searching, and accessing
      dataverses and datasets, including the UBC Open Data collection. Native
      Dataverse Search and Data Access APIs are available; write operations
      require an API token.
    humanURL: https://abacus.library.ubc.ca/
    baseURL: https://abacus.library.ubc.ca/api
    tags: [ Research Data, Dataverse, Open Data, Repository ]
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://abacus.library.ubc.ca/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/ubc-abacus-dataverse.yaml
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/ubc-dataset-schema.json
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/ubc-datafile-schema.json
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/ubc-dataverse-schema.json
      - type: JSONStructure
        url: json-structure/ubc-dataset-structure.json
      - type: JSONStructure
        url: json-structure/ubc-dataverse-structure.json
      - type: Example
        url: examples/ubc-search-datasets-example.json
      - type: Example
        url: examples/ubc-get-dataverse-example.json
      - type: Rules
        url: rules/ubc-rules.yml
      - type: Vocabulary
        url: vocabulary/ubc-vocabulary.yml
      - type: JSONLD
        url: json-ld/ubc-context.jsonld
  - aid: ubc:oai-pmh
    name: UBC Library OAI-PMH Endpoint
    description: >-
      OAI-PMH metadata-harvesting endpoint exposed by UBC Library Open
      Collections, supporting the standard Open Archives Initiative Protocol
      for Metadata Harvesting verbs (Identify, ListRecords, etc.) for
      programmatic harvesting of collection metadata.
    humanURL: https://open.library.ubc.ca/docs
    baseURL: https://open.library.ubc.ca/oai/request
    tags: [ Library, OAI-PMH, Metadata, Harvesting ]
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://open.library.ubc.ca/docs
  - aid: ubc:iec-mulesoft
    name: UBC Integration Enablement Centre APIs (MuleSoft / DAF)
    description: >-
      Enterprise/institutional APIs delivered by the Office of the CIO's
      Integration Enablement Centre using MuleSoft, aligned with the University
      Data Model and secured through a Data Access Framework. These APIs are
      not self-service or publicly documented; access is granted only via a
      formal UBC Data Access Request to eligible users.
    humanURL: https://cio.ubc.ca/data-governance/integration-enablement-centre
    tags: [ Enterprise Integration, MuleSoft, Gated, Institutional Data ]
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://cio.ubc.ca/data-governance/integration-enablement-centre
      - type: SignUp
        url: https://cio.ubc.ca/data-governance/data-governance-services/access-ubc-data
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.ubc.ca/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/ubc-library
  - type: LinkedIn
    url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/ubc/
  - type: DeveloperPortal
    url: https://open.library.ubc.ca/docs
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/ubc-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/ubc-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/ubc-finops.yml
  - type: Review
    url: review.yml
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: [email protected]