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More News June 27, 2017

California’s textbook adoption process is ready to take its next step forward – but first, the State Department of Education needs your input.

All of the History/Social Science instructional materials currently up for consideration are now available in Room 217, the Learning Resources Display Center (LRDC), on the second floor of Tomás Rivera Library. These materials are intended for use by elementary and middle school students, ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade.

“The LRDC provides a way for all interested parties to have some input into the textbook adoption process,” said Christopher Martone, UCR Library’s Coordinator of Education Services and one of the State Board-appointed reviewers for History/Social Sciences instructional materials.

“If you want to review any of the materials, you can make an appointment to meet Christopher in Education Services,” explained Christina Cicchetti, Education / Reference Librarian. “He will make the materials available for your review.”

This invitation is open not just to educators but also to interested students, faculty, staff, and community members. After reviewing the materials, patrons can submit their comments directly to the California State Department of Education by following these instructions.

“California has a network of Learning Resource Display Centers throughout the state,” Cicchetti added. “We serve Riverside County specifically, but anyone could come from anywhere to use our LRDC.”

Each LRDC can choose whether they want to display the materials while they are being reviewed, or only after the state's adoption has been approved.  In the inland southern California region, UCR Library's LRDC is the only one that has instructional materials currently under review. “The next closest LRDCs that have materials under consideration for adoption are in Ventura, Santa Barbara, or San Diego,” Cicchetti said. “San Bernardino County and Cal State Fullerton are post-adoption only.”

In addition to evaluating instructional materials during the review process, school district personnel can also come to the LRDC after the adoption has been finalized. They can review the wide variety of approved textbooks to determine which ones to use in their classrooms.

More News January 03, 2017

The holiday season tends to inspire a spirit of giving and goodwill. Access Services Desk Supervisor Leslie Settle has discovered a way to extend that magnanimous feeling throughout the whole year.

It began five years ago, when Leslie first heard about the Guardian Scholars Program during a Staff Assembly. “I recognized one of the students in their advertisement photo as someone who comes to the front desk all the time,” Leslie explained.

Connecting a familiar face to the mission of Guardian Scholars is what inspired Leslie to make a monthly donation to the program via payroll deduction. “When I was a student here, I never knew that UCR did this,” Leslie said. An alumna of UC Riverside (class of 2006, B.A. in Political Science and Ethnic Studies, and 2009, M.A. in Public Administration), Leslie understands well the demands of student life.

Learning about what the Guardian Scholars Program does was eye-opening in many ways for Leslie. “I didn’t know that kids in the foster system get completely cut off when they turn 18, so it’s like becoming homeless all over again,” she explained. “I thought to myself, ‘That isn’t right and I must help.’ A lot of these scholars are young, single parents, and they’re trying to go to school and take care of their family at the same time. I remember as a student having no home to go home to, since my mother was homeless. And now that I’ve been blessed, I want to help by blessing others.”

“The Guardian Scholars Program provides housing for them, it gives them school supplies, and money for things like going to the movies with their kids,” Leslie continued. “Some of the Guardian Scholars will write a personal thank-you note and send it to your house. Some will even send you pictures of their kids. It’s very sweet.”

“Guardian Scholars is among a few of the popular, ‘feel good’ programs that UCR staff and faculty can donate to,” explained Lily Barger, Director of Annual Giving. Lily stated that others include R’Pantry, Scholarship Assistance, the Living the Promise fund, and R’Garden.

“The R’Garden is a great link between the community and the university,” said Lily. “People who live in Riverside can get a plot in the garden. Food grown there goes to the families, to the UCR Food Pantry, and to a few local food pantries, as well.”

 “It blesses me to give because I love helping people. I know without help, I would not be where I am today,” Leslie explained. “I felt like I could do more, so I told some coworkers about Guardian Scholars. A few others signed up to give, too, because of what I had shared, which was great to see. And giving to UCR is so easy – one form to fill out, and you never have to think about it again.” In addition to giving to the Guardian Scholars Program, Leslie also donates each month to Society 54, which supports the UC Riverside Staff Assembly.

If you feel inspired by Leslie’s story, there are many programs that could use your support. You can learn more about the different ways to give to UCR, or speak with any member at UCR’s Office of Development to learn about how to participate in the Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign.

 “The library would be thrilled to be a leader on campus, not only in our services, but also in our sense of community, spirit, and campus-wide support,” said Samantha Lang, Director of Development for Campus-wide Initiatives, “The library would love to achieve 100% participation in the Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign, which is part of UCR’s Living the Promise Comprehensive Campaign. And ‘participation’ can be a simple, one-time $25 donation to anywhere on campus, not just the library.”

An added bonus is that each donation counts as a charitable deduction come tax season. “This is a great alternative to giving just at the end of the year,” Leslie explained. “If everybody who works at UCR gave a little each month, we could raise millions of dollars each year.”

More News November 17, 2021

AUTHOR: SARAH NIGHTINGALE

On hot and steamy days in Saigon, Vietnam, there was only one place for an enlisted man to cool off for a while. “That place was the library,” said UC Riverside alumna Ann Kelsey, who served as a civilian librarian for the U.S. Army from 1969-70. “The libraries were air conditioned because of the books, not the people, though. If they weren’t, the books would mold in two days.” 

Kelsey’s service during the Vietnam War was the beginning of a career in library science and automation that would span more than four decades. Her recent pledge to UC Riverside, a $489,000 planned gift to the UCR Library, will continue Kelsey’s legacy in helping people learn through technology.

After meeting as a UCLA student with a U.S. Army Special Services recruiter, Ann Kelsey went overseas after graduation, overseeing four libraries during the Vietnam War.

Born in Indiana in 1946, Kelsey moved with her family to Riverside at the age of five, attending Riverside schools and graduating from Polytechnic High School. Her parents supported her dream of attending university and becoming a librarian, but money was tight. UCR—affordable, close to home, and offering the feel of a small liberal arts college—was the perfect fit.

“I was the first person in my family to go to college and I lived at home, so I spent a lot of time at The Barn, which was the gathering point for students who didn’t live in the dorms,” Kelsey said. “I had so much fun going to dances and parties. I also loved the classes and the teachers, and I learned so much.” 

Anthropology classes, in which Kelsey developed an interest in Southeast Asia and Vietnamese history and culture, changed her world view. 

“My whole experience at UCR was wonderful. It really was a life-changing experience,” she said.

After graduating from UCR with a double major in English and anthropology in 1968, Kelsey earned a master’s in library science at UCLA. During her time on that larger, more politically active campus, Kelsey felt suffocated by anti-war protests.

“The anti-war movement was very active at UCLA. It was constant hostility and strife,” Kelsey said. “Bruin Walk, which is right outside Powell Library, was a focal gathering point. All my classes were there of course, so I had to walk through that every day. That was in 1968 and there were Vietnam veterans attempting to go to school. I was just appalled.”

When U.S. Army Special Services recruiters came to campus looking for librarians, Kelsey knew she had an opportunity to show her support for Americans serving in Vietnam.

“I filled in the application form, sent it off and, two months after I graduated, I was my way to Vietnam. There were 300 soldiers and me on the plane and that kind of set the tone for the whole year.”

During her time in Vietnam, Kelsey oversaw four libraries, helping soldiers with everything from homework for correspondence courses to recreational reading.

Ann Kelsey's gift will help strengthen and sustain the UCR Library's programs and services in emerging technology.

Ann Kelsey's gift will help strengthen and sustain the UCR Library's programs and services in emerging technology.
“The libraries functioned very much like a small town public library,” Kelsey said. “That was the purpose of the Army Morale and Recreation program, whether it was library, the entertainment shows, or the rec center—it was to bring a touch of home to the combat zone.”

Returning to the United States, Kelsey settled on the East Coast, working at public libraries and community colleges while supplementing her income with freelance and contract work. In the late 1970s, while working at the Morris County Free Library in Whippany, N.J., Kelsey found herself at the forefront of library automation.

“I could tell this was where the future of libraries was going to be,” Kelsey said. "At that time I was in charge of the children’s book department, so I volunteered to work extra, retrospectively converting the manual shelf list to a digitized record.”

UCR Alumni Association events in the New York tri-state area rekindled Kelsey’s connection with the university in the 1990s. At that time she became a member of the Alumni Association and began making a monthly pledge to the association’s scholarship fund. 

In-line with her life and career, Kelsey’s latest gift—a $489,000 planned gift to the UCR Library—will help strengthen and sustain the library’s programs and services in emerging technology.

“The UCR Library is honored by the generosity and confidence shown by Ann Kelsey in her establishment of this bequest, said Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian. “Ms. Kelsey’s career has spanned the advent of library automation to the evolution of digital scholarship and emerging digital literacies. This gift will allow the UCR Library to continue to evolve to meet the increasingly sophisticated technology needs of our faculty and students for many decades to come.” 

More about Kelsey’s service in Vietnam is available as oral history interviews in the Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University and Rutgers University Oral History Archives. “In Their Footsteps,” a play based on the oral histories of Kelsey and four other women documents the often untold experiences of the thousands of women who served in Vietnam during the war. It has been performed in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Ohio, Italy, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Australia.

 

More News January 29, 2018

Sam Tang is a class of 2018 Mechanical Engineering major who has worked for the past four years as student employee for the UCR Library’s Cyberinfrastructure department.

This position requires Tang to maintain computers and peripherals for library users and to help staff solve problems connecting to email, printer malfunctions, and other troubleshooting issues.

“It’s taught me a lot about working in an office and communicating with people,” he said. “Be patient, be kind. That was a huge lesson in IT, apart from all the technical stuff about hardware and specific applications that the library uses. I learn so much on the job.”

“Sam is a valued member of our team. He is smart, kind, honest, and reliable,” said Dan Szilagyi, Manager of Cyberinfrastructure. “He’s a hard worker who produces timely, efficient, and effective results.”

Tang grew up as an only child in Irvine, CA. His father is a biomedical engineering professor at UC Irvine. His mother was a piano teacher during his childhood, but she now works as an office manager for a law firm. Before moving to Irvine, Tang’s family lived in Virginia while his father worked on the gyroscope for cruise air missiles for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

Tang originally planned to study media and arts at UC Riverside, but changed his major to Mechanical Engineering (ME) during his junior year. At first, he had no plans to study math. “I actually failed pre-calculus in high school, so I thought that math was the opposite of what I wanted to do,” he laughed.

However, he tried a few math classes here at UCR and felt like the work was rewarding. “I wanted to get the most out of learning as possible,” he said. “In high school, I was super lazy about everything. I only cared about not doing schoolwork. But that changes a lot during college when your work actually matters and you’re held responsible for the work that you put in.”

Part of what inspired Tang to become a ME major was his respect for Professor Sundararajan Venkatadriagaram. “He’s one of the nicest guys I know, but the material he gives out is super-hard and it really forces you to learn everything you can about ME,” Tang explained. “You can ask him about anything in ME and he’ll know the answer, and he can also prove it on paper. Having that kind of knowledge in engineering is something I’d aspire to do.”

After graduation, Tang could picture himself in a few different roles. “The skills in IT aren’t at all the same as what you learn in ME, but I could see myself doing research and developing in either field.” However, he has one dream that aims even higher. “If I could do anything, I’d like to be an astronaut,” Tang said. “It’s a good mix of physics, mechanical engineering, and some IT, as well, because you need to know how to operate a lot of electronics.”

More News November 07, 2016

UCR Library’s GIS Day Poster Exhibition opened on Thursday, November 3, 2016 in the atrium of Orbach Science Library, showcasing the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

The 2016 display includes submissions from a diverse variety of contributors, including external community agencies as well as faculty, staff, and students of UC Riverside.

“I was really pleased with the diversity of departments that contributed posters this year,” stated Janet Reyes, Geospatial Information Librarian and the GIS Day Exhibition curator.

A number of posters focused on UCR biogeographic research. The Center for Conservation Biology produced a vegetation map of Dos Palmas Conservation Area in Coachella Valley, part of a habitat conservation plan. Environmental Sciences’ display used GIS to estimate groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration. A student in Soil and Water Sciences displayed locations suitable for irrigating avocados with recycled water.

The exhibition clearly demonstrated the application of GIS across the social science disciplines. The Psychology department submitted two posters. One shows how GIS can be applied in psychological sciences. Another is from a sibling and twins study that tracks environmental factors associated with cognitive performance from childhood to the cusp of middle adulthood.

A Public Policy poster demonstrates the relative prosperity of ethnic, minority-owned enterprises in the United States, based on location. Another poster with aerial photography of Vietnam shows how the Vietnam War affected the country’s landscape. An Anthropology graduate student created a map to show the language of origin for place names in a specific region of Mexico.

UCR administrative units contributed posters demonstrating the use of GIS for operations management. Agricultural Operations showed how GIS is used to manage UCR’s agricultural research land, and Capital Planning submitted three posters presenting information about the School of Medicine, the Sustainability Program, and the R’Garden. The Riverside Police Department contributed posters mapping crime data and demonstrating how they perform analysis on crime data.

This poster exhibition usually happens every November, in connection with GIS Day. Reyes added, “I think we’re going to see more GIS used on campus as time goes by, so that will make next year’s offerings more varied and informative. In the future, we might add workshops, live presentations, and other interactive, hands-on activities.”

Faculty and staff who contributed to this year’s event included: Hoori Ajami, Environmental Sciences; David Biggs, History; Chandra Reynolds, Psychology; Qingfang Wang, School of Public Policy; Steve Ries, Agricultural Operations; Roxann Merizan, Lynn Sweet, Bob Johnson, James Heintz, and Cameron Barrows from the Center for Conservation Biology; Elizabeth Munoz Diaz, postdoc scholar, Psychology; and Karen Jordan, Capital Planning. UCR Students included: Jenessa Stemke, Soil and Water Sciences; Joshua Lieto, Anthropology; Paige Trubenstein, Psychology; and Omar Staben, Psychology.

Reyes has initiated an ongoing monthly Brown Bag GIS Lunch for those interested in discussing the various ways that GIS can be applied across multiple disciplines at UCR. For more information, contact Janet Reyes (janet.reyes@ucr.edu).

• Read more about Notable New Resources

More News May 29, 2019

As the second-largest student employer on campus, each spring the UCR Library takes time to celebrate the students who comprise half of our staff team.

At the annual Student Employee and Staff Appreciation Luncheon held in the lower courtyard at Rivera Library, we also recognized these 25 library student employees who will graduate with UC Riverside’s Class of 2019: Alma Ramos, Andrea Mares, Anthony Valverde​, Cameron Tuck, Chia Wu, Cindy Chau, Daniel Chen, Dulce Melo, Gursimran Singh, Hana Tran, Jacqueline Hernandez, Janice Liu, Jessica Leon, Jose Peralta, Kaitlyn Lara, Margaret Gardner, Matthew Diep, Matthew Garrido, Matthew Moreno, Noah Nguyen, Patrick Zydziak​​, Reajinae Jenkins, Roger Peralta Gomez, Serena Rodholm, and Sergio Banegas.

We asked our 2019 graduates to share their favorite memories from their time spent working at the UCR Library, and what they would miss most about working here. Here are some of their responses:

"I have worked at Rivera Library since my very first weeks of my first year of being at UC Riverside, so I have a lot of great memories from these past 4 years. It took me a while to pick my favorite one, so I would have to say my favorite memory from working at the library is being able to see our wonderful diversity at this school. I come from a place where there are predominately Asian and Hispanic people and not much diversity. The Rivera Library is one of the most visited places on campus, so I was able to see many different students, staff, and visitors. After my first month working here, it was nice to see how diverse our campus is and I wish the world was more like it. Four years later, I believe I have assisted and encountered almost all the ethnic groups around the world and it's a pretty great achievement. I myself come from Poland and I do not think I have met another individual from there at UCR, but that just shows the diversity of the campus. I wish I had the time to get to know these different ethnic groups better, but I cherish the short conversations I was able to have. I think what I will miss most about working here is being able to actually encounter and talk to a diverse community. Working at the library gave me an excuse to talk to and meet people. I cannot think of any other way to be able to talk to these people unless I go up to anyone on campus and introduce myself to anyone who walks by me but that is obviously out of the norm. The food industry also experiences many different people, however, it is a much faster paced environment and gives workers not much time to see around them. I'm not sure if my future career after graduation will have a diverse community like this, so that is something I will surely miss from working at the UCR Library. " - Patrick Zydziak

"My favorite memory from working at the library is actually a collection of memories. I loved running into my professors while working at the desk. I enjoyed having conversations with them about what books they were reading, any literature recommendations they had, etc. I also enjoyed being helpful to those who were helpful to me in the classroom. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to give back to professors who have given you so much. It was also crazy to see how much they read! I am going to miss my coworkers and supervisors the most. I have been working at the library since I started undergrad and because of this, my coworkers have become close friends. We always catch up with one another during our shifts. Even outside of the library we are texting one another, making each other laugh. We are a group of students from different backgrounds, different majors, different years -- but we are all connected by our love for the library. I will especially miss my boss Leslie Settle. She always emphasizes how we are a family and we look out for one another. She would continuously go out of her way to help her student employees, and she would give us cute treats for each holiday! Her laugh is contagious and her smile lights up the room. It is truly bittersweet to leave such a caring group of people." - Andrea Mares

"It is really difficult to pick a favorite memory from working at the library because there were so many fun moments from collection maintenance projects to staff potluck events. If I had to pick one, it would have to be getting to serve pie to fellow students on Pi Day. I got to smile at stressed students during week 10 and wish them good luck on their finals while handing them free food. Moments like those made my job at the library more special. I think I am going to miss all of the friendly people I have had the opportunity to work with. It has been really fun to interact with new faces every year." - Jessica Leon

"My favorite memories are the crazy finals week festivities. I loved helping set up events to lighten the mood, listening and motivating patrons to push through until school break, and seeing all the funny things patrons would resort to sleeping on. Finals week brings a bittersweet sense of community feeling to the library as it is stressful because we all have important deadlines and tests to take, but comforting because we're all going through similar struggles. The thing I'll miss most about about working here at the library is how much the career staff here supports and cares for the student workers. It is so easy to get adjusted to working here because the staff is so helpful and friendly. I have never seen another workplace that praises and supports their workers as much as they do here. Shoutout to everyone working in circulation, you guys are wonderful." - Anthony Valverde

"Even though it was a stressful time for myself, students and staff alike (as they had to organize and put on a variety of events), my favorite memories are usually associated during the Finals Week Stress Relief events. I enjoyed working finals week because of the various events we had to host. It felt really good to see how grateful students were when we handed out food, scantrons, UCR gear, etc. My favorite event was probably working Therapy Fluffies. The dogs were honestly the best and always brought a smile to my face. I will probably miss the staff the most. My supervisor, Elisha Hankins, gave me so many opportunities to be a leader, grow, and flourish both academically and professionally. She hired me for my first real job and I will be forever grateful she took a chance on me. I will also miss the other staff; they were also so welcoming, available, and ready to help me with whatever assignment or life decision I needed to make. The environment was always cheery and even on the not so good days, they were always there to make it a little better." - Alma Ramos-Gutierrez

"Working at Special Collections has been one of the most formative experiences of my collegiate experience. I have made some of the closest friends working at the UCR Library that have influenced my life for the better." - Kaitlyn Lara

"My favorite memory from working at the library is when I helped out with the Therapy Fluffies, and was able to hold them! Something that I will miss the most from working at the library will be the people. Everyone is so kind and makes you feel welcome every time you enter the circulation desk." - Jacqueline Hernandez

More News January 06, 2017

UCR Library is proud to congratulate our Outreach & Public Services Librarian, Robin M. Katz for receiving the James Harvey Robinson Prize from the American Historical Association.

The James Harvey Robinson Prize is awarded to the creators of a teaching aid that has made the most outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history for public or educational purposes. Robin and Julie Golia, her project partner at Brooklyn Historical Society, were recognized for the excellence of their work on TeachArchives.org. The award ceremony was held in Colorado at the Sheraton Downtown Denver on January 4, 2017 during the AHA Annual Convention.

Robin and Julie received a three-year grant for the US Department of Education through the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), which was intended to spur the development of innovations that improve educational outcomes and develop an evidence base of effective practices. “We wanted it to be about more than just our primary grant audience,” Robin stated. “We wanted to help educators to get their pedagogical practices up-to-date.”

They used the grant to support a program called Students & Faculty in the Archives (SAFA). "One of the great things about the project that gave birth to TeachArchives was that Robin was an archivist and I was an historian, so we brought very different perspectives to the work," said Julie. Over a period of three years, SAFA worked in partnership with three colleges that were in walking distance from the Brooklyn Historical Society, each of which did not have special collections in their own libraries.

Robin and Julie’s goal with SAFA was to bring students in to use the archives for hands-on learning. “Anyone can come use special collections,” Robin said. “We wanted the students to have a more meaningful use of the archives, more active and hands-on learning, where they could apply themselves to a problem using the collection.” From 2011 to 2013, they collaborated with over 1,100 students, 18 partner faculty, and 65 courses over four semesters on three different campuses.

They measured and assessed the impact of their program and found that the students who came to use the archives were more engaged, had better academic performance, better retention, and higher rates of course completion than their peers. The overall findings of the program determined that learning in archives can positively affect students.

“We were really passionate about getting more and more students in, and we were in a spot where we really got to focus on it, so that was a nice luxury,” Robin explained. “Our intention was to share universal lessons with a wider global audience and engage and empower educators from elementary school to graduate school with practical how-to articles, case studies, and sample exercises with agendas, lesson plans, and handouts, as well as documentation for the grant project.”

According to Robin, the grant called for dissemination to share what they had learned, so she and Julie gave countless conference presentations and published several articles to share their findings. They also advocated to create the TeachArchives.org website to make the information available online for free to a global audience.

"At the AHA awards ceremony, I had the opportunity to speak to a few of the people who did the peer review process for the award," explained Julie. "It was terrific to learn that the processes, the articles, and the other tools that we created on the website are being used at all different levels of education, from primary schools to colleges. That it is exactly what we intended it to be. It wasn’t just the design how we saw it in our heads, but it was great to see that was how it was playing out across the country. That was incredibly gratifying.”

Now that Robin is at UC Riverside, she hopes to expand on her work with TeachArchives through the instruction project that she is helping to build by bringing this new method of primary source instruction to Special Collections & University Archives.

More News February 01, 2024

Learn about some of the authors featured in the UCR Library's Writers Week exhibit. View the exhibit in the Tomás Rivera Library until February 16. 

This year's Writers Week is taking place February 10 and February 12 - 16. See all the events (most are hybrid) and RSVP at writersweek.ucr.edu. 

Learn more about our Writers Week exhibit here and more about the authors featured below. 

Prageeta Sharma is a poet born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Her collections of poetry include Bliss to Fill, The Opening Question, which won the Fence Modern Poets Prize, Infamous Landscapes, Undergloom, and Grief Sequence.

Noah Amir Arjomand is a filmmaker currently enrolled in the MFA Writing for the Performing Arts program at UCR, where he is a chancellor's distinguished fellow in screenwriting. He is the author of Fixing Stories: Local Newsmaking and International Media in Turkey and Syria and co-directed and co-produced the feature-length documentary Eat Your Catfish about my mother's life with ALS. 

Vickie Vértiz was born and raised in Bell Gardens, a city in southeast Los Angeles County. With over 25 years of experience in social justice, writing, and education. Her writing is featured in the New York Times Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huizache, Nepantla, the Los Angeles Review of Books, among many others.

Cati Porter is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council for 2023-24. Additionally, Cati Porter’s poetry has won or been a finalist in contests by: So To Speak, judged by Arielle Greenberg; Crab Creek Review, judged by Aimee Nezhukumatathil; and Gravity & Light, judged by Chella Courington. Cati Porter lives in Inland Southern California where she runs her Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry and directs Inlandia Institute, a 501(c)(3) literary nonprofit.

Issam Zineh is a Palestinian-American poet and scientist. He is author of Unceded Land (Trio House Press, 2022), finalist for the Trio Award, Medal Provocateur, Housatonic Book Award, and Balcones Prize for Poetry, and the chapbook The Moment of Greatest Alienation (Ethel Press, 2021). His poems appear or are forthcoming in AGNI, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Tahoma Literary Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

Melissa Studdard is the author of five books, including the poetry collections Dear Selection Committee. Her work has been featured by NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, and Houston Matters, and more. 

Minda Honey is the editor of Black Joy at Reckon, a newsletter has nearly 60K subscribers. Her essays on politics and relationships have appeared in Harper’s Baazar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads. 

Daisy Ocampo Diaz (Caxcan, or Caz’ Ahmo, Indigenous Nation of Zacatecas, Mexico) earned her PhD in History from the University of California, Riverside in 2019. Her research in Native and Public History informs her work with museum exhibits, historical preservation projects, and community-based archives. 

Elena Karina Byrne is a screenwriter, essayist, reviewer, multi-media artist, and editor. She is The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Programming Consultant & Poetry Stage Manager and Literary Programs Director for the historic The Ruskin Art Club. She is the author of five poetry collections.

Farnaz Fatemi is an Iranian American writer and editor in Santa Cruz, California. Her debut book, Sister Tongue زبان خواهر , was published in September 2022. It won the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Tracy K. Smith, from Kent State University Press, and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly. 

Lisa Teasley is a graduate of UCLA and a native of Los Angeles. Her critically acclaimed debut, Glow in the Dark, is winner of the Gold Pen Award and Pacificus Literary Foundation awards for fiction. She has also won the May Merrill Miller and the National Society of Arts & Letters Short Story awards. Teasley has a new story collection, Fluid, which was released on Cune Press, September 26, 2023.

Quincy Troupe is an awarding-winning author of 12 volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works. In 2010 Troupe received the American Book Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. Quincy Troupe is professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego, formerly editor Code magazine and Black Renaissance Noire, a literary journal of the Institute of Africana Studies at New York University, and poetry editor of A Gathering of the Tribes online magazine.

Reza Aslan is s a renowned writer, commentator, professor, Emmy- and Peabody-nominated producer, and scholar of religions. A recipient of the prestigious James Joyce award, Aslan is the author of three internationally best-selling books, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Aslan is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community.

Rigoberto González earned a degree in humanities and social sciences interdisciplinary studies from the University of California, Riverside, and an MFA from Arizona State University in Tempe. González is the author of five poetry collections, including The Book of Ruin (Four Way Books, 2019); Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013), winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the 2014 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.

Donato Martinez teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. His first full collection of poetry, Touch the Sky, was published in June by El Martillo Press. 

Jason Magabo Perez holds an MFA in writing and consciousness from New College of California, formerly in San Francisco, and a dual PhD in ethnic studies and communication from the University of California, San Diego. Perez is the author of I ask about what falls away, forthcoming in 2024; This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017); and Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). 

Dave Eggers is the author of many books, among them The Eyes and the Impossible, The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, Heroes of the Frontier, A Hologram for the King, and What Is the What. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Kimberly Blaeser, writer, photographer, and scholar, is a past Wisconsin Poet Laureate. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently the bi-lingual Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance (2020), Copper Yearning (2019), and Apprenticed to Justice.

Marsha de la O was born and raised in Southern California. She earned her MFA from Vermont College and is the author of two collections of poetry: Black Hope (1997), winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize, and Antidote for Night (2015), winner of the Isabella Gardner Prize from BOA Editions. 

Cindy Juyoung Ok is a poet, former high school physics teacher, and university creative writing instructor. Her collection of poems, Ward Toward, won the Yale Younger Poets Prize.

More News September 29, 2014

Head librarians from both campuses articulate policies to jointly manage valuable collection of historical documents.

By Bettye Miller

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Cal State San Bernardino and the University of California, Riverside will co-house and share a valuable collection of water related-documents and materials.

The chief librarians from both universities, Cesar Caballero, dean of the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library, and Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian for UC Riverside, signed a memorandum of understanding on Sept. 24 that the two institutions will jointly house and manage the Water Resources Collections and Archives (WRCA).

The agreement, which was signed at the Pfau Library, lays out the policies and procedures on the collection and is an addendum to an MOU the universities signed in 2010, which enabled the collaboration, Caballero said.

The WRCA, which previously was housed at UC Berkeley, is a one-of-a-kind resource. It contains historical and contemporary water-related materials of great value to water agencies, governmental bodies, environmental groups, engineering firms, attorneys, historians and researchers.

The collection will be of great interest to students, faculty and researchers from both campuses and also researchers throughout both the University of California and the California State University systems, Caballero said.

“This is a world-class collection and will offer a lifetime of learning as a resource. It is extremely valuable,” Caballero said.

The WRCA collection will be divided between both libraries and jointly managed by Mandeville-Gamble and Caballero. The joint management of the archives will expand accessibility both in the state and nationwide, Caballero said.

“The agreement underlines the importance of the WRCA, which will complement and strengthen other collections at CSUSB and UCR along with the UC and CSU systems,” Caballero said.

Mandeville-Gamble said the agreement took on even more significance because of the state’s ongoing drought, which is unprecedented in the state’s written history.

He said the two universities are committed to studying issues affecting water in all aspects including environmental, public policy and social issues.

“It’s absolutely essential if we’re going to solve water issues. We’re in this together,” said Mandeville-Gamble, who added that the collection “will serve as a roadmap for greater collaboration between the two universities regarding water issues.”

The co-housing of the collection will work well with both universities as both institutions have strong backgrounds in water resources. UCR has a number of water policy experts in the School of Public Policy. CSUSB is home to the Water Resources Institute, which serves as a regional center for research and public policy analysis and houses the Joseph Andrew Rowe Water Resources Archives.

This photo of the junction of the All American Canal and the Coachella Canal was taken by Walter Leroy Huber and is part of a collection of the engineer’s correspondence, documents and photographs in the Water Resources Collections and Archives.

The WRCA collection is comprised of approximately 4,138 linear feet of published circulating materials, and more than 3,000 linear feet of special collections and archives.   Approximately 5,545 linear feet of printed circulating materials are also housed in off-site storage facility near the UC Berkeley campus.

The original archive contained approximately 200 archival collections, 200,000 technical reports, 1,500 specialized newsletters, 5,000 maps and videos, 2,200 serials, 25,000 land photographs, 45,000 aerial photographs of coastlines, and digital resources in the form of CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and websites.

Since 2011, the archive has gained another 2,500 books, electronic documents, and thousands of hard-to-find publications such as conference proceedings, association publications, technical reports and bulletins, and meeting minutes that deal with water resources in California and the West.

More than 15,000 people visit the WRCA website every year, and another 80,000 visit the California Water Districts & Associations list. UCR librarians scan more than 6,000 pages of material from the collection for researchers and government employees across the state.

The collaboration of the two universities came about in 2010 when the statewide Water Resources Center was to be closed because of budget cuts. The University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Center sought a new location to house the archives, which led CSUSB and UCR to develop an innovative and collaborative plan for joint management of the collection.

The acquisition of the new collection also coincided with the California State University system-wide Water Resources and Policy Initiative, which is centered at Cal State San Bernardino. The WRPI facilitates water-related research capabilities within the 23 CSU campuses.

Water policy experts in the UCR School of Public Policy conduct research on critical issues related to the interactions between water policy, water quality and water scarcity. They also contribute policy-relevant input to dialogues at the local, regional, national and international levels.

Founded in 1999, the Water Resources Institute of Cal State San Bernardino is an academic partnership with the Southern California communities that it serves. The institute is driven by the vision that sustaining water resources rests on sound research, analysis and public policy collaboration. The institute is active in the areas of science, public policy and history, and serves as a regional hub for providing information on water resources.