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More News October 09, 2017

UCR Library’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Dani Brecher Cook recently published her first book, Learner-Centered Pedagogy: Principles and Practice.

Cook co-wrote the book with Kevin Michael Klipfel, who also contributes to their shared blog, Rule Number One. “It was something we’ve talked about doing since library school,” Cook said of their collaboration.

Inspired by the research of the humanistic psychologist and educator Carl Rogers, the book presents an empathic approach to information literacy sessions, reference service, and outreach. It offers concrete, evidence-based practices to implement these ideas and to connect with learners at all levels.

“Most librarians who come out as credentialed MLSs don’t have a background in teaching, but when they come onto their job, a huge amount of their work is in teaching,” Cook explained. “We hope this book will help librarians who don’t necessarily have a background in education to put their students at the center of their work.”

At UCR Library, Cook’s primary responsibility is to provide teaching and learning services that support curricular and research activities of faculty, researchers, and students.

Learner-Centered Pedagogy: Principles and Practice is available for purchase at Amazon.com, the ALA store, and other online retailers.

More News August 29, 2024

Mark Buchholz has served as the Digitization Services Specialist at the UCR Library since February 2022. 

As the UCR Library's Digitization Services Specialist, Mark focuses on expanding the library’s digital collections by digitizing and preserving research materials and building the library’s digitization capacity for the future.

Mark’s journey into the world of libraries began unexpectedly during his freshman year of high school. A community service requirement led him to volunteer at his local library, where he was tasked with applying barcodes and spine labels to books. At the time, Mark found the work tedious. “I didn’t have any interest in working in libraries then,” Mark recalls. It wasn’t until much later that he would recognize the importance of that early experience.

Mark’s library career began in 2005 at the University of Miami Library, where he worked on a grant-based project to digitize the slide libraries of the Art History and Architecture Departments. “It was a good opportunity to learn,” Mark reflects, noting how digitizing thousands of images sparked an interest in art history. After the grant ended, Mark continued working for UM Libraries for another eight years, digitizing library materials from Special Collections, University Archives, and the Cuban Heritage Collection.

His work at the University of Miami eventually led him to the Claremont Colleges and, later, to the UCR Library. “I wanted to grow personally and professionally,” Mark explains on his move to UCR.

At the UCR Library, Mark has been involved in several significant projects, including the digitization of the Nuestra Cosa newspaper archive, which he found particularly rewarding. “The process of digitizing a multilingual newspaper introduces interesting challenges,” he explains, highlighting the complexities of optical character recognition and metadata description in multiple languages.

Mark is also excited about his upcoming move from the Orbach Library to a new digitization lab located in the Tomás Rivera Library. The new, purpose-built space will improve the safety and efficiency of the digitization process, allowing materials to stay in the same building and reducing risks associated with transportation. “It’s safer and better for the materials,” Mark states.

Mark has become an integral part of the UCR Library’s efforts to preserve and share our unique collections. His commitment to digitization ensures that valuable materials are not only safeguarded but also made accessible to future generations. You can view the UCR Library’s digital collections, which includes material that Mark and his team have digitized, on Calisphere.

More News October 29, 2015

First Klein Librarian raising profile of Eaton Collection

Though only in her first month at the UCR Library, JJ Jacobson is already filled with ideas, energy, and ambition. As the inaugural Jay Kay and Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian, she manages and curates the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy – the largest publicly-accessible collection of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and utopian literature in the world.

Jacobson brings a broad range of experience to the Eaton Collection. Once a restaurant owner, chef, baker, and then sourdough consultant, the California native was drawn to library and information school by her interest in how people talk about and engage with what they cook and eat.

University of Michigan provided Jacobson with her foundational education in library and information science, and sparked a passion in her to make the world a better place by bringing together people, information, and technology.

Growing up at Renaissance Faires, her interest in the “history of everyday life” stimulated Jacobson’s personal passion for living history — similar to historical re-enactment, but with less focus on combat and more on the daily activities of a certain period — and alternate history, a genre of fiction in which history unfolds differently from reality. This led her to experiment with virtual worlds. Specifically, Jacobson became deeply involved in Second Life in a unique way that mirrored, and later reinforced, her career: she became a librarian.
 
With sponsorship from another Second Life Resident, Jacobson built Caledon Library, pictured above. It has since grown into an entire system of virtual library branches. "Residents moved to Caledon because of the library," she boasted. Jacobson would later develop kits for others to build and manage their own libraries in Second Life. Real-life libraries also established presences in Second Life.

Reading, Jacobson says, is a prevalent hobby in her family. Her father was a fan of science fiction in its golden age, and she and her brother were both avid readers, constantly marveling at the 8-foot shelf of paperbacks in her father’s personal collection.

Jacobson’s goal is to leverage the ever-broadening interest in the “Eatonverse” genres to build a deeper understanding of the collection. By drawing on the UCR community’s enthusiasm for these genres across formats and uses, she aims to maintain Eaton’s international prestige while positioning it as a leader in the developing ecosystem of similar collections across the world.

More News October 01, 2018

This month in 4 to Explore, your Special Collections librarians and archivists have selected four new items with a "back to school" theme and placed them on hold in the reading room.

Here's what you can see this October in 4 to Explore:

Campus Guide & Handbook, 1996-1997 
Suggestions for 20+ years ago

The Sproul Memoirs, 1958
Beautiful photos of early campus

Tartan, 1954
UCR's first yearbook

Long Range Development Plan, 1964
A time of expansion and growth

Why you should try 4 to Explore:

Special Collections materials are kept in closed stacks, which means you can’t see the shelves and browse. You also can’t check things out and take them home. So, 4 to Explore is a great way to experience first-hand some of the collections that truly make the UCR Library unique.

4 to Explore will give you the chance to visit a reading room, like the ones that are used for archival research or by rare book scholars, and to get a sampling of our collections without having to submit a request ahead of time.

You’ll be asked to show photo ID and to check your bags – but don’t worry! Our UCR Library staff will explain everything to you when you arrive.

We will also have rotating exhibits of items from the collections on display.

Where to find 4 to Explore:

Department: Special Collections & University Archives

Where: Take elevators to 4th floor of Rivera Library

Hours: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm, Monday - Friday

Bring: Photo ID

Don’t bring: Food or drinks

Who: Everyone is welcome. 4 to Explore is more of an individual experience, but we can usually accommodate up to two people using the same item at the same time, so feel free to bring a friend.

What to expect: Staff will help you sign in and feel comfortable in the reading room. It should take about 5-10 minutes for you to get up to the 4th floor and get settled. Then you can stay and enjoy as long as you like!

Want to receive updates each month with more details about our 4 to Explore items? Sign up here.

More News September 27, 2023

In an effort to support the assessment and preservation of map collections in libraries, Janet Reyes, UCR Library’s Geospatial Information Librarian, developed a comprehensive workbook titled Conducting a Map Collection Review. This resource, made freely available through the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), aims to assist librarians and library staff, regardless of their level of familiarity with maps, in conducting comprehensive map collection reviews.

Map collection reviews play a crucial role in evaluating the current state of map collections and making informed decisions regarding retention, cataloging, and preservation. By undertaking such reviews, librarians can identify valuable items, ensure accurate catalog representation, and address any preservation needs.

Janet took great care to write in a manner that anyone could understand, breaking down complex map-related concepts and terminology to help ensure that people from diverse backgrounds can benefit from the workbook and enhance their assessment processes.

“The inspiration for this workbook came in late 2017,” Janet said. “We learned the School of Medicine planned to repurpose the space that was housing our map collection for a simulation lab. I had already been thinking of doing a map collection review, so the upcoming relocation gave me a great reason to proceed.”

Janet completed the review project in June 2019. Janet’s supervisor at the time, former UCR Library Director of Research Services Brianna Marshall, encouraged her to share her experience through an article. However, in light of the extensive amount of content, the idea soon evolved into the creation of a comprehensive workbook.

Despite Brianna's departure, her connections within ACRL proved invaluable. Janet connected with an editor at ACRL through Brianna. ACRL recognized the workbook's value and potential impact on the library community.

Since its release, the workbook has received widespread praise. Librarians have found it immensely useful in their work. 

“I’ve sent the workbook link to relevant listservs and have received a lot of great feedback,” Janet said. “One person reached out from Canada saying they’d recently found out that their map collection would be moving, so they were thankful to have the workbook when they start their review.”

Conducting a Map Collection Review bridges the gap between librarianship, geospatial expertise, and project management. This resource equips professionals with the necessary tools to undertake successful map collection reviews. Librarians seeking to improve their map collection management strategies will find this workbook an excellent resource.

To download the workbook courtesy of ACRL, visit https://bit.ly/ACRLMapReview.

More News December 14, 2018

At the beginning of fall quarter 2018, University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble invited delegates from various local cultural heritage institutions to Orbach Library to discuss the Inland Empire Memories project.

More than 20 groups attended the event, including representatives from the Riverside African American Historical Society, Sherman Indian High School Museum, Riverside Metropolitan Museum, San Bernardino County Museum, San Bernardino County Historical Archives, March Field Air Museum, and more.

At this meeting, it was determined that the next step would be the formation of a small working group to develop a recommendation for the structure and funding of the group. The working group is comprised of representatives from academic institution libraries, museums, archives and galleries, who would help the UCR Library propel Inland Empire Memories forward into its next phase.

That group has since been formed and will meet again in January 2019 to develop the framework for building a sustainable network and structure to govern the Inland Empire Memories project moving forward.

Those interested in the Inland Empire Memories project should contact the UCR Library’s Assistant University Librarian for Content and Discovery, Tiffany Moxham for information.

More News June 23, 2021

UC Riverside’s second annual Juneteenth celebration took place June 15-18, 2021 -- but many may not know that a library employee spearheaded the genesis of this event.

“With knowledge comes power,” said Leslie Settle, Access Services Desk Coordinator. “I didn’t learn about Juneteenth until college because it’s not something we are taught in school. Once aware, I made an effort to ensure it was something I not only celebrated, but commemorated.” According to Settle, Juneteenth or Jubilee Day was widely celebrated in the late 1800s but was met with bloody violence by some who did not like that Black people were no longer enslaved. What was once a beautiful celebration became fearful and life-endangering.

Her passion and desire to educate others about the significance of Juneteenth inspired Leslie to chair the inaugural UCR Juneteenth celebration in 2020, to recognize the achievements and contributions of UCR’s Black faculty, staff, students, and alumni. “I knew our campus community was hurting, dealing with two pandemics, and it was important to bring UC together as a community and fellowship, celebrating our freedom and life.” She enlisted the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFASA), African Student Programs (ASP), and the Black Alumni Chapter (BAC) as event partners.

On June 18, 2021, U.S. President Biden declared Juneteenth a Federal holiday and UC President Michael Drake added it to the University of California holiday calendar.

Leslie had campaigned for the last several years to achieve this goal. “Juneteenth being recognized as a Federal holiday was a breath of fresh air. I was so excited that after years, it finally happened,” Leslie said. “I know many people in my community felt like it was another way to satisfy ‘us’ with a symbolic victory rather than economic equity and real justice, but not me. This was a major accomplishment for me personally and I can still see the joy on my daughter's face when I told her what happened in our nation. This Federal recognition is the gateway to deal with our American past and push forward together as an American people. Juneteenth is not just a ‘Black’ holiday. It is a freedom holiday that all Americans should celebrate and enjoy together.”

For 2021, the Juneteenth Celebration expanded to a week-long online event, and another library employee, Rochelle Settle, volunteered to handle talent acquisition. “Juneteenth being recognized as a federal holiday is a step in a good direction. It recognizes my ancestor’s plight, struggle and emancipation from the horrors of slavery,” she said.

During the Juneteenth celebration, Leslie served as the Mistress of Ceremonies and Rochelle gave beautiful a cappella performances of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn composed in 1900 by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson, and “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, written during the Civil Rights Era. Rochelle and Will Pines, disability specialist from the Academic Resource Center, coordinated the event speakers, including panelists Dr. Jamal Myrick, director of African Student Programs; Dr. Barry Settle from Allen Chapel AME in Riverside; Kristy J. Heisser, President and Founder of Malcolm’s Heart Inc.; Deidre Reyes, UCR Class of 2021 graduate; and keynote speaker Charles Lee-Johnson, assistant professor and chair of the Department of Social Work at California Baptist University. Several other UCR Library employees contributed to the Juneteenth kickoff event on June 16, a video tribute called Messages of Freedom.

“Living on the West Coast, this holiday was not always celebrated like it was in the south, so it is up to us to educate others,” Rochelle said. “I heard one African-American young woman say that she had never heard much about Juneteenth until this week-long event. I was so encouraged that all of us, collectively, were able to contribute to her and I’m sure many others (all races) in learning about this part of American history.”

During his keynote speech, Lee-Johnson spoke of how Juneteenth celebrations could create a ripple effect of positivity. “I believe participating in Juneteenth has given me a new insight on how I see and value others. My ripple effect will be to continue to acknowledge the accomplishments of all my coworkers, embrace fellowship with one another, and embrace our differences,” Leslie said. “I think in the end, this ripple will boost morale in the workplace and increase productivity. We are definitely stronger together.”

Rochelle added, “We will never know how far out those ripples will spread into the lives of UCR staff, faculty, and their circles. I thought it was a beautiful thing to witness people of all races, colors and backgrounds come together to celebrate Juneteenth.”

For those interested in learning more about Juneteenth, the library has many resources on the subject. Additionally, library staff and ASP collaborated last June to create a Black Lives Matter resource guide.

More News April 11, 2012

Renowned rare book preservationist Terry Belanger will speak at April 18 celebration.

By Bettye Miller

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — UCR Library will celebrate the acquisition of its 3 millionth volume in a ceremony on April 18 at 2:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Tomás Rivera Library on the UC Riverside campus.

The keynote speaker will be Terry Belanger, University Professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and founding director of Rare Book School, a nonprofit institute devoted to the history of books and printing, and to rare books and special collections librarianship.  He won a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2005.

Mike Terry, pipe major of the UCR Pipe Band, will perform an original composition, “Literary Notes” (An Ode to the Book).   A reception will follow. The event is free and open to the public. Parking costs $5 in Lot 6. To RSVP call (951) 827-4941 or email terrig@ucr.edu.

Achieving a collection size of 3 million volumes is a milestone for UCR, said University Librarian Ruth M. Jackson. The library celebrated its 1 millionth volume in March 1981, and its 2 millionth volume in November 2001. Currently the number of volumes held by the libraries is 3,214,420. Of that total, more than 404,000 are e-books.

With this achievement, UCR ranks 81st for the number of volumes held among the 115 academic research libraries in the United States and Canada that are members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). That places UC Riverside just below UC Irvine, which ranks 77th, and just above UC Santa Barbara, which ranks 84th.

“The digital transition is occurring at a steady pace,” Jackson said, and will ultimately transform libraries in much the same way as the printing press revolutionized the process of book-making and distribution in the 15th century.

Printed books will continue to co-exist with e-books and other formats and will remain a staple of university and research libraries for some time, she said.  Currently, only 20 percent of all in-copyright scholarly books published in the U.S. and worldwide are fully available in digital form, she said. Electronic books allow multiple users to browse their pages at the same time; can be viewed and accessed on-site in the library, or remotely from home, student residences, and faculty offices using either hard-wired computers, laptops, or hand held mobile devices with proper UCR authentication; and will ultimately offer vast advantages for full-text searching/data mining as the trend continues.

Research libraries, such as the UCR Library, typically purchase books upon the recommendation of library subject-specialists, in collaboration with faculty, based upon the national publication output and the University’s profile, Jackson explained.

In fiscal year 2011, the UCR Library initiated a pilot for testing a demand-driven acquisition (DDA) system that enables all UCR-affiliated library users to access and read licensed e-books loaded into the Scotty catalog by three major vendors. The e-books and the titles for printed books are chosen for loading based upon the university’s academic and research profile. If an e-book or the title for a printed book is accessed or used three times, a purchase is automatically made by the system for the UCR Library, making the electronic title part of the permanent collection. When the title for a print book is accessed for the first time, the system will ask the user if he or she wants to place an automatic order for the title.

The UCR Library will analyze purchasing patterns based upon the pilot at the end of the current fiscal year to determine how the two models of selecting materials for permanent addition to the collections differ and complement each other.

“It’s still very much a print world  in many ways and will be so for a while in several key academic disciplines and publishing fields such as the arts, humanities, social sciences, foreign language materials, and selected areas of the sciences ,” Jackson said. “It’s also one of the most exciting times to be a librarian and information scientist because of the mix of information resources we are able to make available to our users.

“The digital transition in publishing is changing the whole information environment. Libraries have a significant role to play in reshaping the campus information environment and developing new ways to manage, deliver, and preserve both print and digital resources, as we continue our role of making easily available the scientific, social and cultural publishing output of the nation and the world in support of research and learning.”

First e-book acquired by UCR Library: “Native American health care: January 1980-January 1993,) Patricia La Caille

10 Most Popular Books in the UCR Library 2011-2012 (based on circulation data)

1. “Outliers: the story of success,” Malcolm Gladwell (2008)

2. “Person and reality; an introduction to metaphysics,” ed. Peter Anthony Bertocci et al (1958)

3. “Eat, pray, love: one woman’s search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia,” Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)

4. “God and creation: three interpretations of the universe,” John Elof Boodin (1934)

5. “GRE exam: premier program,” Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions (2008, 2009)

6. “Handbook of fuel cells: fundamentals, technology, and applications,” ed. Wolf Vielstich, et al (2003)

7. “Cracking the GRE,” with DVD, Karen Lurie, et al (2010)

8. “Crisis intervention theory and practice: a clinical handbook,” Ann Wolbert Burgess, et al. (1981)

9. “Catching Fire,” Suzanne Collins (2009)

10. “The Hunger Games,” Suzanne Collins (2008)

More News June 08, 2017

UC Riverside's Architects and Engineers office announced a construction project that will impact areas surrounding Orbach Science Library, scheduled to begin on June 19, 2017.

The project's work hours will be from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays, and will consist of removing, replacing, and modifying the existing concrete path across East Campus Drive.

This project will include the addition of a new ramp and concrete path between the Chemical Sciences building and Orbach Science Library, Physics, and School of Medicine building by adding a raised pathway where pedestrians cross East Campus Drive.

East Campus Drive will remain open for most of the project with a limited closure affecting drivers. A detour route will be provided and published in the next few weeks, to minimize delays. Any closures will be specifically defined in future construction project alerts.

In all instances, the Contractor will monitor activities in order to minimize any impacts to campus operations.

The UC Riverside Architects & Engineers team recognizes that construction activities will at times post inconveniences and disruption to the surrounding neighborhood. They appreciate your patience during construction of this project.

Please direct any questions regarding this construction project to Fernando Nunez, Jr., Project Manager, Architects & Engineers at fernando.nunez@ucr.edu.

More News October 08, 2019

Join us as we celebrate these recent achievements by the following UCR Library employees.

Dan Szilagyi, Manager of Cyberinfrastructure recently completed the UC Information Technology Leadership Academy (UCITLA), taught by faculty at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. UCITLA is an intensive learning experience that consisted of two three-day sessions in February and May 2019, along with a team project that was completed in between sessions. Szilagyi participated in the fourth UCITLA cohort.

Participants learned about strategic leadership, innovation and change management; networked with peers to support collaboration and innovation initiatives across the UC system; and prepared to guide staff through change, challenge and opportunity.

UC Riverside’s CIO Danna Gianforte nominated Szilagyi for UCITLA 2019. He said, “UCITLA was excellent and eye-opening, particularly in the area of innovation. The people were amazing to work with.”

***

Elisha Hankins, Orbach Library’s Access Services Desk Coordinator recently completed her Professional Academic Advisor Certification Course (PAACC), a 10-month comprehensive professional development program that teaches the history, practice and art of academic advising, including the crucial role that academic advisors play in student success, building student-centered and responsibility-sharing relationships, and honing the advisor’s conceptual, informational and relational skills.

Hankins’ role keeps her working closely with dozens of library student employees in Access Services, which is what first piqued her interest in PAACC. “A traditional academic advisor only interacts with their students once per quarter, and that’s if their students are proactive. I work with my students 20 hours a week. PAACC gave me tools and resources to use in my current job,” she said.

“The people that I end up hiring tend to be the ones who want to be world-changers or world-shakers, the ones who want to make a difference,” she added. 

The PAACC program also provided skills for working with library patrons. As Hankins explained, “Because we work at the Circulation Desk, people think we’re their best friends, so they’ll tell us their life stories. So we can put these skills into practice with the patrons we assist, as well.”

***

Cataloging Librarian Ruben Urbizagastegui recently published “Analysis of El Niño Coastal phenomenon by the method of associated words.”(Ciência da Informação. 2019, v. 48, n. 2.). In this paper, he compared two articles about the local weather phenomenon that affects the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. “El Niño causes a mess all over the world, with typhoons in India and droughts in Australia and California,” he explained. “But the Incas already knew of this phenomenon and knew how to control it.”

The articles he contrasted were written by two of the most prestigious newspapers in Peru -- one government-owned and the other privately owned. He noted the impact of socio-economic influence on the written word. “We analyzed the information, expecting to find two different perspectives, but we found only one,” he said. “In other words, the newspapers don’t care about the people. They do what they do to protect their own interests.”

Urbizagastegui has worked at the UCR Library for 30 years and has published eight books in that time. Additionally, he regularly reviews articles for five or six different library scientific journals. Most of his work has been published in Spanish or Portuguese on issues that affect marginalized communities.

***

In May 2019, Raul Aguilera, Access Services Assistant (Evenings) at Rivera Library completed his Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree with San Jose State University. He began his career as a work-study student at Orbach Library in January 2014, while working toward his Bachelor’s degree in English at UC Riverside (class of 2015).

“Originally, I wanted to be an English professor,” Aguilera said. As a student, he saw the value of the services that the library provided and the research that librarians do; so he began to envision a different career path in academia. Aguilera believes that his life experience as a UCR student gives him an added perspective about which kinds of library services would be most valuable to our patrons.

“I really like giving service, and if someone leaves the desk happy, I feel like I’ve accomplished something,” he added. “I think that’s just part of my nature, being able to contribute in a higher capacity, going above and beyond whenever I’m able to.”

***

Judy Lee, University Programs Teaching Librarian co-wrote a chapter,“Remembering Consciousness is Power: Working to Center Academic Library Outreach in the Service of Social Justice, Asian and Pacific Islander American Ethnic Visibility, and Coalition-Building,” in Cura, Yago S, and Max Macias. Librarians with Spines: Information Agitators in an Age of Stagnation: Volume II. Los Angeles: Hinchas Press, 2019. Lee co-wrote the chapter in collaboration with Melissa Cardenas-Dow, a former colleague at the UCR Library who is now a librarian at California State University, Sacramento.

Librarians with Spines is the second volume in a radical book of essays and chapters on library issues and topics related to emerging and marginalized communities, and is available for purchase on Amazon.