More News May 08, 2019

Volunteers at Riverside National Cemetery’s annual “A Flag for Every Hero” event on Memorial Day weekend 2019 can now read biographies for many of the Veterans whose graves they adorn with flags, thanks in part to the work of two UCR Library employees.

When UC Riverside partnered with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration’s Veterans Legacy Program on a multi-year, federally-commissioned project called Along the Chaparral: Memorializing the Enshrined, Principal Investigator Allison Hedge Coke asked Data Librarian Kat Koziar to build the foundation for the project’s data management, and Special Research Projects Director David Rios to assist with local history and archival genealogical research.

Project funding comes from contracts totaling nearly $700,000 over three years, beginning on Feb. 27, 2018.

“It’s important that we recognize that people who served in the military who are interred in RNC – that they had a life beyond the military – and that’s what we’re trying to capture,” Koziar said.

“It was a project that mattered to me,” Hedge Coke explained, because it blends creative writing, local history, archival research, digital media, geospatial resources, and more. “You don’t create a project to push your agenda into the community. You fashion a project to fit what already exists there.”

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veteran population in California in 2016 was 1.74 million, the highest of all 50 states; and 131,000 Veterans resided in Riverside County. Those are among the reasons why Hedge Coke believed that the project’s aim and impact would be deeply meaningful to this community.

Hedge Coke’s project proposal intended to create an interactive GIS (geospatial information systems) application so that visitors or researchers could discover the life stories of the Veterans interred at RNC, which would be written by participating K-12 students. GIS consultant Mike Cohen developed the GIS application, which launched at the Closing Celebration on Nov. 29, 2018. The project also generated nine documentary films.

When Hedge Coke visited the RNC site with Koziar she was convinced that, with Koziar’s expertise and with UCR’s on-campus research libraries, they would be able to accomplish this colossal task.

“A lot of people have done work on this – but the base is the base, to give credit where it’s due,” Hedge Coke said. “Everything could not operate without the work that Kat put into it.”

Koziar created and runs the foundational hub of the project, on which everything else continues to expand, Hedge Coke explained. “Everything is semi-reliant – if not completely reliant – on that hub. We absolutely have to have that base to make a project of this breadth successful. It’s quite a bit of exemplary work from this brilliant woman.”

Koziar designed a filing and labeling system to allow the graduate fellows to claim particular people so they could divide up the work while avoiding duplicate efforts, and then to give K-12 students access to basic information about the interred for their research while writing the memorials. “The majority of the students working on this – they’re not data scientists, they’re in humanities,” she said. “I was able to teach some of these other skills because, even if they don’t think about it explicitly, they still have to use it. I enjoyed that.”

To assist with the project, Koziar recruited Rios for his expertise in local history, genealogical research, and his work with Inland Empire Memories -- a fledgling local cultural heritage collaboration; and Brian Geiger from the CHASS Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research.

Geiger helped tremendously because of his connection to the California Digital Newspaper Collection, which the students relied upon significantly while researching, Koziar said.

Hedge Coke acknowledged that Rios and Geiger have done a phenomenal job teaching the graduate fellows and K-12 students about local history, historical research, and where to find archives to learn more about the lives of the interred.

“The children are learning about some of the people who were little-known soldiers,” Rios said. “It gives them an idea of the sacrifices that people have made, and that it’s not just one particular group of people – it’s a wide variety. It’s great because this is Inland Empire Memories and that’s what our responsibilities are: to share resources about the history of people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.”

The team dedicated to Along the Chaparral has included 75 adults and 2700 K-12 students to write the biographies – from Riverside Unified School District, Sherman Indian High School, Highland Academy in Beaumont, and other schools in Anza and Temecula. At times, up to one-third of the students in a class have discovered they were related to the person they were assigned to research, Hedge Coke said.

The Veterans Legacy program has created partnerships with nine universities across the country. “Our partnership with UC Riverside is one of our largest and our most dynamic,” said Bryce Carpenter, Program Manager for the Veterans Legacy Program. “I think it’s going to raise the bar for all future Veterans Legacy program partnerships.”

The Along the Chaparral team is developing a curriculum so that this project can be duplicated for other Veterans’ cemeteries with K-12 students nationwide, Koziar said.

To date, the students have published more than 500 life stories on the app. Considering the involvement with research, with story craft, with innovative digital platforms, and with K-12 students creating publishable work that heightens memorialization of these lives, the future impact of the project with K-12 students and teachers, UCR students and community, the city, county, Riverside National Cemetery and the greater region is truly immeasurable.

More News April 30, 2021

The UCR Library wishes to congratulate Deputy University Librarian Ann Frenkel on her upcoming retirement in June 2021.

In 2006, Ann Frenkel joined the UCR Library as the Assistant University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services (later promoted to Associate University Librarian), along with her husband, Gwido Zlatkes, who became a librarian first in Special Collections and University Archives, and then in Metadata Services. Ann and Gwido met at Brandeis University outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where Ann worked as a reference librarian and Gwido worked as a graduate student employee at the library information desk.

In 2016, Ann was promoted to the role of Deputy University Librarian. Throughout the years, she has influenced instruction activities, programs, and services that support UC Riverside’s research, education, and service mission. She has also guided the creation of policies and communication strategies for the library. The lasting impact of Ann’s role and work with the UCR Library is extensive.

As her retirement date drew closer, we invited Ann to share some of her UCR memories with us.

What was your favorite part about working at the UCR Library?

Teamwork. Being able to work with staff in all different departments, divisions, units and create things we've never done before, new services, watch people come up with really creative solutions. And then, because of my particular position, I had the ability to give people the tools they needed, whether funding, or the ability to make a decision. I could help people be able to do things, give them what they needed to make things happen. It was fun and rewarding to see people develop and grow in their careers, and personally, as well.

One downside is that I've had several people leave and go on to other positions, bigger positions. But that also is part of the joy of working, even though it's always hard to lose people. It's been a delight for me to see people grow, and I feel like, “Oh, I had a tiny little hand in that!”

What are the biggest “wins” from your time working at UCR?

The reorganization with Research Services and Teaching and Learning is a big win in that I was able to do it together with the directors of the two departments and with the department staff. We worked as collaboratively as we possibly could. It was never perfect, it's always going to be a work in progress, and there are different ways and places for it to go now that I am leaving. We gave ourselves the freedom to imagine what it could look like, and we came up with a plan and we tried it out. Yeah, things changed a lot, but it was really rewarding work.

I think that the furniture and collaborative working space projects in both Rivera and Orbach were also big wins. In my memory it was so much fun because it involved so many people and we definitely had to come up with compromises, especially around colors, I remember! I think, in the end, everybody was satisfied. But we worked together and really envisioned using those spaces in new ways. What's exciting now is that it's going on to phase two or phase three with a new focus, and we'll see where it goes.

The Creat’R Lab is definitely a big win, from its beginnings with a couple librarians creating some Maker Boxes, to saying, “Hey, let's get a 3D printer and see what we can do with it!” and then finally developing a dedicated space that the students took over as their own. That has been really exciting.

There's one more big win from the early days that I remember -- something that seemed like a revelation at the time, and now it's old hat. When I first arrived, we had very rigid policies about what you could do in the libraries. You were supposed to sit in your seat and study and not talk very much, and that was about it. You couldn't eat or drink, and there weren’t places to work collaboratively with others, and the library wasn't seen as a “comfortable” space. I wanted it to be a space where people wanted to be -- and it needed to include all the things that one needs to have to make yourself comfortable, including food and drink. Within the first year I was here, I said to the then-University Librarian, “I think we should revise the food and drink policy to allow it.” She let me come up with a way to do that, and we moved on from there.

I also have a philosophy about rules: that you only should have rules in libraries when you really, really need them. And you shouldn't have rules just for the sake of them. That has always felt very oppressive to me, so I'm always thinking, “How would this make me feel?” and I make decisions accordingly.

What are you going to miss the most?

I know it sounds pat, but the people. I'll really miss the teamwork. I've always been able to work well with my colleagues and form really good working relationships. We truly have enjoyed working together. We've had a special connection. Those relationships are really important.

It's odd retiring when we're still in a remote, Zoom environment. I still see people on Zoom and I'll miss that, as well. I also have missed over this past year the casual contact with people in the office. It's fun, working together with people. That's a huge part of the job. It's why things work. When things work well, it's because you've been doing things together with others.

What's next for you?

I will be, probably the majority of the time, living in Warsaw, Poland with my husband Gwido. We won't be in a long-distance relationship finally, which we're really looking forward to.

Gwido and I have a huge number of translation projects. We translate under several pseudonyms -- Frank L. Vigoda (Polish to English) and Franek Wygoda (English to Polish). We have a book that's coming out in May, a translation to English from Polish of a memoir of one of the most famous Polish dissidents, Karol Modzelewski. It was supposed to come out last year, but got delayed during the pandemic.

One other thing that is coming out soon is a translation from English to Polish of Float by the Canadian poet, Anne Carson. Gwido translated it, but I helped at the very end of the project significantly, and I feel very connected to it. We've always translated from Polish to English together, and he does English to Polish, usually on his own. But working on this project together made us realize how I can be effective as a partner in that process, as well. So we're looking forward to that when we live in Warsaw.

We also hope to travel more. I think being cooped up with the pandemic has made us a little bit more impatient, like, “Oh, we want to go to Rome! Oh, we want to see Paris again! Oh, we want to go here and there.” Our base in the United States will be Portland, Oregon. I have family up there and grew up in Oregon, so I feel quite connected to that region.

What’s your funniest memory from your time at the library?

It’s not really funny, but it is interesting -- we now have a fairly elaborate process that we go through when a student asks to shoot a student film in the library. We ask, “Do you have any fake blood or fake weapons?” That's because there was an incident several years ago when we had a supposed active shooter, and the entire library evacuated, and we were hiding behind bushes for like three hours. What happened was that a student was doing a film in one of the group study rooms and was using an imitation gun. Somebody saw it and reported it, and the rest was history.

So, talking about not having rules for rules sake -- it’s kind of unusual that we ask those questions, but there's a reason why we have to ask those things!

I wish I had something as good as that time in the 50s or 60s when somebody let a flock of chickens loose in Rivera. I don’t have anything as good as that. There is a picture of that somewhere in Special Collections, I believe.

Do you have any parting gems or wisdom to share with your colleagues and community?

One is that I think a key to working in libraries, probably working in general, is to always stay flexible. To not have very rigid ideas. And I say this as somebody who's very opinionated and bossy, at times! But I know that, despite all that, my opinions can be pushed and changed. I think that's important. The second thing… As a leader or as a manager, it’s important to err on the side of giving people more responsibility than you might even think they're ready for because that's how people grow. It’s sometimes hard to find that fine line between delegating and giving someone responsibility, or over-managing / micromanaging them. There's a tension between those two, and I think it's always more rewarding and it's better for you and better for others to err on the side of a more laissez-faire approach because it gives people the freedom and space to develop. It's scary to do this, and sometimes it feels like you're ceding responsibility. But I have had the chance to really see this work, and it’s so rewarding!

***

We at the UCR Library are grateful to have known Ann as a leader, colleague, and friend for the past 15 years. We celebrate and deeply appreciate her many years of excellent service, and we wish both Ann and Gwido all the best in their next adventure. Congratulations, and we will miss you!

More News November 13, 2023

Unwind at the UCR Library During Finals Week!

Staff at the UCR Library understand how stressful final exams can be, so we're excited to announce our Fall 2023 Finals Week Stress Relief (FWSR) event series, scheduled Monday, December 4 - Thursday, December 14. These events are a great opportunity for us at the UCR Library to engage with students and for students to unwind and enjoy a relaxed and engaging atmosphere. Only currently enrolled UCR students are able to participate in Finals Week Stress Relief events. 

In addition to our on-site events and virtual Kahoot! games, we have some exciting contests lined up and our curated list of virtual stress relief activities to help you unwind any time. 

Fall 2023 Finals Week Stress Relief Event Series

Instagram Contests

• Mon., Dec. 4 - Fri., Dec. 8  |  Follow us on Instagram and comment on our daily contest posts for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card. Winners will be chosen at random.

Scavenger Hunt

• Mon., Dec. 4 - Fri., Dec. 8  |  Complete our scavenger hunt in Orbach Library to be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card, library swag, or a 3D printed keychain! The scavenger hunt will take you on a quest to find Scotty Bears hidden throughout Orbach. You'll need to take a photo of each one, make sure to leave the Scotty Bears where you find them, and upload a photo of each to our Google Form. Use this Google Form to learn more and to complete the scavenger hunt starting Mon., Dec. 4. You'll have until Fri., Dec. 8 to complete the hunt!

VIP Study Room Contest

• Mon., Dec. 4 - Wed., Dec. 6  |  Enter our VIP Study Room contest on Instagram by commenting on our VIP Study Room post (it will be up Dec. 4 - Dec. 6). Two lucky student winners, chosen at random, will each get a study room (one in Rivera and one in Orbach) on Sun., Dec. 10 from 1 - 7 p.m., along with a UCR Library tote bag full of treats! 

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 4

• Mindfulness Jars (Craft Event)
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  *While supplies last
• Surprise Snack Giveaway
  • Time is a SURPRISE  |  Rivera & Orbach  |  *While supplies last

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5

• Spin It to Win It
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Rivera  |  *Win prizes while supplies last

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6

• Bingo
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  *Winners receive an Amazon gift card

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7

• Therapy Fluffies with The Well's Active Minds
  • Noon - 2 p.m.  |  Rivera & Orbach  
• Surprise Snack Giveaway with ASUCR Internal Affairs
  • Time is a SURPRISE  |  Rivera & Orbach  |  *While supplies last

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8

• Squeegee Painting 
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Rivera  |  *While supplies last

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10

• R'Finals Study Jam (Tutoring) with The Academic Resource Center (The ARC)  
  • 4 - 8 p.m.  |  Orbach  

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 11

• Slice Through Finals (Pizza Giveaway) with ASPB 
  • 2 p.m.  |  Rivera  |  *While supplies last

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12

• Finals are NACHO Problem (Nacho Giveaway) 
  • 2 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  *While supplies last

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13

• Virtual Kahoot! 
  • 2 p.m. & 6 p.m.  |  RSVP on Eventbrite to save your seat. Play via Zoom to win an Amazon gift card. 

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14

• Surprise Snack Giveaway
  • Time is a SURPRISE  |  Rivera & Orbach  |  *While supplies last

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Virtual Stress Relief Activities

Need virtual stress-reducing activities now? Our FWSR committee has curated a list of activities and services available remotely through online platforms that you can enjoy all quarter long! Visit our Virtual Stress Relief Activities page for more information. 

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Library Finals Week Hours

Study 24 hours in Orbach from 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 7 through 7 p.m. on Friday, December 15

During Study Hall, Orbach Library will be open for studying, scanning, and printing, including the use of public computers. The borrowing of materials and equipment (reserves, books, calculators, and/or chargers) will NOT be available during Study Hall.

Thursday, December 7
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 7:30 a.m. - 12 a.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 12 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Friday, December 8
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Saturday, December 9
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 10 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Sunday, December 10
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Monday, December 11 - Thursday, December 14
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 7:30 a.m. - 12 a.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 12 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.  

Friday, December 15
Hours for both libraries: 7:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. (Orbach ends 24-hour Study Hall)

• Read more about Borrowing Course Reserves

More News June 17, 2019

Melvyl’s long-awaited switch to WorldCat Discovery, the Online Computer Library Center’s (OCLC) newer discovery user interface, launched on Monday, June 17, 2019.

Melvyl is the discovery platform for the University of California libraries.

As the world's largest library catalog, WorldCat helps users find items in libraries close to them and makes the UCR Library’s resources more visible to people on the Web.

What does it mean to faculty, students and staff to make the switch?

Library users will see a new interface. WorldCat Discovery has made many improvements in the user experience, including:

• newer technology infrastructure, which supports ongoing expansion and increased operability with other services
• interface automatically adapts to user devices, including smartphones, notebooks, laptops and desktop computers, to give people the same experience regardless of device. A new search algorithm delivers more relevant search results than the previous interfaces
• Library staff can better support interlibrary loan, reference and collection development

Technically, what does it mean to make the switch?

Basically, it’s changing URLs. Users  who have Melvyl URLs listed on a department or course website or course management system will need to update their links or bookmarks.

The updated link for UC Riverside users is: https://ucr.on.worldcat.org/discovery

How to switch to WorldCat Discovery

Change your bookmark or website linked URLs that point to WorldCat Local to point to WorldCat Discovery anytime before August 9, 2019.

In the meantime, try WorldCat Discovery and report any problems directly to CDL at melvylops@cdlib.org.

What happens to personal lists on WorldCat Local?

Although it is not possible for personal lists attached to WorldCat Local accounts to be automatically ported into WorldCat Discovery, users can easily import lists from either WorldCat Local (or WorldCat.org) accounts to their WorldCat Discovery accounts using OCLC’s instructions here.

Looking ahead

CDL will continue to publish updates in CDLInfo News: Melvyl. Feel free to email the CDL Melvyl Operations Team if you have any questions.

For the latest information, see the CDL WorldCat Discovery Beta website.

More News July 29, 2019

Effective July 29, 2019, the UCR Library is pleased to announce that Raul Aguilera has accepted a new position as Access Services Assistant (Evenings).

Raul will be located in Circulation/Course Reserves on the first floor of the Rivera Library, reporting to Chuck Stephenson, Rivera Night and Billing Coordinator.

Most recently, Raul served as the .75 FTE Access Services Desk Assistant – Rivera. Before that, he was a Library Assistant 3 at the University of California, Irvine. Raul also has experience working with the UCR Library in his role as an Affiliate - Library Assistant 3 at the Orbach Science Library.

Please join us in congratulating Raul on his new role!

• Read more about How Do I Find - Articles & Journals

More News December 01, 2017

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

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

1932 Diary
December resolutions by a young woman

John Donne
1633 first edition of the collected poems

Mexican Inauguration Photos
Beautiful 1920 album of President Álvaro Obregón

The California Water Atlas
Published by the state in the 70s to make government data accessible

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!

• Read more about Tomás Rivera Archive

More News September 18, 2019

In order to provide our Faculty and students with an up-to-date progressive library collections discovery interface, the UCR Library made a major transition to a new catalog interface last year.

While this new interface provides us with a robust system, including opportunities for innovative features in the future, there are a couple of known issues which the company supplying the interface is currently working on rectifying. One such issue affects your ability to view our full electronic journal and book holdings easily when you perform a search.

When the library owns both an electronic copy of a journal through its UC-wide subscription and a local print copy of an item, the system is not overlaying correctly and results in the appearance that we either do not have the electronic item or the electronic version appears far down in the list.

This does NOT affect journals which we have purchased locally.

Temporary solutions

First try clicking on the “available online” option from the facet menu on the left hand side; this will sometimes ensure the electronic journal is at the forefront, other times it remains further down the results list.

If you are looking for a specific e-journal, try our A-Z journals list at ucelinks.cdlib.org/sfx_ucr/az. 

If you are still unable to access the items you are looking for, please contact Carla Arbagey, Collection Strategist for Arts & Humanities and E-resources lead.

Ex Libris, the company, providing our catalog interface, has stated that this issue will be fixed in November 2019.