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Newly Processed Collections - Spring 2020
Special Collections & University Archives employees are constantly working to process recently acquired collections and make those materials ready for use by students, faculty, and researchers.
Each quarter, we will provide a list of the UCR Library's newly processed archival and primary source collections. Check out this list to see if there are any items that fit your research area, or share with a friend!
Below you'll find brief descriptions and links to the finding aids or collection guides for each new collection. To use any of these materials, simply click the "Request Items" button at the top to submit a request, and log in with our Special Collections Request System. For more on conducting research in Special Collections, see this page.
Per the County of Riverside Public Health mandate, SCUA will be closed until April 3, 2020, at least. Check here for updates throughout the COVID-19 closure.
For questions, email specialcollections@ucr.edu.
Newly Processed Collections - Spring 2020
Kenneth Turner papers (WRCA 246)
Assorted materials and documents relating to water rights including Tahoe basin, Hetch-Hetchy, and Glen Canyon Dam.
Sierra Club El Dorado Project (WRCA 239)
Collection contains environmental impact statements, correspondence, and court pleadings relating to the El Dorado project (No. 184) of the American River in California.
Homer Aschmann papers (UA 123)
Homer Aschmann was a professor of geography and one of the founding faculty of UCR. This collection contains articles, biographical essays, slides, notes, and other materials pertaining to his academic tenure.
Martin Barnes was a professor of entomology and plant pathology and a member of the founding faculty at UCR. This collections contains articles, slides, newsletters, correspondence, and other materials related to his research.
James M. Wallace papers (UA 341)
James Wallace’s long academic career started at the Citrus Experiment Station and he continued on as a founding faculty member at UCR. He was a renowned expert in citrus virus diseases and this collection contains a variety of materials related to his research career.
This collection contains reports, correspondence, minutes, and other materials documenting the operations of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UCR.
Diversifying the Digital livestream broadcast
On Friday, Oct. 20, the UCR Library will broadcast Forum Four of Diversifying the Digital series, titled: “Integration: Why and How to Address Integration with National Digital Collections Initiatives.”
The forum will discuss how to integrate community archives into a nationwide digital platform and the importance of including diverse communities’ voices in our recordkeeping while respecting cultural protocols, traditional practices, and local conditions governing the collection, preservation, and access to community archives materials.
Those interested can watch the livestream broadcast in Rivera Library, Room 403 from 7:30 am to 1:00 pm, and join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #DDHR4. Forum presenters will include representatives from funding agencies, national digital collections initiatives, traditional libraries and archives, and community archives.
Diversifying the Digital is a collaboration between the Inland Empire Memories project at UC Riverside, the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, the Shorefront Legacy Center, the South Asian American Digital Archive, and Mukurtu. The project was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) National Forum Grants program.
The project aims to address the lack of diversity represented in collections; to develop sustainable networks of community archives resources, programming and collections access at local, regional, and national levels; and to design strategies for increased collaboration with inclusion in national digital initiatives, such as the National Digital Platform.
Diversifying the Digital has hosted three prior forums to facilitate public conversations about collaborative community archives and the composition of our cultural heritage, including digital records. Forum Four will be the last in the series.
“Community archives are traditionally independent entities developed to serve specific communities. They grew out of necessity because of exclusion,” explained Bergis Jules, Project Director for Inland Empire Memories. “Diversifying the Digital has been a tremendous opportunity to explore how we can integrate community archives into national digital collections, organizations, and projects while honoring the individuality and independence of those spaces.”
Funding agencies such as IMLS, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation are moving toward more collaborative approaches to providing access to digital records, as are national digital cultural heritage projects like DPLA and the HathiTrust, which makes this an ideal time for community archives to determine how best to integrate their work with these efforts.
Records for the first three forums are posted on the Diversifying the Digital website, and can be found on Twitter using the hashtags #DDHR1, #DDHR2 and #DDHR3, respectively.
Robin M. Katz receives James Harvey Robinson Prize from AHA
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.
Healthy Campus Initiative grant awarded to library staff
On Feb. 5, a team of library employees received a UCR Healthy Campus Initiative grant for a project proposal, #puppylove: a feasibility study for an on-site, year-round animal therapy program for the UCR campus community.
Their project will conduct a year-long feasibility study to determine whether creating an on-site, year-round therapy dog service at UC Riverside would improve the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of the entire UCR campus community.
#puppylove would differ from current Library programming in which therapy dogs visit campus once per quarter as part of the Finals Week Stress Relief events provided for students. However, its enduring popularity makes a great foundation for this research, according to project lead Patricia Smith-Hunt, Head of Preservation Services.
“Institutions like UC Berkeley and Harvard and USC have implemented programs like this,” Smith-Hunt said, who drew inspiration for #pupppylove from the therapeutic benefits she gained by acquiring a dog last year. “We as staff and faculty also have stressful days, so having access to that kind of unconditional love and interaction on a regular basis rather than just once per quarter – and having it open to everyone on campus – that would be the goal of the study.”
She shared this idea with library colleagues Financial and Acquisition Analyst Jacqueline Bates and Serials Assistant Andi Newman, who shared her excitement for the concept and helped to complete the grant application.
The team received notice in December 2017 that the Healthy Campus Initiative grant review committee had decided to green-light their study. Shortly thereafter, Circulation / Reserves Services Manager Sahra Missaghieh Klawitter and Access Services Desk Coordinator Elisha Hankins also joined the project.
After the grant recipients were announced on Feb. 7 in Inside UCR, colleagues from other UCR departments reached out to the team to ask how they could get involved.
Newman observed students interacting with the therapy dogs during Finals Week Stress Relief. “I was really surprised. Even with all these students surrounding them, the dogs remained calm, they were playing with the students, doing tricks, and allowing a number of people to pet them. The dogs loved it!” she said. “I myself was able to spend about 10 minutes holding, petting and just getting unconditional doggie love. After that, I went back to my desk and I truly felt better, all from being with a dog.”
“If I’ve had a really stressful day and I walk in my door and see my three dogs – whether they’re jumping on me or not – I feel better,” Bates commented. “I think everybody should have that opportunity because a lot of people can’t own dogs.”
The feasibility study will conclude in December 2018, and the team hopes that their research data will inspire the Healthy Campus Initiative review committee to implement the #puppylove program on a permanent basis.
Elsevier access suspended
TO: UC Riverside Academic Community
FROM: Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian
RE: Elsevier access suspended
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 2019
The University of California has been out of contract with Elsevier since January, but until now the publisher continued to allow access to 2019 articles via ScienceDirect. As of today, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, UC’s direct access to new Elsevier articles has been discontinued.
What is affected: Members of the UC community no longer have direct access to:
- 2019 articles in all Elsevier journals
- Older articles in certain journals (download the list)
What is not affected: Articles published before 2019 in most Elsevier journals (covering about 95% of historical usage) should continue to be available via ScienceDirect.
Please note that the process for discontinuing access is complex, so access to specific journals or articles may fluctuate until Elsevier's rollout of these changes is complete.
The systemwide faculty Senate has encouraged stakeholders across UC to use alternative access methods or contact their campus library for assistance in obtaining articles, and to refrain from any new independent subscriptions to Elsevier journals at this time. “By ‘holding the line,’” the Senate leadership writes, “the UC can help change the system of scholarly communication for the betterment of all.”
How to get the articles you need
Information about other ways to access Elsevier articles is available on the library’s website and summarized below. There are several options — plus, the library is always here to help.
- Use tools like Google Scholar, Unpaywall and Open Access Button to quickly find open access copies, when available.
- Email the corresponding author listed in the abstract to request a copy.
- Use the interlibrary loan request form (any request for content no longer licensed through Elsevier will automatically be placed into a special queue).
- We are here to help. We are here to help. Contact our Interlibrary Loan staff at (951) 827-3234 or email ILL so we can best facilitate your needs.
What happens next?
We will be carefully evaluating the impact of losing access to new articles on ScienceDirect over the coming months, and will do our best to ensure that you have access to the articles you need. Meanwhile, UC is hoping to reenter formal negotiations with Elsevier if the publisher indicates that they are willing to discuss a contract that integrates our goals of containing costs and facilitating open access to UC research.
If you have any questions or need help accessing an article, please don’t hesitate to contact the library at any time.
Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian
Imminent change to Elsevier access
TO: UCR Academic Community
FROM: Steven Mandeville-Gamble University Librarian
RE: Imminent change to Elsevier access
DATE: July 1, 2019
The University of California has been out of contract with Elsevier since January but, so far, the publisher has continued to provide access to new articles via ScienceDirect. Although Elsevier has not yet provided us with official notification, we now have reason to believe that the publisher will shut off that direct access in the first half of July, after the July 4 holiday.
When that happens, we will no longer have direct access to 2019 articles (in all Elsevier journals) and the backfiles of certain journals (download the list). Everything else will still be accessible on ScienceDirect. Once the shut off is confirmed, we will publish a notice on the Office of Scholarly Communication website as well as the UCR Library website.
Background
Last year, the University of California entered negotiations for a new agreement with Elsevier that would not only continue UC’s access to its online journals, but also achieve the faculty-supported goals of containing journal subscription costs and providing for open access publication of UC research. Unfortunately, in late February the negotiations stalled. In the months since, Elsevier has continued to provide access to new articles via ScienceDirect without a contract in place.
Other ways to access Elsevier articles
The library is prepared to help you access articles that are no longer available via ScienceDirect once our access is discontinued. Information about other ways to access Elsevier articles, which provides guidance on how to:
- Use tools like Google Scholar, Unpaywall and Open Access Button to quickly find open access copies, when available.
- Email the corresponding author listed in the abstract to request a copy.
- Use the interlibrary loan request form (any request for content no longer licensed through Elsevier will automatically be placed into a special queue).
- Contact our Interlibrary Loan staff so we can best meet your needs. We are always here to help.
We will be carefully evaluating the impact of losing access to new articles on ScienceDirect over the coming months, and will do our best to ensure that you have access to the articles you need. Meanwhile, UC is hoping to reenter formal negotiations with Elsevier if the publisher indicates that they are willing to discuss a contract that addresses our goals of cost containment and open access.
If you have any questions or need help accessing an article, please don’t hesitate to contact a UCR Collection Strategist at any time.
Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian
Hands-On Learning Drives Success at Robotics Camp
Our month-long Robotics Camp gave around 20 undergrads a rare opportunity to build and program robots, providing valuable practical experience.
The UCR Library’s first robotics camp for undergraduates, led by Maker Services Coordinator Brendon Wheeler and Innovative Media Librarian Alvaro Alvarez, wrapped up on July 16.
The camp’s focus on hands-on learning was a hit. "The highlight for most was assembling the robots," Alvaro said. Using the SunFounder Raspberry Pi Kit, students built robots that looked like small race cars, complete with sensors and a Raspberry Pi controller. "Seeing the code in action made them think about new ways to use the robots," Brendon added.
The diverse backgrounds of the students, ranging from art to physics to various other disciplines, added depth to the learning experience. “They collaborated with new people and built friendships, which I think helped them complete the project,” Alvaro said.
Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing interest in exploring advanced topics like soldering and 3D modeling in future camps. “This was a great introduction to coding, and we’re excited the students seemed to enjoy it,” Brendon said.
Looking ahead, Brendon and Alvaro plan to build on this year’s success. Ideas include expanding the curriculum to include projects like race cars that use sensors to navigate through a race track, with a race as the final event. "We’re already refining the program for next year," Brendon said. "We’ll keep advanced elements like computer vision and AI, which we had this time around, but we want to make sure the experience is accessible to all skill levels."
The camp also introduced students to the UCR Libray’s Robotics Lab and Creat’R Lab. "Now they know they can use these facilities for their own projects," Alvaro said, noting that these labs are open to all members of the UCR community.
The camp ended with a ceremony where students earned LinkedIn badges to showcase their new skills. "They even connected with each other on LinkedIn, which was great to see," Alvaro said. With plans for a Robotics Camp next year already underway, this year’s camp set a strong foundation for future innovation at UCR.
Raising Cyberinfrastructure: Our IT Team at Work
UCR Library considered center of technical expertise.
In August, UCR hosted the University of California Computing Services Conference (UCCSC) bringing together colleagues from all 10 UC campuses and UCOP to engage and collaborate on technical issues and innovations. The UCR Library’s Cyberinfrastructure/IT Department was invited to present on the transformative work they have done in the past year creating one of the most secure, robust, and reliable infrastructure environments on campus.
Dan Szilagyi, Head of Cyberinfrastructure, presented on the new IT team’s efforts in re-architecting the library’s infrastructure, network, software, web services, security, backup system, and customer support services. The IT team, all of whom were hired in the past year based on years of expertise, training, and innovative thinking, spoke with colleagues after the presentation and attended sessions from other UCs. Dan remarked, "It is so valuable sharing information with colleagues in the UC system. We are often working on solutions to technical issues others are experiences as well. By meeting to share our collective experiences, we increase our expertise within our respective organizations."
The Data Center
A major focus of the new IT team was the overhaul of UCR Library’s data center. Independent and redundant electrical circuits were installed. This separation from building power ensures that servers will run for hours instead of minutes in the case of an electrical outage. The hardware for servers and backups was migrated into new racks (pictured), allowing for better air flow for cooling, cable management, and more capacity. The backup system was re-engineered to restore data in minutes instead of days, and all data is copied four times in different locations.
Hardware racks before and after
This new environment better supports the library’s strategic goals and unique needs by protecting our websites, digital initiatives, digital born content, data repositories, and digital preservation program. It is just one of the many efforts being undertaken by the IT team to better serve the library and community, and we are proud of their work!
Get ready: UC Library Search is almost here
After four years of planning and preparation, UC Library Search is preparing to launch on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.
This new UC-systemwide discovery platform will permanently replace Melvyl and local library catalogs as the integrated search tool for all ten University of California campus libraries.
“This project has involved the collaboration and cooperation of librarians from all ten UC campuses and a tremendous amount of time and energy,” said Tiffany Moxham, Associate University Librarian for Content and Discovery. “We are eagerly anticipating its final form.”
Key changes you’ll find in UC Library Search include:
- Search and get real-time availability for print, digital, and electronic items from all ten UC campuses in the Articles, books, and more search. This is a massive expansion from what patrons can currently find when choosing “Everything” as the search scope.
- Discover and request content not available in the UC system through WorldCat Discovery.
- Manage loans, requests, and more from multiple campuses all in one place in My Account.
We have made monthly announcements leading up to the launch to keep our campus community informed about this change. You can view the archive here, along with additional information about the project.
If you have personal lists or saved searches in Melvyl, take these steps before July 27 to preserve your research data, or it will be gone forever:
- To export saved lists, log into Melvyl. Under your account name, select “My Personal Lists” from the drop-down menu. Email the lists to yourself, or use the “Cite” button to export them into citation management software.
- To preserve saved search terms, log into Melvyl and click on “Saved Searches” in the gray menu bar. Make a note of your search terms if you wish to reproduce them in UC Library Search after July 27.
- To update bookmarks to Melvyl records, log into Melvyl and save your bookmarked items to a list, which you can either email to yourself or export into citation management software. Then after July 27, replace your links with the new URL for these items from UC Library Search.
If you have any further questions about UC Library Search, please contact Tiffany Moxham, Associate University Librarian for Content and Discovery.
IOP Publishing and University of California Sign Open Access Agreement
IOP Publishing (IOPP) and the University of California (UC) recently announced a new transformative open access agreement that will accelerate publishing and expand access to high-quality research in physics and related disciplines.
The three-year agreement will make it easier and more affordable for UC researchers to publish open access articles in all of IOPP's owned journals and most of its partner journals, a total of 77 titles, and will advance the university’s efforts to empower more of its authors to share their research freely with the world.
“As a global leader in open access, this new agreement enables UC to continue advancing equitable access to scientific knowledge,” said Mark Hanna, Associate Professor of History at UC San Diego and chair of the UC faculty Academic Senate’s systemwide committee on library and scholarly communication. “This agreement not only supports researchers in physics and related areas but also reinforces UC’s commitment to maximizing the visibility and impact of the world-class research conducted across our campuses.”
Under the agreement, the UC Libraries will automatically cover the full cost of publishing open access for corresponding authors at all 10 campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who choose to publish in IOPP’s full open access and hybrid journals, as well as most partner journals. To maximize the number of UC researchers who can benefit from the newly signed agreement, authors of qualifying articles published since January 1, 2025, will be given the opportunity to retrospectively convert their article to open access, with the open access fees fully covered. Authors who have already published open access since January 1 will be offered refunds for open access fees already paid.
Authors can use the IOPP Journal Finder to easily verify if the IOPP journal they wish to publish in meets their funder requirements or is covered by a transformative agreement. UC authors can also use UC’s Journal Open Access Lookup Tool (JOLT) to search for journals covered by any of UC's systemwide open access agreements (including IOPP's).
Julian Wilson, Chief Sales Officer at IOP Publishing, commented: “In a time of great uncertainty around funding for US researchers, we stand firm in our support of independent, open science. As well as removing the administrative burden of dealing with invoices for article publication charges and supporting researchers, this agreement also offers authors greater visibility and impact for their research. Our open access articles typically receive 70% higher downloads and 15% higher citations when compared with non-open access articles in the same journal, underscoring the value of this initiative.”
This new agreement adds to UC’s and IOPP’s rapidly growing portfolios of transformative open access agreements. The university has active open access partnerships with 22 of the largest publishers of UC research. IOPP’s partnerships now include over 1,000 institutions across 40 countries, reinforcing IOPP’s commitment to advancing open science and global access to academic research.
If you have questions, please view the agreement FAQ page. You can also contact UCR STEM Collection Strategist Michele Potter about this agreement or general questions about open access publishing options at UCR.