More News June 30, 2021

UCR Library’s Innovative Media Librarian Alvaro Alvarez and Maker Services Coordinator Raymond Gonzalez will present a workshop at the fourth annual MIRA Conference this July.

Interested Highlanders can join them for Creating a Virtual Environment for Makerspaces and Education on Thursday, July 15 from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. The deadline to register is Monday, July 12.

The Makerspaces for Innovation and Research in Academics (MIRA) Conference brings makers, librarians, educators and practitioners together to share stories, expertise, and their passion for makerspaces and the future of learning. Both Alvarez and Gonzalez have been involved with the MIRA Conference since its 2018 debut, before they joined the UCR Library; in fact, Alvarez thought up the conference name, MIRA. “It brings in the makerspace community to share and to learn new services and technologies,” Gonzales said. “By presenting at MIRA, we get to both share our knowledge and experiences while also learning from others.”

For their presentation, they chose to showcase the virtual reality replica of the Creat’R Lab they built in fall quarter 2020. (For best results, use Mozilla Firefox.) “Virtual Reality is one of the new technologies that is becoming very popular in makerspaces, so we wanted to share our Creat'R Lab virtual environment with our peers to help them get started, if VR is a topic of interest to them,” said Alvarez.

“Due to the pandemic, students and faculty were not able to visit our makerspace in person. This virtual environment allowed the UCR Community, especially those new to the University, to visit and learn about the Creat’R Lab from wherever they are,” Gonzalez added.

This pandemic-driven shift to online-only learning may influence the future of the Creat’R Lab in a positive way. “We will be able to do more online workshops and hybrids so that we can reach a larger audience of students that normally would not be able to attend in person,” Alvarez said. Hosting hybrid workshops allows for more flexibility in scheduling and for UCR makers to review workshop recordings at their leisure, he added.

In addition, needing to think creatively about how to present these topics kept Creat’R Lab staff thinking outside the box. “Creating virtual programming helped us think of more accessible ways of making,” Gonzales explained. “Not everyone has access to equipment like 3D printers and licensed software like Photoshop. During the pandemic, we had workshops on free creative software such as Blender and GIMP, bookbinding techniques using simple tools and materials, painting using three colors of paint, and basic coding and circuit simulation using a free web-based software.”

Originally launched on April 18, 2017, the Creat’R Lab in Orbach Library has served as a gathering place where UCR students and faculty can experiment, design, and create collaboratively, blending their expertise together to forge new paths in learning. It was the first makerspace of its kind at UC Riverside that allowed students and faculty from any department to use it. “We hope that the virtual Creat’R Lab will allow everyone in the UCR Community to familiarize themselves with the makerspace and understand that they are all welcome to use the space and equipment,” Gonzales said.

The Creat’R Lab space in Orbach Library will be closed over the summer, but several online Maker Meetup events will be offered free of charge to UCR students. Ray Gonzalez and Alvaro Alvarez are currently planning for the re-opening of Creat’R Lab this fall quarter. Please check the library website for the latest information on library re-opening plans.

More News June 04, 2021

Before you leave for summer break, here is a summary of how the upcoming transition to UC Library Search on July 27, 2021 will affect you.

UC Library Search will replace the local UCR catalog and Melvyl as the unified UC-wide search tool, allowing you to discover the collections of all 10 campuses’ libraries in one place. Each campus will no longer use its own catalog; this new platform will bring all of the UC campus libraries into the same system.

With enhanced features like single sign-on, UC Library Search allows you to borrow and renew materials without retyping your library card number, and without having to search in multiple places for different kinds of resources. It will maximize the value of the UC collections by making it easier for you to find and borrow items, thanks to improved inter-campus resource sharing tools and a simplified user interface.

Current UC students, faculty and researchers will also be able to pick up items from any UC campus, allowing you the option to choose the UC library closest to home as your pick-up location.

The best part is, UC Library Search will look and feel very similar to the catalog search tool that UCR has been using since 2018, but it will also have the expanded features mentioned above, and more. This should help to shorten the learning curve for UCR patrons.

Melvyl will be retired on July 27, after 40 years of use by the University of California Libraries. Before this happens, if you have saved lists, saved searches, or bookmarks to Mevyl records, then you should preserve these items as they will not be imported into UC Library Search. Follow the steps outlined here to save your data.

Additionally, during the data migration phase (“cutover”) from July 6 to 27, patrons will be unable to access their accounts and library staff will be unable to add new acquisitions to the catalog. Therefore, any UCR faculty who wish to request new resource acquisitions must do so either before July 5 or wait until after cutover is complete and UC Library Search has launched on July 27. For Course Reserves, please review the information on this page.

Library staff plans to release training materials for UC Library Search as we approach fall quarter.

Read more about the development of UC Library Search and other FAQs here.

More News April 04, 2019

Over the next few months, construction and several moves will be occurring in the Rivera and Orbach Libraries.

Here is the overview. This webpage will be updated as projects are completed, or as timeframes shift.

Rivera Library

Basement

• ​ Completed: Microfilms have been relocated to circulating shelves in the basement to the right of the metal microfiche cases.
• Currently: Construction has started in the former microfilm stacks to create a new secured stack area for Special Collections and University Archives.

First Floor

• ​ Completed: Interlibrary Loan operations has relocated to the Circulation/Reserves service desk in Rivera Library.

Second Floor

• ​ Completed - June 3 - August 9:
  • Staff will move items in the Education Services collection to the basement (includes juvenile books, puppets, manipulatives, textbooks), where the microfilm was previously housed. This will allow greater patron accessibility on a non-quiet floor with more open space — conducive for a collection that sometimes is used by parents/caregivers with children.
  • Items with K-L call numbers will be moved to the shelves where the Education Services materials were previously housed, on the second floor of Rivera Library.
• ​ Completed - August 12 - September 20:
  • Items with ML-MT call numbers will be temporarily moved to mobile carts on the second floor, while new, broader shelving is being installed. During this time, for your convenience, we suggest that patrons submit a hold/request for items in this collection, so that library staff can retrieve the items for you.

Orbach Library

First Floor

•  Completed: Poster Printing services has moved from the ground floor to room 121 on the first floor. 
• ​ Completed: The Map Collection has moved from the ground floor to first floor. Map cases, GIS workstations, aerial photos, light table, and work tables are adjacent to the Creat'R Lab, now labeled as "Geospatial Resources."

Ground Floor

• June: The UCR School of Medicine will begin construction of their Clinical Skills Simulation Lab in the space formerly occupied by the Map Collection and some adjacent library spaces.

Music Library

The Music Library will close at the end of the day on Friday, September 6, and reopen on Monday, September 16. It will be closed for a week on September 9.

• ​ Completed - September 9 - 13: The Music collection will move to the Rivera Library.
  • M call number materials will be moved and shelved after the new location of the L call numbers on the second floor of Rivera Library.
  • ML and MT call numbers will then be shelved after the M call numbers.
  • Music Study Score will be shelved separately following the MT call numbers.
• ​ Completed - Music Media (CD, VHS, LP, etc.)
  • Music media will be interfiled into the current Media Collection on the first floor of Rivera Library. New security cases are being ordered for the collection.
  • Rivera Reference will be shifted to the last two ranges behind the reference desk.
  • The Media Collection will expand to the first range on the left side—shelves will be added accordingly.

More News February 28, 2019

TO:                  UC Riverside Community

FROM:            Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian

DATE:             Thursday, February 28, 2019

RE:                  Outcome of UC Negotiations with Elsevier

I write to you today to share the outcome of the University of California’s negotiations to renew its systemwide license with scholarly journal publisher Elsevier, which have been underway for many months.

What’s happening

While we did make progress, particularly in the past few weeks, toward defining a model for open access publishing of UC research, Elsevier was ultimately unwilling to meet UC’s key goal: securing universal open access to UC research, as stated in the Academic Senate’s principles on scholarly communication, while integrating open access publishing fees and subscription fees into a single cost-controlled contract. These twin goals had been jointly articulated and endorsed by the systemwide Academic Senate, the Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC), and the Council of University Librarians.

The Academic Senate today also expressed its support for UC’s position with regard to the Elsevier negotiations.

In the end, cost, in particular, proved to be an insurmountable challenge. For example, Elsevier’s most recent proposal did not include any cap on the total amount UC faculty could end up paying in article publishing fees. Their model also would not have allowed us to fully subsidize article fees for authors who lack the funds themselves. To meet UC’s goal of open access publication for all UC authors, Elsevier would have charged authors over $10 million per year in addition to the libraries’ current multi-million dollar subscription. The university is not willing to accept a deal that increases Elsevier’s profits at the expense of our faculty. As a result, UC has announced that it will not be signing a new contract with Elsevier at this time.

While we do not know exactly when, Elsevier is expected to begin limiting UC’s access to new articles through its online platform, ScienceDirect, possibly very soon. This will mean some changes to how UC scholars access certain Elsevier journal articles.

What content will — and won’t — be affected

If you use Elsevier articles in your research, here are the most important things to know:

• Most Elsevier articles published in 2018 or earlier will still be accessible via ScienceDirect. Because UC’s prior contracts included permanent access to previously published content, you will still be able to get immediate access to the full text of most articles via Elsevier’s ScienceDirect backfiles, just as you have in the past.
• Open access articles in Elsevier journals are also unaffected. Many authors choose to pay an open access fee (called an article processing charge, or APC) when they publish, so it’s always worth checking to see if the article you’re seeking is available open access from the journal’s website or elsewhere online (click here for tips on how to search for open access versions).
• Elsevier e-books and other products licensed by UC such as Netter’s green books and the Reaxys and Inspec (through Engineering Village) databases are covered under separate contracts and remain available as before.
• What is affected: At some point, Elsevier may begin to turn off UC’s direct access to articles with a 2019 publish date and the backfiles of certain journals (download list).
• Alternative access options to the affected articles will be available, including *expedited* document delivery: see UCR’s Alternative Access to Articles webpage for more information.

If you are having trouble accessing a particular article, please contact a UCR Collection Strategist.

Interested in updates?

Find the latest information on the Office of Scholarly Communications website.

If you have any general questions,  please don’t hesitate to contact Tiffany Moxham, Assistant University Librarian for Content and Discovery (tiffany.moxham@ucr.edu) at any time.

More News September 14, 2018

The University of California, Riverside Library will host Open Access Week 2018, as part of the global event called International Open Access Week.

The event series will kick off on Monday, Oct. 22, with workshops held each afternoon from 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday in the Orbach Library, Room 122. “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge" is the 2018 theme.

Open Access Week is an opportunity for the academic and research community to learn about the potential benefits of sharing what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make “open access” a new norm in scholarship, research and data planning and preservation.

The Open Access movement is made of up advocates (librarians, researchers, publishers, etc.) who promote the free, immediate, and online publication of research.

This will be the ninth International Open Access Week program hosted by the UCR Library.

The Open Access Week workshops are free and open to the public.

The program includes:

More News April 22, 2024

During winter quarter 2024, the UCR Library collaborated with Dr. Alejandra Dubcovsky and her History 197 students on a ‘revolutionary’ project.

From March 15 through March 28, 2024, a poster exhibit near the Information Desk in the Tomás Rivera Library was on display that offered different perspectives on the American Revolution.

Dr. Dubcovsky aimed to deepen students' understanding of the American Revolution by allowing students to explore it from diverse angles, with their research culminating in a poster exhibit.

“There are so many primary materials available and they cover all sorts of topics, from fashion to food, from warfare to everyday life, and from women's experiences to the role of political discourse,” Dr. Dubcovsky explained. “Students can always find something of interest in the American Revolution!”

Key to this exploration were the efforts of Social Sciences Teaching Librarian Michael Yonezawa and Arts and Humanities Teaching Librarian Robin M. Katz. They collaborated with Dr. Dubcovsky to design a library instruction session for the class that not only introduced students to valuable library resources but also helped them engage directly with primary sources.

Dr. Dubcovsky credited this collaboration as critical to the project's success, stating, "The library and librarians were instrumental in the success of the students' research projects. Michael and Robin then went above and beyond (as usual), and held individual meetings with each student; these one-on-one meetings allowed students to ask specific questions and resolve particular research queries."

Student Kasen Milhon-Martin appreciated the one-on-one session. “I met with Michael Yonezawa and he was incredibly helpful and walked me through using the databases…it was also really helpful to talk through my topic while looking for sources to use.”  

Another student in the class, Jacob Spencer, expressed how the library’s resources proved invaluable. "The library was the linchpin in my work…giving me free use of internet databases like Gale's Sabin Americana and JSTOR were immensely helpful."

Jacob was unaware of how easy library services like Interlibrary Loan were to use until this project, noting how smooth the process was.

“I needed a book that UCR didn't have, but through the interlibrary loan system, I was able to get it without any problems,” Jacob said. “It's such a wonderfully useful facet of the library that I most definitely will turn to should I need something that I can't pick right off the shelf at Rivera.”

Another History 197 student, Bailey Hellman, shared their enthusiasm for the accessible presentation of historical research through posters: "It's really nice to be able to see something that you have spent so much time working on being displayed. A lot of academic papers are difficult to read, so something like a poster makes historical work more digestible and accessible."

Bailey was surprised by all of the databases accessible to the UCR community for free through the UCR Library, "There are so many sources in those that don't come up with a simple Google search––and I couldn't have written my paper without them. It made everything so much easier," Bailey said.

Haydn Marshall, another student in the class, successfully tracked down the full original text of the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act of 1746 in a book in the Rivera Library. There is a free online version from the UK Parliament’s website, but it only goes back to 1991 and not all of the original text is included. Haydn was able to leverage library resources to find the full original text version.

“I gave some advice, but I didn’t point out this specific title,” Robin M. Katz said. “This is just one example of the many students who had a chance to hone and demonstrate tremendous skill and initiative.”

Robin continued, “This story also shows how meaningful it is for us librarians to see students’ final projects – most of the time, we teach a session, or have a research consultation, or answer a question and we don’t know where the research leads. Getting to reconnect with Haydn and see his fantastic work and hear his insightful argument was a real highlight of the quarter for me.”

This exhibition not only showcased students' hard work but also underscored the library's vital role in fostering academic research and information literacy.

“Working with instructors to support students' information literacy development is one of our primary missions,” said Director of Teaching and Learning Britt Foster. “And being active creators of information, as with these posters, is the perfect example of this, as students are bringing together primary and secondary sources to tell these stories in new ways.”

• Read more about Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Speculative Fiction

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 June 26, 2017

The University of California, Riverside hosted the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) 2017 conference from Wednesday, June 28 to Saturday, July 1.

This year's conference theme was "Unknown Pasts / Unseen Futures."

Home to the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy, UCR also runs the Speculative Fictions and Cultures of Science graduate program, and has a robust research community focused on speculative fiction across media.

UC Riverside’s collaboration with SFRA was due to the backing of UCR Library and the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), with a significant amount of funding and staff support made available by CHASS Dean Milagros Peña. “Without Dean Peña’s support, we wouldn’t even have started down the path of having a conference,” said Dr. Sherryl Vint, Director, Speculative Fiction and Cultures of Science.

“We are absolutely delighted that UCR hosted the SFRA 2017 conference,” said Alison Scott, Associate University Librarian for Collections & Scholarly Communication. “Bringing scholars, students, and creative artists to campus was such a great opportunity for shared learning and engagement. We’re thrilled!”

JJ Jacobson, UCR Library’s inaugural Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction, was one of the panelists at the SFRA conference. Her discussion was about the dialogue between researchers and curators.

“We talked with a UCR graduate student who has done research in the Eaton Collection,” Jacobson explained. “We talked about her experience and how researchers and librarians can work together, what constitutes librarians’ work and what constitutes researchers’ work."

According to SFRA, the “Unknown Pasts / Unseen Future” theme grew out of their 2016 conference, which was centered on the history of science fiction that has yet to be sufficiently addressed in scholarship, including marginalized or otherwise neglected bodies of work. The conference theme also reflected UCR’s commitment to science fiction scholarship that is focused on imagining and creating sustainable and inclusive futures. The focus was equally on new voices in the field and the new kinds of futures that emerge from this broader sense of the field’s membership.

Founded in 1970, SFRA is the oldest professional association dedicated to the scholarly inquiry into science fiction. The association works to improve classroom teaching; encourage and assist scholarship; and to evaluate and publicize new books and magazines dealing with fantastic literature and film, teaching methods and materials, and allied media performances.

"One of the reasons I started having our graduate students co-curate exhibits was to give them another modality through which to speak," Jacobson explained. "They’re really good with words because they’re writing all the time – articles, talks, dissertations – but an exhibit is a very different thing. It’s not just words, it’s not just words and images. An exhibit is a display of works that already exist, so they’re already part of the public conversation, which are put together to tell a story about some aspect of speculative fiction, science fiction, or fantasy. It’s important to me because here are these inquisitive, caring, extremely hard-working young people who are actively committed to using speculative fiction to encourage the world to change. It was important that the Eaton Collection help them find a new kind of voice, to expand how they contribute to the world in terms of public goods.”

As an additional perk, the Eaton Collection granted access to conference attendees only from June 26 to 28, between the hours of 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. The 2017 SFRA conference was held at the Marriott Riverside located at 3400 Market Street, 92501. For the full conference program, panel list, and more, please visit the SFRA conference website.

More News October 28, 2022