More News August 01, 2016

Janet Reyes is our new Geospatial Information Librarian for the UCR Library.

Janet spent her professional career creating or using a variety of geographic data. Prior to coming to UC Riverside, the bulk of her career was spent at Aerial Information Systems Inc. (AIS), an environmental consulting firm in Redlands, California that specializes in geospatial data development. Among her duties at AIS were photointerpretation of land use and vegetation; compiling various types of geographic data into geographic information systems (GIS); project management; quality control; data assessment; and report writing. Many of the projects completed by AIS covered portions of the Inland Empire or southern California, and some were performed as a subcontractor to the GIS software giant Esri.

Janet also has experience as a planner handling mapping projects and demographic data for the San Bernardino County Planning Department, and she worked for Rome Research Corporation as a photointerpreter.

She holds a BS in natural resources from Cornell University and an MS in physical geography from Oregon State University, where she worked in the Environmental Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory.

In her new role, Janet looks forward to connecting UCR community members to the geospatial information they need.

More News April 19, 2016

The UCR Library’s 3D printer was featured with demonstrations for over 140 honors students during “Geek Week” in early January. This event launched a new collaborative program between the Library and University Honors (UH) to foster curiosity and exploration, build a sustainable peer resource program, and increase student collaboration with interdisciplinary projects.

The UH Peer Researcher Fellowship and Innovation Program has two components. The fellowship program pairs students with a librarian mentor to learn advance research skills and experience co-teaching library workshops. We hope to build a strong learning community of peer instructors to share skills, experiences, and knowledge through this experiential learning opportunity.

17 fellows from a variety of disciplines and stages of academic career were selected for the pilot program. UH students Raymond Tran and Mary Michaels serve as program advisers, assisting the librarian team to develop future programming and curriculum. The pilot program will be assessed through student, staff, and faculty feedback.

Engaging students through innovative and entrepreneurial forums or project laboratories is another program focus. Guest speakers from a range of professional backgrounds will host discussions on crowdfunding, multimedia production, and small business development. Project laboratories will provide space, tools, and hands-on instruction for experimenting and “making” with open-source electronic platforms such as Raspberry Pi and MakeyMakey.

Through this enriched programming we hope to inspire UH students, and to spark early exploration and design of their capstone projects.

More News October 23, 2017

Change is in the air as UCR Library leaders work to transform the Library into a library of the future.

Since University Librarian Steve Mandeville-Gamble started at UCR in 2013, he has focused on developing strategies to support and accelerate the research and teaching programs on campus. One of the objectives in the Library’s Strategic Plan is to develop library leaders to anticipate and meet the rapidly changing campus environment within a culture of innovative thinking and calculated risk-taking.

Starting in 2014, Deputy University Librarian Ann Frenkel (above, center) has been exploring with the librarians the best staffing structures to most effectively support teaching, learning, and research. As typical for many research institutions, the majority of librarians were grouped in parallel departments in discipline-focused libraries (Rivera or Orbach), with each librarian expected to have broad responsibilities and expertise in teaching, research support, and collection building.

After much discussion, in FY2017 the Library recruited two new leaders to work collaboratively to create two departments that would provide more focus specifically for teaching and research: Dani Brecher Cook, Director of Teaching and Learning (above, left), and Brianna Marshall, Director of Research Services (above, right).

During the summer Cook and Marshall worked together with the librarians to develop the mission, vision, and positions needed for their two new departments. “This collaborative leadership structure is not seen in a lot of other libraries,” Marshall said.

“Our administrative team is really open to new ideas and trying out things in an experimental way,” Cook said of the library’s workplace culture.

Marshall echoed her sentiment. “I’m really excited to be in this role. I was drawn to it because of the focus on creativity, innovation, and trying new things.”

Supporting new researcher workflows in the ever-evolving era of digital learning presents unique challenges, according to Marshall. “There are pressures on new faculty that weren’t on their predecessors,” she reflected.

Cook added that the library is exploring technology-enriched models. “We’ve been very empowered to think about new ways of doing teaching and learning and research services at this university that’s growing at an incredible pace.”

Cook and Marshall both came to UCR with forward-thinking ideas about doing things differently – and perhaps better – than other campuses. “What’s getting most libraries stuck is their fear of failing,” Marshall explained, adding that the culture she aspires to is one that embraces vulnerability and builds a community of practice. “We want to figure out an aspirational view of what our department can provide to the campus community.”

Another goal is breaking down silos. Cook explained the library’s approach to solving this challenge, “We’re helping faculty and instructors to support students in accomplishing research-related learning goals. There are a lot of great partners on campus that we’ve identified already. We’re looking forward to deepening and evolving those collaborations.”

“This campus has an incredible energy to it,” Marshall observed. “People are open and optimistic.”

Frenkel added, “This is very much a living process, with adjustments and refinements along the way, and we look forward to constructive conversations with faculty and researchers regarding their experience with this new model over the coming months.”

More News April 29, 2022

The UCR Library’s Robin Katz contributed to Adam Matthew’s latest platform, Research Methods Primary Sources. 

Primary sources are history in the raw, data that hasn’t been interpreted yet. Primary sources present themselves in formats like oral histories, letters, diaries, and other first-hand documentation. 

As a new researcher or college student, interpreting and analyzing primary sources can be an exciting yet overwhelming task. Many may still regard history as a collection of agreed-upon facts attractively packaged together in a textbook.

A new tool from academic publisher Adam Matthew aims to teach students what primary sources are, where to find them, and how to conduct the critical analysis necessary to wield primary sources effectively. 

Research Methods Primary Sources (RMPS) is an online learning tool for primary source literacy designed to support students of the humanities and social sciences by introducing key methods and approaches to working with historical material. 

“What is exciting about RMPS is that it doesn’t just contain digitized primary sources — it is designed to teach students how to engage with primary sources, and it can be used by faculty to design learning activities and assignments,” said Robin Katz, the UCR Library’s Arts and Humanities Teaching Librarian.

Adam Matthew approached Katz to provide input on the tool due to her expertise in primary source pedagogy.  

“I gave feedback on how the then-proposed tool would be useful to librarians, faculty, and students and how it could best meet their goals,” Katz explained. “I also authored a case study on using oral histories.” 

The platform's flexibility allows it to be easily incorporated into a classroom setting or used as part of a student’s independent study. Students will learn through videos, how-to guides, and peer-reviewed essays. Students will also be able to access over 140 case studies and put their new skills into practice, all within the platform. 

Research Methods Primary Sources is sure to become an essential resource for students seeking to develop the skills necessary to conduct research and evaluate primary sources confidently. 

This innovative teaching and learning tool is now available to all UCR students, faculty, and researchers. To connect to RMPS, navigate to the UCR Library's A-Z Database page, or head straight to the Research Methods Primary Sources website. If you’re connecting from off-campus, ensure you have your VPN installed and turned on to access the resource.

More News January 20, 2017

On January 4, 2017, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) announced that the UCR Library and the Sherman Indian Museum would receive a $376,191 Digitizing Hidden Collections grant, generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for a collaborative project to digitize the museum’s collection.

“Their collection houses thousands of one-of-a-kind documents about the history, education, and culture of The Sherman Institute from 1901 to 1970, and Sherman Indian High School from 1970 to the present day,” explained Dr. Clifford E. Trafzer, UC Riverside’s Distinguished Professor of History and Rupert Costo Chair in American Indian Affairs. “The collections also have all the records of Perris Indian School from 1892 to 1904, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs transferred students to The Sherman Institute, the first off-reservation American Indian boarding school in southern California. These are valuable treasures that cannot be replaced. Documents and photographs represent many aspects of student life at Sherman and focus on the people, curriculum, sports, music, dance, and vocational education.”

“These records hold the history for so many people: Native American people who came to school here, people who have worked here, and their families,” said Lorene Sisquoc, Director of the Sherman Indian Museum. “We get many different research requests, not just from alumni. It’s been quite in-demand for the past 25 years, and the demand has gotten bigger and bigger to access these archives that are well over 100 years old. It was crucial that we got this done somehow.”

The Sherman Indian Museum collection is an invaluable resource documenting the Native American experience in the United States. The collection supports research in a range of disciplines and on a variety of topics including Native American education, the US government’s cultural assimilation efforts of Native Americans, and the history of American Indian off-reservation boarding schools.

“There are only a handful of American Indian boarding school collections out there, and the only other one that has been digitized is in Pennsylvania,” explained Eric Milenkiewicz, Manuscripts Curator and co-principal investigator on the grant. “So this project will provide the public with a glimpse into the boarding school experience from a California, west coast perspective.” Given the granting agency’s guidelines, the Sherman Indian Museum could not apply for the grant on their own; they also didn’t have the resources needed to digitize their collection. That was all the incentive that UCR Library needed to complete the grant application last April.

“Serving this type of community need is exactly why the Inland Empire Memories initiative exists,” Eric explained. Founded in 2013, the mission of Inland Empire Memories is to identify, preserve, interpret, and share the rich cultural legacies of the Inland Empire’s diverse communities. “It’s really about safeguarding these materials, this community treasure for future generations. This is part of Riverside’s history, which UCR is also a part of, and we want to make sure that the collection is preserved and accessible to the community.” The digital collection will be made available through Calisphere, thanks to CLIR and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, allowing worldwide online access to this rich resource.

As part of this grant, UCR Library will help build infrastructure for future digitization efforts at the Sherman Indian Museum. The grant will also procure scanning equipment for the Museum, and students from the Sherman Indian High School will receive training so that they can participate in digitization.  “This is something that’s been needed for a long time,” said Lorene, “and we’re very fortunate to get this.”

“One of our project’s primary goals is to embed these technical skills in the community that will be carrying this digitization work forward,” Eric explained. “We believe that the skills learned by the students over the course of this project will positively impact the museum and community, promoting a greater understanding of digital initiatives work. And we hope that this grant project will inspire further community support from other interested organizations or individuals who will want to step in, to carry this torch into the future,” Eric added.

Benefits of digitizing the Sherman Museum’s collection are many, but three come to the forefront. As Lorene explains, “It’s going to benefit people all over to be able to access these, and also to protect them so we won’t be using originals as research access.” According to Dr. Trafzer, “Scholars will produce many books and articles from the rich documents found in the collections,” he explained. “Equally important, former Native American students of Sherman and their families will have easy access to documents and photographs, school newspapers and annuals. Native American people and families will be able to learn more about the lives of their loved ones. This will provide contemporary American Indians and scholars with images and voices of past generations of students, faculty, and staff at Sherman.”

“It’s not just great news for UCR’s own graduate students,” Associate University Librarian for Collections & Scholarly Communication, Alison Scott concurred. “This will be great for the world.”

More News March 25, 2013

By Ross French

​RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — In the weeks since he joined the University of California, Riverside as the new University Librarian, Steven Mandeville-Gamble has impressed staff and faculty with his leadership skills and friendly, outgoing personality. But Mandeville-Gamble made an even better impression at his welcome reception, held on March 22 at the Raymond L. Orbach Science Library, by presenting a gift that had the audience buzzing.

Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections at the University of California, Riverside, holds a copy of the first American edition of “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” by Charles Darwin. New University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble gave to book to the UCR Special Collections as a thank you gift. PHOTO BY ROSS FRENCH

Saying that he wanted to give back to the campus for hosting the reception in his honor, Mandeville-Gamble presented the library with a first American edition copy of Charles Darwin’s “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” from his personal collection. Published in 1873, the book elicited a “wow” from Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections at the Rivera Library.

“The first American edition of Darwin’s classic 'Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals' is a wonderful surprise and a very generous gift,” Conway said. “We are building a History of Science Collection as a complement to our outstanding Eaton Science Fiction Collection.”

“It has been a wonderful three weeks… I am so delighted by the staff I get to work with every day in all the departments of the library,” Mandeville-Gamble said during his remarks. “I have been delighted with my interactions with the faculty and the administration, and I could not be happier to be here.”

“We had the good fortune to have a number of really highly qualified candidates for the position, but in the end, it was Steven Mandeville-Gamble who clearly distinguished himself from all of the others,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Dallas Rabenstein during his introduction. Rabenstein added that he was impressed with Mandeville-Gamble’s vision, enthusiasm, depth of knowledge and commitment to creating a 21st-century library. “It became very clear that Steven was the one who could provide leadership for the library moving into the future.”

“I have a fairly big vision of where the library is going, but that vision can’t happen without people,” Mandeville-Gamble said. “I think the people are here and I think we will make a great team. I am very much looking forward to it.”

“Let’s start an interesting partnership, and let’s go places,” he added.

Guests fill the atrium of the Raymond L. Orbach Science library prior to the start of the Welcome Reception for new University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble on March 22. PHOTO BY ROSS FRENCH

Mandeville-Gamble came to UCR from George Washington University, where he was associate librarian. While there he helped to raise $23 million dollars in contributions and endowments. His parents, Gary and Linda Mandeville-Gamble, travelled from their home in Ashland, Ore. to join the festivities.

Mandeville-Gamble was also presented with welcome gifts by Wanda Scruggs, the library’s development officer, and Patricia Smith-Hunt, head of preservation services and chair of the Librarian Association of UC Riverside and Julia Ree, president of the Library Staff Association.

 

More News April 30, 2018

Eli Labinger is a fourth-year psychology major who works as a Student Assistant in Special Collections and University Archives at the UCR Library.

Labinger grew up in West Hollywood, California as the younger of two sons. His mother is a first grade teacher and his father is a wholesale bookseller.

UC Riverside was an easy choice to make for Labinger because he wanted to stay close to home for college, but also wanted to attend a research university. “When I first visited, I really loved it. It has a very intimate feeling about it,” he said. “It was just a really good fit for me.”

Working at the library also turned out to be a great fit for Labinger. “There’s a lot to love about this job,” he said. “It’s really the anticipation of working with new things or in new areas every day keeps me interested and excited. There’s always something new to experience here.”

One of his favorite work-related memories comes from a 2016 event for the Chancellor’s Associates. “Donors who were visiting the library stopped by Special Collections,” Labinger explained. “We had seven or eight display tables set up around the reading room. Each table had things representing a specific area, and I got to present on The Lord of the Rings as representative of the fantasy literature collection. That was cool.”

His interest in fantasy literature helped to establish a friendship with Science Fiction Librarian Jacqueline “JJ” Jacobson. “I have talked a lot with JJ especially about The Lord of the Rings,” he said. “That’s sort of my outside interest.”

Aside from his work at the library, Labinger also works in a research laboratory in UCR's Department of Psychology. “I’m working on a project right now for the Chancellor’s Research Fellowship,” he said. “Psychology is a really new field and there’s a lot of research out there but there’s so much to be done. There are a lot of important discoveries yet to be made. I think that global change is going to stem from research.”

He feels most passionate about research that focuses on children and adolescents. “It’s such rapid growth period, and by the time we learn new things about these people, the people we’re studying grow up and grow out of our findings. A lot of things become out of date really quickly. There can’t be too much research with younger people.”

Between classes and working at both the library and the psychology lab, Labinger has little spare time for other hobbies. “I haven’t been able to do all the things I like to do, like read for pleasure.”

After graduation, Labinger will be moving to Portland, Oregon, to complete his PhD at Portland State University’s applied developmental psychology program. As a graduate student, he will be assisting Dr. Andrew Mashburn in his research, which includes assessing the effectiveness of early interventions for improving school readiness in preschoolers moving to kindergarten.

“I am especially interested in understanding the types of children and families for whom such interventions work best, and in using this information to find programs that work for all students and that have lasting positive effects,” Labinger said.

More News November 28, 2023

Please Welcome Shannon Castro to the UCR Library

Under the leadership of the Sr. Executive Director, Constituency Programs and in close collaboration with the University Librarian, Shannon will develop and execute long- and short-term strategies to grow the philanthropic pipeline and secure major gifts for the UCR Library.

Shannon brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our team. Before joining us, Shannon served as the Director of Resource Development for the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity. In this role, she juggled multiple responsibilities, including overseeing all donor revenue for Resource Development, marketing, communication events, and volunteer programs.

Additionally, Shannon has held key roles at San Antonio Hospital Foundation, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, and Citrus Valley Health Foundation, showcasing a wealth of experience in major donor cultivation, annual donors, stewardship, event planning, and project management. One of her notable achievements includes executing a $12 million Vineyard Tower Capital Campaign and overseeing a $6 million San Antonio Regional Hospital/City of Hope Cancer Center Capital Campaign. Her ability to increase donor bases through annual giving memberships and events has consistently produced remarkable results.

More News April 04, 2017

UCR Library is pleased to welcome Rochelle Settle as the Administrative Assistant in Library Administration, effective April 3, 2017.

Rochelle's work station is at the front desk in suite 141 of Rivera Library. She will manage supply orders through the Library’s supply database, as well as scheduling, cash/check deposits, and other library projects and administrative duties.

Rochelle has over nine years of experience working in an educational environment. Most recently, she worked with the Raytown C-2 School District in Kansas City, Missouri.

Rochelle earned her Master of Arts in Theological Studies at the Central Theological Seminary, Shawnee, Kansas.  She also has a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies from Calvary University, Kansas City, Missouri.

More News March 10, 2021

Effective March 10, 2021, UC authors can make their research freely available for anyone to read through three new transformative open access publishing agreements with The Royal Society journals, Canadian Science Publishing (CSP), and The Company of Biologists (CoB).

These new, cost-neutral agreements will apply retrospectively to articles accepted after January 1, 2021 and will run through December 31, 2023. The contract with CSP is the first such agreement for a Canadian journal publisher.

The agreements achieve both of UC’s key goals for transformative open access journal agreements: controlling costs and providing for open access publishing in the full portfolio, including hybrid (subscription-based with open access options) and open access journals of The Royal Society, Canadian Science Publishing, and The Company of Biologists.

UC authors can now publish an unlimited number of research articles immediately open access. The CoB agreement covers all 10 UC campuses, while SCP and The Royal Society agreement are available to all campuses except UCSF. Under the agreement, the UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the open access fee, or article processing charge (APC), for all included UC authors who choose to publish in a contracted journal.

Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.

Authors who do not have research funds available can request full funding of the APC from the libraries, ensuring that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors who wish to publish open access in these journals.

By combining funding from the libraries with authors’ grant funds, the agreement provides a model for how research-intensive institutions can create a sustainable and inclusive path to full open access.

Publishers are exploring how to shift from subscription-based business models to models that make it easier and more affordable for researchers to publish their work open access.

The agreement also provides researchers on participating UC campuses with unlimited access to the full portfolio of Royal Society journals, Canadian Science Publishing journals, and The Company of Biologists’ journals and their archives.

For more detail about these agreements, please see:

• The Royal Society open access agreement
• The Company of Biologists open access agreement
• Canadian Science Publishing open access agreement

About UC’s Transformative Open Access Agreements:

Transformative open access agreements support UC’s mission as a public university and advance the global shift toward sustainable open access publishing by making more UC-authored research articles open to the world, while maintaining journal affordability. UC seeks to partner with publishers of all types, sizes and disciplines to jointly advance a worldwide transition to open access across the entire landscape of scholarly journal publishing. For more on these aims and principles, see UC’s Call to Action for Negotiating Journal Agreements at UC, the UC faculty Academic Senate’s Declaration of Rights and Principles to Transform Scholarly Communication, and UC’s priorities for publisher negotiations.