More News February 19, 2018

February 2, 2018 marked the first time that the UCR Library was invited to participate in the “Find a Job on Campus Fair” presented by UC Riverside’s on-campus Career Center.

As the second-largest student employer on campus, library representatives were thrilled about the opportunity to meet with students who might be interested in joining the UCR Library team.

During the event, Access Services Desk Coordinators Leslie Settle and Elisha Hankins along with Collection Development Assistant Pam Sun distributed hiring material and held on-the-spot interviews.

“The Find a Job on Campus Fair was an excellent opportunity to share the UCR Library brand, mission, and various student employment opportunities with the campus,” said Settle.

Hankins added, “Prior to the event starting, there were lines of students wanting a chance to network with campus employers and the library collected hundreds of resumes. I quickly realized that the UCR Library was a desired place to work for UCR students.”

More than 380 students attended the Find a Job on Campus Fair, and the library’s table had a steady flow of traffic throughout the event, according to Wendy Williams-Clark, Interim Director of Organizational Design and Human Resources for UCR Library. Both Settle and Hankins found and hired several new student workers for their departments by participating in the Find a Job on Campus Fair.

Settle added, “This is definitely an event I look forward to again.”

More News February 10, 2017

Many hands make for light work – and when the job is sorting more than 21,000 comic books, you need a lot of hands.

Jim Clark, Head of the Database Management and Authority Control Unit, and Erika Quintana, Acquisitions Unit Supervisor were tagged as team leaders and charged with tackling the project of sorting 142 boxes, each containing approximately 150 comic books.

Jim explained, “We took all the boxes, looked at what we had, and tried to come up with how best to attack it.” He and Erika knew right away that they needed help, and all it took was the lure of free pizza to entice the rest of the team to join. Perhaps library employees are not so different from the students they serve, after all.

“It was a lot of fun,” Jim added. “Erika Quintana and I just organized all the boxes, gathered everybody, and we just went to town.” There were three big sorting ‘parties,’ during which Metadata Cataloger Sompratana Creighton and Asian Languages Cataloger Min Yu came on board as permanent team mates. Other floating team members included Acquisitions Assistants Sean Andress, Christy Brown Anderson, and Deborah Snow, Serials Assistant Andi Newman, Engineering Librarian Michele Potter, Head of Metadata & Technical Services Manuel Urrizola, Digital Assets Metadata Librarian Noah Geraci, Metadata Cataloger Julia Ree, as well as Associate University Librarians Diane Bisom and Alison Scott.

During the first phase of sorting, the team got through about one-third of the boxes when a surprise delivery arrived. “Special collections discovered a bunch more comics that they didn’t know we had, so those got merged into the project,” Manuel explained.

“If Erika and I had been the only ones doing it, we’d still be working on it,” Jim said. “But having that many people work on it, it saved us so much time. It really was a big help.” In whole, the sorting project lasted more than six months, even with several members of the team working on it daily.

“Not only could we work faster and more effectively, but we could also get to know each other more,” Sompratana commented. “When we worked together as a group, I got to know them really well and I liked that.”

Min agreed, “We worked mostly as a team and we had a happy time working together. We had fun and learned a lot.”

Most of the 21,000-plus comic books that the team organized will become part of the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy, adding a wide variety of new and different assets to the UCR Library’s extensive array of materials devoted to this field of scholarly research.

Some of the comics were given to the library by donors who asked for special attribution, so those were kept separate from the rest.

In addition, the team also had to sort out duplicates and process them separately from the comics that the library planned to retain in our collections. According to Min, there were approximately 40 boxes of duplicate issues culled from the collection.

“My favorite part was seeing everyone work together,” Jim stated. “They really got into it! It was really great teamwork.”

Now, the project is moving into its next phase: cataloging, which could take a year or more to complete. “We could use as many people as we can get,” Jim said. “If anyone is interested, if they would enjoy doing that, they should reach out to me or Erika to see how to get involved.”

More News April 01, 2024

The UCR Library’s Creat’R Lab is excited to announce the 2nd Annual Maker Week, taking place Monday, April 22 - Friday, April 26, 2024.  

Maker Week 2024 will feature a variety of exciting activities! All Maker Week events are free and open to the UCR community. 

Here's what you can expect:

Monday, April 22

• Circuit Painting (RSVP required) | Noon - 1 p.m. | Orbach 122
  • Use conductive paint to make an art piece of your own in this workshop! Conductive paint will let you create a circuit on the canvas which will enable you to add LED lights to your work.

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Tuesday, April 23

• Cosplay Show/Contest (RSVP required) | 1 - 2 p.m. | Orbach 240
  • Come and showcase your Cosplay costumes or just come and watch! If you want to participate in the contest, fill out this form (different from RSVP link). First, second, and third place receive a trophy and a certificate for a free 3D print! 

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Wednesday, April 24

• Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair  | Noon - 1 p.m. | Bell Tower
  • If you have a project you want to showcase at the Bell Tower (any kind of project, ranging from academic to hobby-related to entrepreneurial), fill out this form. Prizes range from $50 - $200! Anyone can stop by and look at projects! This event is co-sponsored by ASUCR and Blackstone LaunchPad.

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Thursday, April 25

• VR and Video Games (RSVP required) | 1 - 3 p.m. | Orbach 122
  • Come explore new worlds in VR or simply grab a remote and play some video games for fun. Also take a tour of the Makerspace.

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Friday, April 26

• DIY Jewelry Making (RSVP required) | 1 - 2 p.m. | Creat'R Lab
  • In this workshop, we'll be using chords, beads, and other materials to show you how to make your own piece of jewelry that you can wear and take home!

More News May 17, 2022

We are very pleased to announce the University of California’s transformative open access agreement with the American Chemical Society (ACS), the fourth largest publisher of scholarly journal articles by researchers in the UC system.

Through this agreement UC-affiliated corresponding authors will receive support for open access publication in ACS’ portfolio of over 75 premier chemistry journals.

The agreement is ACS’ first consortial “read and publish” agreement in the United States, and the first such partnership between UC, the California State University system libraries, and 25 members from SCELC (Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium), a resource-sharing group of private academic institutions.

Through this agreement, the institutions will redirect subscription expenditures to help cover open access publication charges for their affiliated authors — enabling hundreds of researchers at nearly 60 institutions across California to publish open access at a discounted rate in any ACS journal.

What the agreement means for UC authors: Under the agreement, all UC corresponding authors who choose to publish open access in an ACS journal can do so by paying a single, discounted APC (article processing charge) of $3,000. Authors who do not have research funds available to pay the $3,000 APC can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries, ensuring that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors who wish to publish open access with ACS.

The agreement will apply to articles accepted from January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2025, but the workflow will be in place July 1, 2022. For articles accepted between January 1 and July 1, 2022 ACS will reach out to authors to ask them retrospectively about this choice.

UC affiliated scholars and students will also have full reading access to all ACS publications.

"Free and open access to academic research is critical to the acceleration of new discoveries," says Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, university librarian and professor at UC Berkeley, and co-chair of UC’s negotiation team. "This unique partnership will give Californians and people around the world unprecedented access to the knowledge created by our institutions as we seek to solve some of the world's most pressing environmental, health and scientific problems."

You can find the ACS press release here.

For detailed information about the ACS agreement visit the UC web pages (with FAQs) or contact Tiffany Moxham, AUL for Content and Discovery.

More News June 06, 2016

Though only in his second month at the UCR Library, Kent LaCombe is already in the midst of several projects designed to help better preserve and provide access to the library’s rich collection of water-related materials. As the Water Resources Librarian he is responsible for managing and curating the library’s unique contemporary and historic materials devoted to all aspects of water resources held in both the Special Collections’ Water Resources Collections and Archives (WRCA) and in the general collection.

LaCombe’s educational and professional background make him well-positioned to oversee the growth and evolution of a collection that currently boasts more than 200,000 technical reports, 1,500 specialized newsletters, 5,000 maps, 200 manuscript collections, and 45,000 historic photographs documenting water history. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental History from Kansas State University where his dissertation focused on freshwater ecosystems, specifically environmental change in Lake Huron during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before coming to UCR LaCombe was an Assistant Professor of Libraries at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he served as an embedded liaison librarian in the School of Natural Resource Sciences. LaCombe also holds an M.L.S. from Emporia State University and has extensive experience working in libraries, archives, and museums. Most notably he served as the Assistant Director of Vermont’s Brownell Library and was the Search and Sorting Supervisor at Kansas State University’s Hale Library.

LaCombe has often described this position as a “dream appointment” for him that perfectly matches his specialized abilities, experience, and long-term professional goals. He views this position as the perfect vehicle for applying his expertise and passion for both information science and water studies. Through everything from resource visibility, promotion and teaching to donor cultivation, he is prepared to drive the building, enhancement, maintenance, and delivery of the library’s world class water resources collection. The library is pleased to welcome LaCombe to our team and with him at the helm we are excited to witness the new and exciting directions that this world class research collection is headed.

More News August 29, 2024

The UCR Library plays a vital role in preserving and celebrating the Hispanic community's history on campus and beyond. 

Through our Special Collections, exhibits, and collaborative projects, we connect students with their cultural heritage while also providing a space for all students to learn about and appreciate the rich history and contributions of the Hispanic community. 

As we approach Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place September 15 - October 15, we want to highlight a few stories you may have missed that underscores our commitment to preserving and celebrating Hispanic heritage. 

One story highlights the experience of Belen Cardenas, a third-year English major in Fall 2022, who discovered a personal connection to her grandfather’s activism in the 1960s through the library’s archives. “Seeing and being able to interact with the history he lived through made me feel connected to him,” Cardenas shared. This connection was made possible by the library’s archival materials that were pulled specifically for her Chicano Studies class. Read more here.

The library’s collaboration with Chicano Student Programs (CSP) led to the creation of the first Semana de la Mujer exhibit in 2023. The exhibit was located in the Tomás Rivera Library and celebrated the Chicanas/Latinas in the lives of UCR community members. Special Collections Public Services, Outreach, and Community Engagement Librarian Sandy Enriquez emphasized the importance of this project, stating at the time, “I hope this exhibit helps people realize that this is their space too, and their stories deserve to be showcased with the same care and intention.” The exhibit’s success led to its return in 2024, and plans are already in place for it to continue in 2025. Discover more about the first Semana de la Mujer exhibit here.

A key way the UCR Library helped preserve UCR Chicano history was through the digitization of Nuestra Cosa, a UCR alternative Chicano newspaper that ran from 1972 until 2012. The project was made possible through a partnership between the library, CSP, Teatro Quinto Sol, and the Encuentros, Student Participatory Research Project (ESPARiTU). Sandy Enriquez highlighted the significance of this project saying, “There are so few opportunities, unfortunately, for students of color, students from underrepresented backgrounds like immigrant families to feel their experiences are reflected in the general narrative of UCR. Nuestra Cosa does really provide that authentic connection.” Learn more about the Nuestra Cosa digitization project . 

Through strong partnerships with campus groups, the UCR Library plays a vital role in preserving, sharing, and celebrating Hispanic heritage. These collaborations not only keep the history and voices of the Hispanic community alive but also enrich the entire UCR community. By making these stories accessible, the library fosters a deeper understanding and connection among all students, helping to build a more inclusive and informed campus environment.

More News October 19, 2018

A former UCR Library employee was recently named Library Director for the Riverside Public Library.

From 2005-2007, Erin Christmas worked as a library assistant in collection maintenance at the UCR Science Library (now Orbach Science Library).

“While working at UCR, I was inspired by the work the librarians and other library professionals did and decided I wanted to apply to school to be awarded a MLIS,” Christmas said. “The experiences at UCR were incredibly important to me and give me a fuller understanding of the role library’s play for students in academic settings and the public at large.”

Christmas has worked for the Riverside Public Library since July 2016 and had been serving as its Interim Library Director since December 2017. She previously worked as the Assistant Library Director for Santa Clarita Public Library, Branch Manager of the Old Town Newhall Library, and at the San Bernardino County Public Library.

In her 10 months as Riverside’s Interim Library Director, Christmas led the 2018 Riverside Reads campaign, the Toy Lending Library project and the CENIC upgrade projects, which greatly increased internet speeds at the Riverside Public Library. These projects are part of her effort to increase public offerings and expand the library’s community impact.

A leader with more than 10 years of professional library experience in California, Christmas has extensive knowledge in library management, a positive attitude, and a talent for collaborating with fellow city department heads. These assets will serve her well while working toward the creation of a new Main Library for the City of Riverside and continuing the tradition of excellence at the library branches across the city.

“Erin Christmas has proven herself to be a tireless advocate of how the library system in Riverside can change lives,” said Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey. “She understands that the library is an incredible resource for young people starting their educations to adults trying to get back into the workforce.”

Christmas holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from Occidental College and a Master’s degree in Library Information Science from San Jose State University.

She is also active in the California Library Association and writes book reviews for United for Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.

More News November 10, 2017

On Nov. 2-4, several UCR Library staff members contributed programs and poster sessions for the California Libraries Association (CLA) Annual Conference in Riverside, CA. The 2017 conference theme was, “New Worlds Emerge.”

Maker Services Librarian Krista Ivy, Open Research Librarian Michele Potter, and Data Librarian Kat Koziar gave a presentation session called From Zero to Makerspace: The UC Riverside Creat’R Lab Story. “It was well attended, and the audience was engaged with what we presented,” Koziar said.

Data Librarian Kat Koziar, Special Collections Public Services Assistant Zayda Delgado, Head of Preservation Services Patricia Smith-Hunt, Preservation Assistant Sara Stilley, and Director of Distinctive Collections Cherry Williams collaborated on a poster presentation titled, New Technologies, New Worlds. The poster showed the evolution of books across a timeline from 2500 BCE to present day, highlighting the most significant inventions used to create, package, disseminate, and access information.

“We took several items from our teaching collection and people who stopped by got to see and touch the transformative technologies our poster highlighted,” Delgado said. “Conference attendees really enjoyed the hands-on experience.”

Social Sciences Teaching Librarian Christina Cicchetti gave a poster presentation called Promoting School Readiness Through Diverse Children’s Books, which she prepared in collaboration with Dr. Ashaunta Anderson, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the UCR School of Medicine and Principal Investigator for the Cultural Pride Reinforcement for Early School Readiness research project; Sharon Rushing, PhD candidate in the UCR Department of Anthropology; and Dr. Annette Goldsmith, Lecturer at the University of Washington Information School.

“The study will distribute books to children during well-child visits to their pediatrician,” explained Cicchetti, who serves with Goldsmith on a community advisory board that helped to select books used in the study and prepared an informational handout for parents.

University Programs Teaching Librarian Judy Lee organized and led a Riverside Asian American Walking Tour on Sunday, Nov. 5, after the CLA Conference concluded.

Carla Arbagey, Collection Strategist for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) led a tour of the UCR Library for attendees from the CLA conference.

“I had a lot of fun showing off our libraries and our campus,” Arbagey said. “Of course, the highlight of the tour was our visit to Special Collections and University Archives, and everyone was excited to see the home of the Eaton Collection.” Katz shared program goals and findings for 4 to Explore, along with the featured items from the current and prior months.

When showing Project Bi Nary by Steven McCarthy (nicknamed the “pillow book” by library staff), a recent acquisition from the September road show with Vamp & Tramp Artists Booksellers, Arbagey had an a-ha! moment: “I saw how one item from our collection can show how the seemingly disparate departments in our library are actually very connected.” The tour group first encountered it when they met with Patricia Smith-Hunt in Preservation, who explained how Preservation creates custom-made, acid free boxes to store special collections items.

Then in Special Collections, Katz explained that she had suggested the book as a purchase because it could be featured as part of a Creat'R Lab event on crafting and artists' books.

“So, you can see how our tour, which went from the Creat'R Lab to Preservation to SCUA, could be connected by this single (and very cool) book!” Arbagey concluded.

More News September 25, 2020

The UCR Library buildings remain closed during Fall Quarter 2020 to protect the health of the essential employees who are working on the premises to meet the teaching and research needs of our undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and researchers.

Although this means that students won’t be able to enter the Rivera or Orbach Libraries during fall quarter, rest assured: the UCR Library has not forgotten about R’Students!

As soon as campus closed in mid-March, the library quickly pivoted to online access to our services and library collections, as much as we possibly could.

Following the campus guidelines from the Chancellor and Provost, we are focusing our fall quarter plans on remote services that put students first, including:

Get stuff

• Curbside delivery of physical materials
• Expanded/free digital access to existing collections
• Additional online Course Reserves (E-Reserves)

Get help

• Ask a Student (starting Sept. 28) is a new chat service that connects students with peers to provide the resources they need to be successful in a remote learning environment, in collaboration with Undergraduate Education
• Ask a Librarian (online chat 24/7, text or email)
• Librarians assigned to Highlander Connections communities for first-year and transfer students, in collaboration with Student Life
• One-on-one Consultations with UCR Librarians

Learning communities

• Biweekly Maker Meetups with the Creat’R Lab
• Biweekly Digital Scholarship meetups
• Special Collections & University Archives workshops & events
• Workshops on a variety of other topics

In 2019, the library partnered with representatives from ASUCR’s Student Voice Committee to identify more ways in which the library could support our students. Through that survey, we identified the top five challenges facing UCR students at that time. However, we recognize that new challenges have certainly arisen in this new remote learning environment.

We want you to know that we are still listening. If you have ideas on how the Library can help you during remote instruction, please fill out this form so that library leadership can consider your suggestions. You can also suggest a book you need for your research, if we don’t already have it in our collections.

We know that many students miss the community and opportunities for collaboration that came from seeing one another face-to-face at the library. Library staff miss your in-person presence every day. We are offering online meetups and workshops on an assortment of topics to facilitate human connections and a chance to learn together.

UC Riverside aims to help students succeed academically and strive toward their dreams beyond graduation. The UCR Library is here to serve you, so please, let us know how we can best support you during these challenging times.

More News August 24, 2018

At all-staff meetings held on August 20 and 21, Library Human Resources acknowledged ten UCR Library employees for their outstanding contributions.

These team members became the third round of employees to be recognized through the KUDOS program.

Under the KUDOS program, non-probationary staff and academic employees at the UCR Library can be nominated by a peer for actions or contributions related to the library's mission that have a significant, positive impact on colleagues, library users, or others.

Nominations were submitted anonymously by library non-probationary staff and academic employees, and then were reviewed by members of Library Cabinet to determine which staff members would receive the KUDOS awards.

The August 2018 recipients received the following comments on their nomination forms:

Natalie Moller, Collection Maintenance Assistant

• “Natalie’s ALMA contributions in the Collection Maintenance workflow deserve special recognition.  Natalie continues to be an asset to the ongoing configuration of our ILMS.”

Jim Clark, Head of Database Management and Authority Control Unit

• “I’d like to nominate Jim for his role in the ALMA migration.  I know it’s been an enormous amount of work, on the technical side, as well as supporting colleagues in Metadata and Technical Services to get oriented to a previously unfamiliar system and get up and running. Thank you!”

Margarita Yonezawa, Research Services Assistant

• “Margarita has proved to be an exemplary and dedicated worker.  She is a proactive person who is dedicated to her job and the library.”

Erika Quintana, Acquisitions Unit Supervisor

• “Erika is in a true sense, the person with the biggest insight and knowledge of most, if not all functions in the library.  The introduction and training of the new system of Ex Libris is just one of various examples of her great motivation, smarts, accuracy and personal care.”

Pam Sun, Collection Strategies Services Coordinator

• “Pam was recently assigned to a special project in the Learning Resources Display Center that was an insurmountable task that needed to be done quickly. Pam and her students have done a beautiful job, consulting as necessary if there was anything that she was unsure of.  Because of her attention to detail and willingness to consult, she completed the task in record time. Many thanks to Pam for her excellent work.”

Chuck Stephenson, Night and Billing Coordinator, Rivera

• “Chuck has been a major contributor to the configuration and testing of the fulfillment functions in ALMA.  He has made significant contributions in defining the billing workflow for the library. He is willing to jump in and assist where he can.”

Rocco Berges, Senior Building Maintenance Worker

• “Rocco has done quite a bit to keep the Rivera and Orbach libraries looking great.  In addition to regularly keeping the lounge areas tidy and clean, he’s taken on some projects that go beyond regular maintenance, which have had an outstanding and noticeable impact. The results are noticed and appreciated every day, the good work reflects the excellence of a dedicated, focused and hardworking individual. Rocco goes beyond his duties and we appreciate the care!”

Sahra Missaghieh Klawitter, Circulation/Reserves Services Manager

• “I would like to thank Sahra for all her efforts to alleviate students’ stress, to support employee professional development and to celebrate the library employees. Sahra’s contributions resulted in a successful migration in circulation and reserves.  Our users' experience with circulation and reserve transactions are seamless, because of Sahra’s behind-the-scenes configuration work.”

Bernice Ridgeway, Interlibrary Loan Assistant

• “Bernice’s contributions to establishing ILL protocol and workflows between OCLC and Alma have been noteworthy!  She has shown flexibility and is very attentive to our users' needs. Thank you Bernice!”

Shelly Gipson, Head of Collection Maintenance

• “Shelly has contributed to the migration of Alma in many areas to develop new and improved workflows using the Alma system.  She continues to research and test different processes and her contributions have been noteworthy. Thank you Shelly!”

Please join us in celebrating these library employees’ achievements!