More News March 29, 2022

Alvaro Alvarez believes 3D printers have the ability to open up a world of possibilities.

The Innovative Media Librarian for the UCR Library has a passion for robotics and technology and enjoys transforming three-dimensional digital models into tangible objects. 

“I love the fact that I can think of something and bring it to life with electronics,” Alvaro said. “You can make anything—toys, even print 3D parts for 3D printers.” 

Alvaro works at The Creat’R Lab, located in the Orbach Library. The Creat’R Lab is an innovative learning environment where new technologies, scientific curiosity, and entrepreneurship come together across the disciplines. 3D printers are a perfect fit for this environment, and the UCR Library is adding more to its arsenal. 

Currently, the Creat’R Lab has six 3D printers. Next week, two more will join them in the Creat’R Lab 3D Printing Room (Orbach 145). 

“We’ve done our research. From reading reviews and from talking to people that have used the models we purchased, they're really good, very reliable,” Alvaro said. 

3D printing has grown in popularity over the years, and as a result, demand has increased. These two printers will assist in meeting demand so the UCR Library can better serve students and faculty. Additionally, it’s also good to have more printers in the event any need repair.

“There is usually a higher demand at the end of each quarter,” Alvaro explained. “Each print job can take anywhere from three to four hours so if a printer goes down, it could be hard to keep up.”

The Creat’R Lab has printed some unique items, including fault lines for students and faculty in Earth Sciences. 

“We have a class that's been coming in, they've been printing terrain and earthquake faults,” Alvaro said. “Not only is it a great visual, but they can also take out the fault lines and pop them back in.”

The Creat’R Lab has a special connection with Earth Sciences. Three months into the Creat’R Lab’s arrival to Orbach, a researcher in Earth Sciences, Christodoulos Kyriakopoulos, collaborated with The Lab in 2017 to create a 3D-printed earthquake fault model. 3D printed fault lines seemed like a wild idea at the time but proved incredibly useful. The model was showcased at a congressional meeting in 2018, during which the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology deliberated on the future of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

The new 3D printers are currently undergoing testing and will be fully operational on April 4. If you want to learn more about the 3D printing process at the Creat’R Lab or submit a 3D printing request, review our Creat'R Lab 3D printing guide.

While the 3D Printing Room is currently only open to Creat’R Lab staff,  we have plans to provide a more interactive experience in the future. Meanwhile, we welcome you to peek into our large window and see the equipment in action! 

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More News September 26, 2016

This summer, UCR Library installed StackMap, an indoor mapping application to help students, faculty and staff locate library resources with greater ease and speed.

The library also now includes row numbers on range guides, which correspond to those shown on the maps created by StackMap.

Additional benefits of StackMap include reduced paper waste, increased privacy, improved self-service, and an end-to-end search experience available to library users 24/7, 365 days a year.

To try StackMap, first type the name of the book, media item, or topic you wish to locate into the search bar on the Library’s website. (For example, if you searched for “ducks”, you would see these results.)

When the search results appear, click on the blue “Map It” button next to the title you wish to find.

On the map screen, a red pin indicates where to find your item in the library. You can zoom in or out on the map to pinpoint the item’s precise location.  There are also written instructions to the right of the map, to direct you to the correct floor and row number.

Most item locations in Orbach and Rivera are mapped, including the newly added Media Collection. 

In some cases, an item’s map may direct you to a service desk if the items are not in an openly accessible part of the library. For example, all Special Collections items in Rivera Library map to the Special Collections desk. Rivera and Orbach Reserves will map to the Circulation desks. Certain smaller locations in the Orbach Map Library will map to their service desk.

Items that do not have a “Map It” button include resources in the Music Library as well as items with the location ‘online’ or at an off-site location.

We hope the addition of StackMap makes for a more user-friendly experience so that you can spend more time studying and less time searching.

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More News October 27, 2017

Moises Martinez Cortez is a fourth-year Global Studies major who has worked as a Front Desk Assistant at UCR Library since fall quarter of his freshman year.

He grew up in the Lynwood – Downey area of Los Angles as the youngest of six children, raised by a single mother who immigrated from Nayarit, along the central west coast of rural Mexico. Cortez says, “I love her to bits.”

Though he’s the youngest in his family, Cortez is the first person in his family to attend a four-year university. “My older brother and sister went to community college for a while, but ended up dropping out,” he explained.

At first, Cortez considered attending UCLA so he could live at home, but a few things about UC Riverside helped to change his mind. “I come from a low-income background and UCR I felt had the right resources, both financial and the right kind of community, to carry on my education here,” he said.

While he felt out of place for the first quarter, he adjusted quickly, partly due to working at Tomás Rivera Library. “I’ve met a lot of people at the front desk,” he said. “I feel more connected to campus as well. I’ve made a lot of new friends with fellow student employees and also expanded my academic network.”

After getting better acquainted with many people here at UCR, Cortez added, “It’s the community that makes us stand out. There’s an environment of, ‘We want to collectively get ahead, make sure our students graduate, we want to grow.’”

He’s also grateful for the mentors he’s met here at the library. “All the staff in Circulation are super helpful, and Leslie [Settle, Access Services Desk Coordinator] is hands-down the best supervisor I’ve ever had,” he said. “She tries to help us out however she can. She always sends us emails about events on campus, and where we can get free food.”

“Moises is a selfless employee who always looks out for the interest of others,” Settle commented. “He’s willing to help where needed and never hesitates to do what is best for the team. Moises is innovative, in that he developed a communication chain for student workers.”

Cortez’s understanding and appreciation of the intersection between cultures is part of what led him to pursue a degree in Global Studies.

“It’s a major that’s becoming more and more relevant with the interconnected, global world that we live in,” he said. “A lot of political issues that are relevant here are also relevant in other parts of the world, as well. Climate change, global security, so many other things.”

Cortez studied abroad last fall as part of a human rights and cultural memory program in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile. This experience gave him an outside-in perspective of the 2016 Presidential election. “It gave me an inside view of how people around the world view American politics,” he said. “The fact that they knew so much about the US really surprised me, and made me wonder why people in the US don’t know much about people in this part of the world.”

He currently divides his time between work, study, painting (primarily working with acrylics and graffiti art), and tutoring Italian, French, and Spanish for the Academic Resource Center.

“I’m kind of a nerd, to be honest. I really like learning languages,” he said. “I get a kick out of learning how to communicate with somebody else in a different way, in their language. I’m a native Spanish speaker, and I picked up French in high school. I studied Arabic and Italian here on campus. I’m currently trying to learn Portuguese because I’ll be studying abroad in Brazil in January.”

After he graduates, Cortez hopes to work for the US State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. “I’m interested in working abroad in US embassies with foreign governments, working on issues like security, immigration, development, and seeing what I can do as a representative of the US to help foster that growth and that development,” he explained.

More News July 26, 2022

The University of California announced two new open access publishing agreements today. The first supports open access publishing with the technical professional organization IEEE, which is among the largest publishers of UC research. The other is an extension of UC’s 2020 agreement with Springer Nature that adds funding support for open access publishing in the prestigious Nature journals; previously only titles in the Springer portfolio were eligible.

About the agreement with IEEE

The four-year agreement with IEEE, effective July 15, 2022 through December 31, 2025, enables UC corresponding authors to publish open access in all IEEE journals, regardless of whether they have research funds available to pay for open access publishing or not.

Authors who have research funds available for open access publishing will pay their own open access fee (known as an article processing charge, or APC). For authors who do not have sufficient funds available to pay the APC, the UC libraries will cover the full cost on their behalf, ensuring that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors who wish to publish open access in IEEE journals. The agreement also covers overlength page charges for all UC authors regardless of how they choose to publish with IEEE.

The deal also provides UC scholars with reading access to over five million documents from the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, including scientific journals, proceedings, and standards.

For details, see the IEEE agreement FAQ on the UC Office of Scholarly Communication website.

About the agreement with Nature

Beginning August 1, 2022, the UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the APC for UC corresponding authors who choose to publish open access in the Nature portfolio of journals, including Nature, the Nature research journals, Nature Communications and Scientific Reports.

The remainder due on each APC for publishing in these journals must be covered by the authors themselves, utilizing research funds available to them. Authors without research funds to pay the remainder of the APC may publish their articles on a subscription basis.

UC authors publishing open access in Springer Nature’s other journals (including Adis, Biomed Central, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, Springer Open, and hybrid Academic journals on Nature.com) will continue to receive the UC libraries’ automatic $1,000 contribution, as well as the option for full coverage of the APC if they lack research funds for publication.

All aspects of the 2020 Springer Nature agreement, including UC’s reading access to all currently licensed Springer Nature journals, will continue through December 31, 2024.

For details, see the Springer Nature agreement FAQ on the UC Office of Scholarly Communication website.

UC has now secured more than a dozen open access agreements with various publishers, a notable milestone in the University’s effort to make it easier and more affordable for its authors to publish open access. Open access publishing, which makes UC research freely available to the public, is central to UC’s mission as a public university.

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More News July 10, 2019

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

 

More News June 23, 2021

UC Riverside’s second annual Juneteenth celebration took place June 15-18, 2021 -- but many may not know that a library employee spearheaded the genesis of this event.

“With knowledge comes power,” said Leslie Settle, Access Services Desk Coordinator. “I didn’t learn about Juneteenth until college because it’s not something we are taught in school. Once aware, I made an effort to ensure it was something I not only celebrated, but commemorated.” According to Settle, Juneteenth or Jubilee Day was widely celebrated in the late 1800s but was met with bloody violence by some who did not like that Black people were no longer enslaved. What was once a beautiful celebration became fearful and life-endangering.

Her passion and desire to educate others about the significance of Juneteenth inspired Leslie to chair the inaugural UCR Juneteenth celebration in 2020, to recognize the achievements and contributions of UCR’s Black faculty, staff, students, and alumni. “I knew our campus community was hurting, dealing with two pandemics, and it was important to bring UC together as a community and fellowship, celebrating our freedom and life.” She enlisted the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFASA), African Student Programs (ASP), and the Black Alumni Chapter (BAC) as event partners.

On June 18, 2021, U.S. President Biden declared Juneteenth a Federal holiday and UC President Michael Drake added it to the University of California holiday calendar.

Leslie had campaigned for the last several years to achieve this goal. “Juneteenth being recognized as a Federal holiday was a breath of fresh air. I was so excited that after years, it finally happened,” Leslie said. “I know many people in my community felt like it was another way to satisfy ‘us’ with a symbolic victory rather than economic equity and real justice, but not me. This was a major accomplishment for me personally and I can still see the joy on my daughter's face when I told her what happened in our nation. This Federal recognition is the gateway to deal with our American past and push forward together as an American people. Juneteenth is not just a ‘Black’ holiday. It is a freedom holiday that all Americans should celebrate and enjoy together.”

For 2021, the Juneteenth Celebration expanded to a week-long online event, and another library employee, Rochelle Settle, volunteered to handle talent acquisition. “Juneteenth being recognized as a federal holiday is a step in a good direction. It recognizes my ancestor’s plight, struggle and emancipation from the horrors of slavery,” she said.

During the Juneteenth celebration, Leslie served as the Mistress of Ceremonies and Rochelle gave beautiful a cappella performances of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn composed in 1900 by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson, and “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, written during the Civil Rights Era. Rochelle and Will Pines, disability specialist from the Academic Resource Center, coordinated the event speakers, including panelists Dr. Jamal Myrick, director of African Student Programs; Dr. Barry Settle from Allen Chapel AME in Riverside; Kristy J. Heisser, President and Founder of Malcolm’s Heart Inc.; Deidre Reyes, UCR Class of 2021 graduate; and keynote speaker Charles Lee-Johnson, assistant professor and chair of the Department of Social Work at California Baptist University. Several other UCR Library employees contributed to the Juneteenth kickoff event on June 16, a video tribute called Messages of Freedom.

“Living on the West Coast, this holiday was not always celebrated like it was in the south, so it is up to us to educate others,” Rochelle said. “I heard one African-American young woman say that she had never heard much about Juneteenth until this week-long event. I was so encouraged that all of us, collectively, were able to contribute to her and I’m sure many others (all races) in learning about this part of American history.”

During his keynote speech, Lee-Johnson spoke of how Juneteenth celebrations could create a ripple effect of positivity. “I believe participating in Juneteenth has given me a new insight on how I see and value others. My ripple effect will be to continue to acknowledge the accomplishments of all my coworkers, embrace fellowship with one another, and embrace our differences,” Leslie said. “I think in the end, this ripple will boost morale in the workplace and increase productivity. We are definitely stronger together.”

Rochelle added, “We will never know how far out those ripples will spread into the lives of UCR staff, faculty, and their circles. I thought it was a beautiful thing to witness people of all races, colors and backgrounds come together to celebrate Juneteenth.”

For those interested in learning more about Juneteenth, the library has many resources on the subject. Additionally, library staff and ASP collaborated last June to create a Black Lives Matter resource guide.

More News February 20, 2025

Fun FREE Stress-Relieving Events at the UCR Library for UCR Students

The UCR Library's Finals Week Stress Relief is back, Monday, March 10 - Thursday, March 20.

This quarter, we have FREE craft events (we're supplying everything that you'll need), food giveaways, contests, and more—just for students! Our partners this quarter are ASUCR Internal Affairs, The Well's Active Minds, the Academic Resource Center (ARC), and Basic Needs.

Please note: Only currently enrolled UCR undergraduate and graduate students are able to participate in Finals Week Stress Relief events. 

Winter 2025 Finals Week Stress Relief Events

Instagram Contests

• Mon., March 10 - Fri., March 14  |  Follow us on Instagram and comment on our daily contest posts for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card. Winners will be chosen at random.

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MONDAY, MARCH 10

• Paint & Sip (craft event)
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Rivera  |  While supplies last  |  Enjoy a juice box while you paint and keep the artwork that you paint!
• Surprise Snack Giveaway with ASUCR Internal Affairs
  • Time is a SURPRISE  |  Rivera & Orbach  |  While supplies last

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TUESDAY, MARCH 11

• Stained Glass Art: Pendant Making (craft event)
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  While supplies last  |  Make a small pendant made of stained glass!
• Surprise Snack Giveaway with ASUCR Internal Affairs
  • Time is a SURPRISE  |  Rivera & Orbach  |  While supplies last

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12

• Therapy Fluffies with The Well's Active Minds
  • Noon - 2 p.m.  |  Rivera & Orbach  | Spend some time with animals in Rivera or Orbach! Please note: Orbach will have just dogs, Rivera will have cats and dogs. 

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THURSDAY, MARCH 13

• Pots & Plants (craft event)
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Rivera  |  While supplies last  |  Paint a plant pot, choose your seeds, then plant your seeds using the soil we're providing.  
• Spin It to Win It
  • 3 - 4 p.m.  |  Rivera  |  While supplies last  |  Spin the wheel and answer a trivia question for prizes!  

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FRIDAY, MARCH 14

• Hand Pi(e) Giveaway
  • 3:14 p.m.  |  Rivera & Orbach  |  While supplies last  |  Grab a hand pie for Pi Day!
• Pi Day Spirograph Art (craft event)
  • 3:14 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  While supplies last  | Make a spirograph design and learn some of the math behind it (or just enjoy making art) for Pi Day! 

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SUNDAY, MARCH 16

• R'Finals Study Jam (Tutoring) with The Academic Resource Center (The ARC)  
  • 4 - 8 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  No reservations are needed, come on down! Tutoring will be available for a variety of subjects.

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MONDAY, MARCH 17

• Good Luck on Finals Giveaway
  • 2 p.m.  |  Rivera & Orbach  |  While supplies last  |  Grab a green Ring Pop and a Lucky Charms Cereal Bar for St. Patrick's Day!

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TUESDAY, MARCH 18

• Soups On
  • 2 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  While supplies last  |  Grab a bowl of soup, choose from chicken noodle or tomato!

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19

• Healthy Snack Giveaway with Basic Needs
  • Noon  |  Orbach  |  While supplies last

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THURSDAY, MARCH 20

• Bingo
  • 2 - 3 p.m.  |  Orbach  |  5 winners receive a $20 Amazon gift card!

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Virtual Stress Relief Activities

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

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Library Finals Week Hours

Study 24 hours in Orbach from 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 13 through 7 p.m. on Friday, March 21

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

Thursday, March 13
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 7:30 a.m. - 12 a.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 12 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Friday, March 14
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Saturday, March 15
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 10 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Sunday, March 16
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Monday, March 17 - Thursday, March 20
Service hours for Rivera & Orbach: 7:30 a.m. - 12 a.m.
Study Hall for Orbach Library: 12 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.  

Friday, March 21
Hours for both libraries: 7:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. (Orbach ends 24-hour Study Hall)