More News September 12, 2016

Effective September 12, 2016, Ann Frenkel will be taking on the title of Deputy University Librarian for the UCR Library.

In this role, Ann will exercise leadership, oversight of operations, and activities associated with promoting and ensuring overall UCR Library effectiveness, which will position the UCR Library for continued success.

Ann will serve as the proxy for the University Librarian, with the requisite authority to address UCR Library issues, and will exercise broad decision-making authority over the Library’s assessment and communications programs as well as oversight of UCR Library policy implementation. She will also routinely represent the UCR Library on UCR and system-wide initiatives in the University Librarian’s absence.

This move is part of a trend that we are seeing at research universities across the country and within the UC system, including at UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC Merced, and UC Los Angeles.

In light of the increased travel requirements of the University Librarian for development and other professional commitments on campus and beyond for the University Librarian, identifying a Deputy University Librarian ensures continuity of operations when the University Librarian is not present.

In addition to the Research and Instructional Services Division, which will continue to report to Ann, Communications has also been moved into Ann’s expanded portfolio.

More News July 01, 2023

On May 24, the UCR Library celebrated its student employees at a beach-themed appreciation event

The student appreciation event honored all library student workers but it also served as a send-off for library student employees who are part of the Class of 2023. 

This year, a special ceremony was held for graduating students. They were given a UCR Library-branded graduation stole by their supervisor, marking a meaningful symbol of recognition for their achievements. Each stole was embroidered in the UCR Library's Creat'R Lab.

We wouldn't be able to serve the UCR community without our student employees. We want to thank all of our student workers and a big congratulations to our 17 students workers graduating in 2023: Aaron Huang, Alitzel Holguin, Bella Ureno de Arias, Christian Andres Vasquez, Daisy Cheng, Jacob Perrine, Jamilah Zubair, Jennifer Jimenez, Kaitlin Cox, Katherine Callejas, Kenna Davis, Larry Yu, Nevin Kopp, Poala Mary Ong, Sandy Perez, Tristan Curl, and Victoria Apodaca!

Ronnie DeRosier Staff Profile

Access Services Desk Assistant

More News January 06, 2020

On Jan. 6, 2020, the UC Libraries announced that they have signed a contract with Ex Libris for UC’s first-ever systemwide integrated library system (SILS).

This positions the UC Libraries and the California Digital Library for unprecedented integration of our catalogs, which will make access and retrieval of the holdings of all 10 campuses and the regional library facilities dramatically easier for all of our users.

This move will also result in significant savings for the UC Libraries, in terms of every campus not having to have its own separate catalog, which will allow us to spend more UCR Library staff time in creating, maintaining and cleaning up our catalog records to ensure their enhanced accuracy and discoverability.

For more details, please review this letter from the UC Council of University Librarians.

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More News April 11, 2016

Exhibit honoring past UCR Chancellor now on display.

An exhibition honoring Tomás Rivera, the youngest and first Latino Chancellor in the UC system and the namesake of the Rivera Library, opened in Special Collections & University Archives on Monday, April 11. Rivera was born in 1935 to Mexican migrant workers, and was among the first generation of Chicanos to earn a PhD. He was an accomplished author, educator, and administrator who unexpectedly died at the age of 48 while serving as UCR’s Chancellor.

The exhibition focuses on his commitment to the arts, higher education, and activism and is curated by librarians Melissa Cardenas-Dow and Stephanie Milner. It is just one of the projects supported by a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA) as part of Latino Americans: 500 Years of History. The opening coincides with the 28th Tomás Rivera Conference, an annual public event at UCR that focuses on core issues facing Chicanos and Latinos.

More News July 19, 2017

UCR Library is pleased to share that Joanne Austin accepted the Reserves Coordinator position.

Joanne holds her Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science from the University of La Verne and a MLS in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University.

Joanne spent four years as a Supervising Library Clerk before joining the University Library as a Library Assistant 3 in October 2014, and has served as the temporary Reserves Coordinator. Joanne’s strengths include her many years of experience assisting the public in a service-oriented environment. She brings with her a thorough knowledge of library operations, procedures and policies.

Please join us in congratulating Joanne, who transitioned to her Reserves Coordinator role on Monday, July 17, 2017.

More News June 08, 2015

Library thanks donors to the Tuskegee Airmen Archive.

On Saturday, June 6th, Chancellor Kim Wilcox and University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble welcomed some of the donors who have contributed to the Tuskegee Airmen Archive Collection. In thanks for their generosity, donors were treated to a private luncheon and given a special look at the collection’s new permanent exhibit space in the lobby of the Tomás Rivera Library.

Four Documented Original Tuskegee Airmen were in attendance at the event: Flight Officer Alfonso Harris, Master Sergeant Buford Johnson, Lt. Col. Harlan Leonard, and Lt. Col. Ted Lumpkin. Co-founders of the Tuskegee Airmen Archive Dr. Ruth M. Jackson and Col. Ralph W. Smith noted the importance of the Tuskegee Airmen in U.S. history, their role in the integration of the military, and their outstanding contributions to the military record as well as to numerous other professional fields. 
 
Donors to the Tuskegee Airmen Archive are invested in ensuring that the stories of these heroic men and women are accessible to students and scholars worldwide, and UCR Library staff are honored to take part in this historic preservation effort. A current exhibit in the Rivera Library highlights some of the preservation tools and methods utilized to care for the historic documents and items donated to Special Collections and Archives at the Library. Curator of African American Collections Bergis Jules also shared his thoughts in regards to these preservation efforts, the permanent exhibit, and the future of African American Collections at the University of California, Riverside.  

“We had an outstanding time," remarked Ron Brewington, President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. "We got the chance to meet some fabulous people who are doing a much-needed, tremendous job.”

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 January 09, 2015

UCR education professor Begoña Echeverria will discuss “The Hammer of Witches” on Jan. 22

By Bettye Miller

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Noted Basque scholar Begoña Echeverria will read from her novel, “The Hammer of Witches: A Historical Novel,” at UC Riverside at noon on Thursday, Jan. 22, in Orbach Library, Room 240.

The event is sponsored by the Librarians Association of the University of California, Riverside Division, and is free and open to the public. Parking permits may be purchased at the kiosk on West Campus Drive near the University Avenue entrance to the campus.

Echeverria is an associate professor in the UCR Graduate School of Education who is known for her ethnographic and archival research on Basque identity, language and culture.

“The Hammer of Witches” (2014, Center for Basque Studies) takes place in a small Basque town convulsed by accusations of witchcraft in 1610. The novel tells the story of Maria, a girl determined to honor her mother’s memory by learning to read and improving her lot in life; the priest Salvador Zabaleta, who has sworn to protect Maria but whose own identity is beset by struggles; and the mysterious and sophisticated Sabine Elizalde. Based on historical events during the Spanish Inquisition, “The Hammer of Witches” shows that even in the face of tremendous evil, justice can prevail.

For more information contact Christina Cicchetti, education subject specialist in UCR’s Rivera Library, at (951) 827-5138 or christina.cicchetti@ucr.edu.