More News January 10, 2020

Astrid Bear, the daughter of award-winning Science Fiction novelist Poul Anderson and his wife Karen, recently donated their papers to the UCR Library.

The collection includes 73 boxes of correspondence, manuscript drafts, notes, diaries, personal records, artwork, memorabilia and ephemera from various conventions and events.

“I am absolutely delighted that the Eaton Collection at UC Riverside is the custodian of my parents’ papers, preserving and making them available for scholars long into the future,” Bear said. “The Eaton Collection is one of the premier university SF/F collections in the world, and I am very happy that the Poul and Karen Anderson papers are part of it.”

A Danish-American author born in Bristol, Pa., Poul Anderson earned his undergraduate degree in Physics at the University of Minnesota, which provided a strong foundation for his science fiction writing. He published more than 50 novels and contributed to over 60 anthologies, receiving seven Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards, a John W. Campbell Memorial Award, among others throughout his highly-decorated career. He also served as the President of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1972-1973 and was named a Grand Master in 1997.

Karen Anderson co-wrote several books with Poul, including “The King of Ys” series. She was also a prolific publisher of fanzines and a very active contributor.

“Poul and Karen were both integral members of the science fiction and fantasy communities in California. Poul was one of those few authors who found success writing in both genres, and the collection represents that very well,” explained Andrew Lippert, Special Collections Processing Archivist, who processed the collection in 2019. “One of his most highly regarded works, which won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus, is the novella ‘The Queen of Air and Darkness,’ which might be one of the first successful blendings of sci-fi and fantasy.” Few authors have won all three awards for a single piece, Lippert said.

Lippert and the Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction, Jacqueline “JJ” Jacobson, included this novella in the library’s 2019 exhibition, 50x50: Celebrating the Eaton Collection’s 50th Anniversary.

The Andersons’ shared an interest in history, particularly northern European medieval themes, which found its way into some of Poul’s writing, according to Lippert. They were also founding members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and both maintained active roles within the community and fandom.

“We are delighted to have the Anderson collection join the papers of Anne McCaffrey, Gregory Benford, Gardner Dozois, and others as part of the Eaton collection at UCR,” Lippert said. 

Astrid Bear notes, “The knowledge, respect, and enthusiasm shown by the UCR staff during the donation and cataloguing process was quite wonderful.” 

Poul Anderson passed away in 2001, followed by Karen in 2018.

• Read more about Past Workshops & Events

More News May 04, 2018

“One year after launch, we have been blown away by the energy, talent, and sheer diversity of projects displayed in the Creat’R Lab,” said Ann Frenkel, Deputy University Librarian.

On the evening of Thursday, May 3, Orbach Science Library hosted more than 90 guests who came to celebrate those successes and enjoy some birthday cake at the Creat’R Lab Anniversary Showcase.

In talking about the genesis for the Creat’R Lab, Frenkel remembered, “Our students kept emphasizing that there was no other independent, inclusive space on campus devoted to project making. They also wanted a place that would allow collaborators to find each other — to put artists together with engineers, social scientists, and scientists.”

So the UCR Library, in partnership with the Office of Research and Economic Development (RED), turned this vision into the Creat’R Lab, a living, state-of-the-art technology incubator for discovery, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Professors and students alike now call the Creat’R Lab “home” because it fosters experimentation and teamwork, according to Michalis Faloutsos, Director of Entrepreneurship at RED. “It’s also hosting some entrepreneurial activities of EPIC,” he said, referring to UC Riverside’s Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept and Innovation Center.

The showcase featured success stories from several Creat’R Lab users, including third-year Electrical Engineering student Gustavo Correa, whose Arduino electronics and programming workshops had such a high turnout that he had to move attendees to a larger room in Orbach Library to accommodate the class size.

Gender and sexuality studies professor Mzilikazi Koné described how her class collaborated with the Creat’R Lab on their zines project (hand-made magazines). “Zines are the ultimate project of creating something tactile, something you can pick up and pass around and marvel at,” Koné explained. “Zines center art and creativity as central to the project of learning – not as a side note. It is the front note.”

“My interaction with the Creat’R Lab generated a new world of amazing opportunities,” said earth sciences professor Christodoulos Kyriakopoulos of his project, which involved a 3D-printed model and a planned Virtual Reality model of California’s earthquake faults.

Each of the four panelists acknowledged the support and contributions of Creat'R Lab staff members Krista Ivy, maker services librarian, and Michele Potter, open research librarian.

Director of Research Services Brianna Marshall, who oversees the Creat’R Lab, announced the founding of a Steering Committee to engage student and faculty perspectives and provide guidance on future lab workshops, programming, staffing, space usage, equipment purchases, and program goals.

“I can’t overstate how excited we are for this new committee and the input and fresh ideas they’ll be bringing to the lab!” Marshall said.

Inaugural faculty and academic staff members of the Creat’R Lab Steering Committee include Konstantinos Karydis (Technology/Engineering), Haibo Liu (Social Sciences), Juliette Levy (Arts/Humanities), Christos Kyriakopolous (Science/Math), Michalis Faloutsos, Director of Entrepreneurship (RED), and Jay Gilberg (Entrepreneur in Residence, RED).

Student committee members are Patrick Le (ASUCR student representative) and Fahed Elkhatib (Technology / Engineering student representative). The Steering Committee intends to recruit three more student representatives. Any students interested in joining the Steering Committee should contact Brianna Marshall for more information.

More News November 17, 2017

As GIS Day 2017 concluded on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 15, Geospatial Information Librarian Janet Reyes reflected on a successful community event at UC Riverside to celebrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day and Geography Awareness Week.

“What I found most gratifying about the day was seeing all the interactions and networking taking place, between and among UCR community members and our off-campus guests,” Reyes commented. Many people interacted with the poster contestants as they explained their entries, and visited the information tables outside Rivera Library to talk with representatives from UCR Extension and Esri.

The first place winner in the poster contest was Dion Kucera (above, center) for his poster on Decadal resistance and resilience of the Los Angeles urban forest in response to drought and temperature stress. Second place went to Peter Ibsen (above, right), whose poster depicted regional and local climate drivers on the NDVI~Air Temperature relationship in urban areas. Third place was awarded to Brianna Chew (above, left) for her StoryMap on Academic Success Factors in K-12 Education: a quantitative analysis.

Presentations highlighted both academic and practical applications of GIS to advance work and research, with topics including the link between environmental features and behavioral health, climate change and biodiversity, looking at problems from a spatial perspective, the use of GIS in crime analysis, and more.

Patty Spurlock, Esri Human Resources Manager, shared information about careers in GIS.

“GIS Day went very well,” Reyes said. “The success was due to the collaboration of the Planning Committee, in addition to support from departments throughout the Library.”

Related events spanned multiple days, including a craft workshop on Nov. 14 sponsored by the Creat’R Lab, where students made map-themed ornaments; and a talk on Nov. 16 by Manuel Urrizola, Head of Metadata and Technical Services, titled “Is California an Island?” Urrizola brought archival maps from his personal collection, with supplementary materials provided by UCR Library’s Special Collections and University Archives.

“We tried several new things this year and will build on our experiences in planning for next year,” Reyes said.

GIS Day 2017 was co-sponsored by the UCR Library, the Center for Conservation Biology, the Departments of Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Psychology, UCR Extension, and Capital Asset Strategies. The GIS Day Planning Committee included Hoori Ajami, Jennifer Campbell, Robert Johnson, Karen Jordan, and Paige Trubenstein, with Reyes as committee chair.

More News December 23, 2016

Our Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction, JJ Jacobson recently contributed a chapter to a book titled, Teaching and Learning in Virtual Environments: Archives, Museums, and Libraries.

JJ’s chapter, Crowdsourcing the Fictive Experience: Virtual-World Emergent Narrative from a Collections Perspective, is about the practice of Immersive Interactive Improvisatory Narrative, or IIIN.

“It’s a very common feature of virtual worlds of all kinds,” JJ explained. “IIIN is a modality of storytelling. There’s role-play, sometimes recreational, sometimes tied to history, as well as re-enactment and historical interpretation. It’s connected to speculative literature because many of these narrative interactions exist in a context that is speculative – alternate history, for instance – or occasions for this kind of narrative are in a context that is related to or is directly the speculative or fantastical imagination.”

IIIN can be traced to modern improvisatory theater forms, JJ explained, such as the Renaissance Faire; and it is often found in Civil War and similar reenactments, which exist to explore history and educate participants as well as audiences. “It’s an interesting question to compare those to the evolution of community theater, too” she continued. “All of these things exist in the real world, but with some specific entertainment or educational mission. One of the questions we barely touched on was: ‘When did IIIN start to become pure recreation?’”

JJ’s chapter is the result of three distinct discussions on the topic of IIIN. JJ spoke with an expert on living history in museums and places like Plimoth Plantation, a special collections librarian from a well-respected institution, and a professional historical interpreter who plays Mildred Cecil, Lady Burleigh, wife of Lord Burleigh, chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth I.

“These conversations opened up some questions worth thinking about, questions that nobody else seems to be writing about, but that people within the reenactment and historical recreation and virtual worlds talk about all the time,” JJ said. “We talked about the phenomenon and why someone might study it, what a research collection might look like.”

To date, JJ has not seen much scholarly writing on this topic, especially not with the same emphasis.

According to JJ, some questions that could inspire scholarly research on the subject of IIIN might include:

• What kind of activity is it, exactly?
• If we trace it back to various kinds of plays or theater, is that sufficient?
• What are we doing in an historical enactment, with its factual constraints?
• If a library were to collect examples of it, what kinds of research might that support?
• What kind of researchers might use them?
• What would a collection surround them with as secondary source material?

“The Eaton Collection is largely a collection of texts and other narrative forms, but stories that are already done and finished are not the only occasion for the fantastical imagination to work,” JJ explained. “So here is a very interesting way of creating something that could easily be subject matter in the Eaton Collection. If people have made up their own country and they act the story together and build it up as they go, that’s still the kind of thing we collect. Those kinds of worlds, those kinds of subjects are intensely interesting to me. Even though you won’t find those exact worlds in the Eaton Collection, you’ll find many like them in motivation, structure, and so on.”

The book was published by Libraries Unlimited in 2016 and is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers.

More News February 17, 2017

UC Riverside’s Associate Professor of History Juliette Levy likes to teach from the edge of the e-learning revolution.

Her latest experiment involved a virtual reality (VR) platform intended to stimulate intellectual learning on an emotional level for the students in her History 20 / World History course. Dr. Levy co-created a VR application called “Che’s Village” and invited students and faculty to test and review the platform in Orbach Science Library on February 15 and 16.

"Juliette felt that the library is precisely where this type of exploration should take place, as our mission is to expand critical thinking skills in studnets," explained JJ Jacobson, UCR Library's Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction. Jacobson and Dr. Levy collaborated for several months on the concept and development in order to bring "Che's Village" to life.

 “We serve a population of students who are digitally savvy,” Dr. Levy explained. “We have an amazing student body and an amazing faculty, and we need to teach them to think critically using the tools in their environment.”

Gesturing toward the wall, where a large monitor displayed what the student in the virtual reality goggles was seeing at that moment, Dr. Levy added, “This is the future of public education in here. Technology is a means to activate and render moments of the learning experience more intense.”

The platform was built to amplify students' experience of studying Che Guevara's speech, "Social Ideals of the Rebel Army," which he delivered on January 27, 1959. Guevara along with Raul Castro and others had recently won the rebellion against the existing Batista regime in Cuba, Levy explained. In his speech, Guevara had to balance the nationalistic, pro-Cuba intent of Castro with Guevara's own intent to lead a communist revolution.

The application’s co-creator and head of a VR prototype studio named Shovels and Whiskey, Tawny Schlieski stated, “We built this VR environment for students who have read Che’s speech. It’s meant to provoke them into compelling questions, to connect pieces of text with other pieces of research.”

Once inside the virtual world, exactly as Schlieski had explained, the user could see the text of Che Guevara’s 1959 speech in the setting of a Cuban jungle, with links to other content directly connected to highlighted passages in the speech. Using a pointer, the user could open and view the additional resources – whether text, images, or video – to elaborate on the themes of that particular passage. “It’s like footnotes, but in a virtual reality environment,” one user commented.

Users who tested the VR application saw potential in it. Professor Robert W. Patch from the UCR Department of History commented, “Technology will make certain things easier, certain things better.”

In some ways, the reflection indicated that UCR professors who leverage technology are already doing something right. One of the student testers observed that his best friend, who commutes over 50 miles to attend a different college, does not go to office hours because of the additional time it would require. He added, “He could have a more intimate learning experience if there were online office hours.”

“Good teaching is good teaching, whether that’s 100 years ago or 100 years from now,” Dr. Levy commented. “We owe our students to help them learn better and faster, especially with the amount of debt students are taking on to get an education. We are making it deeper and better with technology.”

“We’re looking to build applications of new technology in humanities that provoke critical thinking for students,” Schlieski stated. Reflecting on her previous work with Intel, she added, “From an industry perspective, problem-solving skills are sorely lacking in recent college graduates. Technology becomes obsolete so fast, but critical thinking skills are always valuable.”

Jacobson added, "After more than 10 years of library and education experience in virtual environments,  I think that working with information, ideas, and learning in 3D is something educators and librarians would do well to keep on their radar. VR is in an incunabular age, and we don’t know yet what it will look like as it takes useful forms. However, the possibilities are so compelling that I’m confident VR (or other VE) will develop into important tools for teaching, learning, and information."

No stranger to using digital platforms, Dr. Levy currently employs a variety of digital resources including Podcasting, Zoom, online office hours, and a private virtual discussion forum to maintain a sense of connection with her students throughout the week. As a result, she has received overwhelmingly positive student feedback. For Dr. Levy, this latest endeavor with “Che’s Village” is intended to find new ways to engage her students. “Technology allows us to give students who live off campus and part-time students the same quality of attention and education that a small liberal arts college could,” Levy explained.

“I can teach 300 students and make it feel like a class of 30 students because the entire medium is devised for contact,” Levy added. “The students are all on a screen, and online, everyone is in the front row – so it feels more connected. Students who would usually not raise their hands and participate in a live classroom are more inclined to speak up in an online platform. It’s convenient and an environment in which they feel like they exist, their voice matters.”

“Che’s Village” was a first-step in the iterative design process, and both Dr. Levy and Schlieski are now incorporating the feedback they received from testers to improve the VR platform.

More News August 20, 2015

The service of a Congressional champion of science and civil rights is being documented at the UCR Library.

In what was formerly the Copy Center in the quiet basement of the Tomás Rivera Library, Jessica Geiser and her student workers process the papers and materials of former U.S. Congressman George E. Brown, Jr. who represented Inland Southern California in Congress for 14 terms. Known as a champion for science and a staunch defender of civil liberties and human rights, Congressman Brown's papers document his life and career from the late 1930s to his passing in 1999.

In 2010, Congressman Brown's widow, Marta Brown, donated 600 boxes of documents, photographs, and other materials that detailed the Congressman's 14 terms to UCR. Included were approximately 7,000 photographs, 114 VHS tapes, 89 audio cassettes, nearly 600 color slides, and a multitude of reels, floppy discs, and CDs. With the gift of this collection, a mission for the purpose of the project was developed: to ensure the preservation and accessibility of George Brown’s extensive collection at UCR for future generations of scholars, reporters, and leaders in science, labor, business, and public service.

The processing of this comprehensive project began when Geiser was hired as a project archivist in September 2014. Her first task was to relocate and reorganize the unopened boxes prior to unpacking. Once moved, she opened each box and created a content list. "This step was probably the most important step of the entire project and needed to be as detailed as possible," Geiser writes. This information would inform the arrangement of materials, the supplies and staff needed, and the processing time required to complete the project.

As Geiser combed through each box, she collected information on the subjects and dates of the materials, their physical extent in inches, the estimated amount of folders, and the condition of the enclosed materials. Consulting other congressional archival collections, she devised an arrangement scheme that mirrored the ways in which Brown and other Congressmen created and stored their records while in use. A high level of detail and close attention were vital to this success. Finally, she developed the plan which dictates the goals, and methodology to meet those goals, for the entirety of the two-year project.

She and her team then began re-foldering the materials in acid-free folders and boxes that allow for better preservation in long-term storage. Ms. Geiser also ensures that other basic preservation activities take place, such as removing metal paperclips and rubber bands which cause damage, and photocopying fragile and acidic materials — such as newsprint and fax paper — to prevent further deterioration. Although some material is confidential and restricted and must be redacted, the goal is to keep as much information accessible to researchers as possible.

The George Brown papers hold clues to key advances of today and major innovations of tomorrow, and a blueprint for bipartisan problem-solving spanning four decades of federal decision-making. This unique trove of knowledge will be accessible to current and future entrepreneurs and students of effective public service.

As she works towards opening the collection at the end of this two-year project, Ms. Geiser maintains a blog in order to connect with any potential researchers or other interested parties.

More News June 20, 2016

A reception held on May 26^th at the Riverside Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties concluded a year-long series of programs for The Latino Americans: 500 Years of History grant, which the UCR Library received from the National Endowment of the Humanities and the American Library Association.

Under the hashtag #LA500, the grant included free screenings of three episodes of the six-part landmark documentary, “Latino Americans,” and special events that were open to the public. The series aimed to explore local Latino and Chicano history and heritage, and to celebrate the Latino and Chicano community’s largely under-recognized role in American history.

University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble welcomed guests to the reception by highlighting the rich Latino and Chicano American history, from the pre-Colonial era to the present day. Mandeville-Gamble ended his remarks with “Sí, se puede,” a motto among Latino and Chicano activists that originated from the United Farm Workers movement. In a lovely moment, the crowd echoed his call.

The reception featured an extraordinary performance by the Mayupatapi Ensemble led by UCR Professor of Ethnomusicology, Dr. Jonathan Ritter.

Following the musical performance, the three founders of grant partner Spanish Town Heritage Foundation, Nancy Melendez, Darlene Trujillo Elliot and Suzanne Armas spoke about the significance of the Trujillo Adobe, their ancestral home. Located in the La Placita area of Riverside, the Trujillo Adobe is a local landmark that connects regional Latino history with Southern California family history.

Riverside Community College District’s Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties hosted this culminating reception. The center was also one of UCR’s partners in the grant, in addition to UC Riverside Chicano Student Programs, the Riverside Public Library, and the Spanish Town Heritage Foundation.

Latino Americans: 500 Years of History has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.

More News February 24, 2022

More News May 24, 2019

Spring quarter 2019 is drawing to a close, and with it the end of the 2018-2019 academic year. Finals Week is only days away.

UCR Library is committed to creating a supportive atmosphere for our students, as final exams can breed a lot of stress. That is why we present our Finals Week Stress Relief event series at the end of every quarter.

These events give library employees an opportunity to get to know our students better, and for our students to let off steam together in a safe and fun way.

This quarter, we have crowd favorites returning to the line-up, such as the Therapy Fluffies, R'Finals Study Jam, and Surprise Snack Giveaway, as well as a few new activities.

Finals Week Stress Relief will kick off on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. The full event schedule will include:

Wednesday, June 5

• Therapy Fluffies with The WELL & Active Minds (Rivera & Orbach) – 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
• Squish Away Your Stress (Rivera) 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. *while supplies last

Thursday, June 6

• Spin It to Win It (Orbach) 2:00 p.m. *while supplies last
• A Wrinkle in Slime (Orbach) 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. *while supplies last

Friday, June 7

• Surprise Snack Giveaway (Rivera & Orbach) *while supplies last

Saturday, June 8

• Cookie Break (Orbach) - 3:00 p.m. *while supplies last

Sunday, June 9

• R'Finals Study Jam  with the Academic Resource Center  (Orbach) - 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
• Late Night Snacks with the Provost & Student Wellness (Orbach) - 9:00 p.m. *while supplies last

Monday, June 10

• Pizza Party (Rivera) - 3:00 p.m. *while supplies last
• Snack Wagon with ASUCR (Orbach - 5:30 p.m. / Rivera - 6:00 p.m.) *while supplies last
• Late Night Snacks with the Provost & Student Wellness (Orbach) - 9:00 p.m. *while supplies last

Tuesday, June 11

• Sundae Yummy Sundae (Rivera) - 3:00 p.m. *while supplies last
• Snack Wagon with ASUCR (Orbach - 5:30 p.m. / Rivera - 6:00 p.m.) *while supplies last
• Late Night Snacks with the Provost & Student Wellness (Orbach) - 9:00pm *while supplies last

Wednesday, June 12

• Bagels & Cheer (Orbach) - 1:00 p.m. *while supplies last
• Snack Wagon with ASUCR (Orbach - 5:30 p.m. / Rivera - 6:00 p.m.) *while supplies last
• Late Night Snacks with the Provost & Student Wellness (Orbach) - 9:00pm *while supplies last

Thursday, June 13

• #TBT: Unstressable Uncrustables (Orbach) 2:00 p.m. *while supplies last
• Snack Wagon with ASUCR (Orbach - 5:30 p.m. / Rivera - 6:00 p.m.) *while supplies last

​In addition, there is a contest to win a VIP Study Room for Sunday, June 9 from 1:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Details for the contest are available on the UCR Library Facebook page.

Volunteers are always welcome to help run the events.

Any library staff that are interested in volunteering should contact Sahra Missaghieh Klawitter or Elisha Hankins to find out how to get involved.