Search

• Read more about Native American Studies

• Read more about Print Materials

After four years of staff collaboration between all ten UC campuses, we are thrilled to announce that UC Library Search is now live!

Today’s launch is just the beginning; UC Library Search will continue to evolve, refine, and improve its user experience (UX) and function over time.

UC Library Search has replaced the local UCR Library catalog and Melvyl. Patrons can now use this robust and cohesive discovery tool to find resources at UC Riverside and from all other UC campus libraries, plus collections from beyond the UC system. As University of California President Drake wrote, UC Library Search will also seamlessly connect users with digitally available journals, books, and library databases.

Patrons can more easily borrow materials from other UC campuses, and UC Library Search allows them to choose the nearest UC campus from which to pick up and return circulated materials.

In addition to greater ease in finding and borrowing materials for patrons, UC Library Search will help library staff to improve our customer service. Analytics about the diversity and use patterns of the UC Libraries’ resources will facilitate future collection strategy decisions that are data-informed, inclusive, and patron-centered.

What has not changed

Library accounts: Your existing library account has automatically become active in UC Library Search.

Changes to note

To request items not available at the UCR Library, first sign in to UC Library Search with your NetID and password through UCR’s Central Authentication System (CAS), then find the item you want. From the item listing, click on “Request through Interlibrary Loan” in the “Get It” section. (This replaces the “Request” button from in Melvyl and the “InterLibrary Request” feature from the old UCR Library catalog.)

Once signed into UC Library Search, you no longer have to type in your library card number. Additionally, you will be able to choose any UC campus library as your preferred pickup and return location for resource sharing material.

Digitization requests

If the UCR Library holds a local copy of an article or book chapter that you want digitized, request by clicking on “Article/Chapter Scan.” If UCR does not own a copy, then select the “Request through Interlibrary Loan” option to request a digital copy reproduction from another institution.

has replaced

To request articles found in a library database, you will use the new “Get it at UC” button, which will appear in place of UC-eLinks. When you click on the “Get it at UC” button, you will find the full text of the article (log in through VPN if not on campus). You can also make an interlibrary loan request using the “Request Through Interlibrary Loan” link.

Check out this resource developed to support UC Library Search.

More information about UC Library Search, including previous announcements, can be found here.

We have tried our best to anticipate all possible issues with UC Library Search. However, if you encounter anything that has slipped our notice, please let us know through this form.

If you have additional questions, visit the UC Library Search FAQ or contact Tiffany Moxham, Associate University Librarian for Content and Discovery.

The UCR Library has supported the Bio 5LA course for more than three decades, according to to Early Experience Teaching Librarian Michael Yonezawa.

However, when the library reorganized its departmental structure in 2017 and the Department of Teaching and Learning (T&L) officially took over course-related instruction, he and fellow T&L colleagues felt that it was time to examine both the student experience and course content.

In 2018, they worked with the academic coordinator for Bio 5LA, Dr. Star Lee, to assess whether students were learning needed skills aligned with course goals. The results indicated that students were able to perform some required tasks without additional instruction, which created space for reimagining the course collaboration.

Yonezawa and T&L colleagues decided to update the lesson plan to focus on higher-level goals related to information literacy and critical thinking, as the previous sessions focused on instrumental skills for finding sources. Yonezawa explained, “It’s one thing, knowing how to find something, but it’s also critical to know how to discern between different types of information to determine whether an article is a quality primary research article.”

In an effort led by Yonezawa, T&L completely revised the lesson plan for Bio 5LA in order to empower students to evaluate different types of information resources, incorporating active learning and new technologies. “There’s no reason why you can’t make learning both effective and engaging,” Yonezawa said. “There are plenty of studies that indicate, if you’re having fun, you’re also learning.”

Teaching & Learning launched a pilot program of the updated Bio 5LA curriculum in summer quarter 2019, and is currently implementing the new course content for fall quarter 2019. “This is not a final stop,” Yonezawa said. “We plan to continue to improve over time based on additional data, feedback, and emergent best practices.”

T&L’s Director, Dani Brecher Cook added, “This project demonstrates our commitment to gathering evidence on how and what students are learning, and redesigning our lesson plans in collaboration with academic departments to meet learning goals. This is a great example of what data-informed teaching can look like.”

Students are welcome and encouraged to share feedback with Yonezawa.

This past quarter, Public Services Assistant Zayda Delgado received word that she had received a scholarship from the National Endowment for the Humanities-Global Book Histories Initiative (NEH-GBHI) to attend Rare Book School at Amherst College during summer 2018.

Rare Book School (RBS) is an independent institute housed at the University of Virginia that provides continuing education and community-building opportunities through hands-on, seminar-style classes taught by distinguished faculty.

At RBS, Delgado will take a course called A History of Native American Books & Indigenous Sovereignty.

Delgado applied to the program for personal and professional development, but also with the purpose of sharing her knowledge here at UCR. “We have a significant collection of Native American books, particularly on California’s first people,” she explained.

“This award presents an opportunity for Zayda to develop her skill sets in culturally diverse book collections,” said Tiffany Moxham, Assistant University Librarian for Collections. “It also ties into our initiatives to support the documentation and research support of our local communities, which are manifested in such initiatives as Inland Empire Memories.”

This will be Delgado’s second time attending Rare Book School. She first received a fellowship in 2016, along with a group of 20 fellows. That year, she took the course History of the Book 200-2000, which was taught jointly by John Buchtel, Director of the Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Georgetown University and Mark Dimunation, the Chief of Rare Books at the Library of Congress. “He gave us a behind-the-scenes tour,” Delgado said. “I got to hold the rarest and most precious materials that they have at the Library of Congress.”

Traditionally, scholarships are reserved for those who have not previously attended Rare Book School. Coordinator of Scholarships Danielle Culpeper encouraged Delgado’s group to apply for the NEH-GBHI fellowship because it was open to people who had attended RBS before.

“It’s just so fun, the opportunity to go back to RBS. It’s like a summer camp for people who really love books,” Delgado explained. “From the time you wake up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night, you’re learning something new every minute. It’s really exciting for me, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

The UCR Library remains committed to supporting our students as they prepare to take their spring quarter final exams.

This is the reason why we present our Finals Week Stress Relief (FWSR) event series. This quarter, like this past fall and winter quarter, we took a different approach due to the continuing campuswide COVID-19 closure.

Our FWSR committee curated an extensive list of free, online activities that we hope R'Students will enjoy, including:

• Virtual Therapy Fluffies (including live webcam videos from various wildlife organizations and aquariums)
• Story Time with two of the UCR Library's staff team
• Guilty pleasures
• Escape rooms
• Relaxation
• Virtual tours
• Fun and educational videos
• And campus resources to support student wellness.

In addition to the web-based activities, the FWSR committee is hosting three interactive Zoom events or games plus a social media contest where students will have opportunities to win gift cards, UC Riverside souvenirs, and other prizes. Please RSVP to save your seat using the links below:

• Bingo - Tuesday, June 1 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Therapy Fluffies - Wednesday, June 2 at 12 p.m. Co-sponsored by The Well's Active Minds.
• Kahoot! - Thursday, June 3 at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m.
• Instagram contest - Tuesday, June 1 - Friday, June 11, starting at 9 a.m. each weekday. Co-sponsored by UCR HUB Programs.

Visit the Finals Week Stress Relief activities page and click on each of the category tabs at the top of the page to see all the options.

• Read more about Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Speculative Fiction

UCR Library is proud to congratulate our Outreach & Public Services Librarian, Robin M. Katz for receiving the James Harvey Robinson Prize from the American Historical Association.

The James Harvey Robinson Prize is awarded to the creators of a teaching aid that has made the most outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history for public or educational purposes. Robin and Julie Golia, her project partner at Brooklyn Historical Society, were recognized for the excellence of their work on TeachArchives.org. The award ceremony was held in Colorado at the Sheraton Downtown Denver on January 4, 2017 during the AHA Annual Convention.

Robin and Julie received a three-year grant for the US Department of Education through the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), which was intended to spur the development of innovations that improve educational outcomes and develop an evidence base of effective practices. “We wanted it to be about more than just our primary grant audience,” Robin stated. “We wanted to help educators to get their pedagogical practices up-to-date.”

They used the grant to support a program called Students & Faculty in the Archives (SAFA). "One of the great things about the project that gave birth to TeachArchives was that Robin was an archivist and I was an historian, so we brought very different perspectives to the work," said Julie. Over a period of three years, SAFA worked in partnership with three colleges that were in walking distance from the Brooklyn Historical Society, each of which did not have special collections in their own libraries.

Robin and Julie’s goal with SAFA was to bring students in to use the archives for hands-on learning. “Anyone can come use special collections,” Robin said. “We wanted the students to have a more meaningful use of the archives, more active and hands-on learning, where they could apply themselves to a problem using the collection.” From 2011 to 2013, they collaborated with over 1,100 students, 18 partner faculty, and 65 courses over four semesters on three different campuses.

They measured and assessed the impact of their program and found that the students who came to use the archives were more engaged, had better academic performance, better retention, and higher rates of course completion than their peers. The overall findings of the program determined that learning in archives can positively affect students.

“We were really passionate about getting more and more students in, and we were in a spot where we really got to focus on it, so that was a nice luxury,” Robin explained. “Our intention was to share universal lessons with a wider global audience and engage and empower educators from elementary school to graduate school with practical how-to articles, case studies, and sample exercises with agendas, lesson plans, and handouts, as well as documentation for the grant project.”

According to Robin, the grant called for dissemination to share what they had learned, so she and Julie gave countless conference presentations and published several articles to share their findings. They also advocated to create the TeachArchives.org website to make the information available online for free to a global audience.

"At the AHA awards ceremony, I had the opportunity to speak to a few of the people who did the peer review process for the award," explained Julie. "It was terrific to learn that the processes, the articles, and the other tools that we created on the website are being used at all different levels of education, from primary schools to colleges. That it is exactly what we intended it to be. It wasn’t just the design how we saw it in our heads, but it was great to see that was how it was playing out across the country. That was incredibly gratifying.”

Now that Robin is at UC Riverside, she hopes to expand on her work with TeachArchives through the instruction project that she is helping to build by bringing this new method of primary source instruction to Special Collections & University Archives.

On Friday, November 18, UCR Library team members Elisha Hankins and Sahra Missaghieh Klawitter were the closing speakers at the 2016 Access Services Conference.

Their presentation title was: It’s The Finals Countdown – Finals Week Stress Relief Programming at the UCR Library. The 2016 Access Services Conference theme was “Unlocking the 21^st Century Library.”

Both Sahra and Elisha wanted to share the idea of Finals Week Stress Relief with fellow Access Services professionals, in hope that more universities would be inspired to add similar programming to serve their campus communities. “We had attendees flock to the front after our time was up to get more information and to thank us for presenting,” Elisha said.

“People said they were empowered, inspired, and excited to try out some of our events. They said that we provided not just variety of ideas, but that we pointed out tangible resources that could be used and explored on their own campuses,” she continued. “I think people could see the passion we have for our students and the programming we provide.”

Finals Week Stress Relief had its humble beginnings back in fall quarter 2012 when the Access Services Department had an idea to start a study break corner to create a place of respite from the stress that students experience during finals week. “Both Sahra and I were students that transitioned to staff,” Elisha explained. “We are UCR alumni and we both know intimately the struggles of students. We both have played the role of ‘student supervisors.’ We want to help our students carry their sometimes unbearable burdens.”

Over time, the program has increased both in popularity and in scale. It’s now greatly anticipated by the UC Riverside community. “It’s been rewarding to watch the FWSR events grow and blossom!” Elisha said. “Over the years, we’ve heard the students rave about our events. It’s even highlighted through UCR Tours – to promote UCR. These type of results are not just tangible but fulfilling on a human level.”

Some events, such as the Therapy Dogs with The Well and Massage Therapy + Stress Busters with Active Minds, have consistently yielded a massive turnout. Events with free food also draw large crowds, such as “Finals Are Nacho Problem” on December 1. Library staff handed out more than 450 servings of nachos at Rivera and Orbach libraries. Last Spring, the “Monday Sundae Funday” event was also quite popular with students.

The inspiration behind the first Finals Week Stress Relief program was to find a creative approach to nurturing UCR students by creating a relaxing and stress-free environment in the library during finals week each quarter. By winter quarter 2013, other departments on campus expressed interest in collaboration, including the Academic Resource Center, which now partners with the library on the Study Jam event. “We stressed that it is not a one-man show,” Elisha said of their presentation. “You need a team committed to excellence and to a shared vision of wanting to help their student population.”

Each quarter, the Finals Week Stress Relief program features a series of activities including Surprise Snack Giveaway with Scotty the Bear, Cookie Break with the Chancellor and University Librarian, and many more, all offered free of charge to UCR students.

View Sahra’s and Elisha’s Presentation (Prezi). 

View their “Finals Countdown” Video.

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.