Search
Search
IL Outcomes and Assessment
The information-literate UCR student is an active, critical, and ethical participant in the use and creation of information for academic, professional, personal, and community success
Library student employees who are “Living the Promise”: Mohamed Jawara
If you’ve visited Rivera Library in the past three years, you’ve likely seen Mohamed Jawara’s smiling face behind the front desk.
What you might never have guessed is that Jawara took the job at the Circulation / Reserves Desk to help him conquer shyness and to improve his communication and interpersonal skills.
“I saw how the staff at the front desk would help patrons, and I thought it would be a great way for me to get out of my comfort zone,” Jawara explained. “Working at the library, it’s a really positive environment. Everyone is very caring and supportive and they’ve played a great role in me improving myself and becoming a better person. We treat each other as a family.”
“Mohamed is a true servant leader at heart,” said Leslie Settle, Rivera Library's Access Services desk coordinator. “As a student supervisor, he sets the tone for the front desk and is an exemplary example of phenomenal customer service. When I think of training others in leadership and customer service, the things I have seen Mohamed do come to mind -- from how to greet patrons to making everyone feel like they belong.”
Born in the Republic of Sierra Leone in West Africa, Jawara immigrated to the United States in 2008 with his mother, a certified nurse assistant. At first, they stayed with his uncle’s family in Torrance, CA, but eventually settled in Loma Linda.
In 2016, Jawara’s younger brother and two sisters arrived from Sierra Leone. His father, formerly an accountant for the Sierra Leone Ministry of Defense, finally joined his family in May 2018, more than a decade after his wife and eldest son first came to the U.S.
“I felt like my mother did a great job trying to substitute whatever support my father would have given me, had he been here,” he said. “Even though it was difficult, she made the process a bit easier.”
He chose to attend UC Riverside because of its proximity to home. “It’s easy to commute here, and it would have been very expensive to live in the dorms,” he said.
Once he arrived, he was pleased to discover that UCR lived up to its reputation as a diverse campus. “It’s been great to meet people with different backgrounds of different races and develop friendships with them. That has enhanced my education here at UCR.”
Jawara graduated with the Class of 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science with a focus on law and society. He hopes to pursue graduate study and work in the field of public health, an interest that stemmed from tragedies he witnessed in his homeland.
Before Jawara came to California at age 12, he saw many horrors in the midst of Sierra Leone’s civil war, which only compounded challenges the country already had with meeting basic healthcare needs.
“I was born in the middle of that upheaval,” he said. “Growing up, I got to see those casualties of war, people who had limbs amputated. It was common to see close friends that I grew up with dying from malaria. I also had an uncle who suffered from a liver condition. The right professionals weren’t even available, so he relied heavily on native healing. Unfortunately, it just got worse and he ended up passing away.”
His father and siblings were still in Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis of 2014. “It was really excruciating to hear their calls and how frightened they were,” he said. As a result of these experiences, Jawara has devoted his studies to learning how to improve healthcare so that he can someday make a difference in Sierra Leone by building more hospitals staffed with trained medical professionals.
Settle commented, “Mohamed was born to understand and love all people in sincerity without judgment. Not only is he talented, but he has a purity about him that is unexplainable.”
How can someone who has seen firsthand so many gruesome tragedies still have such optimism? In a word: travel. “It plays a big role in me having a more positive outlook on life because I’ve had the opportunity to see the difference between having to struggle for basic things,” Jawara said.
“See how the rest of the world lives. By traveling, you get to compare and contrast and have a much deeper appreciation for what you have, no matter how little,” he added. “For you, it might seem like it’s nothing, but to someone else out there, it’s the whole world.”
In June 2018, Jawara was hired as a Research Assistant at UC Riverside's School of Medicine's Center for Healthy Communities. Additionally, he continued at an internship with the Riverside County Department of Public Health.
While interning and working, Jawara will begin applying for a variety of graduate programs in social science and healthcare.
Sabino Osuna Papers
Located in: Special Collections & University Archives
This collection documents the Mexican Revolution through the glass plate negatives, photographs, and lantern slides taken by photographer Sabino Osuna.
Very little is known about Osuna’s life, but he appears to have had a career as a commercial photographer in Mexico City, specializing in portraiture and architectural studies, before the outbreak of civil war.
Library Joins Tartan Soul Kickoff
2015 Highlander Welcome Week a resounding success
This marked the UCR Library's first, but certainly not last, participation in the Tartan Soul Kickoff event put on by the UCR Office of Student Life. More than 540 students mingled with a multitude of campus departments that set up activity booths around the UCR bell tower.
Students filled out "passports" by completing an activity at each booth, and received Tartan Soul shirts as their reward. Respect — a Tartan Soul value that exemplifies a Highlander through their regard for others' rights and dignity — was an underlying theme of the event.
The library booth welcomed students who got the chance to guess the decade in which a handful of photos from the University Archives were taken. The library's Special Collections and University Archives department was of great interest to students, as were library services such as laptop checkout, 24-hour chat reference, interlibrary loans, and library workshops and events.
Additional Tartan Soul events are expected to take place throughout the year, each focusing on one of the Highlander values of integrity, accountability, excellence, and respect.
Rivera Library Adds Gender-Inclusive Restroom
When the hashtag #UCRStandsTogether appeared on social media last month, the UCR Library joined in solidarity with other UC Riverside departments to demonstrate our commitment to inclusiveness and appreciation of diversity.
The latest addition to our library facilities reinforces our commitment to those values. A gender-inclusive restroom has been added to the second floor of Rivera Library, just past the Education Services desk (room A0211). Facilities completed installation of signage for this restroom on Tuesday, March 7, 2017.
To find other gender-inclusive restrooms, students, staff and faculty can visit the UCR campus map and zoom in until you see a symbol with a triangle inside a circle. Room number details will become visible when users click on the symbol. ADA compliant facilities information is also shown on the online campus map.
These facility renovations were added in response to a 2016 directive from the UC Office of the President, Janet Napolitano, requiring all UC campuses to offer a list of gender-inclusive restrooms and changing rooms with updated signage. The University of California standard is a gender inclusive restroom inside every building, or within a nearby building. Nearby is defined as a two-minute walk away.
Additional resources for those seeking gender-inclusive facilities are available on the LGBT resource center’s website.
Tomás Rivera Library
The Tomás Rivera Library serves as the main libr
Mary Rodríguez-Sweeney
Mary leads the information literacy development, instruction, and assessment activities for area studies departments and programs, as well as an emerging set of programs that sit at the intersection of cultural, social, and scientific understanding and study.
Area and Interdisciplinary Studies Teaching Librarian
4 to Explore: April Selections from Special Collections
This month in 4 to Explore, your Special Collections librarians and archivists have selected four new items and placed them on hold in the reading room.
Here's what you can see this April in 4 to Explore:
UCR photographs
Student social events from the 1950s
Mission Inn menus
See what was served in the 1910s
My Pretty Pony
Barbara Kruger illustrates Stephen King's story
Wild Gardens of Old California
How a Scotsman took wildflowers to Britain
Why you should try 4 to Explore:
Special Collections materials are kept in closed stacks, which means you can’t see the shelves and browse. You also can’t check things out and take them home. So, 4 to Explore is a great way to experience first-hand some of the collections that truly make the UCR Library unique.
4 to Explore will give you the chance to visit a reading room, like the ones that are used for archival research or by rare book scholars, and to get a sampling of our collections without having to submit a request ahead of time.
You’ll be asked to show photo ID and to check your bags – but don’t worry! Our UCR Library staff will explain everything to you when you arrive.
We will also have rotating exhibits of items from the collections on display.
Where to find 4 to Explore:
Department: Special Collections & University Archives
Where: Take elevators to 4th floor of Rivera Library
Hours: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm, Monday - Friday
Bring: Photo ID
Don’t bring: Food or drinks
Who: Everyone is welcome. 4 to Explore is more of an individual experience, but we can usually accommodate up to two people using the same item at the same time, so feel free to bring a friend.
What to expect: Staff will help you sign in and feel comfortable in the reading room. It should take about 5-10 minutes for you to get up to the 4th floor and get settled. Then you can stay and enjoy as long as you like!
Want to receive updates each month with more details about our 4 to Explore items? Sign up here.
An Evening with Laila Lalami
On Tuesday, February 17, 2026, we welcomed Laila Lalami, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and Distinguished Professor in UCR's Department of Creative Writing, to the Tomás Rivera Library Special Collections Reading Room for an evening centered on her latest novel, The Dream Hotel.
Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction and Fantasy Dr. Phoenix Alexander led the conversation. Here are a few photos from the night.
Afrofuturist Comics: Sankofa and the Black Speculative Re-Imagination with Dr. Nalo Hopkinson and Prof. John Jennings
On Thurs., June 25, bestselling authors and UC Riverside professors Dr. Nalo Hopkinson and Prof. John Jennings will be the featured guests at an online event titled, Afrofuturist Comics: Sankofa and the Black Speculative Re-Imagination.
Hopkinson and Jennings will discuss their most recent publications, House of Whispers Vol. 1: The Power Divided (The Sandman Universe) and Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation.
Both authors will discuss their work in the science fiction and Afrofuturism genres, writing graphic novels, and why they chose to donate their scholarship to the UCR Library.
They will also answer questions from viewers; attendees who RSVP will receive a link they can use to submit questions at least 48 hours in advance.
This event will be the first in a series called Faculty Profiles in Research, Art and Innovation, hosted by the UCR Library, and is open to all members of the UC Riverside community and surrounding areas.
Please RSVP in order to receive the link to join the livestream broadcast from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time on June 25.
Coming up next in the Faculty Profiles in Research, Art & Innovation series:
- Summer quarter: Susan Straight, Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing
- Fall quarter: Dr. Clifford E. Trafzer, Distinguished Professor of History and Rupert Costo Chair in American Indian Affairs
Dates for summer and fall quarter will be announced soon.