More News June 04, 2018

Special Collections & University Archives staff are constantly working to process recently acquired collections and make those materials ready for use by students, faculty, and researchers.

Each quarter, we will provide a list of UCR Library's newly processed archival and primary source collections. Check out the list below to see if there are any items that fit your research area, or share with a friend!

Below you'll find brief descriptions and links to the finding aids or collection guides for each new collection. To use any of these materials, simply click the "Request Items" button at the top to submit a request, and log in with our Special Collections Request System. For more on conducting research in Special Collections, see this page.

SCUA is open to the public on weekdays from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm. Check here for closures or other changes to our regular hours.

For questions, email specialcollections@ucr.edu.

Newly Processed Collections - Summer 2018

Brinkmann family collection of Mexican postcards, 1905-1920 (MS 416)

1.08 linear ft. (1 box)

The collection consists of approximately 125 photographic postcards, mostly from Mexico, sent to various members of the Brinkmann family from 1905-1920. The postcards depict landscapes, buildings and people from multiple parts of the country, most notably Veracruz, Yucatán and the State of Mexico.

 

Book and Writing Artifacts collection, circa 20^th century (MS 417)

7.71 linear ft. (9 boxes)

The collection, created primarily as a teaching collection, consists of materials meant to illustrate the history and techniques of various writing and print systems across the globe, including reproductions, souvenirs and original specimens of printing and writing tools and instruments, as well as various formats of book and manuscript binding. Materials in the collection were collected by Special Collections staff to aid with instruction on the history of the book and various writing and print technologies.

 

Collection of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo chapbooks, 1880-1925 (MS 235)

0.84 linear ft. (2 boxes)

The collection is composed of chapbooks printed by the famous Mexican publisher and printer Antonio Vanegas Arroyo from 1880-1925. Chapbooks in the collection document elements of popular culture in Mexico around the turn of the century and consist of booklets on a variety of subjects, including literature, poems, folk songs, plays, religious tracts and healthcare advice.

 

Collection of Antonio Vanegas Arroyo broadsides, circa 1882-1931 (MS 035)

1.83 linear ft. (2 boxes)
This collection contains broadsides created by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo's publishing firm in Mexico. The broadsides, printed in Spanish, contain political news about important figures of late 19th and early 20th centuries such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. The broadsides critique figures of Mexico and daily news in the form of songs and articles, and would have been distributed throughout Mexico City, where Antonio Arroyo was from.

 

Harriet E. Huntington papers, circa 1938-1968 (MS 221)

5.8 linear ft. (13 boxes)

The collection consists of photographs, negatives and drafts related to the works of children's book author Harriet E. Huntington. Huntington used her own photography in many of her books, which focused on a variety of topics including music, plants, flowers, fruits, insects, trees, reptiles, invertebrates and the Yosemite Valley.

 

Ralph C. Michelsen papers, circa 1951-1982 (MS 173)

3.34 linear ft. (8 boxes)

This collection contains notes, photographs, articles, manuscripts, maps, published papers, clippings, correspondence, sound recordings, and other material from cultural anthropologist Ralph C. Michelsen. Materials in the collection mostly pertain to Michelsen's anthropological research on numerous indigenous tribes in North and Central America, including the PaiPai and Kiliwa of Baja California, various Luiseño groups in southern California, the Mohave and Cocopah, the Seri of Mexico and other groups in Mexico and Guatemala, including Cora and Maya.

 

Riverside, California photograph collection, circa 1834-1977 (MS 204)

3.34 linear ft. (8 boxes)
This collection contains photographs, slides, and glass plate negatives depicting the landscapes, people and culture of Riverside, California from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Images in the collection include notable local buildings and businesses, Riverside families and residents, and local natural and agricultural sites.

 

Vicki Hearne papers, circa 1973-1988 (MS 219)

1.83 linear ft. (2 boxes)

This collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, and press clippings pertaining to Vicki Hearne, an American author, philosopher and scholar of literary criticism and linguistics. Hearne was known for her published poetry with a focus on animals and their cognitive abilities.

 

Walter Crenshaw papers, 1942-1944 (MS 418)

0.21 linear ft. (1 box)
The collection consists of medals and other records from Walter Crenshaw, who served as the administrative assistant to the provost marshal at the Tuskegee Army Air Field during the Second World War. Items in the collection include Crenshaw's pay and physical fitness records, a Tuskegee Army Airfield yearbook, a Thanksgiving menu and three medals Crenshaw received related to his service.

More News April 30, 2018

Eli Labinger is a fourth-year psychology major who works as a Student Assistant in Special Collections and University Archives at the UCR Library.

Labinger grew up in West Hollywood, California as the younger of two sons. His mother is a first grade teacher and his father is a wholesale bookseller.

UC Riverside was an easy choice to make for Labinger because he wanted to stay close to home for college, but also wanted to attend a research university. “When I first visited, I really loved it. It has a very intimate feeling about it,” he said. “It was just a really good fit for me.”

Working at the library also turned out to be a great fit for Labinger. “There’s a lot to love about this job,” he said. “It’s really the anticipation of working with new things or in new areas every day keeps me interested and excited. There’s always something new to experience here.”

One of his favorite work-related memories comes from a 2016 event for the Chancellor’s Associates. “Donors who were visiting the library stopped by Special Collections,” Labinger explained. “We had seven or eight display tables set up around the reading room. Each table had things representing a specific area, and I got to present on The Lord of the Rings as representative of the fantasy literature collection. That was cool.”

His interest in fantasy literature helped to establish a friendship with Science Fiction Librarian Jacqueline “JJ” Jacobson. “I have talked a lot with JJ especially about The Lord of the Rings,” he said. “That’s sort of my outside interest.”

Aside from his work at the library, Labinger also works in a research laboratory in UCR's Department of Psychology. “I’m working on a project right now for the Chancellor’s Research Fellowship,” he said. “Psychology is a really new field and there’s a lot of research out there but there’s so much to be done. There are a lot of important discoveries yet to be made. I think that global change is going to stem from research.”

He feels most passionate about research that focuses on children and adolescents. “It’s such rapid growth period, and by the time we learn new things about these people, the people we’re studying grow up and grow out of our findings. A lot of things become out of date really quickly. There can’t be too much research with younger people.”

Between classes and working at both the library and the psychology lab, Labinger has little spare time for other hobbies. “I haven’t been able to do all the things I like to do, like read for pleasure.”

After graduation, Labinger will be moving to Portland, Oregon, to complete his PhD at Portland State University’s applied developmental psychology program. As a graduate student, he will be assisting Dr. Andrew Mashburn in his research, which includes assessing the effectiveness of early interventions for improving school readiness in preschoolers moving to kindergarten.

“I am especially interested in understanding the types of children and families for whom such interventions work best, and in using this information to find programs that work for all students and that have lasting positive effects,” Labinger said.

• Read more about Publications Based on Research Conducted in SCUA

More News September 21, 2015

National leaders convene to support and advise UCR Library

On Saturday, September 19, 2015, the UCR Library hosted the inaugural meeting of the newly-established African American Collections Advisory Board. Thought-leaders from across the nation met with library and university leaders to discuss and establish best practices in collecting and preserving the history of the African American experience, and methods of documenting local, regional, national, and international issues.

The day-long series of round-table conversations were energized by national leaders such as Dr. Meredith Evans, Director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum, who spearheaded the Documenting Ferguson project and Dr. Abdul Alkalimat, Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prominent community members also joined the discussion series, including Rose M. Mayes, Executive Director of the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County and president of the Riverside African American Historical Society, and Hardy Brown, Jr., Executive Director of the Black Voice Foundation.

University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble encouraged the board to broaden the scope of their work on behalf of the UCR Library by not limiting their focus to black Americans. Scholars and leaders from across UCR disciplines — including Vice Provost for International Affairs Kelechi Kalu, and faulty from the departments of Ethnic Studies and History — engaged the group in discussion about how the university can best support the library, and the international scholarly community, in collecting and preserving history from underserved and underrepresented communities at large. Bergis Jules and Dr. Alison M. Scott, both from the library's Special Collections and University Archives department, described their past and current work in this arena and shared their successes and challenges.

Further discussion evolved around fundraising as a necessary aspect of collecting historical documentation, building relationships in communities that have historically been distrustful of higher education as a reliable keeper of their family history, as well as the importance of educating the general public about the "history of everyday life" and the valuable historical snapshot that a seemingly-unexceptional object may hold for others in the future.

This first meeting of the American Collections Advisory Board formally launches the UCR Library's nationwide collaborative efforts to share, create, and sustain knowledge among ethnic groups whose history and experiences are woven into the fabric of the country. While library initiatives such as the founding of the Tuskegee Airmen Archive in 2005 and the newly-established Inland Empire Memories project have exemplified the library's and university's continued commitment to diversity on campus, this Board elevates UCR to a significantly larger stage, and establishes the university as driving these vital considerations on a national and international level.

More News February 02, 2021

When Class of 2019 alumnus Matthew Diep first enrolled at UC Riverside to double-major in accounting and public policy, becoming a children's book author was not on his to-do list.

However, a missed opportunity in another campus department led him to apply for a student employee position at the UCR Library, which became the catalyst for a huge shift in Diep’s career and life plans.

“My whole life would have been different if I had gotten that first job,” Diep reflected. “When I was a senior at UCR, my dad passed away. The library was always there for me. They were so supportive. Books were always there for me. You know, books get me through everything.”

In January 2021, Diep self-published his first children’s book (under the pseudonym Matthew Dee) titled, “There’s a Book on That,” which is currently sold through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Book Depository. In his book, Diep wanted to show his young readers all the wonders that books in libraries have to offer.

“When I was a kid, I despised reading,” he admitted. “But the one thing that I did like to read was books that rhymed.” Diep eventually learned to love reading and began writing poems during high school, so he knew that he could rhyme, but he had never written anything like this.

After writing the manuscript last year, Diep saved it in his Google docs and promptly forgot about it. “Then this winter break, I got bored,” he said, which is why he decided to self-publish.

Throughout all 4 years of his undergraduate studies, Diep found himself feeling “miserable but practical” about his decision to focus on accounting. “Toward the end of senior year, I reflected on what would make me happy and what would I enjoy, and I knew I enjoyed working at the library. So I decided to totally switch my career path.” He applied for a Masters program in Library and Information Sciences (MLIS) at San Jose State, and hopes to complete his degree within two years.

He is currently employed part-time with the City of Ontario Library and full-time with the University of Redlands Library, where he supervises student employees in the Access Services department. This reminds him of his former supervisor: “Leslie [Settle] is someone I always think about because she was a great supervisor and she was always there for her students, and that’s what I aspire to be for my students.”

Upon completion of his MLIS, Diep hopes to work in an academic library, perhaps at his alma mater. He has ideas for more children’s books, as well. In the meantime, he is focused on marketing his first book and getting it onto the shelves of as many libraries as possible. “I do want to see it with the little call number and everything,” he said.

Diep's endeavors have been met with overwhelming support from his family and friends on social media, though interested libraries should move quickly, he said. “The hard copy is already out-of-stock on Amazon.”

Fortunately, the UCR Library has already ordered a copy of “There’s a Book on That,” which will soon sit proudly alongside its counterparts in the library's juvenile collection.

Supportive Highlanders can follow their classmate at matthewdeebooks.com.

More News May 07, 2021

Born in 1954 at March Air Force Base, Riverside native Craig “Spike” Decker has been a hustler and natural promoter for as long as he can remember.

Decker and a childhood friend named Gerald once made up a carnival for neighborhood kids. “We’d ride around on our bicycles and promote it,” he explained. “We’d make like 75 cents each and it was phenomenal.”

In his late teens, Decker’s entrepreneurial ventures meandered from promoting rock ‘n’ roll shows for his 50s cover band, Sterno and the Flames (where his nickname “Spike” was born), to 16 mm midnight film shows. The latter would eventually define his career destiny and cultural legacy, though Decker didn’t know it at the time.

Around 1975, at age 21, he spotted a huge, three-story Victorian house on Magnolia Street that was past its prime. He tracked down the owner, a local architect, who agreed to rent the house to him for $250 a month, as long as Decker didn’t bother him about repairs. Decker rented out the 14 rooms to his friends, and collectively, they dubbed that house “Mellow Manor.”

“We became notorious, almost Animal House,” Decker said. “The police didn’t like us much because we’d have these huge parties.”

At one party, an obnoxious guy in a clown costume wandered in and quickly got thrown out. His name was Mike Gribble, and that’s how the friendship between Spike and Mike was forged.

Soon, Spike asked Mike to get involved with a crazy idea: curating a show made up entirely of animated shorts, but not the kind of cartoons that most people knew and loved. “The general public only knew Looney Tunes and Disney,” Decker said. Instead, he wanted 90 minutes of animated shorts like no one had seen before: countercultural, avant-garde, and funny but with off-kilter humor. In 1977, the two co-founded Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation, with startup funding from a friend’s legal settlement from a motorcycle accident. Their first show premiered in Landis Auditorium at Riverside Community College.

Since they were looking for unusual animated shorts, they began hunting for emerging artists in the industry. “We’d go to the CalArts [California Institute of the Arts] Producers’ Show every year in Valencia. That’s where we met people like Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton. We called them the ‘CalArts kids,’” Decker said.

“The one skill we really fine-tuned was finding the talent before they became known to the public,” Decker continued. “It’s like someone who works with instruments knowing the moment they hear a Stradivarius violin. I know what plays, what has entertainment value.”

Their eye for talent was strong, indeed. Docter is now the Academy-Award winning head of Pixar Animation Studios, where he wrote and directed Up, Inside Out, and Soul. Another Oscar-winner, Stanton wrote and directed several blockbuster films for Disney, including WALL.E, Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory.

Other modern animation legends whose careers launched at Spike & Mike’s include:

• Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Corpse Bride)
• Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park)
• Matt Groening (The Simpsons)
• Mike Judge (Beavis & Butt Head)
• Nick Park (Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit)

“You have to make sure you deliver if you want the people to come back,” Decker said. “We took a lot of pride in not deceiving people and making sure when they left, they got more than their money’s worth.”

After years of success, in 1990 Spike and Mike added a stranger offshoot, the Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, which was tailored for the 18-and-over crowd. “There wasn’t enough content out there already, so we would funnel money back in order to produce this content in order to be able to have a 90 minute show,” Decker said.

Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation flipped the industry on its head, eschewing family-friendly styles and happily-ever-after formulas, and rather embraced a maverick vibe and twisted sense of humor that redefined animation at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Decker first donated his groundbreaking archive of avant-garde animation to UC Riverside’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS) in 2014. It was transferred to the UCR Library in 2020, as CHASS felt that the library would be better equipped to preserve the collection and make it accessible for research and study.

The archive is not yet available to the public. Tiffany Moxham, Associate University Librarian for Content and Discovery, explained, “By fall quarter 2021, we will launch a fundraising campaign to support the stabilization, preservation and digitization of this archive, to provide long-term accessibility to researchers.”

The Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation archive contains more than 2,532 reels, totaling approximately 650,000 feet of film. The value of the time and money invested in producing these shorts for the festival, plus the producers’ discernment for spotting emerging talent, combined with the festival’s lasting impact and legacy in the animation industry makes it extremely difficult to assign a monetary value to this collection.

Imagining what the academic community could do with this archive, in terms of research, study, and creativity, is equally valuable, which is why the library has prioritized the need to preserve and make this collection available to the public as soon as possible.

Those interested in supporting the Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation fund are encouraged to contact Jernine McBride, Associate Director of Development, for more information.

More News September 13, 2018

Special Collections & University Archives staff are constantly working to process recently acquired collections and make those materials ready for use by students, faculty, and researchers.

Each quarter, we will provide a list of the UCR Library's newly processed archival and primary source collections. Check out the list below to see if there are any items that fit your research area, or share with a friend!

Below you'll find brief descriptions and links to the finding aids or collection guides for each new collection. To use any of these materials, simply click the "Request Items" button at the top to submit a request, and log in with our Special Collections Request System. For more on conducting research in Special Collections, see this page.

SCUA is open to the public on weekdays from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm. Check here for closures or other changes to our regular hours.

For questions, email specialcollections@ucr.edu.

Newly Processed Collections - Fall 2018

University of California, Riverside Pesticide Waste Pits records (WRCA 280)

The UCR Pesticide Waste Pits records document some of the early agricultural research at the Citrus Experiment Station, prior to the founding of UCR, and the environmental remediation project of the Pesticide Waste Pits in the 1990s and early 2000s.

 

Nalo Hopkinson papers (MS 386)

Nalo Hopkinson is a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside and an award-winning Jamaican and Canadian science fiction & fantasy writer. She is a pioneering figure of the Afrofuturism and Alternative Futurism movements. This collection is focused on Hopkinson’s literary works and includes a number of manuscripts, publications from her tenures as an editor, and other materials associated with her activities in SF&F circles.

 

Robert V. Hine papers (UA 083)

Robert V. Hine was a founding professor of the University of California, Riverside in the History Department. This collection documents his work as a professor of history and his interests in the American frontier, borderlands, socialist cooperatives, and the Irvine Ranch. Also included in this collection are documents on the establishment of early humanities curriculum and academic senate records of UC Riverside.

 

Harriet E. Huntington papers (MS 221) – check catalog record for updated marc entry

This collection documents the work of children’s book author and photographer Harriet Huntington. Materials in the collection include photographs, negatives, and drafts of her works on topics including music, plants, animals, and the Yosemite Valley.

 

Sabino Osuna photographs (MS 028)

Sabino Osuna was a professional photographer in Mexico City during the early 20^th century. This collection of photographs represents his work documenting the Mexican Revolution, primarily between 1910 and 1914, and many of the images were published in a book titled: Mexico at the Hour of Combat: Sabino Osuna’s Photographs of the Mexican Revolution. This collection has also been digitized and is accessible on the California Digital Library.

 

Carobeth Laird papers (MS 109)

Carobeth Laird was an anthropologist, linguist, and ethnographer most known for her work studying the Chemehuevi people of southeastern California and western Arizona. Laird’s collection includes manuscripts, press clippings and other materials from her career working with the Chemehuevi. There are also materials from Lynn Laredo, the author of Laird’s documentary, as well as personal materials, including from her first marriage to the ethnologist John Peabody Harrington.

 

John Franceschina papers (MS 422)

The collection consists of materials from author and theater history scholar John Franceschina relating to two of his publications: Incidental and Dance Music in the American Theatre from 1786 to 1923, and Hermes Pan: The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire. Items in the collection include research files, musical scores, programs, photographs, news clippings, publications, and videos.

 

Loda Mae Davis papers (UA 082)

The Loda Mae Davis papers document the professional life of Loda Mae Davis, the first Dean of Women at UC Riverside. This collection also contains the records of the Loda Mae Davis women’s archives which conducted oral history interviews to document women in academia at UCR during the 20^th century.

More News October 16, 2017

As the first person in his entire family to attend college, Carlos Rodriguez ’90 was a true pioneer when he arrived at UC Riverside for orientation in 1985.

“Since then everyone has followed me,” Rodriguez said. After he blazed the trail, both of his sisters went to college and graduate school. “All my cousins have gone on to college, as well, all the younger ones.”

As his career clearly demonstrates, there’s no wonder that forging new paths in uncharted territory comes so naturally to Rodriguez. From pioneering work with early internet databases and ejournals in the mid-1990s at UCR, to reimagining library learning environments for an enhanced student experience at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, to his current role as the Dean of the University Library at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), Rodriguez continues to chase the horizon.

Originally a pre-engineering major, Rodriguez came to UCR planning to transfer after two years to either UCLA or UC Santa Barbara.

He began working in the library as a student employee shelving books. “Back in the 80s, people checked out books,” he laughed.

Having developed a strong peer network and relationships with faculty and staff, Rodriguez ended up changing his major and staying at UCR instead of transferring. It wasn’t until an internship with a credit union that he realized he preferred a culture of learning and service-based organization over a traditional corporate environment, and so his career in higher education and libraries was born. “I wasn’t in it for the money. I was in it to help other people,” he said.

As he approached graduation, Rodriguez realized he might enjoy a permanent career in the library. During his senior year, he transitioned from a student employee position into a part-time staff role, which is when he met two influential mentors, librarians Nancy Huling and the late John Tanno.

In Rodriguez’s first year as a science librarian, Tanno nominated him for a leadership and career development program for underrepresented racial and ethnic minority librarians with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). “John was really supportive of diversity. There wasn’t a lot of diversity back then,” Rodriguez said. “He saw leadership potential in me early on.”

Rodriguez credits the small, tight-knit community at UCR for advancement opportunities like this. “If I had been a student assistant at UCLA, I probably wouldn’t have had the same opportunities that I had at UCR,” he said.

Ultimately, Rodriguez went on to get his Masters in Library and Information Science from UCLA. He came back to UCR as a Science Librarian before advancing through a variety of library positions, including the Associate Dean of Technology and Information Services at Grand Valley State.

Rodriguez helped the library at Grand Valley State shift from being library-centric and collection-centric to learner-centric. “Every decision we made, we asked ourselves, ‘Does this benefit the learner?’ The reason we’re here is for our students. We need to meet their needs.”

From Grand Valley State, Rodriguez returned to California to serve as the Dean of the University Library at Cal State LA. One of his goals at CSULA has been to transform the library’s physical space to make it less intimidating for their diverse, predominantly first-generation student population. “We’re changing the perception from ‘you’re visiting the library’ to ‘this is your library, and you own this space,’” Rodriguez explained.

In Rodriguez’s opinion, the library plays an active role in student success, research, faculty partnerships, and community engagement. “Libraries can provide opportunities for people to learn, grow, discover, create, and really transform how they see the world,” he said. “Libraries are probably one of the most important institutions at universities to do that.”

Another vision turned reality is the creation of an Academic Success Center, which is the cornerstone of Rodriguez’s capital improvement strategy for the Cal State LA Library. He plans to design a physical space around a suite of student services with a central student-led concierge to direct users toward the best solution for their needs.

What’s next for this innovative thinker? “I’m happy where I’m at now, but UCR is the only other place that I’d want to work at because of the students and what they’re doing. It’s a place I’d like to return to one day.”

The UCR Library is committed to enhancing the student learning experience, which includes supporting the professional development and advancement of our student employees. This article is the first in a series of stories following the success of former UCR Library student employees. We are incredibly proud of the alumni talent that was cultivated here, at the UCR Library. 

More News January 03, 2017

The holiday season tends to inspire a spirit of giving and goodwill. Access Services Desk Supervisor Leslie Settle has discovered a way to extend that magnanimous feeling throughout the whole year.

It began five years ago, when Leslie first heard about the Guardian Scholars Program during a Staff Assembly. “I recognized one of the students in their advertisement photo as someone who comes to the front desk all the time,” Leslie explained.

Connecting a familiar face to the mission of Guardian Scholars is what inspired Leslie to make a monthly donation to the program via payroll deduction. “When I was a student here, I never knew that UCR did this,” Leslie said. An alumna of UC Riverside (class of 2006, B.A. in Political Science and Ethnic Studies, and 2009, M.A. in Public Administration), Leslie understands well the demands of student life.

Learning about what the Guardian Scholars Program does was eye-opening in many ways for Leslie. “I didn’t know that kids in the foster system get completely cut off when they turn 18, so it’s like becoming homeless all over again,” she explained. “I thought to myself, ‘That isn’t right and I must help.’ A lot of these scholars are young, single parents, and they’re trying to go to school and take care of their family at the same time. I remember as a student having no home to go home to, since my mother was homeless. And now that I’ve been blessed, I want to help by blessing others.”

“The Guardian Scholars Program provides housing for them, it gives them school supplies, and money for things like going to the movies with their kids,” Leslie continued. “Some of the Guardian Scholars will write a personal thank-you note and send it to your house. Some will even send you pictures of their kids. It’s very sweet.”

“Guardian Scholars is among a few of the popular, ‘feel good’ programs that UCR staff and faculty can donate to,” explained Lily Barger, Director of Annual Giving. Lily stated that others include R’Pantry, Scholarship Assistance, the Living the Promise fund, and R’Garden.

“The R’Garden is a great link between the community and the university,” said Lily. “People who live in Riverside can get a plot in the garden. Food grown there goes to the families, to the UCR Food Pantry, and to a few local food pantries, as well.”

 “It blesses me to give because I love helping people. I know without help, I would not be where I am today,” Leslie explained. “I felt like I could do more, so I told some coworkers about Guardian Scholars. A few others signed up to give, too, because of what I had shared, which was great to see. And giving to UCR is so easy – one form to fill out, and you never have to think about it again.” In addition to giving to the Guardian Scholars Program, Leslie also donates each month to Society 54, which supports the UC Riverside Staff Assembly.

If you feel inspired by Leslie’s story, there are many programs that could use your support. You can learn more about the different ways to give to UCR, or speak with any member at UCR’s Office of Development to learn about how to participate in the Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign.

 “The library would be thrilled to be a leader on campus, not only in our services, but also in our sense of community, spirit, and campus-wide support,” said Samantha Lang, Director of Development for Campus-wide Initiatives, “The library would love to achieve 100% participation in the Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign, which is part of UCR’s Living the Promise Comprehensive Campaign. And ‘participation’ can be a simple, one-time $25 donation to anywhere on campus, not just the library.”

An added bonus is that each donation counts as a charitable deduction come tax season. “This is a great alternative to giving just at the end of the year,” Leslie explained. “If everybody who works at UCR gave a little each month, we could raise millions of dollars each year.”

More News February 01, 2024

Learn about some of the authors featured in the UCR Library's Writers Week exhibit. View the exhibit in the Tomás Rivera Library until February 16. 

This year's Writers Week is taking place February 10 and February 12 - 16. See all the events (most are hybrid) and RSVP at writersweek.ucr.edu. 

Learn more about our Writers Week exhibit here and more about the authors featured below. 

Prageeta Sharma is a poet born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Her collections of poetry include Bliss to Fill, The Opening Question, which won the Fence Modern Poets Prize, Infamous Landscapes, Undergloom, and Grief Sequence.

Noah Amir Arjomand is a filmmaker currently enrolled in the MFA Writing for the Performing Arts program at UCR, where he is a chancellor's distinguished fellow in screenwriting. He is the author of Fixing Stories: Local Newsmaking and International Media in Turkey and Syria and co-directed and co-produced the feature-length documentary Eat Your Catfish about my mother's life with ALS. 

Vickie Vértiz was born and raised in Bell Gardens, a city in southeast Los Angeles County. With over 25 years of experience in social justice, writing, and education. Her writing is featured in the New York Times Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huizache, Nepantla, the Los Angeles Review of Books, among many others.

Cati Porter is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council for 2023-24. Additionally, Cati Porter’s poetry has won or been a finalist in contests by: So To Speak, judged by Arielle Greenberg; Crab Creek Review, judged by Aimee Nezhukumatathil; and Gravity & Light, judged by Chella Courington. Cati Porter lives in Inland Southern California where she runs her Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry and directs Inlandia Institute, a 501(c)(3) literary nonprofit.

Issam Zineh is a Palestinian-American poet and scientist. He is author of Unceded Land (Trio House Press, 2022), finalist for the Trio Award, Medal Provocateur, Housatonic Book Award, and Balcones Prize for Poetry, and the chapbook The Moment of Greatest Alienation (Ethel Press, 2021). His poems appear or are forthcoming in AGNI, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Tahoma Literary Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

Melissa Studdard is the author of five books, including the poetry collections Dear Selection Committee. Her work has been featured by NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, and Houston Matters, and more. 

Minda Honey is the editor of Black Joy at Reckon, a newsletter has nearly 60K subscribers. Her essays on politics and relationships have appeared in Harper’s Baazar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads. 

Daisy Ocampo Diaz (Caxcan, or Caz’ Ahmo, Indigenous Nation of Zacatecas, Mexico) earned her PhD in History from the University of California, Riverside in 2019. Her research in Native and Public History informs her work with museum exhibits, historical preservation projects, and community-based archives. 

Elena Karina Byrne is a screenwriter, essayist, reviewer, multi-media artist, and editor. She is The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Programming Consultant & Poetry Stage Manager and Literary Programs Director for the historic The Ruskin Art Club. She is the author of five poetry collections.

Farnaz Fatemi is an Iranian American writer and editor in Santa Cruz, California. Her debut book, Sister Tongue زبان خواهر , was published in September 2022. It won the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, selected by Tracy K. Smith, from Kent State University Press, and received a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly. 

Lisa Teasley is a graduate of UCLA and a native of Los Angeles. Her critically acclaimed debut, Glow in the Dark, is winner of the Gold Pen Award and Pacificus Literary Foundation awards for fiction. She has also won the May Merrill Miller and the National Society of Arts & Letters Short Story awards. Teasley has a new story collection, Fluid, which was released on Cune Press, September 26, 2023.

Quincy Troupe is an awarding-winning author of 12 volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works. In 2010 Troupe received the American Book Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. Quincy Troupe is professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego, formerly editor Code magazine and Black Renaissance Noire, a literary journal of the Institute of Africana Studies at New York University, and poetry editor of A Gathering of the Tribes online magazine.

Reza Aslan is s a renowned writer, commentator, professor, Emmy- and Peabody-nominated producer, and scholar of religions. A recipient of the prestigious James Joyce award, Aslan is the author of three internationally best-selling books, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Aslan is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community.

Rigoberto González earned a degree in humanities and social sciences interdisciplinary studies from the University of California, Riverside, and an MFA from Arizona State University in Tempe. González is the author of five poetry collections, including The Book of Ruin (Four Way Books, 2019); Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013), winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the 2014 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.

Donato Martinez teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. His first full collection of poetry, Touch the Sky, was published in June by El Martillo Press. 

Jason Magabo Perez holds an MFA in writing and consciousness from New College of California, formerly in San Francisco, and a dual PhD in ethnic studies and communication from the University of California, San Diego. Perez is the author of I ask about what falls away, forthcoming in 2024; This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017); and Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). 

Dave Eggers is the author of many books, among them The Eyes and the Impossible, The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, Heroes of the Frontier, A Hologram for the King, and What Is the What. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Kimberly Blaeser, writer, photographer, and scholar, is a past Wisconsin Poet Laureate. She is the author of five poetry collections, most recently the bi-lingual Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance (2020), Copper Yearning (2019), and Apprenticed to Justice.

Marsha de la O was born and raised in Southern California. She earned her MFA from Vermont College and is the author of two collections of poetry: Black Hope (1997), winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize, and Antidote for Night (2015), winner of the Isabella Gardner Prize from BOA Editions. 

Cindy Juyoung Ok is a poet, former high school physics teacher, and university creative writing instructor. Her collection of poems, Ward Toward, won the Yale Younger Poets Prize.