More News November 04, 2016

Hayden Jackson is a third-year Political Science major with a minor in Statistics. He’s also a first-generation university student from Ripon, California and the eldest of three children.

“UCR kind of found me, rather than the other way around,” Hayden explained. “When I stepped on campus at UCR, it just felt right. My counselors said that would happen with one college, and UCR was definitely that one for me. I absolutely love this campus, and you couldn’t pay me enough to leave now.”

Hayden first came to the library looking for a second job so that he could stay on campus more to become more involved. He began working as a Library Security Monitor and now works in in Special Collections & University Archives.

“Robin Katz and Zayda Delgado have both been very helpful mentors,” Hayden said. “Robin is always trying to get more people into Special Collections, and Zayda is making a meaningful experience for the patrons, to make it easier to do research. It’s incredibly important work.”

Hayden is also involved in student government with ASUCR and SSFAC (Student Services Fee Advisory Committee), which meets once per quarter with leadership from other UC schools. Hayden said, “I get to see how each UC campus differs.”

Last year, Hayden also joined the UC system-wide Academic Senate Library and Scholarly Communications Committee after a long wait. “They hadn’t had an undergrad rep in four years,” he explained. As the only student voice on this committee, Hayden represents 250,000 other students.

Hayden also did an internship in Sacramento with Senator Richard Roth in summer 2016. “They were missing a legislative aide, so they let me jump into that role. It was eye-opening to see how it all works,” he explained. “A lot more similarities to what I do on campus than I might have thought.”

After UCR, Hayden wants to get his PhD and to go either into higher education or work in the professional field in Sacramento or Washington DC. “I’m interested in doing something that’s bigger than me, something that’s going to outlast me, something that’s going to affect more than just my life,” he says of his long-term vision.

Hayden’s desire to go into academia started when he began working in Special Collections, he said. “A lot of international researchers came here to do original research. Seeing them do that here was really inspiring.”

Being able to work on campus is a big benefit when it comes to class scheduling, Hayden explained. “Life would be very different if I were still working off-campus. My best friends are my co-workers, so that’s been a great support network, as well.”

 “I was thinking about how much more I learn outside the classroom through all these experiences,” Hayden concluded. “Not to say anything against the professors, because they’re all great, too. Classes are harder to put on a resume, but no less valuable.”

More News December 13, 2017

The UCR Library will close to the public at 11:30 am on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 for a library event.

This closure affects all three facilities (Rivera Library, Orbach Library, and the Music Library).

Regular service hours will resume on the morning of Thursday, December 21.

Please refer to our website’s hours page for the most current schedule.

More News May 06, 2019

During winter quarter 2019, the UCR Library collaborated on a survey with ASUCR and their Student Voice Committee to learn how we can improve students’ academic experience.

463 undergraduate and graduate students participated in the survey and identified these top five obstacles to student success at UC Riverside:

1)      Difficult classes (32%)

2)      Time management (25%)

3)      Cost of textbooks (15%)

4)      Lack of study spaces (8%)

5)      Not owning a laptop (4%)

The UCR Library and its partners directly address three of these challenges:

Cost of textbooks:        Library course reserves and the Affordable Course Materials Initiative (ACMI) can help offset the high cost of textbooks.

Lack of study spaces:         Both Rivera and Orbach Libraries provide a variety of study rooms that students can reserve online, including the recently updated and soundproof David W. Musso Quiet Study Rooms.

Not owning a laptop:         Students can borrow a laptop from one of the new ITS-managed Laptops Anytime self-service kiosks in the Rivera and Orbach libraries, or check out a laptop from the Circulation / Reserves Desks.

The library also offers some support to address students’ two most pressing challenges – difficult classes and time management.

Difficult classes:

• Make an appointment with a librarian to request individual research assistance.
• In-class presentations to find and use research resources, and gain expertise on digital tools and technologies. Students can suggest that their instructors contact the library directly to request this service.

Time management:

• The library offers workshops every quarter on a variety of time-saving topics, including citation management and other research tools and techniques.
• Individual how-to consultations on digital tools or other technology: use the ‘Ask Us’ button on the library’s homepage to find a library consultant, or visit one of the Info Desks for general questions and guidance.

If students feel stressed by their academic challenges, the library offers stress-relieving resources, too:

• Visit the Creat’R Lab in Orbach Library to make something fun and creative.
• Open up a Rivera Library maker box to color, play with Legos, or make other crafts.

The library’s staff are its greatest resource to assist students with their most pressing concerns. “Librarians and their individual expertise can be extremely helpful,” said Dani Cook, UCR Library’s Director of Teaching & Learning.

Those who are interested in offering philanthropic support for student success at UC Riverside are encouraged to speak with Jernine McBride, Associate Director of Development, to learn more about the UCR Library's Student Success Fund.

More News June 05, 2020

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.

More News October 14, 2022

Guidance from the University of California Libraries:

The federal government is making significant moves to encourage open access to research. This summer, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) made national headlines with its new guidance that, by 2026, research funded by all federal agencies should be made freely and immediately available to the public, with no embargo.

The new guidance will bring about three significant changes to the status quo:

• Removing the 12-month delay before research publications funded by the largest federal agencies become publicly available;
• Directing that both federally-funded research publications and their supporting data should be made publicly accessible at the time of publication; and
• Bringing all federal agencies into alignment with this open access publishing policy.

While the agencies are being given time to determine how they will operationalize the new guidance, the principles at its heart are in sync with the University of California’s long-standing commitment to make our research freely available to the scientific community and the public.

Here is what UC researchers should know now about what to expect:

When will these changes go into effect?

The OSTP guidance recommends that all federal grantmaking agencies implement the recommended changes no later than Dec. 31, 2025. Some agencies may update their grant requirements sooner.

What will I need to do with my research articles once this policy takes effect?

While many of the details are yet to come as each federal agency determines how they will implement the OSTP guidance, what we can infer now is that:

• We expect the agencies that already have policies regarding public access to the research they fund will continue to use their existing processes to the extent possible, updating them as needed to align with the new guidance. We will know more about those changes once the agencies release their updated public access plans.
• If you obtain future research funding from a smaller agency that does not yet require deposit in an open access repository, the agency will develop a policy requiring you to make your funded articles open access in some form. (The details may vary by agency.)

How does this federal guidance interact with UC’s open access publishing options?

As a UC researcher, you do not have to wait for this government policy to be implemented to make your research open access. In fact, the University of California has had an Open Access Policy in place for many years that enables UC authors to make their research publicly available immediately. To do so, you have several options:

• If you choose to publish in a journal that is part of one of UC’s transformative open access agreements, the UC libraries will pay all or part of the open access publishing fee on your behalf, using library funds that were previously allocated to pay solely for journal subscriptions.
• If UC does not have an open access agreement with the publisher of the journal that has accepted your article, you can typically choose to pay an open access publishing fee to publish your article open access. Under the OSTP guidance, all federal agencies should allow researchers to include publication and data-sharing costs in their research budgets.
• Another cost-free option is to upload your final accepted manuscript (i.e., prior to typesetting by the publisher) into UC’s institutional repository eScholarship. UC’s Open Access Policies allow you to make your final accepted manuscript immediately available unless the journal’s publisher requests an embargo period or a waiver of the UC policy (learn more or contact Data Librarian Kat Koziar with any questions).

If I may have to deposit a copy of my research in a government-approved repository anyway (which is the current requirement of some large federal agencies), are there still benefits to making the final published article open access?

There are access and discoverability benefits to having articles published OA on the publishers site, but the final decision depends on different factors like the goals you have for your final published article. Our librarians will be available for a fuller discussion as the individual agencies policies take effect. 

Will the new federal guidance make it easier to get funding to cover the cost of open access publishing?

While we do not yet know the details of how each agency will implement the OSTP guidance, based on the current approach of the large federal agencies, there will be a no-cost option available — such as an approved government repository — where you (or the publisher) can deposit your manuscript and meet the open access requirement at no cost.

Where and how do I share my data?

As agencies implement the OSTP guidance on data sharing, they may recommend or require specific repositories. Until those details are known, a subject-specific repository is usually the best place to share your data since it will be an intuitive location for other scientists to look for datasets in a particular field. There are also general repositories that take in a variety of subjects and interdisciplinary datasets. UC has partnered with the Dryad repository, and UC affiliates can deposit data there for free (as long as it is open and unrestricted, and contains no personally identifiable human subject information; see their FAQ for details).

Tip: When submitting data to a general repository, include data collection protocols, instruments, and other relevant documentation to ensure ease of data reuse. This will significantly enhance how FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) the data are.

Who can I contact if I have more questions?

If you have questions about our open access agreements, please contact Associate University Librarian for Content and Discovery & Deputy University Librarian Tiffany Moxham.

More News March 25, 2013

By Ross French

​RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — In the weeks since he joined the University of California, Riverside as the new University Librarian, Steven Mandeville-Gamble has impressed staff and faculty with his leadership skills and friendly, outgoing personality. But Mandeville-Gamble made an even better impression at his welcome reception, held on March 22 at the Raymond L. Orbach Science Library, by presenting a gift that had the audience buzzing.

Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections at the University of California, Riverside, holds a copy of the first American edition of “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” by Charles Darwin. New University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble gave to book to the UCR Special Collections as a thank you gift. PHOTO BY ROSS FRENCH

Saying that he wanted to give back to the campus for hosting the reception in his honor, Mandeville-Gamble presented the library with a first American edition copy of Charles Darwin’s “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” from his personal collection. Published in 1873, the book elicited a “wow” from Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections at the Rivera Library.

“The first American edition of Darwin’s classic 'Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals' is a wonderful surprise and a very generous gift,” Conway said. “We are building a History of Science Collection as a complement to our outstanding Eaton Science Fiction Collection.”

“It has been a wonderful three weeks… I am so delighted by the staff I get to work with every day in all the departments of the library,” Mandeville-Gamble said during his remarks. “I have been delighted with my interactions with the faculty and the administration, and I could not be happier to be here.”

“We had the good fortune to have a number of really highly qualified candidates for the position, but in the end, it was Steven Mandeville-Gamble who clearly distinguished himself from all of the others,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Dallas Rabenstein during his introduction. Rabenstein added that he was impressed with Mandeville-Gamble’s vision, enthusiasm, depth of knowledge and commitment to creating a 21st-century library. “It became very clear that Steven was the one who could provide leadership for the library moving into the future.”

“I have a fairly big vision of where the library is going, but that vision can’t happen without people,” Mandeville-Gamble said. “I think the people are here and I think we will make a great team. I am very much looking forward to it.”

“Let’s start an interesting partnership, and let’s go places,” he added.

Guests fill the atrium of the Raymond L. Orbach Science library prior to the start of the Welcome Reception for new University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble on March 22. PHOTO BY ROSS FRENCH

Mandeville-Gamble came to UCR from George Washington University, where he was associate librarian. While there he helped to raise $23 million dollars in contributions and endowments. His parents, Gary and Linda Mandeville-Gamble, travelled from their home in Ashland, Ore. to join the festivities.

Mandeville-Gamble was also presented with welcome gifts by Wanda Scruggs, the library’s development officer, and Patricia Smith-Hunt, head of preservation services and chair of the Librarian Association of UC Riverside and Julia Ree, president of the Library Staff Association.

 

More News February 10, 2017

Many hands make for light work – and when the job is sorting more than 21,000 comic books, you need a lot of hands.

Jim Clark, Head of the Database Management and Authority Control Unit, and Erika Quintana, Acquisitions Unit Supervisor were tagged as team leaders and charged with tackling the project of sorting 142 boxes, each containing approximately 150 comic books.

Jim explained, “We took all the boxes, looked at what we had, and tried to come up with how best to attack it.” He and Erika knew right away that they needed help, and all it took was the lure of free pizza to entice the rest of the team to join. Perhaps library employees are not so different from the students they serve, after all.

“It was a lot of fun,” Jim added. “Erika Quintana and I just organized all the boxes, gathered everybody, and we just went to town.” There were three big sorting ‘parties,’ during which Metadata Cataloger Sompratana Creighton and Asian Languages Cataloger Min Yu came on board as permanent team mates. Other floating team members included Acquisitions Assistants Sean Andress, Christy Brown Anderson, and Deborah Snow, Serials Assistant Andi Newman, Engineering Librarian Michele Potter, Head of Metadata & Technical Services Manuel Urrizola, Digital Assets Metadata Librarian Noah Geraci, Metadata Cataloger Julia Ree, as well as Associate University Librarians Diane Bisom and Alison Scott.

During the first phase of sorting, the team got through about one-third of the boxes when a surprise delivery arrived. “Special collections discovered a bunch more comics that they didn’t know we had, so those got merged into the project,” Manuel explained.

“If Erika and I had been the only ones doing it, we’d still be working on it,” Jim said. “But having that many people work on it, it saved us so much time. It really was a big help.” In whole, the sorting project lasted more than six months, even with several members of the team working on it daily.

“Not only could we work faster and more effectively, but we could also get to know each other more,” Sompratana commented. “When we worked together as a group, I got to know them really well and I liked that.”

Min agreed, “We worked mostly as a team and we had a happy time working together. We had fun and learned a lot.”

Most of the 21,000-plus comic books that the team organized will become part of the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy, adding a wide variety of new and different assets to the UCR Library’s extensive array of materials devoted to this field of scholarly research.

Some of the comics were given to the library by donors who asked for special attribution, so those were kept separate from the rest.

In addition, the team also had to sort out duplicates and process them separately from the comics that the library planned to retain in our collections. According to Min, there were approximately 40 boxes of duplicate issues culled from the collection.

“My favorite part was seeing everyone work together,” Jim stated. “They really got into it! It was really great teamwork.”

Now, the project is moving into its next phase: cataloging, which could take a year or more to complete. “We could use as many people as we can get,” Jim said. “If anyone is interested, if they would enjoy doing that, they should reach out to me or Erika to see how to get involved.”

More News July 30, 2018

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.

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More News July 11, 2016

Flexible classrooms provide space for students, faculty, and librarians to teach collaboratively and engage students in active learning and critical thinking.

Thanks to a campus technology grant submitted under the leadership of Associate University Librarian Ann Frenkel, a Rivera Library classroom recently underwent a “flexible” transformation.

Splashes of bright tangerine now brighten the space of room 140 with one end of the room serving as a dedicated whiteboard wall.  New lime-green rolling chairs and mobile tables encourage group collaboration. Flat screen monitors are mounted on three walls with a rapid charging station housing MacBook Pros for students to engage in multimedia learning and production throughout the space.  Mobile charging units are also available.

This spring, the campus Faculty Technology Support Group and the Library’s Research and Instructional Services Division hosted Re-thinking the Classroom Mini “Unconference” as one of the first sessions held in our newly, redesigned flexible classroom. Faculty came together in the flexible classroom to share best practices for online teaching as well as discussing effective approaches for active learning and student engagement. The attendees left rave reviews and thoughtful comments on the whiteboard wall.

The room is now available for booking library instruction sessions this fall.