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Massive Science Fiction Photo Collection Digitized in Record Time

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The California Digital Library and the UCR Library recently partnered to digitize nearly 6,000 photographs from the Jay Kay Klein papers – and completed the task in less than two days.

“If we had done the same project in-house, it would have taken us several months to do,” said University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble.

UC Riverside is the first among the entire UC system to employ this specialized workflow with proprietary object holders designed by Pixel Acuity. The company has used the process with previous clients that include the Smithsonian Institution and Stanford University.

According to Mandeville-Gamble, this project demonstrated that non-book content can be digitized en masse at an affordable price by working with outside vendors.

 “The Jay Kay Klein papers were so well cataloged and prepped for digitization, we finished well ahead of schedule,” commented Eric Philcox, owner of Pixel Acuity. “It was a pleasure working with UCR and CDL.”

 “A standard has been set here, one that we will strive to meet in our future efforts to digitize comparable collections,” stated Eric Milenkiewicz, Digital Initiatives Program Manager.

This was the first in a series of pilot projects to use Pixel Acuity’s specialized mass digitization process to make more of the UCR Library’s non-book collections available online. For this inaugural project, Milenkiewicz selected 35mm negatives from the Eaton Collection’s Jay Kay Klein papers (MS 381), documenting the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) from 1960-1971.

 “We are actively working to make the collection available to researchers worldwide, which I know was one of the goals of the original bequest from Jay Kay Klein,” Mandeville-Gamble added.

The UCR Library plans to make the resulting digital collection available on Calisphere by August 15, 2017.

Although the full project spearheaded by the California Digital Library has not been completed yet, their Technical Lead for UC Mass Digitization Projects Paul Fogel commented, “Overall, I feel like the project is a big success.” Fogel added that CDL was motivated to work with UC Riverside thanks to the library's eagerness and the fact that library staff were already working with some of the systems that CDL wanted to test.

“It is always hard to be the trailblazer and I'm impressed by UCR's willingness to take bold steps in digitization,” Philcox added. “The impressive results of UCR and CDL's first mass digitization pilot will certainly have a positive impact on UC's digitization efforts moving forward.”

Milenkiewicz concluded, “This collaborative project allowed us to witness firsthand the efficiency at which non-book mass digitization can be completed and has provided us with techniques that can be deployed locally to increase our own productivity.”

Library Welcomes New Director of Distinctive Collections

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Cherry Williams joined the UCR Library on September 6, 2016, as Director of Distinctive Collections.

Cherry will be located in Special Collections & University Archives on the 4th floor of Rivera Library, and will report to Alison Scott, AUL for Collections & Scholarly Communication.

Cherry earned her BS in nursing and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Certificate from the University of Colorado, MA in humanities (with a concentration in art history) from the University of Chicago, and MLIS from UCLA.

She comes to UCR from the Lilly Library at Indiana University, where she has been Curator of Manuscripts since 2009, following work as Archivist, Special Projects Librarian, and Special Collections Librarian for the Sciences at UCLA’s Darling Biomedical Library. Prior to becoming a librarian, Cherry had a successful career as a medical professional.

Workshop Teaches Citation for Unusual Sources

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Who is the creator of a postcard? How do I refer to a historical plaque?

In the “Citing the Unusual” workshop offered this fall, attendees had the opportunity to learn about citing sources that go beyond typical books and articles. The co-instructors discussed performance art, oral history interviews, and more. Participants also got a hands-on look at primary sources and works of art from UCR’s own Special Collections & University Archives, and viewed online examples from other institutions.

The workshop explained that citation is about more than just avoiding plagiarism. Citations are like a bread crumb trail: their main purpose is actually to help other people trace your research steps and discover your sources for themselves.

Attendees learned about the main elements are needed in any citation, looked at some popular styles (Chicago, MLA, etc.), and learned that not every scenario is anticipated by citation guides. Some archives or museums provide preferred citations, but with a basic understanding of needs and applying consistency, you can cite pretty much anything.

Don’t let formatting your bibliography stop you from using unusual sources in your next research project! The library offers many useful workshops each quarter. Expect more featuring Special Collections and University Archives materials soon.

Explore Two New Digital Collections

More News Images from the two digitized collection

We’re excited to announce the addition of two digital collections available for research and study.

 
Allison V. Armour Expedition to Yucatán, Mexico Photograph Album

This collection showcases the 1895 research expedition led by curators from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The photo album captures views of Mayan ruins, with additional photographs of local scenery and the expedition group.

Explore the collection on Calisphere.

Pico Rivera News (UCR Access Only)

Dive into LA County history with the Pico Rivera News, a newspaper chronicling life in Pico Rivera, California and the surrounding area in 1931 and 1932. While mostly in English, some issues do feature a page of news in Spanish. This archive is a valuable resource for members of the UCR community researching journalism, Southern California history, and even Hispanic culture.

Access the collection through UC Library Search.


These new digital collections highlight our commitment to preserving and providing access to historical resources. We invite you to explore these collections and unlock stories from the past!

Writers Week: Meet the Authors

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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.

Library Welcomes New Director of Teaching and Learning

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Dani Brecher Cook is our new Director of Teaching and Learning at the UCR Library.

Dani's key responsibility is to lead the development, implementation, and ongoing program for library teaching and learning services and initiatives to support the curricular and research activities of UCR faculty, researchers and students.

The opportunity to establish a new teaching and learning department with a focus on curricular collaboration and learner-centered approaches in a uniquely diverse environment is what excites Dani most about coming to UCR Library. She hopes to build sustainable, ongoing relationships with partners across campus.

“By situating librarians as expert co-educators and sharing our expertise in information resources and pedagogy, UCR Library can materially contribute to the University’s mission to graduate critical thinkers and information-literate citizens,” Dani said. “These skills are especially important in navigating the 21st-century world, where the abundance of information can make it challenging to determine authority, accuracy, and value.”

This newly re-imagined department will also assist faculty and instructors in developing research assignments for students that focus on discovery, exploration, and process.

Previously, Dani served as the Information Literacy and Research Services Coordinator at the Claremont Colleges Library.

Dani has presented nationally at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), LITA Forum (Library Information Technology Association), LOEX (Library Orientation Exchange), and other instruction- and library technology-focused conferences. Her team at Claremont received the 2015 Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) Innovation in Instruction Award for their work in curriculum mapping. Dani and Kevin Michael Klipfel’s article, How Do Our Students Learn? An Outline of a Cognitive Psychological Model for Information Literacy Instruction, was recently selected as one of LIRT’s top 20 articles for 2015.

Dani received her MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and holds an A.B. in English Literature from the University of Chicago, and a Diversity Advocacy Certificate also from UNC Chapel Hill.

Library unveils new hands-on learning space

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On Tuesday, April 18, 2017, the UCR Library and the Office of Research and Economic Development (RED) opened the Creat’R Lab to a standing-room only crowd of more than 150 excited students, faculty, and staff in the Orbach Science Library.

Key UCR leadership including Chancellor Kim Wilcox, Vice-Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Michael Pazzani and University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble stood shoulder-to-shoulder with students from organizations including IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), SWE (Society of Women Engineers), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), and the Cosplay Brigade, among others. The students were eagerly awaiting the chance to use the space for hands-on experimentation, learning and making for electronics, prototyping, sewing, 3D scanning and printing, and more.

“It’s is a great, great day for UCR,” announced Chancellor Kim Wilcox. “When I think about Creat’R Lab, I think about tools and the connection between ability and opportunity. We have a lot of people on the campus with all kinds of talent, and now we have some tools.”

Second-year electrical engineering student Gustavo Correa shared in his welcome comments that he had wanted to establish a makerspace on campus in fall quarter 2016, but then Jeff McDaniel, a Lecturer in the Bourns College of Engineering and a member of the Creat’R Lab development team, invited Correa to get involved with the Creat’R Lab.

Describing the conception of and intention behind the Creat’R Lab, Correa said, “[It] is designed to be a safe learning environment for students from all majors, from all backgrounds, from all technical levels… to introduce to students the current technologies that exist, that engineers and everyone are using to solve real-world problems, to create projects, and to express themselves creatively.”

“What really makes me excited right now is to see the collaboration of the students, of the staff really working together to accelerate the learning and the opportunities that the students have and that the student organizations can provide,” said Jeff McDaniel. “We have lots of workshops, we have lots of activities going on. But really, this space is about the students. This is for the students, for the faculty, and the students inside of the faculty (because we never stop learning) – and for everybody that’s always learning – to use this space to experiment, to make things, to create things, to start a company.”

Michalis Faloutsos, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the Director of Entrepreneurship for UC Riverside remarked on the symbiotic relationship that will exist between the Creat’R Lab, EPIC (Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept and Innovation Center), and the ExCITE Incubator to support entrepreneurial endeavors at UC Riverside.

Reflecting on the selection of the name “Creat’R Lab,” Vice Chancellor Michael Pazzani commented, “This could have been called ‘makerspace,’ but making is routine. What we really want people (to do) here is to create something new, things that no one has done before. And that’s really where innovation and entrepreneurship comes from.”

“That’s why I wanted to see something like this here in the library,” added University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble. “Libraries have always been about connecting people and ideas and creating opportunities for people to create new knowledge, to collaborate, test ideas, and this couldn’t be a more perfect opportunity to do that. We can bring students and faculty from all over campus… and let you play.”

In closing, Mandeville-Gamble imparted the following tips to Creat’R Lab users:

”Go out and collaborate. Make mistakes. If we don’t make mistakes, if we’re not willing to take risks and make mistakes, we’re not going to learn. Play… I don’t mean play just to while away the time. I mean play to create and learn and get excited and figure out new things that no one else has thought about before. This space is to dream, to allow you to dream about things you want to do that you might not have thought possible. And finally, explore. This space is for you, the students and faculty, to explore the world through art, through objects, through new technologies, new methodologies.”

If the launch event crowd size was any indication of future student demand on the Creat’R Lab, the UCR Library may need to expand beyond the three rooms it currently occupies (Orbach Science Library, rooms 140, 144, and 145), both in terms of space and in terms of the equipment available for use.

Those who are interested in using the space, or hosting or attending a workshop can find more information on the library’s Creat’R Lab page.