University Library

Just for You


For Alumni

Memories, Sweet Memories

Perhaps life has taken you far, far away from the redwood hills of your alma mater.  

Through the years your University of California education has served you well, but memories of the fog-chilled air on a summer morning are with you still.  Are you a 1960's graduate who lived in a trailer?  Or, did you graduate in the 1990's and have strong memories of the tomato-red floors at McHenry Library?  Do you recall the magnificent views from the Science and Engineering Library?   Flirting with your sweetheart across a library table as you were supposed to be studying?

"On a campus without a center, the library is truly the heart of UCSC. Few other libraries can boast of such a perfect, peaceful and beautiful setting as the McHenry Library. Libraries may be moving into the age of predominantly electronic resources, but students still need a space to meet, study, and commune with nature, and no library does it better than the McHenry Library."  Rick Burke, Class of 1974

The summers are still cold and students still pursue education AND romance in the library.   Your university library needs your support. 

You can make a gift online, or explore a catalog of giving & naming opportunities.

Here are some other ways you can support the Libraries of your alma matter:


Please email Library Development Officer Astrid von Soosten or telephone her at 831-459-5870 for further information.

 

For Faculty

How your library has changed!  So much of what you and your students need is available online via databases to which the University Library subscribes.  Our physical collections and online offerings have grown to meet your needs across the years.   Our librarians have helped you and your graduate students excel in your research. Make the most of the university library; take advantage of all that is offered.

Memory almost full---the title of Paul McCartney's album---describes the unprecedented cultural phenomenon of an age of which we produce more data than any generation before us.  Every user can create and universally disseminate content using wikis, blogs, and social networking sites.  Who determines which information will continue to be relevant in the future? Who decides whether information has become obsolete?  Who reinforces rigorous academic standards?  Libraries are the only institutions prepared to take on these monumental tasks, and will thus continue the long tradition that connects the ancient Library of Alexandria with modern academic libraries like yours. 

University Librarian Ginny Steel has a vision for excellent library service.  You can be an active contributor to making her vision a reality.  

Did you know that contributing is as easy as directing a part of your compensation to be a gift to the library?   The gifts are, of course, tax deductible. 

You can make a gift online, or explore a catalog of giving & naming opportunities.

There are other ways to give including options from Buying-A-Book to Making a Bequest.  Please contact us to explore ways of leaving a lasting legacy at your university library.  

 

For Staff

The University Library is not only a resource for students and faculty, but also a rich source of professional information for university staff and administration.  And, thanks to generous endowments, you can enjoy a diverse and plentiful collection of fiction. Make the most of the university library; take advantage of all that is offered.

In the newly expanded and renovated McHenry Library the number of seats has doubled, so there's plenty of space for you to relax with a good book or today's newspaper.  Thanks to the generosity of entrepreneur and library lover Steve Silberstein, the Global Village Cafe welcomes visitors to the library.   

University Librarian Ginny Steel has a vision for excellent library service.  You can be an active contributor to making her vision a reality.  

Did you know that contributing is as easy as directing a part of your compensation to be a gift to the library?   The gifts are, of course, tax deductible. 

You can make a gift online, or explore a catalog of giving & naming opportunities.

There are other ways to give including options from Buying-A-Book to Making a Bequest.  Please contact us to explore ways of leaving a lasting legacy at your university library.

 

Parents of UCSC Students

Your student is part of a new generation of students whose requirements of a library have broadened and deepened. 

To meet and exceed the expectations of this new generation, a library must carefully design the services it offers.  The libraries in the University of California system have read the writing on the wall and early on agreed to participate in the Google Book digitization project, which enables library users to text-search books online.  UCSC's Library was the first one to digitize its traditional print collection.  Library traffic has since been on an upward trajectory because only a library is entitled to make copyrighted materials available for broader use.

The library buildings form a hub for the scholarly community, fueling the creation of knowledge.  Human thinking is fueled by discussion, conversation, and social interaction.  While the university library provides information in every medium, the library buildings foster the intellectual synergy that comes only through face-to-face communication.  Expert librarians consult with students, faculty, staff, and community members at central locations such as the Information Commons and Special Collections Department.  
 

What students need

Yes, students want all their research content online today, but they also need a place to browse and consult collections of book and other media.  They need a place to talk to research experts who will guide them when the assignment seems just too challenging.  They need a place to know they will be safe, warm, dry, and welcomed when they bring their coffee and snacks to study.  They need a quiet place to write, study, and dream. 

The next time you are on campus, please, visit one of our two buildings:  McHenry Library or Science & Engineering Library.    Be sure to speak with a librarian; we want to welcome you, the parents of the students we serve. 

Keep the library strong

You can join us in this important enterprise—and ensure that UCSC Library collections are as rich and distinctive as the campus's uncommon dual commitment to research and instruction. Your gift of dollars or time to the UCSC Library has tangible results and is greatly appreciated. 
 
You can make a gift online, or explore a catalog of giving & naming opportunities. 
 
Please email Library Development Officer Letitia Bennett or telephone her at 831-459-4211 for further information.  You'll find her at McHenry Library, Room 3362. 

 

For Students

You and Your Library

The library staff, whether at McHenry or Science & Engineering, welcomes you to relax, study, snack, snooze, and yes, get homework help.    We offer a home-away-from-home where you can count on quiet, clean study space for yourself or your study group.  Enjoy a break at the Global Village Cafe. 

Work at the Library

Working at the library means re-shelving books, verifying orders, organizing events, creating databases, ...  and a whole lot more.

Student Assistants are highly valued members of the library staff.  

Applications are handled centrally, but if you want to work at the library, don't hesitate to introduce yourself to a staff member and let us get to know you.  

Donor Dollars

Did you know that even after you and your parents pay tuition that it takes donor dollars to pay for books, scientific journals, tables, computers, and other materials required to operate the university library? 

As a student you can encourage your family members to support the University Library and yes, you can Buy-A-Book for the library.  

Donor dollars keep the university strong so your siblings and your future children can enjoy and profit from the kind of education you are enjoying. 

Learn more about how you can help ensure the strength of your university library by contacting Library Development Officer Letitia Bennett or telephoning her at 831-459-4211.

 

Library Lovers

Ah, the Sweet Serenity of Books

Do you feel deeply at home in a library?  Do the books and films and music and online offerings call out to you?   Then you understand that libraries need private support.  Our free public institutions all depend on private donations to make and keep them great.

You can join the Friends of the UCSC Library or Library Circle of Advocates and enjoy borrowing and other privileges, including the company of like-minded individuals.   

 

Donors Make the Difference

The University Library depends on donors like the ones featured in the articles below.  Will you join them and build on the successes they've helped to create? 

In 1998 endowment funds for the University Library topped $1M thanks to far-sighted individuals recognized here.  Between July 2001 and June 2011 people like you have given almost $29M to the University Library. 

These seven retired library employees have put not only their hearts into their work, but also their personal resources in the amount of several hundred thousand dollars.  

More than 70 endowments enrich the collections and activities of the University Library.

 

Give to the University Library

You can make a gift online, or explore a catalog of giving & naming opportunities.
 
Email the Library Development Office or telephone us (831) 459-5870 for more information.

 

For Grateful Dead Fans

 

In 2008 the members of the band The Grateful Dead donated their archive to the university library.  The Grateful Dead Archive represents one of the most significant popular cultural collections of the 20th Century. It documents the Dead's incredible creative activity and influence in contemporary music history from 1965 to 1995, including the phenomena of the Deadheads, the band's extensive network of devoted fans, and the band's highly unusual and successful musical business ventures.
 
Read the blog of Grateful Dead Archivist Nicholas Meriwether to learn more about scholarship surrounding the band. 
 
The library's challenge is to raise the money to preserve the collection, both physically and digitally, and make it available both in the library and via the web.  You can help make this happen.

A $100,000 challenge grant is helping make the treasures of the Grateful Dead Archive available to all.  It ends April 30, 2012.  

 

Keep the Dead Alive.  Support the Archive.