Student Success

The UCSB Library is preparing to reopen a portion of the main Library for limited student study space at the beginning of spring quarter, March 29.

In celebration of Open Education Week (March 1-5, 2021), the UCSB Library is highlighting one professor’s experience with using an open educational resource (OER) for a class. As the Library continues to deepen its commitment to an open paradigm for research and teaching, we want to support more faculty and lecturers who are interested in using OERs to help create a learning environment with fewer technical, financial, and copyright barriers.

I want to welcome all new and returning students. Even though we have to welcome you virtually this year, I want you to know that all of us in the Library are working hard to support you so that you have a productive fall under these less than ideal circumstances.

UCSB Health & Wellness has partnered with UCSB Library to fund and grow the Well-being Resources Collection, which has become increasingly important as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect mental health. 

Nearly 80 new titles are now accessible at UCSB Library, of which about half are e-books and half are print books. 

As the American Library Association's new Executive Director, Tracie D. Hall (UCSB '91), is bringing together the nation's libraries for a wider social mission.

Describing her visits to the Watts branch of the Los Angeles Public Library as a child, Hall seemed agape. “It felt huge and like a church,” she told American Libraries Magazine. 

In retrospect, Hall realized that the library, which she would walk to with her grandmother, was actually quite small, but “The books seemed to emanate a certain energy that made the space feel special and monumental.”

Note: Submissions for this event are now closed as we are at capacity. Thank you for your interest.

“Deep Dish with the University Librarian” is a regular event that offers students the opportunity to meet with University Librarian Kristin Antelman and provide feedback about UCSB Library.

“The Library is closed.” This phrase is echoed among university library websites across the nation, yet does little to explain the dynamically shifting roles in which library staff and faculty find themselves.

While the physical University Library space is closed, its services are most certainly not, and Library staff continue to find innovative ways to support UCSB students and faculty.

On May 28, the Library celebrated the six students who received the second annual UCSB Library Award for Undergraduate Research (LAUR), which recognizes students who produce a scholarly or creative work that makes expert and sophisticated use of the collections, resources, and services of the UCSB Library.

Weeks before the Library closed in response to the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, a new exhibit "The Creative Edge of Collecting: The 'Nothing' of William Davies King" went on display on the 1st Floor, Mountain Side of the Library. The exhibit, which features ephemera collected by UCSB Theater professor William Davies King, confronts his lifelong practice of collecting things of little or no value. 

In order to fight stigma and bring awareness to mental health issues, particularly in this current crisis, UCSB Library is pleased to partner with UCSB Health and Wellness in sharing resources to support our community during Mental Health Month.