Rudy Vallee holding a saxophone.
UCSB Library is one of 20 organizations that received a 2022 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in April for a Recordings at Risk project.  Nearly $50,000 is now available for the project, “Preserving America’s Radio Heritage: The Recordings of Variety Show Pioneer...
John Levin examines a wax cylinder from his home collection.
Around the world, there exist repositories of writings, imagery, and tools that mark the evolution of humankind, but what are the sounds of our shared history? For the last 35 years, collector John Levin has been amassing a collection of brown wax cylinders--one of our earliest media for recorded...
Wayne Shoaf and Melinda Hayes
Count Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, and vampire pop culture may not seem like obvious areas for scholarly research. However, couple Melinda Hayes, University of Southern California (USC) Rare Books Librarian, and Wayne Shoaf, USC Metadata and Digital Librarian recognized this undervalued collecting...
Mary Garden in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélsande
About 2,000 rare early opera recordings, including cylinders and 78 RPMs valued at $300,000, were recently donated to the UCSB Library Special Research Collections Performing Arts Collection to be digitized and made available to the public.  The collection was donated by Catherine Glaze, who...
RT Livingston
In 2018, conceptual artist RT Livingston gifted her extensive collection of artwork and related materials to the UC Santa Barbara Library’s Special Research Collections. Livingston’s body of work, primarily inspired by human relationships with the environment, ranges from photography and...
Michael Hannon
In early September 2021, California poet Michael Hannon donated materials surrounding his life’s works to the UC Santa Barbara Library Special Research Collections. Inspired by reflections on religion, philosophy, mortality, and the impermanence of life, Hannon’s poetic journey began in 1960,...
Allen Cohen
Wed, Sep 29, 9:31 am | Gifts & Donors
Allen Cohen, a retired UC Santa Barbara librarian, is an active member of the Santa Barbara literary and arts scene. Allen avidly reads, borrows, and collects books; attends concerts and plays; participates in book clubs at the public library; admires and collects art (with a focus on student work...
A Gennett Record of Dancin' Dan
Considered to be one of the first truly independent labels, Gennett Records will be the next record company to join the Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR), a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78 rpm era edited by a team of researchers at...
Historic photo of the exterior of the first Santa Barbara Public Library
In a prime example of inter-library collaboration, the Santa Barbara Public Library (SBPL) recently partnered with the UCSB Library Special Research Collections to preserve more than 3,000 historic photos of Santa Barbara County collected by Santa Barbara native Edson Smith; 104 issues of Santa...
Roger Camp
Roger O. Camp ticks off all of the boxes as a friend of the UC Santa Barbara Library: alumnus (‘67), collection donor, and Legacy Circle member. A longtime supporter of the Library, Camp reached out this spring with an inquiry: “Would the Library be interested in acquiring [his] life’s work as a...

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