UCSB Library

UCSB Library enables exploration and collaboration for scholars and students.

UCSB Library empowers researchers and students to create and adapt knowledge for the benefit of society.

08/31/2026

Capturing the stories of families, organizations, and communities is essential to preserving local history. 📚 ✨

Through our Santa Barbara Community Archives Project (SBCAP), UCSB Library is helping safeguard everyday stories that rarely make it into traditional archives, amplifying historically unheard voices and celebrating the full breadth of Santa Barbara County, CA's heritage.

Highlights of the project include:
📣 Santa Barbara High School Anniversary Prep: Partnering with the Santa Barbara High School Alumni Association to preserve organizational archives and alumni photos, like this vintage image of SBHS cheerleaders, for the school's 150th anniversary.
📜 Cultural Heritage: Collaborating with the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society to showcase Hispanic family heritage.
🎒 K-12 Education: Partnering with UC Santa Barbara’s UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center on the "Finding Fiesta" program to help K-12 educators bring primary sources into the classroom.

Read more about SBCAP's impact: https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/helping-local-communities-preserve-their-histories

08/27/2026

Advancing "open science" – increasing the transparency and accessibility of publicly funded research – at UC Santa Barbara is one of UCSB Library’s four strategic priorities.

By embedding open science directly into campus workflows and classes, we’re fostering reproducibility, data reuse, and interdisciplinary collaboration across campus. Recent efforts include:

🔹 Deepening the Library's Research Data Services (RDS) integration into the UCSB Bren School's graduate curricula.
🔹 Partnering across STEM and humanities to integrate data analysis and information management techniques.
🔹 Leading UCSB’s participation in the University of California-wide Open Source Program Office (OSPO) Network.
🔹 Developing recommendations for the responsible and effective use of AI grounded in open science principles.

"This collaboration ensures that public research remains transparent, reproducible and ready to face the complexities of modern scientific research," noted Greg Janée, RDS Director.

📖 Read more about our initiatives: https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/advancing-open-science

08/25/2026

At UCSB Library, we believe high textbook costs should never stand between a student and their education.

High course material costs create hidden financial barriers that disproportionately impact low-income and underrepresented students, sometimes forcing them to skip required readings or drop classes entirely.

To break down these barriers, professors like Carmen Galaz García (UCSB Bren School) are adopting Open Educational Resources (OERs), saving her students over $2,400 in a single term by switching to free, interactive materials.

To scale this impact across campus, Angela Chikowero, our Open and Affordable Course Materials Librarian, is partnering with faculty and instructors to find, adapt, and build zero-cost alternatives to traditional textbooks.

🔗 Read how we're driving equitable education at UC Santa Barbara: https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/advancing-student-success-through-oer

08/17/2026

library staff have been racing against time to preserve vital and historic aerial imagery for researchers.

Recent work by UCSB geographers relied heavily on decades of aerial photographs to record historic sand dune disappearance along the California coast. Many of these images, however, were threatened by a deterioration process that renders the film unusable.

Full story: https://ow.ly/MA6B50Zz3CF

07/28/2026

Great discussions start with great books. 💡 📚

At UCSB Library, our award-winning UCSB Reads common book program brings the UC Santa Barbara campus and Santa Barbara communities together every year to read a common book that explores compelling issues of our time, serving as a bridge between academic research, student engagement, and public discourse.

We have released the shortlist for UCSB Reads 2027! The six titles (5 nonfiction, 1 fiction) explore diverse cultural, social, and scientific subjects that can ignite vibrant discourse inside and outside of the classroom.

The 2027 Shortlist:
40 Maps That Will Change How You See the World (Alastair Bonnett)
Ensh*ttification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (Cory Doctorow)
Is a River Alive? (Robert Macfarlane)
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma (Claire Dederer)
Raising Hare: A Memoir (Chloe Dalton)
Wild Dark Shore (Charlotte McConaghy)

We want to hear from our faculty, students, alumni, and community members.

Let us know by August 26 which of the books is your top pick: https://www.library.ucsb.edu/ucsbreadsvote

Explore the shortlist: https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/ucsb-reads-2027-shortlist

07/09/2026

summer at the lib feels like home 📚 💙 💛

07/08/2026

🎉 We are absolutely thrilled to share some incredible news! The American Library Association has named UCSB Library a winner of the prestigious 2026 John Cotton Dana Award for Library Public Relations! 🏆

This national honor recognizes our UCSB Reads 2025 common book program, which brought the UC Santa Barbara campus and Santa Barbara communities together around the shared reading of "The Book of Delights" by Ross Gay. 🌸 ✨

Established in 1946, the annual John Cotton Dana Award recognizes outstanding public relations efforts that elevate the visibility and impact of library services.

A massive thank you to the entire UCSB Library team, campus collaborators, and community partners for making the 2025 program a truly delightful success. We couldn't have done it without you!

Read the full announcement here: https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/jcd-award-2026

06/24/2026

Here at UCSB Library, we make sure to equip our student assistants with valuable, real-world skills to prepare them for life after graduating from UC Santa Barbara! 🎓 ✨

We asked our Class of 2026 how working at the Library has influenced their career plans and prepared them for the future. From discovering a passion for librarianship to bringing the innovation of our Makerspace into local schools to learning how to troubleshoot IT systems, hear what they had to say! 👇

What's the most valuable skill you've learned from a campus job? Let us know in the comments! 💙 💛

Text on screen:
1st speaker: “Andrew Guerra '26. Psychological and Brain Sciences. UCSB Library Student Assistant.”
2nd speaker: “Riya Sharma ‘26. Political Science. UCSB Library Student Assistant.”
3rd speaker: “Kaia Ilagan-Evangelista ‘26. Psychological and Brain Sciences. UCSB Library Student Assistant.”
4th speaker: “Quynh Vo ‘26. Communications. UCSB Library Student Assistant.”
5th speaker: “Ken Yu ‘26. Biopsychology. UCSB Library Student Assistant.”

06/23/2026

From helping a professor at a sewing workshop to bonding with coworkers in the Makerspace to discovering a new music genre, our UC Santa Barbara Class of 2026 has done it all! 🎓 ✨

We asked graduating student employees to share their favorite memories of working at the Library. Hit play to hear what they had to say! 👇

Video Description: Graduating UCSB students dressed in graduation attire are seated inside the UCSB Library for individual interviews. Students answer the question: "What’s one of your favorite memories from your time working at the Library?"
Text on screen:
1st speaker: "Caitlin Berry '26. Geography. UCSB Library Student Assistant."
2nd speaker: "Emily Perez '26. Communications. UCSB Library Student Assistant."
3rd speaker: "Kaia Ilagan-Evangelista '26. Psychological and Brain Sciences. UCSB Library Student Assistant."
4th speaker: "Macey Cooper '26. Political Science and History. UCSB Library Student Assistant."
5th speaker: "Andrew Guerra '26. Psychological & Brain Sciences. UCSB Library Student Assistant."

06/18/2026

Finals are officially OVER and grades are in! 🥳 ☀️

We asked students what they have planned for this summer! 💙 📚 ☀️

Check out what they said!

👇 What are your plans for the summer? Drop them in the comments below!

Video description: UCSB students share their summer plans. They are standing in front of the Library's Paseo West Entrance. Text on screen at the beginning of the video: "We asked: What are your summer plans?"

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