Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory

In a room at the UC Santa Barbara Library, Eileen A. Fradenburg Joy and her students prepare for revolution. They wield no weapons, only words. They seek not to overthrow a government, but to disrupt the multibillion-dollar academic publishing industry.

The Twitter hashtag #NoDAPL has inspired a timely UCSB undergraduate research project.

Environmentalists and social activists are using the hashtag to indicate their disapproval of the Dakota Access pipeline, a controversial underground oil pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois.

Fifty years ago, the UCSB Library created a separate unit to collect maps and aerial photographs. In 1979, the Map Room was renamed the Map & Imagery Laboratory (MIL) in order to acknowledge its role in supporting research and teaching on campus.  In the time since, MIL has evolved into one of the largest unique collections of cartographic materials in the nation. In particular, our collection of historic aerial photographs presents an unparalleled view of landscape change in California and beyond.