Research Services

UCSB Library’s Research Data Services (RDS) recently became a member of the Data Curation Network (DCN), a group of professionals from U.S. academic institutions and nonprofit data repositories who seek to improve researcher support through their collective expertise around data curation services. 

“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.

The first-ever UCSB Library Award for Undergraduate Research (LAUR) was established in 2019 as a means of celebrating and honoring those students who engaged with the Library and made expert use of our vast collections and services.  

Millions of electronic books are now available to UCSB users through the HathiTrust Digital Library, which has allowed for Emergency Temporary Access Services of copyrighted material to member institutions with copies of those items in their physical collections. 

The UCSB Library team was busy during the summer preparing for the start of the academic year. Here’s a summary of what’s changed. 

The UCSB Library has merged its Reference Desk and Services Desk in order to offer a more convenient and efficient one-stop shop with longer hours for users seeking basic information and services.

The Reference Desk closed on September 14. 

Melvyl, the UCSB Library's connection to library collections across the UCs and around the world, is getting a new and improved user interface starting Monday, June 17. Melvyl is a discovery platform designed for the UC system that offers the ability to search and request hundreds of millions of items from research institutions worldwide through a single search box.

The Library Catalog is now UCSB Library Search. UCSB Library Search, an advanced discovery tool, searches across hundreds of catalogs, indexes, and databases to deliver the most relevant results from the Library’s increasingly diverse resources. UCSB Library Search is accessible from the Library’s website homepage. In addition to the new UCSB Library Search, users looking to sign-on to their My Library Account now need to use a UCSBnetID and password.

UCSB Library has selected a new, more modern online search tool to replace our 16-year old Library Catalog. The current Library Catalog is the entry point for locating books, journals, DVDs, and other materials held by UCSB Library. However, additional search tools are required for searching electronic journal articles and materials at other libraries.

Researchers who use the UCSB campus VPN (virtual private network) to access Library subscription resources from off-campus should be aware that Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) has upgraded the service.  The new VPN supports a wider variety of operating systems, including mobile clients for iOS, Android, and ChromeOS.  To use the new VPN, users must download and install new client software.