"An Eternal Flame" UCSB Library to House Shirley Kennedy Papers

Shirley Graves Kennedy was a passionate activist, a dedicated educator and a devoted wife and mother. A product of the civil rights movement, the former lecturer in the UC Santa Barbara Department of Black Studies turned her considerable energy toward bringing people together on- and off-campus to fight for social justice and make the community a better place for everyone.

Antiquarian Bookseller and UCSB Alumnus Donates Funds to Support Library Research

As a history major at UCSB in the 1960s, Kenneth Karmiole liked to hang out in used bookstores.

He often found scholarly books from the 19th century that sold for $1, and wondered why they weren’t worth more. To learn about the academic book business, he sought out UCSB Library’s head of collections for advice, and ended up spending a lot of time at the Library.

Pacific Pride Foundation Donates Historical Archives to UCSB Library

UC Santa Barbara Library is pleased to announce that the Pacific Pride Foundation has agreed to donate their historical archives to UCSB Library.

The donation by the Pacific Pride Foundation will serve as the cornerstone of the Library’s Special Research Collections LGBTQ+ archive. Since its founding in 1976, the Pacific Pride Foundation (PPF) has played a critical role in the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQ+ community, both in Santa Barbara County and the coastal communities of California between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Early 20th C. Mexican & Cuban Cylinders Added to Cylinder Audio Archive

The collection of Lynn Andersen of Bisbee, Arizona, found a new home at the UC Santa Barbara Library last summer. Andersen was a collector of early phonograph recordings and was particularly interested in two-minute wax cylinders, Pathe discs, and foreign recordings. His collection was not huge in size, but had many significant recordings and was expertly curated. In the collection are about 1,200 two-minute cylinders and a similar number of disc recordings. Andersen passed away in November 2015.

Student Joanna Hui: "Library Research Helped With My Graduate School Applications"

In a contentious political environment, it’s comforting to know that some people prefer to argue about Bach.

Cellists from Pablo Casals to Yo-Yo Ma have interpreted and played Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Cello Suites in very different ways, with music scholars analyzing and debating every nuance.

When UCSB student Joanna Hui, a cellist and Bach fan, earned a $750 grant to study Bach’s Cello Suites, she turned to the UCSB Library and its extensive collection of music recordings to actually hear performances of the Suites by famed cellists.

Undergraduate Sydney Martin: Doing Primary Research in the Library "Made Me Change My Major"

When Sydney Martin sees a World War I soldier wearing a helmet pop up on her computer screen, she thinks about the UCSB Library.

The photograph, in rotation on her computer, is part of an exhibition, “Helmets of the First World War: Battle, Technology, and Culture,” on display in UCSB Library’s Mountain Gallery through June 30.

Last Chance: Isla Vista Exhibition Closes March 24

It's your last chance to view the exhibition Isla Vista: Building a Community, 1970-2016 in Special Research Collections. The exhibition explores the political, cultural, and social struggles of Isla Vista to become an independent, cohesive community. Since the protests of the 1970s, grassroots activism has improved conditions in the area, but Isla Vista, populated mainly by UCSB students, still faces difficulties and, up until recently, cityhood remained elusive. The exhibition will close on Friday, March 24.

Professor Emeritus and Leading Nabokov Scholar's Papers Open for Research

UCSB Professor Emeritus D. Barton Johnson’s academic biography describes him as “a leading figure of Nabokov studies for many years.”

Zoran Kuzmanovich, president of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society, begs to differ.

Johnson “was not a leading figure. He was and still is absolutely the central figure of Nabokov studies over the last four decades,” Kuzmanovich said during a Nabokov symposium at UCSB last year. The event was held in honor of Johnson, a retired Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies professor.

Local Horticulturist Gifts Rare Botanical Folios

Virginia L.T. Gardner is a pansy person, even though her initial encounter with the flower wasn’t successful.

The Santa Barbara resident, who grew up in Pennsylvania, came to love gardening and all things botanical as a small child because her grandmother had an enchanting 18-acre home that included a hillside rock garden, a woodland, apple orchards, a vegetable garden and more.

“My grandmother once let me plant a totally improper plant at the base of a tree: a pansy, because I loved pansies so much and wanted to, even though it wouldn’t grow there,” Gardner said.

Michael & Nan Miller Donate Major Operetta Archive

To find Michael and Nan Miller’s home in the Los Angeles area, just look in the driveway for a car with the license plate “OPERETT.”

To say that the Millers are operetta aficionados doesn’t do them justice. The couple’s home was custom-built to hold their massive collection of 60,000 recordings, 10,000 pieces of sheet music, 9,000 books, 5,000 vocal scores, and numerous posters, programs, postcards, radio broadcasts, and more devoted to operetta and early musical theater.

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