Library Employees

UC Santa Barbara has appointed Alan Grosenheider Interim University Librarian, effective August 1, 2024. Kristin Antelman retired as University Librarian at the end of July after serving in the role for six years.

B Arriaga was hired as the Library’s first Makerspace Student Assistant in spring of 2022 and transitioned to a limited-term Makerspace Assistant position after graduating in fall of 2022. As a queer and neurodivergent person, B was looking for a role that suited their talents and provided a welcoming and creative learning experience, both of which the position offered. 

Tom Brittnacher has worked at the UCSB Library for eight years, previously as the Geospatial Data Curator and then Geospatial Collection Strategist. On February 1, he became the Library’s first Curator of Geospatial and Digital Collections.

Farshad Sonboldel joined the UC Santa Barbara Library in October as the Middle East Studies Librarian and Area Studies Collection Strategist. An accomplished poet, writer, literary critic, and researcher, Sonboldel brings a unique depth and breadth of knowledge to the role. 

Marisol Ramos joined the UCSB Library last year as the subject librarian for Latin American and Iberian Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Chicana/o Studies.

She made the move to the West Coast from the University of Connecticut, where she served for 13 years as the librarian for Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies, Spanish, Anthropology, and Sociology, and curated their Latina/o, Latin American & Caribbean Collections. 

Yao Chen joined the UCSB Library in January 2020 and serves as the East Asian Studies & Global Studies Librarian. She has already accomplished a lot in the role despite the COVID-19 pandemic and abrupt shift to remote learning that happened shortly after she came on board.

In the last year alone, Yao: 

The UCSB Library recently welcomed a new curator to oversee its California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA), which houses primary research materials that document the lives and cultures of Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, Chicanx/Latinx, and Indigenous populations throughout the state of California.

Laura Treat joined the UCSB Library in October in a new dual role as the Curator of Moving Image Collections and Librarian for Film & Media Studies.

After a career at UCSB spanning more than two decades, librarian Sherri Barnes retired at the end of January. She led the Library to the forefront of the movement for open access research as the Library's first Scholarly Communication Program Coordinator, her most recent role.

Throughout her time at the UCSB Library, Barnes has also served as subject librarian for Feminist Studies, LGBT Studies, and U.S. History, while also serving as Humanities Collection Coordinator.

UC Santa Barbara librarian Angela Chikowero has been selected to the 2020-21 cohort for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Open Education Leadership Program.