Dear friends,
From the Archives is celebrating its one-year anniversary since our first issue last September! We are sincerely grateful to those who have continued following the updates, activities and acquisitions at the UC Santa Barbara Library’s Special Research Collections (SRC), and greatly look forward to another year of fascinating discoveries.
Over the 2020-2021 academic year, the Library acquired several unique collections, including memorabilia from an opera legend, 78rpms from one of the first truly independent record labels, underwater photography and diving technology materials, historic photos of California beaches, one hundred-year-old radio broadcasts, and much more.
For this issue we are featuring the influence of our donors and collections from four different perspectives: longtime friend Allen Cohen, who has avidly supported acquisitions in Special Research Collections for decades; first-time donor and nationally celebrated poet Michael Hannon whose archive showcases the beautiful collaboration between poet and artist; doctoral candidate Brian Chidester, whose research using the Bob Bertram collection in the Performing Arts Collection has been made possible by the Library’s Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Research Fellowship; and conceptual artist RT Livingston, whose work has been curated into an online exhibition as a 20th anniversary memorial for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Additionally, we are pleased to introduce Marisol Ramos, our new Latin American and Iberian Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Chicana/o Studies Subject Librarian, who has plans to connect primary sources to the classroom and spotlight small presses for Indigenous groups.
We hope that you enjoy learning more about the UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections and its role in providing access to primary source materials that support excellent scholarship and research.
Many thanks for your continued interest in and support of the Library,
