Letter From The Audrey Geisel University Librarian

At the UC San Diego Library, fiscal year 2021-2022 was a period of renewal and innovation. As we welcomed students back into our spaces, we also focused on providing access to resources and services in ways that were informed by all we had learned over the past several years.

In summer 2021, Geisel Library reopened a limited number of spaces for individual study. Several months later, both Geisel and WongAvery Library fully reopened to the campus and community. The service model that emerged is grounded in our digital-first strategy and now offers on-site programs and spaces that reflect our campus’s innovative and non-traditional ethos. I am grateful for the time and effort that all 290 student and career Library employees put into this effort, and I am proud of what we have accomplished.

Stemming from our insights, we launched several initiatives that aimed to increase the accessibility of our resources to our diverse cohort of users. One example includes launching a pilot controlled digital lending platform, which helps make our physical materials more accessible to our users. We also led the campus-wide Affordable and Open Course Materials Steering Committee and established an internal User Experience Steering Committee. Both groups are helping to advance the Library’s and university’s shared goal to be a studentcentered institution.

For much of FY 21-22, the Library was focused on developing our new strategic plan that launched in Fall Quarter 2022. Through the process, we received input from hundreds of individuals and worked to solicit feedback from across our campus and community.

One of the year’s most memorable moments was renaming the Biomedical Library Building, now the Sally T. WongAvery Library. We were incredibly fortunate and grateful to benefit from the philanthropic vision and support of alumna Sally WongAvery ’75 and her daughter Natasha Wong. The establishment of the Natasha Wong Endowment for East Asian Collections and the Sally T. WongAvery Fund for East Asian Collections will significantly expand the Library’s ability to foster important research in the area of East Asia scholarship.

In the latter part of the fiscal year, we were hard at work renovating Geisel Library’s 2nd (main) Floor. Over five years in the making, this final phase of the Geisel Library Revitalization Initiative took a bold step in reimagining the Library’s role in serving our students’ academic needs. The redesigned spaces and technology will help us accommodate an ever-growing student population.

As always, thank you for your continued support of the UC San Diego Library.

Erik T. Mitchell

Audrey Geisel University Librarian