Your Questions Answered

How do we adapt Library spaces to users’ needs?

We proudly partnered with UC San Diego’s student government, Associated Students (AS), on initiatives that helped meet our campus population’s ever-evolving needs. These initiatives align with the Library’s mission to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice, honoring the varied experiences of our students.

• The Library and AS launched a menstrual equity pilot program in March 2023, making Geisel Library one of the first places on campus to offer free menstrual products. Liane Barkhordar, a student senator, led the initiative and pitched Library leadership on the idea. “I chose to launch the period pilot program at Geisel Library because it’s a central hub for campus and a place where all students go.” AS provided start-up funding, and the Library handles installation, product delivery and stocking in cooperation with campus Facilities Management.

• To better serve caregivers across campus, the Library funded four new changing stations: two in Geisel Library and two in WongAvery Library. Initially requested by AS representative George Lo, these stations were installed in June 2023.

• In Fall 2022, the Library added new furniture to Geisel Library’s outdoor forum level with the goal of creating additional spaces for students to gather, study and socialize. In partnership with then-AS president Manu Agni, the Library placed five tables and 20 chairs that have remained popular since installation.

How Our Spaces…

Help Students Stay Active

New furniture wasn’t the only addition to Geisel’s forum level this year. In collaboration with UC San Diego Recreation, the Library began hosting yoga classes in this space in April 2023. Held weekly throughout the academic quarter, these classes are free to anyone with a Recreation Activity Pass, which is complimentary to all UC San Diego students.

Make Civic Engagement Accessible

The Seuss Room in Geisel Library served as the UC San Diego voting center for the statewide general election from October 29-November 8, 2022. This location, offered in partnership with the County of San Diego, helped make voting accessible for our campus population, who could easily vote between classes, club meetings and study sessions.

How do we showcase faculty coursework and research?

To honor Black History Month, the Library collaborated with music professor and industry practitioner King James Britt to curate the exhibit Blacktronika: Afrofuturism in Electronic Music. This display highlighted the Department of Music’s course of the same name, which Britt developed and continues to teach at UC San Diego. The popular course focuses on researching and honoring the people of color who have pioneered groundbreaking genres within the electronic music landscape. The exhibit included an assortment of Britt’s course materials, a selection of vintage and modern electronic instruments of interest, and ephemera associated with Britt’s career and current research.

Where do art and science intersect?

Our data curators have the privilege of working with university researchers from a wide range of scientific disciplines as they prepare data for the Library’s Research Data Collections repository. The visually stunning nature of some of these data sets inspired the Library to launch its annual Art of Science contest in 2021, a program that celebrates and brings awareness to the beauty that can emerge from scientific exploration. In Fall 2022, the Library curated the first Art of Science exhibit, where winning images from the contest were displayed at the San Diego Natural History Museum (The Nat) in Balboa Park (the same images were also displayed on campus at WongAvery Library). This exhibit highlighted our new community partnership with The Nat and the ways in which both organizations celebrate the intersection of art and science.

How can we come together to combat health misinformation?

The contagious nature of health misinformation can be detrimental to individuals and their communities. That’s why the Library and partners of the San Diego Circuit libraries (Circuit), developed a campaign to help community members identify and protect themselves from health misinformation. The collaborative effort was made possible by a $25,000 grant awarded to Circuit by the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) in August 2022. As a part of the project, a digital communications toolkit was developed to help library workers across San Diego County and beyond launch their own online public education campaigns. Created by Circuit librarians, the toolkit includes multilingual fact sheets in 10 languages and sample social media content to be shared by local and national libraries with their communities. In April 2023, the project team also launched public transit advertising for this campaign, including Spanish and English ads across 27 bus benches or trolley stops in San Diego County.