University Library

In 2026, staff at the UC Santa Cruz University Library conducted a project aimed to understand and improve student sensory experiences in library spaces. We recruited 11 undergraduate students to engage in co-design sessions wherein students discussed sensory-related experiences in the library and ideated potential changes that would improve those experiences. These recommended changes were in the areas of communication, facilities, policies, the room booking website, and the equipment and supplies at the library. 

This report includes a review of the literature on the impact sensory sensitivities have on undergraduate experiences and an overview on how academic libraries are addressing sensory sensitivities. It also details the methodology researchers used to conduct co-design sessions with students and the changes recommended by the student participants.

The recently published Archival Accessioning Best Practices is the first official set of professional best practices on archival accessioning published in the United States. It provides recognition, support, and validation for individuals and organizations performing accessioning labor, and encourages more efficient and effective accessioning work throughout the archival profession. This workshop will provide a brief overview of the best practices and introduce attendees to a helpful auditing tool to assess their organization’s accessioning workflows. Questions are encouraged and attendees will leave with resources to keep them connected to the tools and colleagues they have been introduced to in this workshop.

This session will empower attendees to examine inclusive digital pedagogical practices for a variety of information literacy needs and provide advocacy strategies for communicating with faculty and library colleagues. Presenters will reflect on their knowledge and experiences facilitating active learning classrooms in both completely online and hybrid environments, and consider how they have approached integrating inclusive pedagogical practices in these spaces. Learners will consider the opportunities and challenges in their own institution through scenario exercises, and explore new ways to incorporate hybrid environments informed by inclusive pedagogical practices into their own teaching. Objective 1: Attendees will review best practices for integrating inclusive digital pedagogies into the hybrid classroom. Objective 2: Attendees will learn strategies for sustainably updating online learning content and advocating for proactively adapting to the needs of our changing student populations. Objective 3: Attendees will reflect on their teaching practices and how multimodal online learning can enhance the accessibility of their course.This presentation was made possible in part by two LAUC Presentation Grants awarded to co-panelists Wynn Tranfield and Sheila Garcia Mazari. 

This poster shares insights from a 3-year research collaboration in which graduate students served as co-investigators in a study on the publishing experiences of graduate students.

Graduate students face inconsistent guidance, creating a divide between those well-supported and those left missing crucial information. It’s challenging to provide support since they are publishing and making choices at different times.

A report of findings from a research project on backlogs and processing practices in UC Libraries, presented at the 2024 Annual General Meeting of the Society of California Archivists. The Guidelines for Efficient Archival Processing in the University of California Libraries has been an influential resource for archivists nationwide since its publication in 2012. This research project seeks to understand the Guidelines' impact on backlogs, collection management policies, and day-to-day archival practices over the last dozen years across the UC Libraries, by taking a fresh look at current practices, collections, and perspectives. Our research will assess how the Guidelines' strategies for managing materials, accessioning, and processing have or have not been effective. A forthcoming article in the Journal of Western Archives summarizes our findings.

Examples of MARC 21 catalog records to accompany the OLAC Best Practices for Cataloging DVD-Video and Blu-ray Discs, Objects, Streaming Media, and Video Games Using the Original RDA Toolkit and MARC 21