We inspire exploration, imagination, discovery, and connection.
The University Library is, for many UC Santa Cruz students, their number one go-to place on campus. No longer just a musty storehouse for books and academic journals, the Library today is buzzing with undergraduates and graduate students learning across every discipline and many media. With one million visits every year, UC Santa Cruz libraries are lively and inviting spaces for individual study, team projects, or conversations over coffee.
Student success is the Library’s highest priority. Students and faculty tell us what they aspire to do, and our librarians strive to provide the resources, spaces, and personal guidance students need to get it done. At the library, they can master challenges of fast-changing digital scholarship, ask innovative questions, and further their own degree program, experimental project, or capacity for self-expression. We take a special interest in first-generation college students, engaging them wherever they are to develop their research and communications skills essential to future success.
University Library funding priorities:
We will greatly increase the range and depth of experiential learning opportunities for students. We will create spaces and provide materials and staff support so that every UCSC student can pursue outside the classroom learning, contribute to scholarly or scientific knowledge, and prepare for their chosen career path. We will provide internships, research fellowships, structured collaborations, and other pathways that students can use to find their own direction.
We will expand access to tools for digital scholarship. Ensuring that all students have the best chance for success means having abundant opportunities to use digital discovery tools skillfully and creatively. In partnership with faculty and staff, the Library will further research and teaching that incorporates 3D data, tapping into a wide range of global educational resources, and keeping our labs adaptable for changing technologies. We will develop spaces that foster open experimentation and innovation. We will remove financial barriers for students by raising money for course materials and licenses, prioritizing student success through no-cost access to course materials.
We will create inclusive spaces for students. In partnership with campus stakeholders, the library aims to create more tutoring and mentoring space at the Science & Engineering Library to meet the changing shape of teaching and research today. We imagine a state-of-the-art Science & Engineering Library as a learning center that holistically prioritizes student success—a place where everyone who has earned admission to UC Santa Cruz knows they can find support.
Support for University Library
Gifts to the Library can directly underpin student success and user-driven programs.
Research Support: Endowed or current use funds for open educational and research resources, publishing platforms, and other priorities.
Student Support: Funds focused on experiential learning, including internships and fellowships, that allow students to expand their mastery of digital scholarship, build special collections, and develop innovative paths to integrate experiential learning into degree programs. Support for these funds will expand access to textbooks, literature, and other essential course materials for UCSC students.
Library Priority Fund: Flexible funds can give library leadership resources to respond to emerging opportunities and student and faculty initiatives.