USC Libraries

In September 2011, the USC Libraries hosted To Stay or Not to Stay?, the fifth biennial conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society (IFS). The three-day gathering explored one of the key decisions faced by German-speaking exiles in Los Angeles: whether to remain in Southern California or return to Europe. Now, the proceedings have been published in book form. Edited by IFS president Ian Wallace, the book includes contributions by two USC librarians. Marje Schuetze-Coburn, senior associate dean of the USC Libraries and Feuchtwanger Librarian, wrote "Lion Feuchtwanger in Los Angeles," and Exile Studies Librarian Michaela Ullmann contributed "Literary Agent, Advisor, Entrepreneur: Felix Guggenheim’s Life and Business on Two Continents."

On April 29, 1992, chaos erupted on the streets of Los Angeles after a mostly white jury acquitted four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers in the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King. The rioting lasted six days, and the National Guard was called in to patrol the streets around USC. Twenty-one years later, the city is still trying to make sense of the unrest. Now, two newly unsealed collections at the USC Libraries will help scholars better understand the violence, its causes, and its legacy. The collections—recently processed with support from the Council on Library and Information Resources—contain the records of two independent commissions set up to investigate the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of the King beating and the 1992 riots. Keep reading to learn more about the collections, and about a related Visions and Voices panel discussion on April 29.

The Scout Report, a weekly publication of the Internet Scout Project, recently highlighted the USC Libaries' Los Angeles Examiner Collection. Keep reading to learn more about the collection, publicly accessible through the USC Digital Library.

The story of Hernán Cortés’ 1535 misadventure in Baja California is told in W. Michael Mathes’ The Conquistador in California. The book is one of several on display inside USC’s Doheny Memorial Library as part of an exhibit honoring Mathes, a historian and USC alumnus who died August 13, 2012. Click through to learn more about the Cortés expedition and Mathes' award-winning career.

Author Paul Lieberman will speak about his book Gangster Squad, the basis of an upcoming Warner Bros. film of the same name, at the January 10 Friends of the USC Libraries Literary Evening. An award-winning investigative journalist, Lieberman revealed through meticulous research the secret history of an LAPD unit that waged war against Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen in the 1940s and 1950s. Admission includes parking and costs $15 for Friends of the USC Libraries members or $25 for non-members. The reception begins at 6:00 p.m. in Doheny Library's Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall. Lieberman's lecture starts at 6:45 p.m. RSVP online or by calling (213) 740-1744.

Thanks to a 2009 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), the USC Libraries recently created online finding aids for 27 archival collections covering diverse aspects of Southern California history. Among the highlights of the Excavating L.A. project are the papers of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, which investigated the 1991 beating of Rodney King, and the Webster Commission, which investigated the civil unrest that followed the 1992 acquittal of the four LAPD officers charged with the King beating. Other collections include rare materials documenting the Bunker Hill Redevelopment and Century Freeway projects, women's voting rights activist Amy Ransome, and the vast photo morgue of the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper. Keep reading for a complete list of the collections processed through this project.

The USC Libraries and L.A. as Subject have launched a new online collaboration with Los Angeles magazine, and L.A. as Subject's partnership with KCET-TV, now nearly two years old, recently passed a major milestone with the 100th online feature about Southern California history. Keep reading to learn more about the joint ventures, which highlight the USC Libraries' role as host institution for L.A. as Subject and are part of the libraries' continuing efforts to promote and improve access to the primary sources of our region's history.

The Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters in America has donated roughly 30,000 books related to Japanese Culture to the USC Libraries. In a November 29 ceremony inside USC's East Asian Library, Vice Dean Martín Gomez of the USC Libraries and Bishop Hiroshi Alexander Fukaya of the Tenrikyo Mission Headquarters signed documents formalizing the gift. USC students, faculty, staff, and other researchers will soon have access to collection, which covers a range of subjects, including Japanese literature, history, and art. Keep reading to learn more about the donation.

A new exhibit in Doheny Memorial Library honors the late historian and USC alumnus W. Michael Mathes, who died August 13. The author, editor, and translator of countless works, Mathes earned his MA from USC in 1962. "He was the Kevin Starr of Baja California," said librarian Barbara Robinson of the USC Libraries' Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies. Keep reading to learn more about the exhibit.

USC's Doheny Memorial Library hosted the 7th-annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar this past Saturday, October 27. LAist and The Modern Hiker both covered the daylong celebration of Los Angeles history. Ethnomusicology Review, The Daily Mirror, and Metro's The Source blog also featured the bazaar. Keep reading to learn more about the blogs' coverage of the event.