USC Libraries

Authors Katherine Schwarzenegger and Lois W. Banner come together on November 16 in Doheny Memorial Library's Nazarian Pavilion for Rock What You've Got, a discussion of some of the issues facing today's young women. Keep reading to learn more about the event, which is free and open to the public.

The USC Libraries announced yesterday that the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives had donated its extensive research collection to the libraries. 89.3 KPCC, NBC4 LA, Passport Magazine, WeHoNews.com, and the Los Angeles Times all covered the acquisition of the world's largest collection on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history and culture.

This seventh installment in a series exploring the many USC Libraries looks inside the Von KleinSmid Center Library for International and Public Affairs (VKC Library), an invaluable resource for students, faculty, and other scholars of the applied social sciences. Located in the basement of the Von KleinSmid Center, the VKC Library houses specialized collections in disciplines ranging from political science to urban planning, and also serves as an official depository for government documents of the United States, State of California, and European Union.

Learn how to locate and manage social science data and statistics through a series of upcoming workshops offered by librarian Katharin Peter of USC's Von KleinSmid Center Library. Keep reading for more information on the upcoming workshops, which are open to all USC students, faculty, and staff.

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) recently awarded Hidden Special Collections and Archives grants to support two projects that will dramatically improve access to unique materials related to L.A. history and California environmental history. CLIR awarded $160,000 to the USC Libraries for Excavating L.A.: USC’s Hidden Southern California Historical Collections. The organization also awarded a grant to a partnership among the Online Archive of California, the USC Libraries, and eight California university libraries, Uncovering California’s Environmental Collections: A Collaborative Approach.

Matt Gainer, head of the USC Digital Library, is collaborating with USC's Center for Religion and Civic Culture on a documentary photography and oral history project in Slab City, an informal community located on the remains of a Marine base near the Salton Sea in the Mohave Desert east of Los Angeles. The project explores the impulses that lead people to live "off the grid" and how they create a sense of community and place.

Katharin Peter will lead a series of workshops in October, covering demographic statistics and mapping applications as well as sources for public opinion data, education statistics, and comparative international data. The first one is Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 11:00 a.m. to noon in Leavey Library's Learning Room A. Keep reading for a complete schedule of seminars and topics.

The EDGE-SBE (Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences) program builds mentoring relationships between faculty and second-year doctoral students from under-represented groups. Instruction Coordinator Avril Cunningham helped with the programming this year, conducting a well-received 1.5 hour seminar about research methods and finding relevant sources for dissertation literature reviews.

The libraries subscribe to Sage eReference, which recently announced that 20 new titles will soon be available, on topics ranging from communications, criminology, and creativity to law, medical decision-making, and perception. Two of the most intriguing titles are the Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s Society and the Encyclopedia of Time. Read on for a complete list.

There was a great turnout of students, faculty, and guests from the greater L.A. area for the March 30 Visions and Voices event in Doheny, featuring panelists Theresa Chavez, Aaron Paley, USC professor George Sanchez, and D.J. Waldie.