Every summer, the Library and the Office of Educational Development send new freshmen a list of books suggested by faculty and staff from across campus. Neither “official” nor “required” reading, the release of the list has become an anticipated annual event, as popular with upper division students, campus staff and the local community as it is with its primary audience.
This year the Cal community generated a list of sixteen genre-spanning titles on the theme of survival, collectively offering scientific, social, historical, and futuristic variations on a theme.
And for the first time, to kick off a little conversation, the reading list joins the blogosphere–allowing the silent community of readers to speak up and respond to titles selected for inclusion as well as recommend survival favorites that didn’t make it to the list.
Also new this year, the listing for each book includes a "Find in your library" link that locates copies at UC Berkeley and in other libraries through the WorldCat system.