Thanksgiving holiday hours

Many of the Cal libraries will close early on Wednesday, November 23.

All will be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 24 and 25.

All except the Law Library will be closed on Saturday, and some will also be closed on Sunday.

For details, see Library Hours.


Story Hour in the Library featuring Frances Dinkelspiel

Story Hour with Frances Dinkelspiel - Nov. 10
Image courtesy of Nathan Phillips

Date: Thursday, November 10, 2016
Time: 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Place: Morrison Library

Free and open to the public

Frances Dinkelspiel is an award-winning journalist who cofounded the local news site Berkeleyside. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, People and elsewhere. Her first book Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and was named a Best Book of 2008 by the newspaper. Her second book, Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California was a New York Times bestseller and published in 2015 to rave reviews.

We encourage you to purchase the book ahead of time, you may bring it to be signed. Books will be available for purchase at the event for $19.70 (tax included).

Story Hour in the Library is a monthly prose reading series held in UC Berkeley’s Morrison Library.

The Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations, please contact the event sponsor prior to the event. The event sponsor is Ashley Bacchi.


Lunch Poems: Carmen Giménez Smith

Lunch Poems - Carmen Giménez Smith, November 3
Carmen Giménez Smith

When: 12:10 pm – 12:50 pm, November 3, 2016
Where: Morrison Library
Cost: Free and open to the public

See the 2016-2017 series schedule.

From the Lunch Poems website:

Carmen Giménez Smith is the author of a memoir and four poetry collections including Milk and Filth, a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle award in poetry. She co-edited  Angels of the Americlypse: New Latin@ Writing published by Counterpath Press. A CantoMundo Fellow, she teaches in the creative writing programs at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM and serves as the publisher of Noemi Press.

The Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations, please contact the event sponsor prior to the event. The event sponsor is Ashley Bacchi, 510-664-7737.


Movies @ Moffitt, Nov. 2 – A Place of Rage

The Movies @ Moffitt series features films selected by students for students, on the first Wednesday of each month.

Movies at Moffitt: Place of Rage, November 2, 2016

Title: A Place of Rage
Director: Pratibha Parmar
Summary: Filmmaker Pratibha Parmar’s 1991 film uses interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker in order to examine the way African-American women have articulated the links between social movements including civil rights, Black power and feminism. This event will also feature a short segment from Beyonce’s recent visual album Lemonade followed by an optional discussion concerning the search for a feminist aesthetic.
Date: Wednesday, November 2
Time: 7pm
Place: 150D Moffitt Library
Doors open @ 6:30pm
You must have a Cal Student ID to attendThe Library attempts to offer programs in accessible, barrier-free settings. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations, please contact the event sponsor prior to the event. The event sponsor is Tim Dilworth tdilwort@library.berkeley.eduPost contributed by Tim Dilworth, First Year Coordinator, The Library


General Catalog digitized

UC Berkeley General Catalog digitized

Over 140 years of Cal history are now available online, and browsable and searchable in the form of the “General Catalogue” (as it was known from 1961-2014), and the “Register of the University of California” (as it was known from 1870 – 1960).

This will be an invaluable resource to campus staff, faculty, students and the many alumni who need to transfer credits, demonstrate equivalency, or simply refresh their memories.

Or: it might turn you into an instant historian.  Casual browsers will find the 1871 edition listing all eleven faculty members, a page and a half of alumni, and all 153 students, along with their home towns.  Students were required to be at least 16 years old and to provide “satisfactory testimonials of good moral character.”  “Young ladies are admitted into the University on equal terms, in all respects, with young men.”

Tuition, of course was free.  Students were advised that they could obtain board and lodging with private families at $5 – $8 per week.  “No student is allowed to be a boarder in any hotel or house of public entertainment.,”  presumably in order to maintain the good moral character they had when they arrived.

A little searching will turn up such tidbits as the first mention of the “Southern Branch” (Los Angeles) or the “University Farm” (in “Davisville”); or such by-gone units as the Home Economics department or the College of Commerce.

Anyone interested in other resources about UC Berkeley history should peruse this guide to some basic resources about the campus.

Post submitted by Corliss Lee, Librarian