Library News

Undergraduate students are encouraged to begin submitting applications on November 1 for the Carter Joseph Abrescy and Larry Kranich Library Award for Student Research Excellence. Undergraduate students who meet the criteria are invited to submit applications prior to the deadline on January 31, 2023 to be considered. 

Basic Criteria

• Undergraduate student in good academic standing with a minimum of 2.0 GPA
• The paper or research project submitted must be an assignment produced for a credit-bearing course at UC Merced within the past 12 months (January-December)
• The work submitted for consideration must demonstrate effective use of UC Merced library resources and research materials, and demonstrate a clear understanding of the research process.

The Carter Joseph Abrescy and Larry Kranich Library Award for Student Research Excellence was established in 2017 to recognize outstanding undergraduate research at UC Merced. The award recognizes students who demonstrate effective use of library and information resources, as well as an understanding of the research process and growth in research practices. A committee of faculty and librarians will review applications and select awardees. A total of $1,000 will be awarded each year; no more than two awards of $500 each will be awarded in a given year.

To view eligibility, submission requirements, and to submit your application visit the Library Award page. 

If you have questions about the award please email libraryaward@ucmerced.edu or attend one of the virtual information sessions:

Tuesday, November 8th - 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.: https://ucmerced.zoom.us/j/87157765946

Wednesday, November 16th - 1 p.m. -  2 p.m. : https://ucmerced.zoom.us/j/89600172860

Fall 2022 Library Hours - expanded

The Library has updated and expanded Fall 2022 hours starting Sunday, October 23, 2022. Hours are subject to change based on staffing.

View our Library Hours page to stay up to date with current hours of operation.

A new photography exhibit has opened on the 4th floor of the UC Merced Library. A Century of Impact in California's Counties: Highlights from the University of California Cooperative archive features photographs from the California Agricultural Resources Archive (CARA), showcasing the University of California’s work over the past 100 years to improve agricultural practices, support youth development, and promote broader civic engagement. The exhibit is divided into five themes: farm advisor demonstrations, crop trials, labor, home demonstration agents, and 4-H. Photographs illustrate the scope of work conducted by UC Cooperative Extension advisors. In the early years, farm advisors sought to create irrigation districts and fire protection districts; to direct road and infrastructure campaigns; and to demonstrate new techniques and technologies in agricultural production. In the ensuing decades, Cooperative Extension has administered extensive crop trials and has conducted copious research into farming practices and technologies. The first home demonstration agents in California taught rural women and girls about nutrition, food preservation techniques, and home economic skills like sewing and dressmaking. The involvement of youth in Cooperative Extension work was a precursor to the formation of 4-H clubs. Some of the images underscore major socioeconomic issues present in rural California like labor and immigration, irrevocably linked to farming and agriculture. A Century of Impact in California's Counties highlights only a selection of the items documenting the history of UC Cooperative Extension and how it has influenced agriculture and rural life in California, which the UC Merced Library has archived.  

This exhibit was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. A Major Initiatives grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission supported the development and digitization of the UC Cooperative Extension Archive. 

As we prepare to celebrate the Labor Day holiday, we are pleased to announce that the UC Merced Library has acquired a major photography collection, the work of George Mark “Elfie” Ballis. George Ballis began his career in the Central Valley as an editor of the Valley Labor Citizen newspaper, was mentored by Dorothea Lange and UC Berkeley professor Paul Taylor, and started documenting farm labor and living conditions in the Central Valley in the 1950s.

The collection of over 31,000 images, acquired with funding from the Office of the Chancellor, includes some of the most iconic images of farm worker organizing efforts by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, the National Farm Workers Association, and the United Farm Workers during the 1960s and 70s. Historian George Patrick Fontes calls Ballis a “master photographer” who “created images that are now windows, time machines, into a tumultuous time in American history, in California history, in Mexican American and Chicano history.” Ballis was both an active organizer and documentarian of anti-poverty programs and efforts to support small farmers and farm worker co-op farms. The collection includes photographs of Black co-op farms in Lanare and Pixley and Self-Help Housing projects in Tulare and Fresno counties.

Archived at the library alongside the photographs of Ernest Lowe, they will offer students and researchers a detailed and extensive visual record of the struggle for environmental and social justice in the region—the organized movements to improve everyday working and living conditions in the world’s most productive agricultural region. The Library is working with the Center for the Humanities to plan an exhibit of the collection in the spring of 2023. Digitized images from the collection will be made accessible to the public on the California Digital Library’s Calisphere site.

The Library is partnering with the Center for the Humanities to develop a Sierra Nevada-Central Valley research archives and thanks our colleagues at the Center for their support with this acquisition.

Migrant girl, Three Rocks, California.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.

 Maria Moreno and migrant laborers in the field.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.

 Workers using the short-handled hoe.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.

  Marchers north of Merced, en route to Sacramento.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.