Rikke S. Ogawa joined UCI Libraries as the assistant university librarian for public services in June 2022. A Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals of the Medical Library Association, Ogawa has more than 20 years of experience in library service and management. As AUL, she leads the Public Services Division encompassing several departments.

UCI and UCI Libraries’ commitment to antiracism and vision for inclusiveness are what first attracted her to the AUL position: “I want to be part of that continued change for the better.”

At the base of the newly renovated UCI Science Library sits the Multimedia Resources Center (MRC), an all-access collaborative space and technology center for UCI students and researchers, regardless of major or discipline.

The MRC lends technology such as laptops and cameras to students at no cost. It also gives students and faculty access to multimedia equipment, VR technology, and 3D printing and scanning.

Beginning August 1, 2022, University of California corresponding authors publishing in the Nature portfolio of journals will be able to publish their articles as open access with financial support from the UC libraries. The agreement applies to a broad range of Nature hybrid and fully open access journals, including Nature, the Nature research journals, Nature Communications, and Scientific Reports.

Update as of October 4, 2023: UC will end the open access publishing portion of its agreement with IEEE effective January 1, 2024, due to low author participation. Funding for page charges will also end at that time. Reading access to IEEE publications will continue without interruption; only UC’s funding support for publishing with IEEE is ending.

SAGE Publishing and the University of California (UC) have announced an agreement to expand open access publishing opportunities for researchers at all 10 UC campuses. Running through 2024, the agreement will provide funding for UC researchers to make their SAGE research articles free and openly available to the world. SAGE is one of the largest publishers of UC research in the social sciences and humanities.