Building an Anthropology Library
by Nathan Craig
It is my pleasure to announce a new aspect of AGSA. Around the middle of last quarter it was suggested that we have an organized collection of anthropology books in our department. At the first AGSA meeting this idea was put on the table, and students attending the meeting were asked if they thought such a facility would be a good idea. The proposed collection received strong support from those at the meeting, and I wrote letters requesting space for the collection.
We have been given approval by the Space Committee to develop the book collection and reading facility in HSSB 2024. While it is intended that this room remain a multipurpose facility, we have been given space to organize and develop a collection of books specific to anthropology.
Several people suggested the collection feature authors from the department. Feeling this was an excellent idea, I brought it up at our last AGSA meeting this Winter Quarter. The idea received strong support from students at the meeting, and several individuals suggested that we also include student work. I have been informed that we have a large collection of Ph.D. dissertations and Masters theses from previous UCSB anthropology students. We have been given approval to include these volumes in the collection.
The books are being organized by author, and any non-anthropology books are being removed from the collection. Once alphabetized by author, the volumes will be entered into a searchable database on the PC located in the same room. It is hoped that this will make the collection more useful to students who are interested in using resources in the collection. As it stands right now, there are quite a few books of historical interest. Many ideas for expanding and improving the collection have been suggested, but we are currently working on organizing the books already in the reading room facility before expanding further. If you are interested in working on developing the reading room, have comments, or suggestions then please contact me by email: craig@alishaw.ucsb.edu
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