Library Overview
The University of California, Irvine (UCI) was founded in 1965, on 1,500 acres of former cattle-grazing land donated to the State of California to establish a new campus of the University of California. UCI is currently a growth campus, now the fifth largest among the university's ten campuses. UCI is on the move.
The same can be said of Special Collections and Archives, where collecting is particularly focused in five areas of strength, one of which is the Southeast Asian Archive. The Regional History Collection documents both contemporary and historic Orange County. Recent acquisitions have focused on hot topics such as environmental activism, women in politics and the public sphere, and the local gay, lesbian, and transgender community. The Critical Theory Archive supports UCI's groundbreaking, nationally renowned academic programs in theory, and includes the papers of some of the world's most significant scholars in this area, many of whom have taught or lectured at UCI: Jacques Derrida, Wolfgang Iser, J. Hillis Miller, Murray Krieger, Paul de Man, Stanley Fish, Richard Rorty, René Wellek, and Ihab Hassan. The University Archives documents UCI's 40 years of history in great depth and played a prominent role in celebrations of the campus's 40th anniversary in 2005. Dance has long been another academic program of distinction, and the Dance and Performing Arts Collections include not only rare books but also the papers of choreographers Donald McKayle, Eugene Loring, and other significant figures.
These specialized research collections are complemented by a general rare book collection, fine press and artists' books, thousands of heavily used political pamphlets, small-press literary pamphlets, an extensive Thomas Mann collection, and rare books on British naval history.
University of California, Irvine Libraries
Special Collections and Archives
PO Box 19557
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, California 92623-9557
http://special.lib.uci.edu/
spcoll@lib.uci.edu
(949) 824-7227 (t)
(949) 824-2472 (f)
