Our Crowdfunding Groups
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed much of the campus, the UC Berkeley Library remained open — virtually — so the need for digitized collections to provide Cal’s students, faculty, and researchers, as well as students and scholars worldwide, with immediate access to millions of items is more critical than ever.
This year, the Library launched its new Digital Collections website — a unified home for its rapidly growing collection of digitized materials. The website connects people with the Library’s rare and unique digitized special collections, books, manuscripts, images, photographs, newspapers, and more. Fully searchable and free to all, the platform makes possible endless research quests and rabbit holes to delve into the Library’s collections, from the archives documenting life in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake to historical issues of Berkeley’s student newspaper to a trove of materials on the Japanese internment.
Not only is the Library working to digitize our existing collections, but we are also focused on purchasing new items in electronic formats wherever possible to provide the Berkeley academic community with quick access to the materials they need for coursework, research, and teaching.
At the same time, the Library is striving to untether the discoveries of the future. A national leader in the push for open access, the Library is fighting to make University of California research freely available to all, helping global leaders and researchers tackle society’s greatest challenges. A world without these barriers advances knowledge, promotes progress — including in the critically important fields of health care and medicine — and maximizes the impact of research.
Your gift will allow us to continue to support the Berkeley community — and the world beyond — during this challenging time. With your support, we will continue to provide access to a wealth of resources online as the Library expands its outreach and remote services. We will be able to keep digitizing our historical, one-of-a-kind treasures, making them freely available to Berkeley students and researchers, and people across the globe, while we’re in the throes of self-isolation. Your support will enable the digitization of collections big and small, with materials including audio and video recordings, maps, manuscripts, historical photographs, and rare books. And it will allow us to purchase Library materials in electronic formats, ensuring everyone has a world of knowledge at their fingertips.
If you have any questions about these giving opportunities, please contact give@library.berkeley.edu.
More details on supporting digitization and open access: https://give.lib.berkeley.edu/set-our-treasures-free
How the Library can help during the pandemic: https://news.lib.berkeley.edu/COVID-FAQ
Digital Collections website: https://digital.lib.berkeley.edu/
Bringing The Daily Californian to everyone: https://news.lib.berkeley.edu/Daily-Cal
