The UCLA Ralph
J. Bunche
Center for African American
Studies Library and Media
Center was
established in 1969 to provide specialized reference and information
services on the experiences of people of African descent. In July of 2001,
the Library was renamed the Center for African American Studies Library and
Media Center (LMC) and was outfitted with the latest in 21st Century
audiovisual equipment. Now, the LMC not only has over 7,000 bound and
unbound volumes, extensive vertical files, and periodicals, but it now
houses a large-screen, cable TV with a DVD player, LCD projector,
digital and video cameras, multi-network video recording stations, and
multiple online computer stations which provide patrons access to the ORION
database as well as other online services.
Interdisciplinary
focus
The LMC is one of the
few interdisciplinary academic libraries in California specializing in African
American Studies. It is an important resource for beginning and advanced
research on the life, history, and culture of people of African descent in
the Western Hemisphere particularly, and
throughout the African world community in general.
Notable
holdings
The most notable
holdings in the library include: the sixteen-volume Black Women in the
United States History collection, The Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro
Improvement Association Papers, selected volumes of The Schomburg Library
Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers sixteen-volume bibliography, Crisis
magazine (1916-presnt), the sixty-volume UCLA Oral History Program
collection, the Journal of Negro History (1916-present), and the
Bibliographic Guide to Black Studies (1975-present). The library also has
an extensive vertical file based on the Lexicon of African American Subject
Headings, audiocassette tapes of campus and regional lectures, special
web-based Bunche
Center
library-generated pathfinders and bibliographies, and the only regional
print collection of major national African American newspapers.
Serving
UCLA and the community
The LMC not only
serves the students, staff and faculty of UCLA, but it also serves the
greater Los Angeles
community with special outreach programming throughout the year. In fact,
the Library and Media Center receives mail, phone, and electronic-mail
inquiries from throughout the United States. Additionally,
the LMC is the meeting place for many of the Bunche Center-sponsored
lectures and events such as the Circle of Thought Lecture Series.
The UCLA
Ralph J. Bunche Center Library is closed during the week
of June 18, 2007
And will
be open limited hours during the summer.
The
Library is non-circulating.
