Subscribe to our newsletter by emailUCI Yearbooks, Student Newspapers and Catalogs Digitized
The UCI Libraries has been working hard to make essential historical documentation accessible for the 50th Anniversary. Now, important publications documenting UCI history are available to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The full run of yearbooks, general catalogs, and the student newspapers have been digitized and are all available in the Online Archive of UCI History.
The yearbooks, titled Anthology, date from 1967 to 1968, and 1976 to present. UCI did not produce yearbooks from 1969 to 1975 because of a general counter culture sentiment on campus that deemed yearbooks "uncool." Fortunately, students in 1976 decided to revive the yearbook tradition, and have since published a yearbook annually. Yearbooks hold a wealth of historical information including photos of student organizations, athletics teams, senior portraits, faculty, and administrators. The design and style of each yearbook is indicative of the times. The early yearbooks tend to be disordered and free; later yearbooks are organized and much more structured. Despite this difference, many of the sentiments remain foundational over time. Students in the 1970s were just as concerned with finding jobs and caring for the environment as they are today.
The General Catalogs, also contain an abundance of UCI history. Published annually since 1965, these hold information about degrees offered, general requirements for graduation, course offerings, schools, departments, programs, and student services. This was essential information for students that continues to be useful for both alumni and researchers. Anyone researching an academic program or service would find these invaluable because they show how a unit changed over time. Today, General Catalogs are only available online- they are no longer printed.
Another rich trove of UCI history can be found in the student newspapers. All of the student newspapers from 1965-2003 are available online. These include New University and its predecessors Anthill, Tongue, Spectre, and Spectrum. The student newspapers include news about the university, community, and world. They contain images of events and student perspectives on major issues of the time.
It took several student employees hundreds of hours to scan the yearbooks. The Registrar's Office had previously scanned the general catalogs and they graciously shared the digital files with the UCI Libraries. Most of the student newspapers were digitally reformatted from microfilm, with a few of the older issues scanned by hard working students.
For more information on this digitization project, please contact Laura Uglean Jackson, Archivist for the University Archives at lugleanj@uci.edu.