Aztec Identity Initiative

The Aztec Identity Initiative comprises a number of academic, co-curricular, and community engagement programs designed to enhance and extend San Diego State University’s relationship and educational efforts with the historical and contemporary descendants of the Aztec people and the Aztec Empire.

In collaboration with Initiative leadership, librarians in Special Collections & University Archives have acquired primary source materials and early printed books in support of scholarship on the Aztecs, Nahuatl-speaking people, and other Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Initial purchases include treatises on Nahuatl grammar, archeological specimens, and medicinal/healing plants.

Cultural Centers

The Division of Student Affairs and Campus Diversity supports a growing number of Cultural Centers, whose mission is to support student success through a framework that addresses equity, justice, and inclusion, and facilitate the learning and growth of traditionally underserved students.

The University Library has developed numerous partnerships with cultural centers in recent years, including the Black Resource Center, Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Resource Center, and the Pride Center. Most recently, the Latinx Resource Center opened its physical space in the library adjacent to the Chicana and Chicano Studies Collection.

Digital Humanities Initiative

The Digital Humanities Initiative at SDSU promotes critical engagement among faculty and students studying digital technologies and culture and employing computational practices in teaching, learning, and scholarship. The University Library’s Digital Humanities Center provides access to expertise and programming related to the initiative and serves as a hub for innovation and collaboration across campus.

In collaboration with DHI faculty across campus, the library faculty, staff, and students associated with the Digital Humanities Center have developed an extraordinary array of programs and resources supporting instruction in digital literacy, digital scholarship, and digital humanities, including nationally-recognized efforts to promote instruction in podcasting for doctoral students in the humanities and to support digital humanities instruction during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 – 21.

Division of Research and Innovation

The San Diego State University Library partners with faculty and staff in the Division of Research and Innovation to promote the university's strategic goal of "[becoming] a premier public research university" and to provide opportunities for original scholarship and creative work benefiting from access to library spaces, services, and expertise. In addition to providing research data services, support for digital scholarship, and more, library faculty provide support to undergraduate students across the curriculum completing original research as part of the annual Student Research Symposium. Each year, students may submit a research project and reflection on how that project was informed by library collections, services, or personnel. In 2020, 266 students applied for the SRS Library Award.

Housing and Residential Education

The San Diego State University Library partners with the Office of Housing and Residential Education to promote student success by contributing to the development of "safe and welcoming residential environments where students can learn, grow and thrive." Building on the successful delivery of research assistance and information literacy instruction as part of the Division of Student Affairs and Campus Diversity's Cultural Resource Centers, the Library launched a new program in Fall 2021 to bring peer research mentors into the STAR Centers program.

San Diego Public Library

The University Library collaborates with San Diego Public Library on a number of programs, including an ongoing resource sharing initiative sponsored by the San Diego Circuit. In addition to annual collaboration with SDPL and KPBS on the One Book One San Diego program, the University Library provides access and instruction related to the Clara Breed Historical Books Collection, which was originally collected and curated by former SDPL Director Clara Breed (1909 – 1994).

The Clara Breed Historical Books Collection complements and extends the children’s and young adult literature collection supporting teaching, learning, and scholarship related to the Children’s Literature Program at SDSU and the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature.

San Jose State University School of Information

The San Jose State University School of Information offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates in library and information science and is a leader in the provision of online programs for librarians and archivists.

The University Library provides field experiences for pre-service librarians and teacher-librarians, hosting interns and other LIS students wishing to complete a field-based experience under the supervision of a mentor from the SDSU library faculty. LIS interns have completed projects related to library collections, instructional materials, and public programs and library faculty have applied similar approaches to providing experiential education opportunities to students affiliated with SDSU partners including the College of Education and the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Resource Center.