Michelle Light

The Libraries is pleased to announce the permanent appointment of Michelle Light as Head of Special Collections, Archives, and Digital Scholarship. In addition to managing the department of Special Collections & Archives, Light also chairs the Digital Scholarship Team, which helps UC Irvine faculty publish, share, and preserve the digital products of research. She is an expert in archival description, documentation planning, and digital records.

Light joined the UC Irvine Libraries in January 2007 as an archivist. Previously, she worked at the University of Washington, Northeastern University, and Yale University. She has an M.S. in Information and an M.A. in History from the University of Michigan. Her record of professional accomplishment includes publications, conference papers, and active leadership in the Society of American Archivists, including serving on the editorial board of the American Archivist.

Special Collections and Archives houses the UC Irvine Libraries' collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, photographs, and other rare and special materials. Major collections include the Critical Theory Archive, the Southeast Asian Archive, and the University Archives, as well as in-depth collections on Orange County and California history, dance and performing arts, 20th-century political pamphlets, artists' books, rare books, small press books, and others. The department is also home to the scholarly archives of some of the campus's most noteworthy present and former faculty members, including philosopher Jacques Derrida, Nobel Prize-winning scientists F. Sherwood Rowland and Frederick Reines, and choreographers Eugene Loring and Donald McKayle.

For more information, please contact Michelle Light, Head of Special Collections, Archives, and Digital Scholarship (michelle.light@uci.edu, x47193).