The Cal libraries will be closed Monday, May 27, and are also closed over the weekend (except for Saturday hours at the Law Library).

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The 2013 Library Prize for Undergraduate Research competition honors the excellent scholarship that Berkeley students -- supported by the Library's collections and staff -- are pursuing across many disciplines, This year's winning projects and honorable mentions can be viewed online.

This year the Library Prize was named for Charlene Conrad Liebau '60, honoring her generous endowment to support the program. Read more about Liebau in the spring "Fiat Lux" newsletter (p. 8).

Every summer, The Library and College Writing Programs distribute to new freshmen a list of recommended books.  This isn't required reading, but rather a great list of titles suggested as a way of welcoming incoming students to the intellectual life of the university. This year we decided to try something different and asked seniors to share their wisdom. Their recommended reading includes both classic works and contemporary classics: novels, nonfiction, and poetry. There?s almost certainly something here to catch your interest!

The selections have been posted on Moffitt Library's Facebook site, where you can see what others think of these works and leave your own comments.

The spring 2013 issue of Fiat Lux, the Library's quarterly newsletter, is now available online. You will find an essay by Sam Redman on the newly-endowed Library Prize for Undergraduate Research; reflections from Tom Leonard on flash mobs in the Library; and an appreciation of the Research Advisory Service, among other stories.

Don't miss the newly-installed exhibit in Doe's Brown Gallery, Hidden Treasures of UC Berkeley's South Asian and Southeast Asian Special Collections. On display are the court fee and revenue stamps of the Princely States of India; a 10th century Vietnamese imperial proclamation; palm leaf and Sanskrit paper manuscripts; and photos, maps, diaries, and letters, among many other items. The exhibit retraces over a century of the Library's special collections acquisitions in arts, humanities and social sciences.