USC Libraries

09/01/2026

Who said libraries can't drop a beat?

Last Friday, with a little help from wireless headphones and our friends at Late Night SC, the courtyard outside Leavey Library became the dance floor for our annual Silent Disco.

Thanks to everyone who danced the night away with us and helped us kick off the new semester on a high note!

08/31/2026

On Tuesday, September 8, join us and our LA2026 partners for a virtual conversation about the power of grassroots activism in shaping education, civic institutions, and American politics.

Drawing on the themes of our exhibition “1776–1976: USC, Los Angeles, and the U.S. Bicentennial,” Allissa Richardson (associate professor of journalism and communication, USC Annenberg) and David-James Gonzales (associate professor of history, Brigham Young University) will consider how individual leadership and collective movements brought the promises of the Declaration of Independence to Southern California.

08/24/2026

The new study pods were made possible by funding from our annual Scripter Awards.

Six new soundproof study pods are now available by reservation at USC's Leavey Library.

07/29/2026

Eleven decades later, swimwear has changed, but the pleasure of a summer day at a Southern California beach has not.

These bathers posed for a photograph in Long Beach circa 1910, when beachwear required considerably more fabric than it does today.

From the California Historical Society Collection in our USC Digital Library.

07/06/2026

These are two of several L.A.-area freeway murals commissioned for the 1994 World Cup, which concluded with its final match at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Image 1: Stamps of Victory by Johanna Poethig
Image 2: Before the Game: The Eternal Practice by Olivia Gude

Want to discover more images like this? Explore our Robin Dunitz Slides of Los Angeles Murals collection in the USC Digital Library: https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1O04E1

06/29/2026

Our Chinese studies librarian Tang Li and her collaborators recently completed Sinophone Studies: An Annotated Bibliography with generous support from the American Library Association.

With American Library Association support, a team including Chinese studies librarian Tang Li recently completed Sinophone Studies: An Annotated Bibliography.

06/09/2026

Our Emmy Award-winning co-production with PBS SoCal returns tonight. Four new episodes will explore Southern California's past through library and archival collections.

The Emmy Award-winning series returns with four new episodes exploring Southern California's past through library and archival collections.

06/04/2026

As the home of USC’s Phi Kappa Phi chapter, the USC Libraries help support the honor society’s mission of recognizing academic excellence across disciplines. Recent grants and scholarships from PKP are helping USC students—including Study Abroad Grant recipient Jashan Grewal—pursue their “love of learning” through research, creative projects, and international study.

Recent grants and scholarships from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi are helping students pursue their “love of learning” near and far.

06/03/2026

Our public television co-production with PBS SoCal recently received ten SoCal Journalism Award nominations from the Los Angeles Press Club and two Los Angeles Area Emmy Award nominations from the Television Academy.

The USC Libraries' public television co-production with PBS SoCal was recently nominated for multiple awards by two media industry groups.

05/15/2026

Congratulations to our 2026 PKP initiates!

This Wednesday, at ceremony in USC’s Bing Theatre, 160 students were initiated into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP). The organization's USC chapter, housed at the USC Libraries, is the university's oldest fully interdisciplinary honor society.

James Bullock, dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and an astrophysicist specializing in galaxy formation and dark matter, delivered the keynote address. Drawing on his own path from a childhood glimpse of the moon through a backyard telescope to his work with the James Webb Space Telescope, Bullock encouraged students to embrace the spirit of PKP’s motto—Philosophía Krateítõ Phõtôn, or "Let the love of learning rule humanity"—as a lifelong practice.

“The love of learning is what makes you willing to stay in that unfamiliar place long enough to enjoy what’s there,” Bullock said. He advised initiates, as they advance to the next stage of their careers, to “keep being curious.”

One hundred sixty USC students were initiated into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP) at the May 13 ceremony.