Library

Established in 1969, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Library was the first library in the United States to focus on the Mexican-descent population. Today, the CSRC Library, which holds over 648 archival and manuscript collections, is considered to hold among the most important national and international research collections on the Latinx experience more broadly.

Furthering this work is the Latina Futures 2050 Lab and its Librarian and Archivist, who is overseeing the processing, description, and collection management of CSRC’s Mujeres, LGBTQ+, and other collections featuring women, femmes, and feminine-presenting persons in the Chicanx, Central American, and U.S. Latina/o/x communities. By providing a wide-ranging and comprehensive collection, the CSRC Library continues to meet the evolving needs of students and faculty at UCLA and around the world.

The Library's holdings consist of monographs, periodicals, subject files, dissertations and theses, as well as original prints by Chicana/o artists, films, videotapes, audio recordings, and slides. Of special note are holdings of monolingual and bilingual English and Spanish newspapers and journals published throughout the southwestern U.S. from the nineteenth century onward. The UCLA Library Research Guide for the CSRC provides more information. Please note: CSRC Library materials may not be checked out. They may be used in the Library, and most may be photocopied.

If you are interested in reproducing library materials for publication or broadcast, please visit the Services page for instructions and forms. 

At this time, the CSRC Library is not scheduling on-site archival research visits and is unable to fulfill museum loan requests. Due to budget and staffing reductions, we have temporarily suspended access to the archives through October 1, 2026.  If you have questions, please contact Celia Lacayo, CSRC Assistant Director, at clacayo@chicano.ucla.edu.