The Regional History Project, an outstanding resource for researching the history of UCSC, has been documenting the history of the Central Coast of California and the institutional history of UCSC since 1963, through the recording and transcription of oral history. Includes the complete catalog of their collection, oral history resources, and links to other oral history sites online.

In the early years of the UCSC campus, founding director of the Regional History Project, Elizabeth Spedding Calciano, conducted two rounds of interviews focused on the student experience at what was then the newest campus of the University of California. Those interviews, conducted in 1967 (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67x8j8hd) and 1969 (v.1: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h0818t2; v.2: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06p093mz) as the campus was still adding a new college every year, give a window into the original UCSC experiment, and into a time of sociocultural transformation as students responded to the Vietnam War and other social justice issues of the time. Student Interviews: 50 Years Later, consists of fourteen interviews conducted in April and October 2017 in a conference room the McHenry Library. It was a very different endeavor from the original student interviews. At the beginning of 1967, there were only two colleges at UCSC; in 2017, there were ten, and the student population had boomed exponentially from less than 1,000 to more than 18,000. UCSC has grown into a major research university, offering more than sixty undergraduate majors and dozens of graduate programs across the divisions. While some of their stories are particular to certain colleges or majors, many shine a light on deeper issues about this campus, including who is welcome here, how students adapt and make their way in their education, and what debates, dialogues, and differences mark the institution today. These are stories of community, stories of creativity, and stories of critique alike. Available as a full-text PDF.

The University Library's Special Collections unit is the principal repository for the UCSC campus and for local publications focusing on the region of Santa Cruz County. The University Archives acquires and preserves records and related historical information that documents the campus’s programs and activities. Holdings of local historic photographs--from aerial views of the Northern California coastline to depictions of the city of Santa Cruz at the turn of the century--can also be found.

The UCSC University Library's Digital Collections site holds a growing treasury of digitized photographs, maps, artwork, oral history transcripts, sound recordings, as well as "born digital" materials. The collections focus on the most rare and unique materials in order to provide access to the UCSC community and the world. Included are: UCSC Campus History, Organic Farming-Sustainable Agriculture Oral Histories, Branson DeCou Digital Archive, Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UCSC Map Library Collections, UCSC Library Aerial Photographs, Dibblee Digital Geologic Map Collection, UCSC Library Regional Oral History Collection, Santa Cruz County History Digital Collections, Hihn-Younger Archive, and the Performing Arts Collections.

The University Library Map Collection contains more than 160,000 items, including the region's largest and most comprehensive collection of books, reports, original maps, and aerial photographs depicting UCSC and the local area.

The Archives of the Lick Observatory, named in honor of astronomer and archivist Mary Lea Shane, document one of the most historically important observatories in the world, and are a unique resource for the study of the history of modern astronomy. The digital collection contains digitized historical photographs and includes portraits of astronomers, telescope and lens makers and other prominent scientists, scenes of life at the observatory on Mount Hamilton, instruments, and documentation of expeditions. The physical archive consists of 450 linear feet of archival material including records beginning in 1870 describing the founding construction and operation of the observatory and documenting all aspects of the early astronomical ambitions and achievements of its founders. Correspondence, copybooks, drawings, diaries and logs, and the personal papers of resident and visiting astronomers make up a large portion of the Archive. For assistance locating or accessing Lick archival material or in using Lick findings aids, specialized databases, or Library Search, please contact Special Collections and Archives (speccoll@library.ucsc.edu).

This resource is a gateway to the digital collections from California's great libraries, archives, and museums. Discover over 750,000 photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more. The collections on Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.