Libraries and Journals
Expand your horizons with access to UCSF libraries and a selection of journals.
Libraries and Journals
UCSF is home to two library facilities – the Kalmanovitz Library on Parnassus Avenue and the Mission Bay library. UCSF alumni can gain free in-person access to the Kalmanovitz Library and all the resources it contains, including free full text articles and books. Alumni are also eligible for limited online library access.
(Please note: The Kalmanovitz Library is under construction through late summer 2023. Please check the library’s website for access and services information.)
Alumni must present their UCSF Alumni Membership Card at the library to receive a library card with borrowing privileges of up to ten circulating items at a time. Request your UCSF Alumni Membership Card.
Electronic Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers
UCSF Library gives alumni access to UCSF’s online journals in-library only. Outside of the library buildings, UCSF alumni may access ProQuest, a subscription-based digital collection of thousands of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers licensed by the UCSF Library for our alumni community. Request access to ProQuest.
Additional online library databases are available without UCSF login.
The Medical Heritage Library
The Medical Heritage Library, Inc. (MHL), a digital curation collaborative of some of the world’s leading medical libraries, promotes free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine. The MHL’s growing collection of digitized, rare medical books, pamphlets, journals, and films numbers in the tens of thousands, with representative works from each of the past six centuries, all of which are available here through the Internet Archive.
The MHL’s State Medical Journals Collection encompasses nearly 50 state medical journals and includes 117 titles dating from 1900-2000, comprising more than 2.5 million pages in nearly 3,600 volumes. State medical society journals document the transformation of American medicine in the 20th century at the local and national level.
Archives and Special Collections
The UCSF archives in the Kalmanovitz Library is open to the public by appointment and houses extensive physical archives and free and public online digital collections including the “Synapse” archive, UCSF yearbooks, and special collections.
The archives also hosts lectures and exhibits, and the “Brought to Light” blog.
Access to other UC Libraries
In addition to all these resources, UCSF Alumni may be eligible for other UC library privileges. Policies vary from campus to campus, so please contact the UC campus to obtain their requirements.