UC San Diego Libraries to

Hold Dr. Seuss Birthday Party March 2

Members of campus community and the public are invited to annual birthday bash

By Dolores Davies

Dr. Seuss fans both on and off the UC San Diego campus will not want to miss the 107th birthday celebration in honor of the late Theodor Geisel —better known as Dr. Seuss. The festivities will begin at 11:50 a.m., March 2 at the foot of Library Walk in front of the Geisel Library building.



The party, which will be marked by a giant inflatable Cat in the Hat, will include free punch and cake—some 2,000 pieces of cake will be served to mark the occasion. Audrey Geisel will be on hand to cut the first pieces of cake, joined by UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and The Audrey Geisel University Librarian Brian E.C. Schottlaender in handing out cake and greeting attendees.



Musical entertainment will be provided by The Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra, directed by Scott Paulson, which will be playing songs from The Cat in the Hat Songbook.





Preceding the March 2 cake cutting, Chancellor Fox will read “The Cat in the Hat” to children at Bay Park Elementary School in Clairemont to celebrate both the Dr. Seuss birthday and the national Read Across America Day.



This year’s festivities will also mark the 40th anniversary of the Geisel Library building, which was formally dedicated in March 1971. The Geisel Library building, which houses four libraries, was designed by world-renowned architect William Pereira, who was known for his futuristic, unconventional designs. UCSD’s flagship library building was named Geisel Library in 1995, for Audrey and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for their generous support of the UCSD Libraries.

The Libraries received Geisel’s collection of drawings, notebooks and other memorabilia following Theodor Geisel’s death, and four years later Audrey Geisel made a substantial donation to support the university’s libraries. In 2008, Audrey Geisel made a $1 million gift to UCSD Libraries to establish San Diego’s first university librarianship, held by Schottlaender.



UC San Diego’s Mandeville Special Collections Library is the main repository in the nation for the original works of Dr. Seuss. The approximately 10,000 items in the Dr. Seuss collection, which includes original drawings, manuscript drafts, books, notebooks, photographs and memorabilia, document the full range of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s creative achievements, beginning in 1919 with his high school activities and ending with his death in 1991.

Ranked among the nation’s top 20 public academic research libraries, the UC San Diego Libraries play an integral role in advancing and supporting the university’s research, teaching, and public service missions. As the intellectual heart of the UC San Diego campus, the nine university libraries provide access to more than 7 million digital and print volumes, journals, and multimedia materials to meet the knowledge and information needs of faculty, students, and members of the public. Each day, more than 7,300 patrons visit one of the UCSD libraries and more than 87,000 people access library resources through the UCSD Libraries main Web site.







Media Contact: Dolores Davies, 858.534.0667 or ddavies@ucsd.edu



