Skip to Main Content

College Prep Library Special Collections: Home

The College Preparatory School Library has been the beneficiary of several generous donors, from former faculty to local organizations. This page is a tribute to those donors and the materials we purchased with their donations.

Several of our faculty, staff, and students have been published professionally; you can find their works in the College Prep Library as listed here under College Prep Authors.

The Victor D. Rosen Collection in History and Political Science

V Rosen bw small

Victor D. Rosen (1928-2007) was the first Chairman of the College Prep Board of Trustees from 1969 to 1972. His four children attended College Prep, and his family have funded this collection as a memorial.

Titles purchased with Rosen funds include the following:

American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work
Anti-Americanisms in World Politics
Arguing the Just War in Islam
China's New Confucianism
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics
The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power
Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State
Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950
Divide and Pacify: Strategic Social Policies and Political Protests in Post-Communist Democracies
Environment, Scarcity, and Violence
From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Hell Hath No Fury: True Profiles of Women at War from Antiquity to Iraq
A History of Iran
How the Barbarian Invasions Shaped the Modern World
Iran Hostage Crisis
King Hussein of Jordan
Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror
A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict
The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy
Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia
The Post-Soviet Wars
Promises of Empowerment: Women in Asia and Latin America
Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006
Resources Under Regimes
Revolutionaries to Race Leaders
The Romani Movement
Toussaint Louverture
Team of Rivals
Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
Voting Rights

The Marvin K. Smith Diversity Collection

Marvin_Smith_small.gifMarvin Smith, father of Ricky Smith '04, was a leader in the Oakland community and beyond on issues of diversity. The Marvin Smith Multicultural Collection commemorates his life and activism and places special emphasis on scholarship highlighting experiences of a wide variety of American ethnic groups.  This collection was developed through collaboration between the Parent Diversity Committee, the library and many other members of the College Prep community.

Titles in the Smith collection include the following:

The "Racial" Economy Of Science : Toward A Democratic Future
Alcatraz Is Not An Island (DVD)
At Canaan's Edge : America In The King Years, 1965-68
Black Comedians On Black Comedy
The Black Image In The White Mind
Black Like You : Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation In American Popular Culture
Chinese America
Encyclopedia Of North American Immigration
Eyes With Winged Thoughts
The Forgotten Fifth : African Americans In The Age Of Revolution
The Golden Road : Notes On My Gentrification
Hollywood Asian : Philip Ahn And The Politics Of Cross-Ethnic Performance
Hometown Chinatown : History Of Oakland's Chinese Community
The Idea Of Race
It's The Little Things : The Everyday Interactions That Get Under The Skin Of Blacks And Whites
Just Americans : How Japanese Americans Won A War At Home And Abroad
The Measure Of A Man : A Spiritual Autobiography
Mecca And Main Street : Muslim Life In America After 9/11
Mixed : An Anthology Of Short Fiction On The Multiracial Experience
Not A Genuine Black Man, Or, How I Claimed My Piece Of Ground In The Lily-White Suburbs
Our Kind Of People : Inside America's Black Upper Class
Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem : African American Literature And Culture, 1877-1919
The Race Beat : The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle, And The Awakening Of A Nation
Rough Crossings : Britain, The Slaves, And The American Revolution
The Senator And The Socialite : The True Story Of America's First Black Dynasty
U-X-L Asian American Reference Library
When Affirmative Action Was White
White Guilt : How Blacks And Whites Together Destroyed The Promise Of The Civil Rights Era

The Helen Green Turin Memorial Collection in Architecture and the Arts

van der Rohe sculptureHelen Green Turin was the mother of Abigail Turin '89, and wife of George Turin, who was a trustee at College Prep. Former College Prep librarian Betsy Schultz and Mr. Turin worked together to build a collection focused on visual arts and architecture. Mrs. Turin's daughter also designed the custom bookplates which were placed in the materials selected for this tribute.

Titles include the following:

African Masks
1900, Art at the Crossroads
Art Beyond the West
A History of Art in Africa
Art Cuba
American Art in the 20th Century
The Four Books on Architecture
Skyscrapers
Architecture And Cubism
A History of Russian Architecture
Modern Architecture Since 1900
The Triumph of the Baroque
Medieval Architecture in Western Europe
Ten Thousand Years of Pottery
Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art
Illuminated Manuscripts and Their Makers
Still Life
Victorian Painting
Impressionists Side By Side
American Impressionism
California Impressionism
The Impressionists at Argenteuil
Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting
Hokusai, Prints And Drawings
The Floating World of Ukiyo-E
An American Century of Photography
The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology
African Ceremonies

College Prep Authors

The College Preparatory School Library

For further information or help with resources, contact a librarian at librarians@college-prep.org.

The College Preparatory SchoolCollege Prep Library
6100 Broadway, Oakland, California 94618
(510) 652-0111