Pepperdine Libraries to Acquire Prestigious Research Collection from Bob Woodson and the Woodson Center
MALIBU, California (April 8, 2025) — Pepperdine Libraries will be the exclusive home of more than four decades of work by Bob Woodson and the Woodson Center. Led by former civil rights activist Bob Woodson, the Woodson Center has worked for over four decades to empower indigenous leaders in troubled neighborhoods to address problems of their communities through innovative initiatives that increase public safety, spur upward mobility, and inspire racial unity in America.
"We look forward to working with the staff at the Woodson Center to transfer, describe, and preserve this outstanding collection of historically significant material," said Mark S. Roosa, dean of Libraries at Pepperdine University. "The rich array of talks, public appearances, and community-based content the collection contains will offer endless possibilities for student learning and scholarly inquiry."
Through this partnership, over 40 years of research, writing, and media engagement will be made available in a digital collection to researchers and journalists to study the Center’s work in helping neighborhood leaders triumph over problems of poverty, crime, and substandard education.
"From our founding over 25 years ago, the School of Public Policy has taught, researched, and promoted the profound role civil society and moral citizen leadership must have in addressing our public policy challenges. Over an incredible career in public service, Bob Woodson has exemplified this uniquely American commitment to civic engagement and creative problem-solving," said Pete Peterson, dean of Pepperdine's School of Public Policy. "We could not be more honored to host the archives of his Woodson Center at Pepperdine, making them easily accessible to future generations of policy researchers and anyone seeking to learn how to be better citizens."
The relationship between Bob Woodson and Pepperdine's School of Public Policy dates
back to when the University founded the School of Public Policy in 1997, when Woodson
was invited to be the first public speaker. Since then, he has returned to Pepperdine
on multiple occasions to equip the next generation of civic leaders.
About Pepperdine Libraries
Inspired by the University’s mission, Pepperdine Libraries serves our learning community by facilitating exploration, discovery, and creativity through personalized service at our campus locations in Southern California and abroad and through rich computer-based resources. Pepperdine students, faculty, and staff have access to nearly 2 million items via our catalog and more than 3 billion items via interlibrary loan. Our community also has access to scores of electronic databases featuring tens of thousands of journals, more than a half million ebooks, and thousands of papers in Digital Commons, our institutional repository for Pepperdine scholarship. Boone Special Collections and Archives, located in our flagship Payson Library, provides access to historical primary source artifacts. Anyone from anywhere in the world doing primary source research can search 50,000 items – including photographs, documents, films, and recordings – in our Digital Collections. Payson’s Genesis Lab and the iLabs at the Drescher and West Los Angeles graduate campus libraries are state-of-the-art makerspaces with 3D printers, virtual reality rigs, and podcasting studios. To stay updated, sign up for email newsletters and follow Pepperdine Libraries on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook.
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