$6-Million Project : USD Sees Boon in New Law Library

A new legal research center is under construction at the University of San Diego that promises not only to transform the law school’s library into the largest and most modern facility south of Los Angeles, but to serve as a boon to the local legal community as well.

The reborn library will be more than just a hall filled with musty books; it will be a state-of-the-art facility, a technological marvel that will “propel this library into the next century and do wonders for the students,” according to library director Nancy Carol Carter.

The $6.1-million project--which includes both an expansion and renovation of the existing library--is scheduled for completion by the fall semester of 1990. The completed facility, which will be open to the public, will have computer hookups for more than 550 terminals, which will greatly increase access to computerized data bases of case law, saving students and lawyers alike from tedious hours of legal research that, in the past, consisted primarily of sifting through stacks of bound legal volumes.

More Comfortable Too

Another vast improvement in the library will be in sheer comfort.

“It is a problem around exam time,” said Professor Donald T. Weckstein, who teaches labor law and legal ethics at the university. “I think the expansion of the library is long overdue, in terms of space for people to sit and do research.”

The project’s planners anticipate that the new climate-controlled building will not only make it a more pleasant place to study in the summer and winter months, but will help preserve valuable but aging documents.

Outgoing Dean Sheldon Krantz said he recognized the need for a larger facility almost as soon as he arrived at the school in 1981.

“I saw that one of the highest priorities for the law school, to increase its prestige nationally, would be to expand the law library,” he said.

Krantz said prestige and respectability have come rapidly to the 30-year-old law school, which is young compared to many of the nation’s more venerable law schools. As he saw it, an expansion in research capability was the catalyst needed to join the major leagues. “It really was not possible to move to the upper tier without this,” Krantz said.

The computerization of research techniques has dramatically changed the way lawyers and law students work, Krantz said. “In the future of law, as in other fields, we will begin to see more and more use of interactive video disc systems which combine data with visuals,” Krantz said, noting that the new library will be wired for access to that technology as it becomes available.

‘Extremely Well Designed’

The facility now being built, he said, “has been extremely well designed and will now make the University of San Diego competitive with virtually any law library anywhere.”

Krantz said his initial overtures were put on the back burner while the university completed other construction projects already under way. Ground was finally broken in August for the first phase of the library construction, a five-story addition to the existing three-story building, planned for completion in May. The second step calls for a complete renovation of the interior of the existing building, to be finished in the summer of 1990.

So far the university’s fund-raising campaign has brought in about $3.3 million--slightly more than half the money needed. But those closely associated with the funding effort anticipate no problem in obtaining the remainder, primarily from the school’s alumni and local law firms.

The law library will be entirely funded by private donations, according to Libby Schiff, the law school’s director of development and alumni relations. The largest donation to date was “a very nice six-figure gift” from an unnamed alumnus, Schiff said. In addition, the Irvine Foundation, which supports private education in California, recently contributed a $750,000 matching grant, she said.

The primary thrust of the fund-raising effort, however, has been a somewhat unorthodox pitch for money from alumni who have previously shown no interest in contributing to their alma mater.

“We mounted a phone and mail campaign in which we contacted alumni who had never given to our institution before,” said Acting Dean Grant Morris. The response, he said, was a pleasant surprise--more than 33% of those contacted responded with a donation. Many of those were lured by a plan permitting them to pay off their promised contribution over a number of years. The university has offered to front the money for the construction as long as the contribution commitments have been made, Morris said.

In addition, local law firms have been approached and many have contributed generously, he said, adding that firms’ contributions are “more than just a matter of civic pride.”

“This is a project not just for the law school, but for the entire legal community. . . . It’s a project they will benefit from,” Morris said.

The new facility, which will be the largest law library south of Los Angeles, will provide a variety of services to the San Diego County Bar Assn., he said.

The long-term benefits in terms of education will be visible within a few years, Morris said.

“We have 200 law firms each year that come on campus to recruit our students. The law firms will benefit from the improved quality of the product they will be getting--the students.”