NORTHRIDGE : CSUN to Dedicate Special Place to Read

The new Special Reading Room of the Oviatt Library at Cal State Northridge, product of lobbying by the Faculty Senate, is scheduled to be dedicated today.

Robert Gohstand, CSUN geography professor, said faculty members wanted a room “dedicated to the pleasure of reading.

“The idea is just to have sort of a refuge,” he said.

The room was not part of the original plans for a $15-million expansion of the library that was completed in 1991. At the request of faculty, workers since have furnished a quiet space downstairs with wooden shelves, artwork and padded chairs for about 60 people, said Cindy Ventuleth, assistant to the library dean.

Then came the tricky part: choosing the books.

“What I had in mind is a collection not strictly of any particular kind, just one that encourages people to read,” Gohstand said. A committee was formed to choose the books, and, for the most part, members simply suggested personal favorites, Gohstand said. The result is a hodgepodge of about 2,500 modern books and classics. Choices tended toward prize winners and “good books, not potboilers,” Gohstand said. Among their number are two of Gohstand’s own suggestions: “Three Men in a Boat” and “The Caine Mutiny.”

The dedication is in the reading room in the basement of the west wing of the library from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Dorothy Barresi, CSUN faculty member and poet, will read from her work, and students will also read from their own poetry and prose.