More Damage Discovered at College Library : Quake: Serious structural problems will delay reopening of the Cal State Northridge building. Some books are damaged by rain.

In twin jolts to earthquake-battered Cal State Northridge, engineers Tuesday discovered serious structural damage that will probably delay the reopening of the Oviatt Library, the school’s centerpiece building, and administrators discovered rain damage to some of the library’s prized books.

University officials had been talking of reopening the 230,000-square-foot library on a limited basis by mid-March, only a month after resumption of classes, which is planned for Monday.

After the latest damage discovery, however, Dean of Libraries Susan Curzon said the reopening probably will be delayed indefinitely and she will explore alternate means of providing library services.

Just before engineers working for the school declared the building off-limits to all occupants at midday Tuesday, a group of a dozen university library workers and students succeeded in removing about 15 boxes of water-damaged books from the library’s special collections area, which houses old and rare books, scripts and pamphlets.

The books were damaged by rainwater coming through the building’s quake-damaged roof in the storms Friday and Monday, administrators said.

The curator of the special collections, Tony Gardner, said he believes the materials can be restored by freeze-drying, as was done to save books damaged by water from firefighters’ hoses at the Los Angeles Central Library in 1986.

The four-story Cal State Northridge library has been closed to the public and students, as has the rest of the 353-acre campus, since the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake. Although portions of its roof overhang collapsed in the quake and other unstable portions have since been removed, university officials previously had considered the building’s core to be stable.

However, engineers discovered Tuesday that the quake snapped the welded connections anchoring some of the building’s vertical steel frame supports to its foundation. The breaks were discovered in the library’s east and west wings, said Mike Devlin, a structural engineer with Law/Crandall Engineering of Los Angeles.