Research on the Road : Students From Quake-Damaged Northridge Campus Endure the Long Trek to UCLA Libraries

The only thing Zepur Jakmakian wanted was a quick trip to the library to start researching a paper for her biology class at Cal State Northridge.

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Last year, that would have meant a 10-minute walk across campus. This week, it turned into a 3 1/2-hour ordeal.

Because it may take a year to reopen the campus’s only library after damage from the Jan. 17 earthquake, officials have had to arrange alternative service at UCLA. They have set up a free shuttle service to ferry students to the Westwood campus’s 13 libraries, hourly from morning to night.

Jakmakian, a 22-year-old biology major, made the 40-minute trip to UCLA earlier this week, only to discover she had left her books behind. That meant a bus trip back to Northridge, and then another back to UCLA, getting caught in rush-hour traffic on the way. Net time to arrive: 3 1/2 hours.

Although most students making the UCLA journeys praised Northridge officials for establishing the alternative library service, many also are finding that the new arrangement has its limitations, and certainly is unforgiving of mistakes such as Jakmakian’s. Some also are discovering a new sense of what they have lost.

“We used to complain about it all the time, but now we really miss it,” Jakmakian said of the Delmar T. Oviatt Library. The 220,000-square-foot centerpiece of the campus, also the largest library in the San Fernando Valley, was one of the university buildings most damaged by the quake.

On the plus side, the 13 UCLA libraries house more than 6 million volumes, compared to the 1.1 million volumes in Northridge’s single library. And some students said they enjoy leaving the disarray of their campus for UCLA’s tranquil grounds.

But on the downside, others reported difficulties finding materials in UCLA’s vast library system, much less navigating their way around an unfamiliar campus. And given the travel time from Northridge, gone are impromptu library trips during one-hour class breaks.

“It’s pretty hard. We’ve got to go to different libraries for different sources,” said Kiet Tom, a 19-year-old history major who said his classmates have found UCLA very confusing. “We don’t have big giant libraries like at UCLA,” Tom said of the Northridge campus.

Last semester, Tom said, he was constantly at the Oviatt library during the week but was able to go home on weekends to relax with his family near Chinatown. Now, he’s going to UCLA about twice a week but having to spend all his Saturdays and Sundays studying at the Downtown Los Angeles Public Library.

Liliana Vega, a junior majoring in psychology and child development, made her first bus trip to UCLA this week, saying, “I have to look for psychology journals, but I don’t know where to go.” Fortunately, she got a guided tour from one of the Northridge librarians who have been sent to help at UCLA.

Vega had previously tried the library at Mission College near her home in Sylmar, but did not find what she needed. Her plight pointed out an additional complication for students: The earthquake also has closed many other libraries in the area, and the remaining ones are not of university caliber.

Northridge officials are working on two temporary library operations on campus, but they will be mostly electronic when they open, in several weeks at the earliest. There are no plans to remove most of the books from the Oviatt library, so the UCLA operation will continue at least through the semester.

However, UCLA and Cal State Northridge officials said an agreement has already been signed that will give Northridge students and faculty on-line access to UCLA’s library catalogue at the two temporary sites. They also will be able, for a fee, to order materials from UCLA that will be delivered by the buses.

One satisfied customer was Mandana Dehdashti, a 23-year-old medical technology major and self-described “library person” who came to UCLA just to find a quiet place to study. Dehdashti said she even studied on the bus and used UCLA’s shuttles to get around the campus.

“It was better than staying at CSUN trying to study in the cafeteria. You can’t find a place to sit,” she said. “Actually, I’d prefer if the Oviatt was open. But since it’s not, this is the best they can do,” she said.