On the Road to Research : CSUN: Grateful students are shuttled to UCLA libraries. But there are problems.

All Zepur Jakmakian wanted was a quick trip to the library to get started researching a paper for her biology class at Cal State Northridge.

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

Because the Jan. 17 earthquake closed CSUN’s sole library and it may take a year to reopen, campus officials have had to arrange alternate service at UCLA. They have set up a free daily shuttle bus service to ferry students to the Westwood campus’ 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’d left her books back at CSUN. That meant a bus trip back to CSUN, and then another back to UCLA, getting caught in rush-hour traffic on the way. Net time to arrive: 3 1/2 hours.

While most students making the UCLA journeys praised CSUN officials for establishing the alternate library service, many also are finding the new arrangement has its limitations, and certainly is unforgiving of mistakes like Jakmakian’s. Some also are discovering a new sense of what they’ve lost.

“We used to complain about it all the time, but now we really miss it,” Jakmakian said of CSUN’s 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 CSUN 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 CSUN’s single library. And some CSUN 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- or two-hour breaks from class.

“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 CSUN.

Last semester, Tom said he was constantly at CSUN’s 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 Saturdays and Sundays studying at the downtown Los Angeles Public Library.

Liliana Vega, a junior psychology and child development major, 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 received a guided tour from one of the CSUN librarians who have been sent to help at UCLA.

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

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

Bus ridership has risen steadily through the first month of classes at CSUN, peaking at 2,250 last week, said Astrid Logan, CSUN’s transportation programs manager. Gloria Werner, UCLA’s university librarian, said more than 700 CSUN students have obtained UCLA library cards.

One satisfied customer was Mandana Dehdashti, a 23-year-old CSUN 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 then used UCLA’s own 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, also citing the lack of study space for CSUN students on class breaks.

“Actually, I’d prefer if the Oviatt was open. But since it’s not, this is the best they can do,” she said.