University Plans Temporary Replacement for Oviatt Library

Hoping in part to quash a feared exodus of students, Cal State Northridge officials say they plan to build a new library on campus by this fall as an interim replacement for the heavily damaged Oviatt Library, which may take two years or more to fully reopen.

The university’s enrollment already was on a downward slide even before the Jan. 17 earthquake battered the campus and closed the 220,000-square-foot Oviatt, CSUN’s sole library. Without some substantial facility, faculty members have warned, students could leave in droves.

CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson approved the interim library plan this past week. Dean of Libraries Susan Curzon said she will pursue a warehouse-like tilt-up concrete structure that would hold about one-quarter of the Oviatt’s 1.1 million volumes.

Curzon said she has yet to settle on the size of the building, how much it will cost, or where on campus it would be built. But CSUN Provost Louanne Kennedy told faculty members that one possible site is an open area near the collapsed CSUN parking structure on Zelzah Avenue.

Faculty members, who rely on the library for their own research and class preparations, applauded the announcement.

CSUN’s 24,813 students this semester have had no on-campus library since classes began in mid-February. The university instead has been operating hourly shuttle buses to take CSUN students to and from libraries at UCLA.

By the beginning of next week, shortly before spring finals, CSUN officials expect to open two small emergency library facilities on campus, a 15,000-square-foot refurbished hall and a 12,600-square-foot dome. But those alone were deemed inadequate to serve the entire campus for the coming school year.