High-Tech Reference Point : Facility: Science Library that will open Tuesday at UCI houses books and cutting-edge learning equipment.
The largest medical and science library in California, featuring more than 2,000 desks and chairs, up to half a million books and the latest in library technology, is opening this week at UC Irvine.
The six-story high-tech Science Library--between the School of Biological Sciences and the College of Medicine--cost $33.5 million, all coming from state revenue and general obligation bonds, UCI spokesman Scott Nelson said.
It can hold as many as 500,000 texts, has about 2,200 reader stations and features a study center that will be open 24 hours during midterm and final exams. The library will open to the public at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Budget problems have hampered UCI and threatened to close some departments, but the library project went ahead. The project, which began in 1987, “addresses a longtime need for additional library space at UCI and was on the books before the budget cuts of recent years,” Nelson said.
UCI political science senior Mike Ross has seen the library evolve from a hole in the ground to an earth-toned, high-tech learning center. “I’m super pleased,” said Ross, the on-site building manager. “I can’t wait to move in here.”
On a recent afternoon, Ross surveyed the library from floor to floor, dodging scurrying workers moving thick, dusty books back and forth on plywood dollies. Maroon-colored shelves will house the books, protected from outside light by translucent plastic walls.
In areas of the library where clear glass windows rise from floor to ceiling, photocells detect light that might harm books and set off mechanisms that lower blinds to shield books from the sun.
“It’s pretty high-tech,” Ross said.
To show what he meant, Ross brushed by a steel water fountain and moved his hand. Water arched and burbled from a valve. “Motion detector,” he said.
At four kiosks in the library, visitors will be able to get maps of the library by touching a computer screen, Ross said. Students will take classes and find pictures and articles on CD-ROMs--compact discs that hold vast amounts of data--in the library’s interactive learning center.
Library employees will carry personalized cards that they must run through security boxes before entering stairwells, Ross said, and graduate students will get cards that they can use to access rooms in the building that other students may not use.
By installing such security measure, university officials hope to keep the collections of valuable books intact, he said. Balconies will be kept locked so that no one can throw books out windows and down to other people below.
Builders have also included details that will help students keep up with educational technology.
More than 450 computer outlets dotting walls throughout the library will allow students and other patrons to access databases with laptop computers. When the outlets are activated in 1995, students will be able to link their computers with Internet, a network of thousands of computer systems from around the world.
Students will also be able to retrieve articles and poems that are not copyrighted through computers, Ross said, as well as archive photographs such as images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
“People can come in, plug in their computers and bring things right up on their screen,” he said. Students who copy texts from the database onto their computers can take the texts home without lugging stacks of photocopies or books.
Workers are emptying the Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences and Biomedical libraries of books and hauling them to the new library, Ross said. Those libraries will be turned into office and class space by their departments, he said, but the Main Library will stay open.
UCI is part of a nationwide movement among academic and public libraries to upgrade equipment, officials at colleges and universities said.
In Orange County, Cal State Fullerton broke ground in February for its nearly $30-million library expansion, including $4.6 million in CD-ROM equipment and other computer resources.
Officials at Chapman University in Orange also are upgrading equipment and plan to have several academic journals available to students on computers by the next school year.
Fullerton and Newport Beach public libraries are two of about 170 in the state that received grants to install computers that allow patrons to use Internet, Fullerton Public Library director Al Melo said.
“The new technology is going to come whether we want it or not,” Melo said. “If we don’t (upgrade) now, two years from now, we’ll be that much further behind.”
Largest Science Library in California
UC Irvine’s new Science Library will feature advanced computer access to information. Science and technology collections, now stored in four different places on campus, will be centralized at the library.
Basics Cost: $33.5 million * Designer: British architect James Stirling * Book, materials area: About 131,000 square feet * Capacity: About 500,000 books * Opens: Tuesday
Computer Perks * Touch-sensitive computer screens show patrons where to find books. * Computers list books available in the University of California system. * Interactive learning center with CD-ROM equipment.
Public Access * Library access is free * Computer connection to UCI catalogues, (900) CALL-UCI; $1 per minute * Members of the public may borrow books with a Friends of the Library membership, which includes borrowing privileges at UCI libraries: general public, $60 per year ($50 if 62 or older); college students, $45 (or $24 for six months); free for high school students through school librarians.
Source: UCI; Researched by ALICIA DI RADO / Los Angeles Times
