Library Renovation Is One for the Books

Cindy Ventuleth was a wide-eyed 19-year-old when Cal State Northridge was just beginning construction on its main library in 1971.

For two years, she passed the site every day on her way to class wondering if it would ever be completed. It opened in 1973--and it has practically been her second home ever since. The self-avowed bookworm joined the library staff after graduation.

So when the 1994 earthquake all but destroyed the university’s central hub of intellectual activity, Ventuleth was heartbroken.

“When we walked in the next day, it was all dark except for a shaft of light coming from a hole in the ceiling,” said Ventuleth, director of development for the Delmar T. Oviatt Library. “The books had fallen down into piles taller than me. A million books on the floor.”

The library’s main section had just undergone major structural redevelopment in 1990, and there was talk of razing the entire building--”damage was that bad,” Ventuleth said.

“It was all too much to handle,” she said. “We all wondered if it would ever open again.”

It took a little more than six years, but the Oviatt Library, the Valley’s largest and most authoritative, is now back up on its feet--and is looking better than ever, officials said. The reconstructed library boasts a new computer center with 150 additional terminals, an expanded special-collections section and a new bookstore, among other amenities.

The $22-million reconstruction, funded entirely by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was completed in time for fall classes. The library’s official reopening ceremony will be held Tuesday.

The event holds significance beyond the university, campus officials said.

“This is a really important event for the Valley as a whole and for Los Angeles, too,” said Susan Parker, associate dean of the library. “It’s a real symbol that the earthquake is finally over.”

For several months immediately after the quake, the Oviatt Library was closed. CSUN students were bused to UCLA for their research needs.

Eventually, the main section of the library reopened, but the whole facility was not fully functional until earlier this month, officials said.

“This campus and the Valley spent almost seven years in recovery,” Parker said. “It’s been a long wait, but it’s well worth the wait.”

CSUN senior Samuel Augustine agreed. The 33-year-old said he’s glad he stuck around for the grand reopening.

“The library was here, but not at maximum service,” the Pacoima resident said. “It’s good to have it back to the old standard.”

The Friends of the Library service group has set up shop in one of the building’s new rooms, where it sells used books at bargain prices. Volunteer Lil Baker of Woodland Hills bought a John Grisham paperback for 50 cents.

“We’re here for the community,” she said. “Where else can you get great books at great prices like this?”

In the renovation, the 235,000-square-foot library was fully rewired to provide Internet access, and its deteriorating steel beams were replaced with sturdier ones to make the structure more seismically sound, officials said.

Tuesday’s ceremony for the facility will begin at 12:15 p.m. outside on the library’s sweeping new staircase.

“We got a lot of good things from this,” Ventuleth said. “Now we can go back to being the Valley’s library. This shows that something good can come from bad.”