San Jose Library Marries Town, Gown

One set of doors faces the grassy expanse of San Jose State. The other beckons passersby in the heart of San Jose’s revitalized downtown. At eight stories tall, with a $177-million price tag, the state-of-the art library that opened Friday would be a source of pride anywhere in this cash-strapped state.

But San Jose’s new Martin Luther King Jr. Main Library represents more than a throwback to Silicon Valley’s days of prosperity.

It is believed to be the first library in the country to be shared by a four-year university and a major city. Boosters are hailing the marriage as an innovative experiment that brings the ivory tower down to earth, offering the city’s diverse population an entree to lifelong learning.

The blend of town and gown brings San Jose State’s esoteric collections on Ludwig van Beethoven and John Steinbeck under the same roof as a children’s center and a teenage lounge where youths can peruse copies of Thrasher magazine or watch a DVD of Britney Spears’ “Live From Las Vegas.”

Anyone with a city library card can tap into the university’s ample stock. The homeless will enjoy many of the same rights as graduate students. And maybe, backers hope, the demystified academic ambience will lure more young locals into the Cal State University fold.

“For a lot of kids, it’ll be the first time they’ve been on a campus,” said former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer, who devised the partnership with former University President Robert L. Caret nearly seven years ago. “Hopefully that will plant the seed that they, too, can go to college.”

The behemoth undertaking -- which dipped deep into Cal State and city redevelopment coffers when the economy was still sizzling -- faced plenty of opposition. More than 3,000 students -- about a tenth of the student body -- and 450 faculty and staff members signed petitions to derail it before the university’s Academic Senate signed off on the venture in 1998.

Critics say the university -- which put up the land and about half of the funding for the 480,000-square-foot building -- has been had. Run by parallel administrations that meld workers from disparate institutional cultures and unions, the library is a two-headed monster, they say. In their worst-case scenario, books go missing when graduate students need them most, shrimp receptions are crashed by the indigent and the academic calm is shaken by disruptions that an institution like Stanford University would never tolerate.

“It’s one thing to do this in a small college town of 10,000 and quite another to do it in a city of close to a million people,” said history professor Bruce Reynolds, who was among those who mounted the unsuccessful petition drive. “We believe the university got a very bad deal.”

On Friday, however, there was nothing but grins and relief as City Library Director Jane Light unlocked the glass doors on the public side and San Jose State’s Library Dean Patricia Breivik opened those on the other side of the atrium. Dozens of library staff members formed a cheering welcoming line, as several hundred residents and a smattering of college students poured in.

“What brought me to tears was seeing the children run through our children’s library,” said Breivik, whose realm had previously been restricted to older patrons. “That’s what this library is about -- better futures for this community.”

“It makes me want to go to college again,” said Chuck McIntosh, 48, a San Jose resident who turned out clutching an “Impeach Bush” petition that he hoped to circulate. McIntosh, a self-described unemployed medical marijuana user with a disabling back injury, spent about an hour each day at the city’s former main library, surfing the Internet and researching topics of interest. The new facility offers 400 computer terminals -- about 10 times as many as the city’s former main library -- along with computer laboratories that will have classes for students and residents alike.

“Neither side could have afforded to do it on their own,” he said.

The building, designed by architectural firms Gunnar Birkets and Carrier Johnson, is part of a downtown revitalization that continues even in today’s tanked economy -- some of it with funds secured before the dot-com bust. A new City Hall is rising several blocks away. New condominiums are springing up nearby.

Simple as the notion of a joint library may seem, it is a novel one. In Florida’s Broward County, the community college joined with the county library system decades ago, and a few other small towns have attempted partnerships. But outside of Europe, no full-fledged university and major city have attempted the union, said former Library Dean Jim Schmidt, who searched high and low for precedents.

The cultures are distinct. Public libraries tend to provide a resting place for the down-and-out -- one where reference librarians do plenty of hand-holding. University librarians, meanwhile, tend to show students how to dig up answers on their own. Even that simple difference had to be ironed out as joint staffs hashed out a compromise to serve the new melded clientele, Light said.

University officials from Colorado to Florida have expressed interest in the project, visiting the university’s Web site to download the hefty “prenuptial” agreement that lays out each institution’s obligations, said Caret -- now president of Maryland’s Towson University.

“It’s cutting edge,” said California State Librarian Kevin Starr. “Elected officials want us to come up with more efficient funding models for libraries. San Jose went way out ahead.”

Tyrone Heath Cannon, dean of libraries at the University of San Francisco and president of the national Assn. of College and Research Libraries, called the venture “a wonderful example of a very creative partnership” that fits within an in-vogue notion of university-community links.

A project of this scope would be unthinkable under today’s budget constraints. Even six years ago, it seemed farfetched. Cal State’s typical investment for capital projects at its 21 campuses was $15 million to $20 million, said Don Kassing, San Jose State’s vice president for administration and finance.

By teaming up with the city, Caret was able to shake loose more money than he otherwise would have. Ultimately, the Cal State system came forward with more than $86 million, more than quadruple its typical offer. The city’s redevelopment agency -- fat with dot-com-era dollars -- put in $74 million. Private donors came through with about $10 million and San Jose State produced $5 million.

The idea was born informally. Then, when Caret stepped in, it grew legs. He mentioned to Hammer that the university desperately needed a new main library. Hammer was in the same boat. They paired up.

But the project was hard-won.

“We were concerned, frankly, about the kind of people who would be drawn in,” said English professor Scott Rice. “We were told by staff at the old main library that, during inclement weather, it became a shelter for street people. There are other people who use it as a free day-care center or teenage lounge-about. The university study environment is supposed to be a little more somber than that.

“It only takes a few rowdy people to disturb a calm,” he said. “I feel the university environment is fragile enough as it is.”

Opponents have taken to calling the building “Caret’s Folly.” They quip that boosters should reserve judgment “until the first coed is molested.” Others worry that the books just won’t be there when students need them. Members of the public can have all non-reference books shipped out to the branch libraries. If they fail to return them, all the library can do is send out notices. (University students, meanwhile, can have holds placed on their grades, and faculty members can have their paychecks garnished).

“We don’t have the funds to maintain our collection, much less replace those things that go missing,” said Reynolds.

Caret acknowledged that the university is taking a risk. But he said plenty of controls had been built into the agreement. Faculty members can restrict books for their students. And with combined resources, the library can carry more copies than either institution previously did alone. If the marriage fails, he said, each institution can run its share of the building separately.

Cubie Maddox, president of the Friends of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, said his group hopes to put a chess area in for many of the homeless who frequented the former main library and are experts at the game.

“This is a concept that will bring all kind of people together from all nationalities and ethnicities and cultures, and they’re all going to start talking to each other again,” he said. “It brings academia back into the real world.”