Renewed Library Reopens at UCI

No longer will students have to trudge through a dank side entrance. No longer will they have to scour the campus looking for an available terminal to check their e-mail. No longer will they roam the stacks--or the World Wide Web--puzzled over the myriad of resources.

The newly renovated UC Irvine main library, which opened Thursday, promises to ensure not only smoother access to the building but also to its increasingly high-tech services.

Students and staff will notice the change immediately: There is a new main entrance and redesigned lobby, which showcases items from the library’s vast holdings.

Beyond that are newly added computer rooms and a multimedia resource center designed to take advantage of the latest in information technology.

The library closed in June for a $5.5-million, six-month renovation that included strengthening the building against earthquakes and renovating the first two floors of the six-level building.

Many of the main library’s services--and some 300,000 volumes--were relocated in the nearby Science Library.

Parts of the main library, including areas that contained most of its 1.4 million volumes, reopened in September, with access through a cramped side entrance.

But on Thursday, just in time for the students’ return Monday for the winter quarter, everything was back in the main library--and then some.

With an eye toward meeting the needs of students increasingly dependent on e-mail and the Internet, the library now has 14 terminals from which the campus’ 16,700 students can access their university-provided e-mail. The university has terminals scattered across campus, but too few to suit students.

Aside from conversing with friends, students rely on their e-mail to communicate easily with professors and participate in electronic discussion groups devoted to their course work.

The library also has a new, 24-computer, technology-enhanced classroom. It will be used to train students to navigate the Internet’s academic resources and the library’s and University of California’s electronic databases.

Also new is the multimedia resources center, which will provide access to the Internet and the library’s collection of video cassettes, laser discs, CD-ROMs and other data files.

“About the only thing we don’t have is broadcast cable,” said library spokeswoman Ellen Broidy, “but we hope to get that soon too.”

Students said they appreciate the changes, in particular the computer access.

“A lot of students don’t have computers at their apartments or dorms,” said Rommony Chung, a junior majoring in social ecology. “So these changes are pretty good. . . . It’s a beautiful place.”