August 2003

Ran: Riverside Press Enterprise - Thursday, August 28, 2003

New RCC library turns page into digital age

EDUCATION: The facility is part of a movement that is changing how students learn, an expert says

By: Michael Coronado

How do you sell a $23 million idea to your boss?

Five years ago, Riverside Community College Library Dean Cecila Wong pitched a multimillion-dollar library concept to Sal Rotella, the college's president.

To add heft to her idea, Wong persuaded Rotella to visit City College of San Francisco and tour the school's library and learning center, filled with whiz-bang technology and digital dazzle.

After the tour, she told him how libraries like the one in San Francisco can add a dimension to learning that takes students beyond pulp and into the digital age of computers.

Zip forward to today and RCC students will get a firsthand look at the Inland region's newest - and arguably most advanced - higher-learning library, during a grand opening ceremony.

Across the country, libraries and learning centers are reshaping how information is used and accessed, drawing more students to schools and bolstering the visibility of colleges and universities.

RCC's learning center mirrors a trend that has seen community college and university students go from book study and note taking to Internet research and e-mail to complete reports and dissertations.

Setting a standard
That RCC's new learning center would serve as a state-of-the-art standard for other two-year schools is not surprising, said UC Riverside librarian Ruth M. Jackson.

Community colleges are stepping stones for students and serve in many forms as preparation for entering the four-year system, Jackson said. Wireless technology, Internet-based research and electronic learning are all necessary at the community college level.

"On our campus and places like RCC, we try to make information omnipresent," said Jackson. That means students can access databases and journals and other materials electronically from almost anywhere.

UC Riverside's library houses a collection of 2 million volumes, placing it on the Association of Research Libraries, a collection of the 116 largest libraries in the United States and Canada.

"The next evolution is instruments you can carry in your pocket," said Jackson. "We're not quite where they are in Star Trek. We will get there."

The new RCC learning center, whose footprint sucked up swaths of precious parking, is a red-roofed, 117,000-square-foot repository of electronic information, flat screen computers and DVD players.

Existing library inadequate
Built in 1968, the school's existing library can't handle the crowds of students who use its study rooms or access the Internet. Often students would be kicked out to avoid overcrowding, Wong said.

The Riverside campus, which opened its doors in 1918, accommodated about 18,000 students last year. RCC also has campuses in Moreno Valley and Norco. In all, approximately 32,000 students are expected to attend the school. The Norco campus has its own library building, and the Moreno Valley campus houses a smaller library integrated into the school.

In the past decade, traditional libraries across the country have spawned digital networks and computer screens where card catalogs and reams of periodical indexes once stood.

Learning reinvented
A digital evolution has elevated the status of some colleges and universities from mediocrity to among the best in the country, said Tim Massie, chief public affairs officer for Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Marist added and 85,000-square-foot library in 2000 steeped in digital and electronic technology. Its $35 million library and learning center has reinvented the way students learn and study, said Dennis J. Murray, Marist College president.

"The definition of the library has changed," Murray said.

Libraries once were repository of books and stored materials, so if someone had already checked out a text or document you needed, tough luck. Today's libraries, like RCC's, will allow students to access books and documents via computer screens.

Technology has redefined the library of today, making it a place where information can be delivered fast and wherever the user might need it, Murray said.

Students may even check out a laptop, plop on a couch and plug into a text of Macbeth, enjoying a view of the Hudson River from inside the library's atrium.

Adapting to the future
New libraries, such as RCC's, are able to flex, expand and adapt to changing technology.

"If in 20 years, you want to redo the library you can take down entire floors," said Rotella. "It's the most elastic building you can have."

Raised floors hid cabling for electronics. Much of the technology is wireless, however, allowing students laptop access to the library's databases from a couch or study table.

Once powered up, the electronic heart of RCC's library - its servers, processors and databases - can sustain 13,000 students using computers and networks at the same time.

The L-shaped building also boasts safeguard technology. If the library's network should crash, Wong said, only one wing of the library would be offline at one time.

Flat-screen computers, wireless networks and raised floors aren't cheap.

The money to build the library and learning center came entirely from state bond funds through Prop. !A. RCC officials jumped on the funding wagon, Rotella said.

Passed in 1998, the $9.2 billion state bond raised money for school construction projects.

"Frankly, we got in front of the line and locked into the bond," he said.

Future at RCC
Throughout the library, large, vaulted ceilings and wide windows create a sense of space with ample light streaming inside. Sunflower yellow and baby powder blue walls surround student tables and computer pods.

"I wanted people to come into this building and not feel caged in," Wong said.

Nearly 1,200 students can find a seat somewhere in the learning center, designed by tBP Architecture of Newport Beach. That's about 10 times the number that the old campus library could hold.

But students won't find the library's confines a place for a catnap between classes. Wong dares students to get too comfy in one of the seemingly squishy sofa chairs. They are rock hard.

"Even the chairs are designed so students can't fall asleep," she said.

Much of the design is as practical as it is attractive. The maple partitions, winding across an approximately 12-foot swath of floor, separate the study areas from the exits and guide students to the elevator.

That way, a crowd of students won't gather around the elevator and chat up a storm while others try to read or study.

Just south of the library is an auditorium that resembles a small movie theater more than a college classroom.

The podium houses a flat-screen monitor, CD/DVD and VHS player, a computer monitor, camera, projector and document reader and allows its user control of everything inside the auditorium.

Still, antiquated tools have a place in Wong's library of the future. Near the exit is a hulking remnant of technology's past: a microfiche machine and its gray metal file cabinets. It's still necessary, Wong said.

"Stupid machine," she said, walking by it.

A community gem
The beautiful thing about technology is sharing it with the community, RCC officials say. The campus visitor today could become the student of tomorrow, Rotella said.

The community college has always stood as just that: a place of learning for the greater community. A working adult's college and a bridge to higher learning.

This is not only the library of the future, Wong said, but the library for the community. For $5 a year, Riverside County residents can get a community card that allows them to use the library and check out books.

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