Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler
(818) 677-2130
carmen.chandler@csun.edu
The community is invited to join in the festivities, which will begin at 12:15 p.m. on the library's lawn in the center of the campus and feature a fly over by a team of Army National Guard pilots.
"It's a great day for our campus," said Susan Curzon, dean of the Oviatt Library. "It's the culmination of a dream, coming back from the devastation of the earthquake even better than we were before."
Curzon said it was particularly appropriate that the Army National Guard join in the celebration.
"They were here right after the earthquake helping us and the community," she said. "It's only right that they be back to help us celebrate the library's reopening."
The 1994 Northridge earthquake devastated the Oviatt Library, considered the heart and soul of the university by its students and faculty. The 6.8 temblor severely damaged the building, particularly its east and west wings, which were destroyed.
Since then, the building has undergone a $22 million facelift. The wings, originally built in 1990, had to be torn down and completely rebuilt.
University officials took advantage of the reconstruction to make some high tech additions to the library and to reorganize it.
The new library includes a Collaboratory, which houses 150 PCs capable of electronic information searches, e-mail and office tools and are available for student use. There is a Teacher Curriculum Center which houses materials of interest to teachers and student teachers, including state-adopted textbooks, curriculum guides, software programs, educational games, recordings and sound filmstrips.
New study areas for faculty and graduate and undergraduate students have been added and redesigned to accommodate different sizes of groups.
In addition to the organizational changes, the library has taken on some new looks, with an oak and brass staircase in the west wing and the construction of a grand outdoor staircase leading to its entrance and the terracing of the Oviatt Lawn.
The Oviatt Library is home to more than one million volumes and contains a state-of-the-art book retrieval system. It serves as the main research facility for the San Fernando Valley.
For more information about the Oviatt Library or the celebration, call (818) 677-2638. California State University, Northridge has more than 28,000 full- and part-time students and offers 48 bachelor's and 39 master's degrees. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the Valley.
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