Photos by Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff Greg McInally, foreman with electrical contractor Bergelectric Corp., said he has been working for a year and a half on the John Spoor Broome Library at CSU Channel Islands. A dedication ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

CSU Channel Islands will celebrate the opening of the John Spoor Broome Library on Friday, a building that has been in the works for nearly a decade and will serve as the academic center of the Camarillo campus.

"The library is a symbol in my mind of the intellectual enterprise that the university is all about," said Richard Rush, president of CSU Channel Islands. "Its location at the end of the mall gives clear testimony to the value we put on the development of intellectual excellence."

The dedication ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Scheduled speakers include Charles B. Reed, CSU chancellor; J. Handel Evans, president emeritus; and Broome, the benefactor for whom the library is named. Tours of the library, which was designed by Lord Norman Foster, also will be given.

The glass and steel building suits the way college students use libraries these days, said Paul Adalian, dean of the university library.

That means plenty of technology — more than 250 computers, 40 laptops that can be checked out, and about 180,000 digital books.

Even the furniture was chosen to reflect the way students study. When they work in groups, students like round tables and white boards, so group study rooms have those — along with some rectangular tables if a group prefers them.

And if students would rather study on their own? They can choose between traditional tables, which should help keep them awake, or lounge furniture, which is comfier.

"It depends on what your learning style is and how you like to study," Adalian said. "We've made the environment flexible, easy to use."

So flexible, in fact, that students can bring their coffee and snacks into the library. Adalian figures that trying to stop them just means more spills.

Eating, drinking allowed

"Students want to eat while they're studying," Adalian said. "Libraries for years have been trying to stop it. They bring in cups, and when they try to hide it, they spill it. Now they don't spill it because they're not scared and trying to hide it."

There's even a coffee shop at the entrance for those who don't bring their own coffee or snacks.

The library does have its traditional side. There are about 75,000 print books, along with a small collection of magazines. There's a children's section, too, complete with kid-size cushions and oversize pillows in the shapes of an eraser, pencil and book.

In addition to providing the expected books and study rooms, the library is designed to be a one-stop academic center, housing a writing center, math tutoring center and technology help desk.

Beyond that, it will be a gathering place for students, said Cris Powell, student body president.

"The library is exquisite," said Powell, 22, of Oxnard. "Not only does it offer all kinds of sources, but mainly it will be a place for students to go. It will become an academic and social home for students."

Traditional and modern

On the outside, the library, which anchors the north end of the campus quad, combines the university's traditional Spanish colonial revival architecture with a modern glass, steel and concrete center.

That combination is meant to visually link two parts of the campus — the former Camarillo State Hospital, with its red tile roofs and 1930s adobe buildings, and a modern housing development behind the library that includes a shopping center.

"It marries the new and the historic," said Deborah Wylie, associate vice president of operations, planning and construction.

The building also is designed to be environmentally friendly. The carpeting, for example, is recyclable. Tempered glass in the ceiling prevents heat from escaping.

Plus, the glass allows natural light in from the outside and a view of the mountains, Wylie said.

"The glass makes it transparent, so you can see the books when you walk up," Wylie said. "It looks like a library. The books are accessible, the way we'd like our university to be."

The library got its start in 1999 with a $5 million donation from Broome, an Oxnard rancher. Most of the financing came from a bond that will be repaid with income earned on the housing development and shopping center. The state contributed $3 million.

At the start, the project was expected to cost $50 million. The final tally is expected to be about $62 million.

The higher cost stems from a series of delays that coincided with a sharp rise in the price of steel, concrete and lumber.

The most significant delay occurred when the original bids came in much higher than expected. The university cut $5.5million from the project and put it out to bid again. An earlier delay occurred when the state took longer than expected to approve the project.

Together, the delays postponed the opening by about two years. Now, the university is set to commemorate its completion.

"We're celebrating another clear milestone in the creation and establishment of an outstanding university," Rush said.