A dusty book, isolated rows of shelves and monotone walls come to Tisha Stoliar’s mind when thinking about the Pierce College library.
A deaf studies major, Stoliar, 49, attended Pierce 26 years ago and enrolled in one class this semester. To her, the library looks the same as it did when she first attended Pierce.
During National Library Week, Stoliar was one of several students who were happy to learn that construction will commence soon on the building that will house the new Pierce library.
“[The library] still looks exactly the same,” Stoliar said. “It’s time for a change.”
On Tuesday, April 12, in commemoration of the week, visual aids of the new Pierce library were available for viewing on the mall. Meanwhile, a book sale, a drawing and an ASO funded bake sale took place.
Sponsored by the American Library Association, National Library Week aims to promote literacy.
Florence K. Robin, the library department chair, organized the event with the assistance of other librarians.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., two tables, a cart full of books and chairs holding foam visuals were set up across the library.
Sarah Alison, 20, an ASO member, sat behind the table that displayed banana bread, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, croissants and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Each baked item sold for $1.00.
“The banana bread is homemade; they’re really good and they’ll sell fast,” Alison said.
Barbara Anderson, dean of academic affairs, made the brownies. Robin referred to Anderson’s brownies as “world famous” and said they were still warm.
Books and magazines were priced from 50 cents to $2. Anybody who purchased a pastry, book or magazine was eligible to enter a drawing that would award four people $10 gift cards to the Freudian Sip.
Daryl Viray, 25, a kinesiology major, purchased a book on folk songs, a medical dictionary and a travel guide.
“I might need the travel guide sometime. If I maybe read the medical dictionary, I can expand my vocabulary,” Viray said.
Paula Paggi, a Pierce librarian, said the new library is expected to be constructed by August 2012 and that it will have 120 open access computers and eight group study rooms, twice the number available now.
Viray has attended Pierce for three years and said that the construction of a new library will add to several drastic changes the school has gone through.
“That wasn’t here before. This wasn’t here before,” Viray said, pointing at the steel constructed Brahma bull sculpture.
Patricia Gonzales, 24, and Jimmefel Nicolas, 23, American Sign Language majors attending their last semester at Pierce, were walking down the mall and took notice of the visual aids.
“How exiting,” Gonzales said.
Paggi informed both that the library would be two stories.
“It does look beautiful,” Nicolas said. “But we’re done this semester. We won’t get to see it.”
A board displaying a sample of the materials that will adorn the new library was also available for viewing.
Patty Sanchez, 19, a biology major, said the interior floral yellow and blue floor tiles, in conjunction with the exterior terracotta clay tiles, seemed very familiar.
“It reminds me of my grandma’s kitchen floor in Jerez, Mexico. It gives me nostalgia,” Sanchez said.
Kat Koziar, a technician who works for PierceOnLine, observed the pastry table but didn’t purchase anything, instead making a donation because she doesn’t eat gluten.
Koziar spoke to Robin about the importance of libraries in society, “I believe that libraries are a depository of information,” Koziar said.
Robin agreed.
“In America, freedom of information is the foundation for our democracy,” Robin said.
Before going back to work, Koziar said that people forget the importance of having libraries.
“We’re so used to having them, so we forget how valuable they are,” Koziar said.
