Dedicating the Library

Utah State University’s Merrill-Cazier Library will be dedicated Friday, April 14, and highlights include its 150-computer Information Commons, a state-of-the-art automated storage and retrieval system and ample study areas with natural light and inspiring mountain views. The dedication ceremony, which will take place at 2 p.m. in the Library Atrium, features a keynote address by Richard Rodriguez, noted essayist and author of Brown, the Last Discovery of America.

“Since opening our doors to the university community last fall, the much-anticipated Merrill-Cazier Library has become the hub of learning on campus,” said Linda Wolcott, vice provost for libraries. “The new showcase facility provides the resources, access to technology, and flexible study environments that support the various ways students learn today.”

 

With $40 million in funding from the Utah’s state legislature, the university broke ground on the new building in May 2003 to replace the 70-year-old Merrill Library. The new construction expanded the existing Cazier “Sci-Tech” Library, creating a 305,000 square foot library at the heart of campus. The facility merges two libraries into one, both physically, by bringing all library functions under one roof, and in name, by continuing to honor two former USU administrators, Milton R. Merrill and Stanford O. Cazier.

 

Keynote speaker Rodriguez, author of Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, writes about the intersection of his personal life with some of the great vexing issues of America. Widely celebrated and criticized, his first book remains controversial for its skepticism of bilingual education and affirmative action. In 1992, Rodriguez published Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father, and in 2002 his latest book, Brown: The Last Discovery of America, was released.

 

Rodriguez has worked for more than two decades for Pacific News Service and has been a contributing editor for Harper’s Magazine and the Sunday “Opinion” section of the Los Angeles Times. For more than 10 years, he has appeared on PBS’s News Hour with Jim Lehrer. In 1997, Rodriguez was honored with a George Peabody Award, and in 1993 he received the Frankel Medal, the highest honor the federal government gives to recognize work in the humanities.

 

Rodriguez’s appearance on campus is significant and relates to academic programs on campus. He is an important voice in the ever-present concepts of race and diversity in American culture and what this means in an ever-changing global culture. Hundreds of freshman English students at Utah State University read his essay, The Achievement of Desire, which deals with his personal experiences in the American public school system and the friction between the cultures of his home and classroom.

 

“A library is central to the intellectual life of a university,” said Wolcott. “Our new library is a signature building for Utah State University. It’s a place where people come together to engage with ideas and with one another. This is an exciting day for the university, and we look forward to formally dedicating the Merrill-Cazier Library, the intellectual center of campus.”

 

Following the library’s dedication, guests are invited to enjoy refreshments and join a student-guided tour of the building.

 

The dedication is open and free to the public.