The University of Nevada, Las Vegas broke ground today (March 26) for the $51 million state-of-the-art Lied Library. The most expensive public works building project in state history, the Lied Library is scheduled for completion of construction in fall 1999 with an opening date of January 2000.

A $15 million gift from the Lied Foundation Trust and its trustee, Christina Hixson, served as a catalyst for the five-floor, 300,000-square-foot facility.

"A university's library is, in many ways, its heart," UNLV President Carol C. Harter said. "No other single building is as important to the academic, scholarly endeavor. The Lied Library will be used by faculty and students, as well as by members of the community, to advance their education and conduct research. With the assistance of Christina Hixson and the Lied Foundation Trust and the unprecedented support of the governor and the Nevada Legislature, we are building a library that will help UNLV reach its goal of attaining national recognition for the quality of its research, creative, and scholarly activities."

Capable of housing 1.8 million volumes, the new library will be located north of the Classroom Building Complex and west of the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies and the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History.

"I believe the Lied Library truly belongs to the people of Nevada," Hixson said. "Although our gift initiated the funding for the new library, we are here today breaking ground for this facility because the citizens of Nevada have invested their tax dollars in this project. The Lied Library is not only a university facility, but a resource for the entire Las Vegas community."

One of the central components of this facility will be the $1.5 million Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). This robotic system will allow the library to store up to 10 times more material in its stacks than is possible with conventional shelving.

One of only three such systems in the country, the ASRS stores books and other materials in numbered bins, then uses computer technology to remember where the books are stored. When a book is requested by a library patron through the library's on-line catalog computer terminals located throughout the facility, the appropriate bin is immediately retrieved by a robotic crane system, which delivers it to the service counter where the patron can pick up the material in about 10 minutes.

Described as the most technologically advanced library in the country, the Lied Library will be further enhanced by several architectural features:
-- a five-story central atrium with a skylight over the central reading area;
-- an information commons housing more than 100 microcomputer stations for research;
-- a 24-hour study lounge;
-- interactive, electronic learning centers;
-- networked group-study rooms for collaborative learning;
-- attractive reading rooms overlooking the central atrium;
-- faculty and graduate study lounges;
-- an exterior courtyard campus entry;

"I think that the Lied Library will bring us into a very competitive position in terms of being a research facility," Kenneth Marks, UNLV's dean of libraries, said. "We are a young university and don't have the millions of bound volumes that other schools do, but we will have a library designed to take advantage of electronic research. The Lied Library will provide access to all kinds of information electronically."

Designed by Welles/Pugsley Architects of Las Vegas and Leo A. Daly Architects of Omaha, Neb., the new facility will have a maximum occupancy of 3,666 people with 2,500 reading stations and 3,000 network connections. The general contractor for the project is Tibesar Construction Co.