OCC to host dedication ceremony for new library

Orange Coast College will host a dedication of its library’s new digs at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the library’s courtyard.

The new $33-million production opened to the public Jan. 3, but this will be the official dedication ceremony. Construction for the library began in March of 2006.

The new two-story facility features more than 88,000 square feet of library, with the capacity to store 128,000 volumes of books, periodicals and other media, according to school officials.

The building is also home to 10 new private study rooms, a large open area that fits more than 100 students, two computer areas with more than 60 workstations, a bookstore, a reading room and media-viewing rooms.

The library replaces the Norman E. Watson library, which closed more than five years ago and was renovated and reopened in 2006 as the Watson Hall Enrollment Center. OCC’s temporary library was in a 25,000-square-foot building after the closure of the Watson Library. That facility was a mixture of 32 interlocking portables.

For more information, call (714) 432-5707.

— Daniel Tedford