ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Allen made the comments near the end of a private 90-minute tour of the $43 million state library, which opens to the public today. A grand opening ceremony will be held in May.
The six-story, 316,500-square-foot building is opposite the northwest corner of Capitol Square, three blocks from the old library. Its two levels of stacks are each equivalent to two football fields, and its 551/2 miles of shelves would stretch almost to Fredericksburg if laid end to end.
``It's much larger than I anticipated,'' said Allen, who was joined on the tour by his wife, Susan, and state Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro. ``It's a wonderful asset and resource.''
Allen marveled at both the new and the old, quizzing library staff about computers and digital photography equipment and lingering over centuries-old maps and documents.
``What a library really is is a museum for the mind,'' he said. ``Looking at these old maps, you get a sense of what times were like back then.''
The law-and-order governor seemed to get a kick out of an 1805 document listing Virginia prison inmates from other states.
``A lot of horse thieves from New Jersey,'' he said. ``And five from North Carolina.''
Visitors to the new library enter a three-story atrium, which offers a view of the second-floor reading rooms. A 1,200-square-foot exhibition area occupies the back of the main lobby.
More than 45,000 books in the library's 700,000-volume collection will be available to patrons in the main reading room. Only 10,000 items were available in the old library's reading rooms.
The library's archives exceed 83 million items, including court records, tax lists, executive and legislative manuscripts, personal papers and maps. The library holds all of Virginia's official records dating to 1607.
Specially designed reading room tables allow patrons to link their laptop computers to the library's network as well as to the Internet.
``We're using the best of the past, but we're also utilizing the new technologies that make it much more accessible,'' Allen said.
The building also includes a 256-seat lecture hall, three meeting rooms and a underground parking garage with 214 spaces, 97 of them available free to library patrons.
Library spokeswoman Janice M. Hathcock said the old library will remain a state building, but no decision has been made on how it will be used.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Librarian Audrey Marrinan teaches Gov. George Allenby CNBhow to explore the state's Web pages with a laptop computer.