It started like many other Silicon Valley ventures: Two movers and shakers meet for coffee, talk about a problem and out pops a seemingly elegant solution that nobody knows for sure will work.

That's the back story on San Jose's latest information technology launch -- a gleaming new building for the first cooperatively run library in the nation that combines the resources of a major metropolis and its university.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library opened Aug. 1, six years after former mayor Susan Hammer and ex-San Jose State University president Robert Caret brainstormed the idea over breakfast at the Fountain Restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel. By teaming up, they reasoned, they could build the kind of landmark building neither could afford alone.

Today their $177.5 million project ranks as San Jose's biggest and costliest civic project to date.

Whether the investment will pay off is being watched with great interest. Even its strongest backers, who have spent years anticipating possible problems, admit that no one knows for sure if the jointly managed library will be a smashing success or something less.

``It's a major experiment,'' said Kevin Starr, California's state librarian. ``It has revolutionary implications for library organization in this country. It means the library as an institution is so important to a community that a number of elements can come together to support it.''

The King library was designed as a state-of-the-art center for lifelong learning.

It's a place where toddlers can sit in pint-size chairs for story hour, teens can hang out in their own room and university students can check out laptops for library use. With everything under one roof, library patrons can pursue their personal and professional interests using the city's popular holdings or the university's extensive research collection. A city or university library card gives access to both.

For families who do not have computers or books and newspapers at home, the library has always been a gateway to opportunity. But here, it is literally a step away from the university. Children can walk through the grand lobby and enter San Jose State through the back door.

``People will go to college because of this library, and their lives and their families' lives will change,'' said Jane Light, the city's library director. Light hopes the children's room will become a destination, drawing bus loads of students on field trips as well as those who live nearby.

Short on space, money

Taking the risk of bringing two distinct organizations together to run a library was driven by the need for more space and the rising cost of library material. The city's main library had outgrown its building more than a decade ago, forcing it to discard one old book for every new book it brought in. The university's two libraries, Wahlquist and Clark, were nearing capacity.

``We never would have seen this library or any other library in our lifetime'' without a partnership, said former university president Caret. He noted that competition for money to build is intense among the California State University system's 23 campuses. The proposal to leverage CSU dollars with city redevelopment agency cash pushed San Jose's library to the top of the capital projects list.

Many have likened the union to an arranged marriage -- one with a carefully drafted prenuptial agreement that includes provisions for divorce.

What it isn't, insists the dean of the university library, is a merger.

``In a merger, someone loses their personality,'' said Patricia Breivik, dean of the university library. ``This is really a marriage -- two strong entities that have come together and are stronger and can accomplish more because they chose to be together.''

Since the new library is bigger and has more technology than before, it will cost more to operate -- an estimated $500,000 to $625,000 extra a year for each partner, officials estimate. Some savings will be realized because neither partner will have to buy multiple copies of some material, but the overall higher costs are a strain in a time of state funding cuts.

Recent budget reductions have forced the university library to cancel extended study hours it offered students at the Clark Library for more than a year.

The new library's construction was completed on time and under budget, managed by the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. It was paid for by the sale of redevelopment and state education bonds, plus about $10 million in private donations. Officials expect to have between $4 million and $6 million left to resolve any late claims. Any remaining money will be used to create a library capital endowment fund.

1.5 million volumes

Rising from the corner of the San Jose State campus at Fourth and San Fernando streets, the 477,000-square-foot building is eight stories above ground and one below. It has 11 acres of floor space and is big enough to swallow eight San Jose Repertory Theatres or the McEnery Convention Center with room to spare.

The King library has:

• Seats for 3,766 patrons.

• Some 290 computer work stations, most with access to the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, Word, Excel, the library's electronic catalog and dozens of databases.

• More than 400 network ports where people can plug in laptop computers and get Internet access.

• A combined collection of more than 1.5 million volumes and material in 58 languages.

• Special collections devoted to state and local history, and research centers focused on the lives and work of writer John Steinbeck and composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

• Centers focusing on the history and culture of Asian-Americans, African-Americans and Chicanos.

• More than 40 group study rooms, plus space for public events.

• Later evening hours than at the old main public library, because the city has switched over to the university's longer schedule.

• 33 pieces of art by artist Mel Chin to engage people with different parts of the library.

• A grand reading room on the top floor that offers spectacular views of San Jose.

It all adds up to a highly visible community learning and activities hub, supporters say.

``The acceleration of information and its availability has way outpaced the public's awareness of what is here,'' said university librarian Bob McDermand, noting that the new library offers more than 180 electronic databases for research.

``This really benefits students, especially those who are oriented to college, and people who are professionals and want to read more in their fields,'' said librarian Lisa Rosenblum, who manages reference and Web services for the city.

Though the building is large, the librarians have tried to make it welcoming.

A cafe on the ground floor serves food and drinks, which are allowed in the library. And just like at Borders bookstores, a large browsing area near the street entrance showcases the latest and most popular books, videos and music for checkout.

Other popular materials -- the reference section, newspapers and magazines, and the main public library's entire collection -- are on the first four floors. The university's collection occupies the upper floors, responding in part to faculty concerns about possible disruptions, especially from children.

``I want every family in San Jose to feel comfortable there -- that it's their library,'' said Hammer, the former mayor. ``And at the same time, I want it to work well for students and faculty at the university.''

Concerns about access

Planning for the joint library has been under way since 1997. The biggest hurdle was objections by university faculty, who worried about everything from theft and loss to cultural incompatibility. After a year of debate, the Academic Senate gave its approval but tied it to the adoption of a management plan for resolving problems.

One of the top concerns among the skeptics still is that San Jose State students will not have access to the library materials they need.

``If there are 10 books about Alexander the Great, they may still be able to get a book on Alexander the Great, but it may not be the best book,'' said history professor Jonathan Roth. ``Before, they were competing just with other university students. Now they are competing with everyone else, including high school students.''

The library will use software to track whether public library users are frequently checking out material that students and faculty need. If that happens, additional copies would be ordered, Breivik said.

Today, even opponents say they hope the library succeeds, given the size of the investment and the practical difficulties involved in a divorce.

``We're betting the farm on one roll of the dice,'' said English professor Scott Rice. ``I hope the concerns are proven wrong. I don't want it to turn into a fiasco so I can say, `I told you so.' ''

Although the public clearly benefits from having access to the university's collection, the new library has pluses for San Jose State, too, including raising its visibility in the community.

The university ends up with a state-of-the-art library, plus additional building space, including faculty offices, classrooms, labs and administrative space being created by remodeling the old Clark Library, said Don Kassing, the university's vice president for administration and finance. A one-stop student services center -- created on the ground floor of a university parking garage to house employees displaced by construction -- is now a permanent campus fixture.

Although the library is open, the biggest challenge is still ahead.

``I think making it operationally smooth and efficient and user-friendly is a huge challenge,'' Hammer said. ``If I had one big worry, that would be it, but I'm optimistic it's all going to work.''

An experiment

How will the partners measure the library's success? Largely by customer satisfaction, Light said, and by comparing service and cost benchmarks between the old and the new. Both libraries performed customer satisfaction surveys at their old locations as a basis for comparison.

The San Jose experiment has a lot going for it, say some of California's top librarians. Still, a lot could go wrong, they said, from a fatal clash of cultures to a change of finances or philosophy on the part of one partner.

``If this could happen in more places, it would be great,'' said Susan Hildreth, San Francisco's city librarian. But the exact confluence of factors -- city and university leaders willing to take a risk, a mutually convenient location at the university, and available public financing -- might not be easily replicated, she said.

The collaboration is likely to be ``a real test of leadership and politics,'' said Michael Buckland, a professor in the School of Information Management & Systems at the University of California-Berkeley. ``If there were a stand-off between the city and campus, or if the two library directors didn't get on as well as they do now, it would be more difficult.''

But that is not likely to happen in San Jose, said Breivik, the university librarian: ``We have made up our minds we were going to make it work.''