SAN MARCOS – Where else in San Diego County can one study the latest monograph on global warming and screen "Creature From the Black Lagoon" while sprawled across faux-leather easy chairs before the stone fireplace, sipping cappuccino?

These are just some of the pursuits for the mind and body that will be available starting next week at California State University San Marcos, with the opening of its new library.

The five-story $44.5 million Kellogg Library offers an intellectual center to the growing university that for most of its 14-year history has been dominated by bulldozers and parking lots.

What distinguishes the new library more than geography is its design. The Kellogg is unabashedly trendy, and that makes Marion Reid, dean of library and information services, positively glow.

"It was to our advantage that we weren't weighted down to an existing structure. We weren't encumbered by history," she said.

San Marcos has followed the newest wave of academic libraries nationwide, combining the oldest with the latest learning modes, from the musty-scented, leather-bound 19th-century volumes to the gleam of the newest Apple computers.

The 200,000-square-foot building is spiced with everything from high-tech television studios to traditional hardwood study carrels.

Library revolution
Nationwide, academic libraries have been in the throes of revolution for the past decade, embracing technology as well as new philosophies about the library's role on campus and the communities around them.

In the past decade, according to a 2003 study by the Council on Library and Information Resources, universities spent $450 million overhauling or creating nearly 3 million square feet of library space per year.

When creating Cal State Monterey Bay in the mid-1990s, some CSU officials wanted a paperless library, reflecting the expectations of technology in the '80s and '90s, with some debating whether libraries even needed books.

"We're designing around how people are learning," explained leading college library architect Geoffrey Freeman of Boston. "We used to design around books, then we designed around technology. Both are in the background now.

"Now it's designing around the user. The question is: How do you provide a space that's inspiring to people, to get them exploring, advancing, risking?"

The San Marcos library features the trendiest of all facilities, a Starbucks cafe that would knock Grandma's librarians off their rockers.

In the Kellogg, food is banned, but not drinks. And talking is not only allowed, it's expected. More than 37 work-study areas were designed for student group projects that are increasingly used in university curriculums.

"Oh yes, we will allow coffee, any beverages. We want this to be a place where people feel comfortable," explained Reid, who has been planning this library since she was hired in 1989 as part of the university's founding faculty.

Until this week, Reid has provided the campus library services from office space squeezed into the administration building. Although the collection has grown to 275,000 volumes, nearly half of it was in storage off-campus.

The Kellogg opening marks the first time all library materials have been in one spot and entirely available to the public. It also marks the first stand-alone library for the campus. In addition to students, the public can use the Kellogg and for $30 a year, check out materials as well.

Culture, technology
The library's highlights include more than 120 new flat-screen computers, a computerized catalog, computer labs, a high-tech training room for faculty, a faculty lounge and the only complete federal repository for government records in North County. The library also stocks 5,000 videos, DVDs and CDs that range from sci-fi "Creature From the Black Lagoon" to the classics.

The building's design, by Carrier Johnson of San Diego, blends into the existing campus theme of an Italian hillside city. The interior features slate tile and gleaming stainless steel accents, and windows that let in plenty of natural light. Even such utilitarian features as the stairwell have been brightened with skylights and widened into inviting spaces that resemble an Escher print.

The Kellogg bears the name of its most generous patrons, Jean and Keith Kellogg, a descendant of the breakfast cereal magnate. The Rancho Santa Fe couple has donated between $1.5 million and "the high seven figures," which is all the university will reveal.

An additional $975,000 came from Gaby and Richard Sulpizio, a former Qualcomm executive. They are longtime contributors to educational causes, and their children also have attended the university.

The private funding has made the difference between what the state of California would have built for San Marcos, and what it has built. Next to the Starbucks, what Reid and everyone else on campus have been most excited about is what goes by the deceptively dull name of "the fifth-floor reading room."

The space is actually museum-worthy, with cherry wood paneling and an oversized stone fireplace.

"This room was built to evoke the great reading rooms of the early 20th century, with modern touches," said Reid.

Students will study on the easy chairs and colorful couches that are expected in the next few months as the library slowly fills its space. Reid expects the library to be completed by summer.

The reading room will also be used for community events such as concerts and poetry readings, and it features several balconies, including one that offers the building's best sunset view.

From the library's balconies can be seen a lush patch of lawn with a few infant trees. Reid said that someday the Kellogg could spread out across that lawn, adding, "Out there is another 200,000 feet for us, should we ever get the books and the people for it."