An impressively expanded and improved resource for the entire San Diego region - the University of California San Diego's Biomedical Library - will be formally dedicated at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14, in the library's striking new building on campus.

The dedication ceremony will feature the installation of colorful artwork by medical illustrator Linda Nye, a variety of informational tours, and a reception. The reception and tours will begin at 11:45 a.m. The public is invited to attend.

Speakers will include UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox; Dr. Edward Holmes, vice chancellor of health sciences; Brian E. C. Schottlaender, university librarian; Susan Starr, director of the Biomedical Library; and Helen Ranney, professor emeritus at the School of Medicine.

The Biomedical Library, whose collections and services moved temporarily to Geisel Library during the extensive renovation, is again located near the corner of Gilman Drive and Osler Lane on the UC San Diego campus.

The library supports the research, teaching and patient-care programs of the School of Medicine, the UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCSD Healthcare, and UCSD's Division of Biological Sciences. Its collection of approximately 200,000 bound volumes and approximately 2,550 current journal subscriptions covers the fields of medicine and biology.

Schottlaender, UC San Diego's chief librarian, says that the upgraded resource has a positive impact that reaches far beyond campus borders. "The Biomedical Library, visited by more than 200,000 people each year, is the only research-level biomedical collection in San Diego and Imperial Counties," he said. "It serves not only UC San Diego faculty, staff and students on campus and at UCSD Healthcare, but also unaffiliated area physicians and biotechnology firms. We're proud that we can provide this level of service to the community and the region."

According to Susan Starr, Biomedical Library Director, the library's motto - "Connect, reflect, research, discover" - is more relevant to campus and regional populations than ever. "The emergence of pandemics worldwide, among other threats to public health, makes biomedical research and discovery crucial," she said. "The renovated Biomedical Library provides a modern, comfortable, accessible resource dedicated to improving not only public health but people's lives."

The Biomedical Library has doubled in size, she says, and increased user seating from about 200 to well over 600 seats. The journal collection is housed in compact shelving to increase capacity and allow flexible use of space in the future.

The new building also includes a 24-hour study facility for graduate and professional students; three library classrooms for instructing users in the latest information-retrieval and knowledge-management tools; 14 group-study rooms for problem-based learning; a presentation practice room; and an "information commons" of 80 computers where students can consult sources and create papers and presentations.

Pfeiffer Partners Architects Inc. designed the expansion and renovation; McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. were the contractors for the $17 million project.

At the Sept. 14 dedication of the Biomedical Library, tour-stations will include a "meet the artist" opportunity with Linda Nye, whose colorful and unique artwork will decorate the library; the Information Commons, a collaboration between the UC San Diego Libraries and Academic Computing Services; the Interactive Learning Center, where users can test information skills; a recreational reading and consumer-health collection, which features MedlinePlus and MedSpeak brochures; and a demonstration of the world of online biomedical information.