Joe Dini Library and Student Center near completion

The afternoon sun glows on an empty bench just inside the large ground-floor window of the new Joe Dini Library and Student Center at Western Nevada Community College.

Officials had hoped students would be filling the corridors, sipping coffee in the Internet cafe and researching in the library upstairs by the time the fall semester starts Monday.

But the center will not open until the spring semester, leaving time for the library staff to move all its supplies into the new building over the winter break.

"We didn't want to disrupt the students who are studying there now," said Bill Knight, the college's facilities director.

The 35,000-square-foot building was funded by the 1999 Legislature and will be the college's first free-standing library and student center.

"It's really designed to give us more of a campus feel than we've had." Knight said. "In the past, we've been sort of segregated into different little places where the students congregate."

The bottom floor of the building will be the student center with a weight room, lounge, Internet cafe and game room.

"Sometimes when you're studying, you need some time to just relax and get your brain recharged for your next class," Knight said. "Or just a place to unwind after a big test."

The top floor of the building will be dedicated to the library, converting it to 23,000 square feet from the 8,000 feet it now occupies.

Box lights in the ceiling allow sunlight to filter in indirectly so as not to damage any of the books or materials.

The center of the library leads to a window that stretches from floor to ceiling with a view overlooking Carson City.

Private study rooms line the back wall.

"They can shut the door and do their work without having to worry about anything else that's going on," Knight said.

The two-story building rests at the top of College Parkway between the Reynolds Center for Technology and the Bristlecone Building.

"It's right here in the middle to connect the technical side of the campus with the academic side," said spokeswoman Anne Hansen. "It builds an ambiance. When young people come to college, they're looking for the total experience that has much more to it than just going to class."

INFORMATION

Classes begin at Western Nevada Community College on Monday. Registration ends tonight at 5. Late registration begins Saturday and continues until Sept. 5. For information visit the college's

Web site at www.wncc.edu