USC celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library, which opened on August 29, 1994.
Students, faculty and alumni attended the anniversary ceremony before the library steps. The event covered Leavey’s history and how the library has become an integral study spot that students use every day.
President Carol Folt gave remarks following Dean of Libraries Melissa Just’s remarks on the anniversary. She said that the library isn’t just a place to read books. Leavey’s significance when it was opened was the way librarians showed people what technology and the internet was like.
“We always turn to our librarians, usually to teach us how to fetch information. It’s such a critical goal, so important to everybody,” Folt said. “The librarians begin teaching students and faculty in depth how to search databases, how to create websites, use Scaler, which was a WordPress-like contact management system.”
Debora Hutajulu, a communication management master’s student, said the celebration felt unreal because Leavey is relatively new compared to the school’s older libraries.
“I thought the Leavey library was 100 years old or something, but it’s only 30 years,” Hutajulu said. “[I’m] quite speechless, and it’s nice though.”
Just said she was amazed at how many people showed up to watch an important celebration.
“To have so many people here who helped open the building gives a sense of how important people who were here at the beginning,” Just said. “Some who are still in the libraries know that the Leavey library is the success of our students.”
Jada Cobbett, a senior health promotion and disease prevention major, said she appreciates walking into Leavey at any hour to work instead of studying at home.
“How accessible [Leavey is] because I think there’s lots of resources for students,” Cobbett said. “Also, the fact that it’s 24 hours most days is really convenient for studying, I would say I think of community.”
Just said that Leavey Library is a place where students can call home since it’s the most popular spot on campus. She said many students walk in and fill every seat that’s left available in the library, especially considering the long operating hours: Sunday to Thursday 24 hours, Friday closing at midnight and Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“The building is always packed, we have it open the longest hours,” Just said. “We know that it’s a place that our undergraduate students in particular really feel most at home.”
Libraries on campus like Doheny library have reduced their operating hours this semester from Monday to Thursday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 to 8 p.m.
During President Folt’s remarks, heckles from Pro-Palestinian protesters sounded nearby as they stood behind the gate barriers of the event. Folt acknowledged their right to express their voice.
“I think we all really do appreciate that people have a right to have their voice at a university,” Folt said.
She continued to deliver her speech and said that libraries are the places where imagination thrives.
“I think like everyone, probably my favorite place to go as a kid was to go to the library,” Folt said. “That was where the magic took place and where you got to really learn and dream and think about the things that are wonderful.”