Cal Poly's Robert E. Kennedy Library benefits more than 60,000 students, faculty, staff, local community members, businesses and alumni per week. Cal Poly students use the Library more than any other campus in the CSU. Their use of collections, workstations, collaborative study space, information instruction and digital electronic services exceeds our ability to meet the demand.

We are in the "knowledge age" where information is the new currency. The electronic sights and sounds of the Kennedy Library, along with its traditional stacks of books and journals, are a part of the activities we are engaged in to build the ''digital library" of the future. As the largest research facility between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, Cal Poly's Kennedy Library is critical to the intellectual well being of the entire Central Coast.

Between 1986 and 1996, academic libraries nationwide experienced a 58 percent increase in the price of books, and a 147 percent increase for journals. New electronic media is oftentimes far more expensive to purchase than its print counterparts. We cannot keep up with the demand for access to computer-dependent services. Yet during this same decade, the CSU Library budget for acquisition of new materials grew by a mere 5 percent.

• Transform library into new "digital library"
• Develop world-class collections
• Build college-specific endowments
• Create center for interdisciplinary partnerships and hands-on learning
• Build permanent tribute to hands-on learning for entire community
• Guarantee future health/strength of collections

• Increased work study space
• Development of multimedia classrooms
• Expansion of services using innovative technologies for off-campus learning