It had only four group study rooms. It was so crammed with books and students that "people were almost on top of each other," said Jason Wright, 24, a junior at UVU studying digital media.

"I avoided the library as much as possible," he said. "It will be a lot easier to get what I need to get done in this new library."

It took three years of lobbying for funding, a year of planning and two years of building to make the Digital Learning Center a reality.

After spending nearly a month transferring the school's collections — nearly 215,000 volumes — from the old library to the new Digital Learning Center, library employees are ready to get back to their usual work.

There are still a few things missing: two circulation desks and about 100 computers. But Mike Freeman, UVU library director, said the Digital Learning Center will start lending out books, laptops and cameras right on schedule.

"It's just wonderful to be done," Freeman said. "We're just excited to get into the building and go back to doing what we do best — helping students get a quality education."

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E-mail: estuart@desnews.com