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Legacy library major donors

$10 million from 1968 graduates Laura Baudo Sillerman and Robert Dyson.

$2 million from 1978 graduate David Rickey and his wife Brenda.

$2 million from 1964 and 1965 graduates Eric and Barbara Dobkin.

As students got their first glimpse of the new $17.5 million library on the Marietta College campus Monday, few were at a loss for words.

"We've had a lot of great comments already," said library director Douglas Anderson. "I've heard plenty say 'awesome' and then 'fantastic' - I've heard that word, too."

Marietta College senior Erika Bell, 22, had a different word for her first impressions of the building.

"It's just like, 'Whoa,'" she said as she browsed the shelves on the library's third floor. "It's just amazing. It's so much bigger and it's modernized."

The doors officially opened to the 53,000-square-foot Legacy Library when students returned from their winter break Monday, after a year-and-a-half of construction and more than a decade of plans and dreams.

The new facility's predecessor, Dawes Memorial Library, was built in the early 1960s and demolished in May 2007 to make way for the new library. Dawes had problems with leaks, ventilation and space.

The Legacy Library, funded by donations, features fireplaces, lounges, a cafe, multimedia rooms, movable electronic shelves and plenty of options for study space.

Sophomore Kadesha Cooper stopped in Monday just to scope out future study locations.

"I like all the comfy chairs and couches," said Cooper, 19, of Detroit. "It's very cozy, and it's much better than the old library. It's going to motivate me to study."

The library staff is holding special events, including an open house and a game night, for staff and students each day this week, with a formal celebration planned for the fall.

On Monday, the college re-enacted the 1961 "Operation Book Brigade," when volunteers formed a human chain to move 200,000 books from Irvine Hall to Dawes, which was just opening. The college also did a book brigade in March 2007 when books were moved from Dawes to a temporary home in Mills Hall during construction.

Other books were in off-campus storage.

"I think I only went to the library twice last semester when it was at Mills," said Bell. "It was not homey, and it was so small. I'm so glad we have this now."

Anderson said some students seemed to be coming in just to "sightsee" Monday, but most were making a beeline for the computers, the shelves of books or the study spaces.

"They're using it already," he said. "They're coming in with a purpose, and they seem pretty happy with what they're finding."