California State University, East Bay broke ground on the university’s new Collaborative Opportunities in Research and Engagement building or CORE building in Spring 2019. According to CSUEB’s official CORE Building Updates website, it is set for completion at the end of 2021 early 2022.

The building is located at the center of the campus and is designed to connect all three university levels.

Other colleges and universities around the country have bookless libraries including, the University of Texas, San Antonio, Stanford University, Florida Polytechnic University, and The University of Michigan’s medical school library, where all the library’s books are stored off-campus, which the school says, “frees up space for medical student education.”

According to the CORE Building Updates website, the current library reports that it is one of the California State University system’s busiest libraries. It records more than 1.2 million visits annually.

The CORE building will be a bookless library and replace the existing University Library.

John Wenzler, CSUEB’s University Libraries Dean, says that about 20% of the current library’s physical books will be moved into the CORE once the building opens.

“The rest of the books will remain where they are on the 2nd floor of the current building. Although the area with the books in the current building will be closed to the public, you will be able to check out any book in the library collection. You will request the books from the online catalog. The library staff will get the books, and then you will pick them up in the CORE building,” says Wenzler.

Wenzler stated that he doesn’t foresee that the library books will be 100% online in the near future.

“We buy more ebooks every year, but we still buy many books in print, and we have over 600,000 print books in our collection,” says Wenzler.

All of the library’s employees and services offered at our current library will move into the CORE.

“There will be three times as many group study rooms in the CORE than we have in the current building and many more seats for both quiet study and group study,” Wenzler mentioned.

As noted on the CORE Building’s website, the building’s first floor will house the Hub for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which “will provide a nexus for students and faculty to explore innovations that will propel the creative economy into the next generation and beyond.” The second floor will be the new University Library and its services, and the third floor will be the Student Center for Academic Achievement.

The building will also be CSUEB’s third Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified building, or LEED-certified facility after the Recreation and Wellness Center and Student and Faculty Support Building constructed with over 100,000 square feet of zero-net-energy ready space.

According to California Public Utility Commissions, a zero-net building is “an energy-efficient building where, on a source energy basis, the actual annual consumed energy is less than or equal to the on-site renewable generated energy.”

The CORE building construction offers a two-camera live recording on the building’s website, with constant updates of the building’s construction through live video, time-lapses, and photos. Live Camera 1 is located on Meiklejohn Hall’s roof, and Live Camera 2 on the current Library’s roof.

Wenzler says that once the CORE opens, the University Library’s first floor will no longer be part of the current library, and he is unsure what CSUEB’s plans are for it once the library moves out.

With the building’s completion approaching and the possibility of returning to campus next semester, if in-person classes are in session this Fall 2021, it may be the final semester students have to enjoy our current library.