The 77,000-square-foot Learning Resources & Academic Computing Center opened in August 1997, adding one-third to the square footage of the college.

The Center was dedicated on November 1, 1997, and it was named for a former Alamo Community College District trustee who headed the vote to establish San Antonio's first college on the Southside.

"The Palo Alto Learning Resorce Center provides for the community the same advantages it provides for its students," said Gloria Hilario, Director of Learning Resources since the college opened in 1985.

"The opportunity to use the facility, check out books and materials, use the information concourse to access the Web, get help from reference librarians and also have access to the children’s library."

The LRC features library facilities, Internet capabilities, a children's library, an information concourse with open access to a variety of library services and group study rooms. The Ozuna Center accommodates more than 105,000 volumes in stack space, instructional media services, reference islands and open seating. The Center is open seven days a week.

"The Resource Center meets the needs of the student body, because we have subject specialist in each area that collect for that academic department, so we try to keep up our collections based on what the college is teaching, meeting the students’ needs," said Ann Bolton-Brownlee, Reference Librarian. "The purpose of the library reference desk is to answer any question one may ask, show you how to use the catalogs, how to use the on-line systems, how to surf the Net and just about provide anything one may need."

Alex Flores, a Palo Alto sophomore, said, “When looking for an article for a history paper, I found the services the information concourse provided, such as the Internet, Yahoo and other online services important in aiding me obtain the information I was seeking on the subject.”

The information concourse allows students to access microforms, CD-ROMs and various on-line and CD-subscription services such as ProQuest, News Bank and Business News Bank. It also has multimedia work stations and World Wide Web access stations. The library also is an official government depository and houses many government documents.

"The access the Learning Resource Center provides on the World Wide Web is beneficial and the tools it provides certainly aids in my search for information," said Yesenia Rodriguez, a Palo Alto freshman.

Some of the resources provided on WWW include the ability to search for reserve materials by either class or instructor, to link to a publication such as a government document and to limit locations not only by college but by publication year or language. The library catalogs are also available to access on home computers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by typing in http://www.accd.edu/pac/lrc/index.htm.

"Anyone can bring their children to the children’s library, and they can take advantage of the books, programming and computer learning resources it provides," said Hilario. "We here at Palo Alto Learning Resource Center are certainly very much the vanguard of children’s libraries."

The Children’s Library offers materials for children in kindergarten through fourth grades. There are four-foot stack shelves for easy access, a loft for story time, a workroom for special programs, computer and multimedia workstations and an activity room for special programs.

"We are a teaching library, and we want to make sure whomever uses this facility, whether it is a community member, PAC student, parent and child or high school student, we want to make sure we not only show you how to access material but teach you how to do it," said Hilario.

The LRC also provides space for administration and staff, a TV studio, Internet access and Interlibrary Loan, a service that enables students, faculty, staff and administrators to obtain materials that are not available at Palo Alto. Books, videos, copies of periodical articles and similar materials needed for research may be borrowed from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan.

Hilario said, "The Learning Resource Center’s greatest strength is our people, by bringing together a group of people committed to education, committed to instruction, committed to serve the communities’ needs as well as its students. We look at everyone who uses the facility as partners or collaborators. Every time we meet with you or work with you, we attack your need or problem as a partnership. So the outcome is better because we have a vested interest in you and your needs."

"If you give someone a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you show someone how to fish, you feed them for a lifetime," added Hilario. "We want to make sure that when you come into the Learning Resource Center and when you leave you’re that much more well equipped to continue your pursuit of knowledge.