The library at Brigham Young University has loads of space, mountains of useful information and plenty of computers for online research.

Just ask any student from Utah Valley State College.

For the third year in a row, leaders from the nearby Orem institution pleaded their case for a new library in front of lawmakers Monday afternoon, and this time, the cards appeared stacked in their favor.

"It looks like you're getting off easy," said Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, co-chairman of the committee in charge of prioritizing funding for state building projects.

Last year, UVSC lost out to the University of Utah's $48 million request to renovate its Marriott Library, despite beating the U on a quantitative need scale generated by the Utah System of Higher Education.

This year, the Wolverines are "cautiously optimistic" that $48 million will be theirs.

"We need to wait and let the process work and see what happens," said Val Peterson, the college's vice president for administration and external affairs.

The current UVSC Library was built in 1992 for 8,800 students. Today, campus enrollment exceeds 23,000.

Smaller than some high school libraries with only 33,000 square feet, UVSC's facility has less square footage per full-time equivalent student (2.17) than all nine of the state's institutions of higher education.

The Digital Learning Center, designed to be 180,000 square feet, would significantly boost that number and put UVSC closer to statewide standards. And that would make students like Judd Fitzgerald much happier.

While preparing to take the Medical College Admission Test, Fitzgerald had a hard time scheduling one of the UVSC Library's four, limited group-study rooms.

They were often booked.

"Twenty-three thousand students and 16 spots isn't very good odds," he said.

To cope, he would search with friends for empty classrooms around campus. When students started showing up for class, his group found another empty room.

Others students sit on the floor with laptops, or go to BYU for a computer.

Former student Happiness Peterson said she spent more time there than at UVSC's library.

"For the work that was required by my teachers, there wasn't enough hard print material," she said.

The library's current holdings are well below what peer institutions have. The state standard is 457,030 volumes, compared to UVSC's 185,000.

The Digital Learning Center would create room for more holdings, and increase the capacity for students of this generation to learn through improving technology, according to UVSC President William Sederburg.

He said the proposed facility would focus on learning techniques of today's student population, creating highly integrated lab facilities with a souped up technological infrastructure.

The building would become the centerpiece of the campus, and a $267 per square foot centerpiece at that.

"We're very excited about what 180,000 square feet could mean to the campus," Sederburg said.

For student Andrew Stone, it could change the location where he meets BYU students.

"Soon they might be coming to us," he said.

Digital Learning Center cost and size

Gross square feet: 180,000

Construction: $37,838,333

Design fees/planning: $2,795,000

Information technology: $700,000

Furnishings and equipment: $3,500,000

Utah art: $378,000

Contingency: $1,702,725

Testing and inspection: $363,125

Pre-design and planning: $255,000

Funding request (est.) $48,000,000

Library Facilities Square Feet per FTE:

U of U 21.45

USU 15.52

Snow 12.35

SUU 11.36

CEU 8.94

Weber 8.67

Dixie 6.93

SLCC 3.36

UVSC 2.17

Source: Utah Valley State College

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.