Loyola Marymount University celebrated the grand opening of The William H. Hannon Library on Aug. 30. The newest and most sophisticated library facility in Los Angeles, the library is expected to become the cultural and intellectual hub of the LMU campus.

LMU Board of Trustees Chairman Chad Dreier ’69 welcomed numerous donors, alumni, faculty, staff, students and the community in commemorating the historic event. Kristine Brancolini, dean of the William H. Hannon Library, expressed her gratitude for LMU President Robert B. Lawton, S.J., noting that Lawton’s vision for the library guided the planning every step of the way. "It is no exaggeration to say that without his tireless efforts and sustained support, this library would never have been built,” she said.

"LMU has built a library that's better than we are,” Lawton said. “What this library says to us is 'have high ambitions, high aspirations, aim for great academic achievement ... it also represents the dreams, generous dreams, and aspirations of our donors.” Lawton thanked the Bill Hannon Foundation, the William H. Hannon Foundation, the University Hill Foundation, the Jesuit Community and the numerous donors who made the William H. Hannon Library possible.

California State Librarian Emeritus Kevin Starr discussed the evolution of libraries throughout history, noting “every flourishing university and college in this nation has a constituent component of its DNA code -- a library -- that is comparably flourishing, comparably cherished, just as the William H. Hannon Library will be flourishing and will be cherished in the century to come.”

Cardinal Roger Mahony closed the ceremony by blessing the library and presenting Lawton with a special remembrance gift "in recognition of the relationship between the Archdiocese and the university": a page from the fifteenth-century Gutenberg Bible.

Open to the public, the William H. Hannon Library features many amenities, including the Fletcher Jones Foundation Media Lounge and Café, and the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation Information Commons with 80 computers from which students may access full-text articles from more than 44,000 online journals, magazines and newspapers. The Terrance L. Mahan, S.J. Archives and Special Collections department houses rare books, art and artifacts, manuscript collections and papers from leaders and organizations in Los Angeles history, and documents and records of the university.

Visit library.lmu.edu to learn more about the William H. Hannon Library. To view the Grand Opening Web cast, visit i.lmu.edu and go to the Featured Web Casts section.