IT'S NOT YOUR TYPICAL PLACE TO STUDY ANYMORE ... CYBER-LIBRARY STUDENTS CLICKING ON TO KNOWLEDGE.

Byline: Jennifer Hamm Staff Writer

With school back in session, more students are seeing their campus libraries undergo a dramatic transformation from cramped rooms filled with clunky card catalogs and dusty old books to slick multimedia centers where they can polish PowerPoint presentations and use the Internet to research papers.

``We call it the cybrary, instead of the library,'' said Susan Newcomer, library media teacher at Glendale's Clark Magnet High School where students can roam the World Wide Web, view CD-ROMs and search an online catalog for books.

During the past decade, schools across the Greater San Fernando Valley have begun to modernize campus libraries that were primarily built in the early part of the 20th century.

Then, many schools simply used an extra classroom to store books and a card catalog, said Bonnie O'Brian Nissman, who supervises library services for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Now, more space is needed to accommodate computer stations and a growing stack of books and reference materials.

``We're going through great growing pains now,'' Nissman said.

The movement to automate school libraries is a costly, time-consuming effort occurring throughout the Los Angeles school district. Turning a library into a cyber-library can cost anywhere from $13,000 to as much as $100,000 depending upon the library's space needs and equipment, Nissman said. Once a school makes it to the top of the district's lengthy waiting list, a four-member technology team spends about two weeks renovating a typical school library.

Currently, one-third of the district's 675 schools that have libraries have made the switch to computer technology, another one-third are in progress and the rest are waiting to get started, Nissman said.

For young techno-savvy types who have access to automated school libraries, there is plenty to be excited about. At Cleveland High School in Reseda, a new state-of-the-art media library features 26 online catalog stations that link users to books, maps, photos and full-text newspaper and magazine articles that are updated daily.

Students also can dial into the Internet and use Los Angeles Unified's Web site, which offers a separate host of resources. Soon, students will be able to access Cleveland High's resources from home and even download school assignments.

Funded with $250,000 from a $1 million state technology grant, Cleveland's new media library has even the hippest students excited about a place traditionally associated with book worms.

``If you need to work, you just come to the library. I like it more than before,'' said Rosa Garcia, 17, who recently researched child welfare issues using a computer encyclopedia CD-ROM. ``All the kids like it.''

So do the teachers. The demand is so high that instructors have to reserve use of the library for their classes a month and a half in advance, said Meredith Reu, Cleveland High's school librarian.

And she makes sure that it stays busy. Reu sees to it that student musicians present miniconcerts every Friday. Jazz ensembles wail on their horns and guitar players strum their favorite tunes.

``Libraries of the past were shush places. The noise that's here is all productive,'' Reu said. ``They are a place of learning and excitement.''

The ultimate goal is to have students complete all their schoolwork using a computer, said Allan J. Weiner, Cleveland High's principal.

Currently, all freshmen take a computer literacy class where they learn programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Students also can take desktop publishing classes, where they learn storyboarding and Web design.

``If you're not getting your kids online, you're doing them a disservice,'' Weiner said.

CAPTION(S):

2 drawings, box

Drawing: (1 -- color) no caption (CYBER-LIBRARY)

(2 -- color) no caption (School library)

Box: School libraries: a digital revolution

Research and graphics: Jon Gerung/Staff Artist