By Marrion Cruz
Rosenberg Library, the building that transformed City College’s study and research space from a cramped corner of Cloud Hall into a full-service academic hub, will mark its 30th anniversary this month. However, it appears the anniversary will come and go, sans any planned celebration in its honor.
The three-story library on the spine of Cloud Circle opened in 1995 to replace a smaller, more crowded space. Before the move, students squeezed into Cloud Hall’s fourth-floor stacks, which longtime librarian Jerry Dear remembers as “rather claustrophobic.” Funding challenges delayed the vision for years until Cloud Hall’s mini-library was finally relocated to the dedicated building that stands today.
When the move finally happened, librarian Julia Bergman took charge, helping shape not just the collection but how students and faculty would use the new space. She oversaw the organization and archiving of materials in the period leading up to the opening.
Though Bergman has since died, her legacy lingers in almost every small space at Rosenberg. In the library technician’s office, where she worked directly with staff prior to and during the opening, photos of her still hang on the walls.
One of those technicians is Oanh Mai, who was among the building’s first full-time hires in 1995 and had been a student-librarian during the transition from Cloud Hall.
“Julia was full of life,” Mai said, eyes bright. “She had a love for this library like no other.”
While speaking to the reporter, Mai pulled out a sketch she’d drawn of Cloud Hall’s third floor, the old “library and resource center,” its tight rows and low ceilings now preserved in pencil.
Mai still remembers pushing the opening date back by a day because the building simply wasn’t ready. Painters’ tape clung to the walls. Dust coated the floors. “We spent the whole day cleaning,” she said. “Every one of us there took a dustpan and just swept.”
Today, Dear said, only a handful of staff from Rosenberg’s early days are still on campus. “So much institutional history and memory has been lost as many staff have retired, passed or moved on,” he said.
Namesake
The building bears the name of Claude Rosenberg, a San Francisco philanthropist who chose to give away a large share of his fortune to public institutions.
His gift to City College allowed students to learn, research and read in a space designed for them. After selling Rosenberg Capital Management that same year, he devoted himself to philanthropy, later telling SFGATE, “The people that need their name attached to everything they do are in need of a psychiatrist.”
His children, Linda and Douglas, continue his civic legacy via their own philanthropy in the Bay Area and across the country.
More Than Books
Rosenberg Library’s construction was part of a broader expansion in the ‘90s that added the Media Center, Audiovisual Center, Language Lab and Learning Assistance Center, formalizing the building as a comprehensive academic resource rather than a room full of books. In 2003, the vision was recognized with an Association of College and Research Libraries award.
Today, the library houses a tutoring center, English and media labs, and a variety of study spaces, from dark, quiet lounges to bright, open areas lit by large windows. A recent change in library hours reflects the growing demands of students after the pandemic, yet still there are always students lingering until the last possible minute when the lights start to flicker.
For Chad Stephenson, head of the Library & Learning Resources Center, Rosenberg is also a personal landmark. He first enrolled at City College in the fall of 1996.
“It was like getting a brand new gift,” he said, recalling walking into the building for the first time and taking classes in what is now the defunct Media Center. At the time, he was also taking Japanese at Mission High School and had to “come back here to the library to ‘punch in’ after I finished a [Japanese] cassette,” he said. “We don’t have that anymore, but the room is still upstairs.”
“When I was a student, the librarians were teaching the students in person, in classes here,” Stephenson said, noting that the library’s instructional role predated later formal agreements between SFUSD and City College that helped shape adult education.
On the main floor, librarian Anthony Costa curates the library archives in Rosenberg Room 315. He fields routine requests for course catalogs as well as more personal ones.
“Sometimes we get inquiries for things that we don’t have, like a copy of an Associate’s degree from 1967,” he said with a laugh.
There are now only 15 full-time librarians across the entire City College campus. In the archives on the bottom floor, management has just fallen onto whoever is willing to try to pitch in. Costa does what he can to maintain college records in the archives. Without a central leader like former librarian Christopher Cox, who “wore many library hats,” Costa said there is no single staff member with the same breadth of institutional knowledge.
He noted that the budget includes funding for a “full-time equivalent” staff member, but it is not yet clear whether that will be split among multiple part-time employees or filled by a single full-time role. Before the pandemic, the library had 26 full-time librarians.
Beyond staffing, the physical space is also due for changes. The library will need to be “re-jiggered” to meet ADA requirements in the coming years, Stephenson said as he walked through the top level. “We have to remove things and adjust to buy new furniture… like the fourth floor, that’s ADA compliant.”
For students who have only ever known Rosenberg as the main library, the 30th anniversary may look like just another date on the calendar. For those who remember Cloud Hall’s cramped shelves, the “founding librarians” and the long wait for funding, the milestone marks the moment when a long-promised library finally became the heart of campus and stayed there.
Costa agrees: 30th birthday cake for the Rosenberg Library is “a good idea,” and he plans to bring it up with the department chair.