An airport-style newsstand with magazines, newspapers, disks, batteries, pens, and pads will open in the next two to three weeks in the main entrance of Homer Babbidge Library.

The newsstand will be operated by the UConn Co-op and will stock "anything you might need in a panic," says Suzy Staubach, general book manager of the Co-op.

The retail operation is designed to accommodate people studying in the library and will be open, at least at first, the same hours the library is open, Staubach says. The hours of the retail unit will be adjusted based on demand, she says.

Staubach noted that the newsstand will carry more international newspapers than the bookstore and also some magazines that the Co-op does not, as well as more routine publications and some books.

A lease providing the bookstore with 250 square feet in return for 25 percent of the annual net surplus of the newsstand was approved by the Financial Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees on Tuesday.

The committee also approved $26.6 million for a new 100,000-square-foot School of Business building. The building, expected to be completed by June 2001, is under construction adjacent to the Library and across Hillside Road from Gampel Pavilion.

Karen A. Grava