Libraries

Trustees of the Placentia Library District cut staffing, reduced library hours and eliminated programs for children this week to deal with a tightening budget, officials said. The city's voters rejected a tax measure Nov. 5 that would have raised an estimated $460,000 annually for five years to maintain and restore library services and programs. The library operates as an independent special district and does not receive city funds.

An unanticipated influx of money from the county library system will be used to open the city's branch on Fridays, officials said. The start date and hours of operation have not yet been set. The City Council recently approved a citizens committee recommendation that $27,000 in additional county money be spent for opening the library branch on a fifth day each week, Fridays.

City Council members say they hope to send a message to the Board of Supervisors that public libraries are important and that keeping them open should be a top priority. "It's essential to keep the library open," Mayor Steven C. Anderson said of La Habra's branch library, which has been squeezed by budget cuts. In a resolution to be sent to county officials, council members call for the establishment of a separate governing board to oversee the operation of the county's 27 libraries.

The city doesn't have enough money to cover the county's trim of $90,000 from the Stanton library's budget, but city officials hope to help find funds from community groups. "At this point in time, there is not much the city can do to help out," said Councilman Harry Dotson. "But the library is important to the community, so we need to help them out." The Stanton branch was hard hit by the county's decision to cut the budget for all county libraries from $20 million to $17 million.

The only city in the county library system without its own branch may add a library to a proposed $17-million community center project. The City Council tonight will consider adding a 10,000-square-foot library building to the 18-acre community center plans, which now include athletic fields, a gymnasium and a park at Alicia Parkway near Paseo de Valencia.

Browsing through the bookshelves at Roosevelt Elementary School in Long Beach, state schools Supt. Delaine Eastin knew in a instant how to help an already strong reading program: new books. One of the titles that caught her eye, "Famous Negro Athletes," was published in 1964. Another offered a profile of the now-defunct Soviet Union. "[These books] don't belong in a library," Eastin said. "They belong in a museum."

A Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that a coalition attempting to keep historic Chester Place open to vehicular traffic must come up with a $200,000 bond by Friday to prevent Mount St. Mary's College from beginning work on a library that would turn the street into a dead-end. In a running battle that began in 1994, Mount St. Mary's College, located just south of USC, wants to build a library and a classroom that would block traffic on Chester Place.

The long-awaited Veterans Park Community Center in Redondo Beach has finally opened in the landmark library building. The oceanfront center is housed in the 60-year-old Redondo Beach Historic Library Building in Veterans Park, a Spanish colonial-style building that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. According to Paula Matusa, a spokeswoman for the city, the building has been under renovation for five years to convert it from a library to a community center.

Calling the library "a vital resource to the community," the City Council has teamed with Friends of the Library to provide the funding to keep the facility open six days a week. "It is a safe haven for the children of Laguna," said Martha Lydick, Friends of the Library president. "Our senior citizens use it every day." In response to cutbacks in state funding, the group has struggled in recent years to increase and then stabilize the hours that the city's only library is open.

Anticipating a $27,000 windfall for the library, the City Council has reactivated a citizens' advisory group to study how to spend the money. City Manager Daniel E. Keen told the council this week that the county library system recently revised its funding formula to account for changes in cities' populations as well as circulation of books and other library materials. "After applying the new formula to the [library system's] new budget, the results for La Palma are very positive," Keen said.