‘We feel as if we are smothered. Absolutely smothered.’ Barry Shemaria, San Fernando head librarian : Tiny Library Gets By, Hopes for Expansion

When San Fernando library patrons need to use the bathroom, librarians send them to the courthouse next door because there are no public restrooms in the library.

Youngsters who take part in the library’s popular children’s programs are often forced outside to the sidewalk because there isn’t enough room inside. When they do stay inside, librarians stack the few reading tables in a corner to make room for the children, whose activity and chatter disturb others.

Workers must continually “weed out” books from the library’s collection because there is no space on the shelves for any but the most popular books.

The tiny library work room doubles as a staff room, with a microwave oven, books and two copy machines competing for valuable counter space.

“We feel as if we are smothered. Absolutely smothered,” Barry Shemaria, branch head librarian, said. “We don’t have restrooms. We can’t give people a quiet place to read. There is no conference room, no staff room. And, all the time, we keep adding more activities because the demand is there.”

One of Smallest

The San Fernando branch of the Los Angeles County Library is one of the smallest in the 91-library system--2,700 square feet, about the size of two schoolrooms. But it ranks No. 26 in the county in circulation, lending 158,500 books a year to patrons who go to the tiny library at the corner of Macneil and 1st streets from throughout the northeast San Fernando Valley, according to county library officials.

“It’s very unusual for such a small facility to have such activity,” said Susan C. Curzon, regional administrator for the county library system. “That library should be 10,000 to 12,000 square feet.”

By contrast, the closest Los Angeles library branches--in Pacoima and Sylmar--are twice as large as the San Fernando one, encompassing fewer books in much more space.

The Los Angeles County Library has put top priority on building a new San Fernando facility or expanding the existing one because of the crowding. One member of the Friends of the Library described the library as looking like an “old-fashioned, all-purpose drugstore with things stuck into every corner and shelf.”

For eight years, however, efforts to improve things have run into roadblocks.

City officials agree with county librarians on the need to replace or expand the library. And they agree that the best site for it would be on a parcel next to the existing library, on land now occupied by the police station. The city has approved $2 million to build a new police station a block away, leaving the city-owned site available for development.

But, before anything can be done, county library officials must get approval from the city to use the site for the library, and then must figure out how to come up with the estimated $1.4 million it will cost to build it. They are pegging their hopes on a library construction bond bill that is working its way through the state Legislature.

Strapped for Funds

At best, with state bond financing, it will be at least two years before construction can begin in San Fernando. At worst, the financially strapped city would have to work with the county to come up with the money on its own, which could take years, officials said.

“At this point I don’t have a clear idea where that money will come from,” said Linda F. Crismond, county Librarian.

Library officials envision a library that would accommodate twice the existing structure’s 45,000 volumes and add study rooms, enlarge the collection of books in Spanish for the city’s largely Latino population and expand the popular children’s section.

But, even now, at a time when the county library system is ready to spend $100,000 on preliminary architectural drawings, the project is being delayed, mired in a dispute over whether the voters or the City Council should have final approval over the sale, lease or transfer of ownership of the proposed library site. That question will be decided in the June 3 election.

“We need a formal agreement between the city and county on that site before any planning can begin,” Curzon said. “Normally, in library projects, we try and be led by the city in terms of site and design. Everything has been held up until the election.”

“It has all been very frustrating,” said Crismond, the county librarian. “And I’m not sure how much longer we can continue to carry the $100,000 for architectural fees in our budget.”

If the initiative is approved, any agreement on the library site will then have to be approved by the voters in a costly special election, city officials said, a process that they fear would delay the library project even longer.

“If it passes, we would have to take the library project to the vote of the people and it would cause delays,” City Administrator Donald E. Penman said. “It’s difficult to say at this point, though, how much it could hurt.”

The library is the only use proposed for the Macneil Street site so far.

Initiative proponents say that the public should have the right to vote on any use of what they say is an important piece of civic-center property. The land is directly across the street from City Hall.

“We want to protect the site from bad deals that the City Council could make,” said former City Councilwoman Carmillis Noltemeyer, who spearheaded the initiative before she was defeated in last month’s municipal election.

Beverly D. Tomaso, who ran unsuccessfully for a council seat last month and also helped Noltemeyer push the initiative, said: “We are not against the expansion of a library. This is not a library issue. We simply do not want to give up control of a critical, vital piece of the Civic Center.”

Once the initiative is decided and the site is agreed upon, Crismond said, the next step will be to find financing for the library.

Both city and county library officials are hoping that the $200-million California Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 1986, authored by Sen. Barry Keene (D-Benicia), will be passed by the Legislature by June 26, the deadline to qualify for the November ballot. The bill will go before the Senate Committee on Appropriations in about two weeks, a Keene spokeswoman said. A similar bill was killed in the Assembly in March.

Stands a Good Chance

If the bond measure passes, San Fernando will have to compete with other libraries in the state for library financing. Crismond said she thought that San Fernando would stand a good chance of receiving library funding.

“We are the largest library system in the state, and San Fernando is our top priority,” she said.

Penman said the city would consider using redevelopment funds or an outright land donation to come up with the 25% in matching funds required under the bond measure.

If the bond measure fails, the county will have to work out a financial partnership with the city, using a combination of financing tools such as private foundation grants, redevelopment funds or other government grants. Since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the county library system has not received any funding for new construction.

City Rejected Plan

Such a partnership, Crismond said, would take “more than simply a land donation” by the city.

She said the county had come close to finding alternative funding for an expansion in 1983, by using a one-time federal grant, but the city turned down the plan.

Under that proposal, Penman said, Macneil Street would have been turned into a civic center mall that would have included the expanded library, City Hall and the police station. “The council turned it down because they felt they would have to make a snap decision about the civic center just because of the library,” Penman said.

Earlier, before the nearby San Fernando Superior Courthouse opened in 1983, library officials had been told that the library would be able to expand into the old courthouse building next door. But that plan was killed when judges decided that they needed to retain that space for offices and extra courtrooms, Crismond said.

Patrons Endure Discomfort

Throughout the years of delays, librarian Shemaria said, it has been patrons such as Leon Vicente, an 18-year-old high school senior, who have endured the brunt of discomfort at the San Fernando library.

When Vicente pulled out a chair, he banged it against Shemaria’s metal desk, sending a thunderous sound through the library. Once he was settled at his study table, a mother with her three young children sat down next to him and began reading aloud and thumbing through books.

“It’s usually too crowded and not a very good place to study,” Vicente said. “I wish they had an adult section. A lot of kids come in and bother you. It’s not real quiet. It’s hard to work around these tight spaces.”

At the same time, five teen-agers pushed against the checkout counter and librarians shuffled in their small work area to help them, reaching over and bumping into each other.

“It’s kind of joke, but we all have bruises on our legs because we are constantly bumping into things,” said librarian Edythe Grant.

“I forget how big other libraries can be,” said another librarian, Silva Bedian. “I walk into a big one and say, ‘Wow, this is how it should be.’ ”