Beverly Hills Rewrites Book on Library Choices

When is the last time you browsed in a public library, plucked a promising item from the shelf and rushed home to curl up with an engrossing . . . video?

And you thought libraries were just for books.

If you’re one of the Beverly Hills Library video regulars, chances are your last video checkout was Thursday, the most popular day for videocassette rentals. Audiocassettes are borrowed every day in Beverly Hills, as are record albums. And if none of the above meets your state-of-the-art standards, you can borrow a compact disc or rent a 16-millimeter film.

To accommodate the electronic-age tastes of their patrons, many communities are doing what Beverly Hills has done. They are offering an expanding array of audio-visual library materials to rent or lend.

‘Tremendous Growth’

If you’re a purist, don’t worry--you still can borrow books at libraries. But the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System reported in its most recent directory of audio-visual resources that their videocassette and compact disc collections have seen “tremendous growth.” In 1985, member libraries collectively owned fewer than 7,000 videocassettes. By 1987, the 24 member libraries had amassed more than 17,000 videos. Tape recorded books are another growth area, according to the directory.

More materials means more patrons, some of whom lend the Beverly Hills Library an individual air.

“Where else do you have Gene Kelly coming in to rent his own videotapes?” asks Nick Cellini, a fine arts librarian.

Not only are some of the clients out of the ordinary, but some of the things they want are also unusual. Cellini says he can’t keep the “accent” tapes on the shelves. “We’re flooded with actors and actresses who want to learn dialects,” he says. “Machlen’s Dialects for the Stage” and “Acting With an Accent” are the two favorites. Sound-effect tapes are also in heavy demand.

The library’s video and audio collections are part of its extensive fine arts department, and the many video documentaries on dance and other art forms reflect this aesthetic bent.

But don’t get the wrong idea. Audio-visual borrowing is not just for high-brows and elitists. A $2 rental fee and a library card from any library that is a member of the Metropolitan Cooperative Library Service--most municipal libraries belong to it--will get you “Rambo” as readily as “Horowitz in Moscow.” All you have to do is prove you’re 18 or older, fill out an audio-visual registration slip and you can rent up to three videotapes.

Instructional and documentary videos, as well as children’s and educational tapes, cost less. Your child can take home “Sleeping Beauty” or “Shalom Sesame”--a version of “Sesame Street” designed to teach Hebrew--for $1. And if you check out “Jane Fonda’s Workout” (or any other videotape) on a Thursday or Friday, you can aerobicize through Monday evening. (During the week, tapes must be returned within 48 hours.)

For employees of the city of Beverly Hills, video rental is free.

Sixteen-millimeter films are rented for $1 per reel but, unlike videotapes, they may be reserved in advance.

Audiotapes and records are free, and any combination of up to five may be checked out for 28 days. The rule for books on audiotape is slightly different: Only two may be checked out at a time. A limit of two also applies to compact discs, which are also free and loaned for 28 days.

Remodeled Library

“It’s because we’re in temporary quarters,” Cellini says. “We need space on the shelves, so we keep letting them take out more and more.” In February, 1987, the library moved to an airy warehouse at Foothill Road and 3rd Street, so the old library on Rexford Drive could be remodeled. The face lift is scheduled to be completed in 1989.

The plan to keep audio-visual titles in circulation seems to be working. Cellini says he can’t keep new video releases on the shelves, and the demand for CDs has “grown like topsy. We have 800; there’s never more than 30 in at a time.”

Books on audiocassettes, he says, are “taking off like firewater.” The library has nearly 1,000 books on tape, everything from stress management to Russian literature.

Enthusiasm for audio-visual borrowing is not confined to Beverly Hills. It is an epidemic. The Santa Monica and Culver City libraries and the Frances Howard Goldwyn Regional Branch Library each have collections of about 1,000 videotapes to rent.

Georgette Todd, senior librarian at the Goldwyn, a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library in Hollywood, says there is “a tremendous boom” in audio books, and libraries are using an increasing part of their budgets on these materials.

“Driving to Mammoth, listening to ‘Wuthering Heights’ on that long stretch on Highway 395 is magnificent,” she says.

No Threat Foreseen

Are librarians worried that this trend presages the demise of literacy? Not at all, Cellini says. His colleagues concur.

“Most people who rent these tapes are well educated,” says Stefan Klima, a fine arts librarian in Beverly Hills. “They use these when they’re not reading. They’re driving or ironing or doing something else.”

What Klima vehemently objects to is audiotapes that are abridged versions of books--”a bad influence,” he says.

Susan Annett, a fellow librarian, agrees. “We try to avoid (buying) them,” she says. “Much more quality literature is available on tape than a short time ago, because people of taste are demanding it.”

The three librarians agree that the public is committed to talking books, whose exclusive market used to be the blind or partially sighted. (Like most public libraries, the Beverly Hills Library can order audio books for the visually handicapped available through the Library of Congress. These require special tape players, supplied by the Braille Institute, that run at a slower speed than commercial players.)

Self-Help Tapes

Besides fiction and biography, audio offerings include a spectrum of self-help tapes: how to lose weight, stop smoking or start a business. Some of these contain the message on one side and a subliminal message “hidden” in music on the other side. For children, there are story and music audiocassettes.

“Children are good patrons,” Annett says. “They’re involved. They browse as much as adults.”

Adult browsing for videos is heaviest on Thursdays and Fridays, when the library opens at noon, says Cellini.

At midday on a recent Thursday, Laurel and Hardy’s “Way Out West” and “The Body Language of the Racehorse” were displayed on the new-releases rack, alongside “Homeopathy--The Nontoxic Approach to Illness” and “Horowitz in Moscow.”

Samuel Romo, an electrical technician for Beverly Hills, bypasses all of these and makes his choices quickly: “Hanoi Hilton” and “Terms of Endearment.”

John Coyne, a retired police officer and crime-prevention specialist, is eyeing the new titles. “My daughter had surgery on her wisdom teeth. She has to sit at home and keep her mouth shut,” he says. “I’m looking for anything for her to do.”

A woman who doesn’t want her named used is looking for videos for her daughter. She says she only rents children’s videos “and I only rent them here. At least I know the money goes to the library.”

Russell Haltom gravitates to an old favorite. “This is a great tape,” he says, reaching for “The American Ballet Theater at the Met.” “I’ve watched it about four times.” Haltom’s eyes light up when Cellini walks over to tell him a new video of the Kirov Ballet has arrived. “Where is it?” he asks.

Haltom strolls over to the library at lunchtime four or five times a week from the nearby offices of Litton Industries, where he works with computers. His interest in ballet was kindled by a dancer who jogs with him in Marina del Rey. Haltom’s is a longtime patron at the library.

“I’ve been coming here for 15 years,” he says. “I’m interested in everything, almost. You pick up one thing, it leads to another. I walk in the door thinking I’d like to read every book in the place.”

Books on the Road

Over at the audio shelves, Tony Carbone of West Hollywood is deciding on “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” a novel by Tim O’Brien. Carbone says he just started borrowing audio books and generally listens to them while he’s driving, but “sometimes I listen at home. It’s relaxing.” Although he has stuck to mysteries so far, “I’m interested in getting ‘Crime and Punishment’ to see what it sounds like,” he says.

Amir Zanjani, a student at California State University, Northridge, discovered the compact disc library when he came to the library to study. This time, he selects recordings by Klymaxx and Sade.

Classical piano is more to the liking of Marty Garbowitz, a Beverly Hills property manager. He queues up to check out a Vladimir Horowitz recital and some Beethoven sonatas. “It’s a real good deal,” Garbowitz says about borrowing CDs. “They don’t get scratched like the records you borrow from the library.”

Cellini, meanwhile, is trying to keep up with the audio-visual traffic. “The technical department’s backlogged,” he says. “We haven’t gone on computer yet, otherwise we’d get the tapes out faster.”

AUDIO-VISUAL RESOURCES AT SOME WESTSIDE LIBRARIES

LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY BRANCHES * Cahuenga branch 4591 Santa Monica Blvd. Baldwin Hills branch 2906 S. La Brea Ave. Brentwood branch 11820 San Vicente Blvd. Fairfax branch 161 S. Gardner St. F.H. Goldwyn Hollywood Regional branch 1623 Ivar Ave. John C. Freemont branch 6121 Melrose Ave. Mar Vista branch 12006 Venice Blvd. Palisades branch 861 Alma Real Drive Palms-Rancho Park branch 2920 Overland Ave. Robertson branch 1719 S. Robertson Blvd. Venice branch 610 California Ave. Will and Ariel Durant branch 1403 N. Gardner St. West Los Angeles branch 11360 Santa Monica Blvd.

Audio Audio Video 16mm Phone Records Cassettes Books CDs Cassettes Films LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRA Cahuenga branch 664-6418 500 150 50 -- -- -- Baldwin Hills branch 733-1196 30 10 -- -- -- -- Brentwood branch 826-6579 500 200 150 -- -- -- Fairfax branch 936-6191 30 180 150 -- -- -- F.H. Goldwyn Hollywood Regional branch 467-1821 -- 300 300 -- 1,000 -- John C. Freemont branch 465-9593 200 25 -- -- -- -- Mar Vista branch 390-3454 Palisades branch 459-2754 500 350 300 -- -- -- Palms-Rancho Park branch 838-2157 -- 250 200 20 -- -- Robertson branch 837-1239 150 80 40 -- -- -- Venice branch 821-1769 125 80 50 -- -- -- Will and Ariel Durant branch 876-2741 100 70 70 -- -- -- West Los Angeles branch 312-8323 100 100 100 -- -- --

INDEPENDENT, CITY-OWNED PUBLIC LIBRARIES Santa Monica--Main branch* 1343 6th St. Santa Monica-Ocean Park branch* 2601 Main St. Santa Monica-Fairview branch* 2101 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica-Montana branch* 1702 Montana Ave. Beverly Hills Public Library* 338 N. Foothill Road

Audio Audio Video 16mm Phone Records Cassettes Books CDs Cassettes Films INDEPENDENT, CITY-OWNED PU Santa Monica--Main branch* 458-8603 10,000 3,800 200 -- 1,000 450 Santa Monica-Ocean Park branch* 392-3804 100 150 10 -- -- -- Santa Monica-Fairview branch* 450-0443 400 200 20 -- -- -- Santa Monica-Montana branch* 829-7081 100 200 -- -- -- -- Beverly Hills Public Library* 285-1083 4,500 3,700 650 900 1,600 275

LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY BRANCHES Malibu 23519 W. Civic Center Way Point Dume 6955 Fernhill Drive Culver City 4975 Overland Ave. Marina del Rey 4533 Admiralty Way West Hollywood 715 W. San Vicente Blvd.

Audio Audio Video 16mm Phone Records Cassettes Books CDs Cassettes Films LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUBLIC L Malibu 456-6438 1,000 800 200 100 100 -- Point Dume 457-6913 225 390 30 -- -- -- Culver City 559-1676 3,000 900 900 200 200 450 Marina del Rey 821-3415 700 500 55 200 85 -- West Hollywood 652-5340 600 400 100 60 15 --

* members of Metropolitan Cooperative Library System