Book Stop: Fill-In Chapter for Library

On a stretch of Spring Street where the panhandlers and homeless wander among office workers and shoppers, doors opened Wednesday at the first public library to operate downtown since the Central Library’s devastating fire in 1986.

Filled with 3,000 new books, the Book Stop at 433 S. Spring St. has a few features that remind visitors it is only steps away from Skid Row. A security guard stands nearby, and there is not a single chair to sit upon--an effort to discourage transients from resting in the quiet, carpeted room.

By late Wednesday afternoon, Senior Librarian Joyce Albers said that more than 20 patrons, including several downtown office workers, had checked out 100 books. Many people, who had not used their library cards since fire closed the doors of the Central Library, quickly renewed them Wednesday and checked out handfuls of books.

Travel books were the first to go, Albers said, and best sellers were moving quickly.

“This library is not for research or anything along those lines, but for popular needs, like people who want to read (Robert) Ludlum or other best sellers,” library spokesman Michael Leonard said.

To her surprise, Albers said, “we discovered today that a lot of children live right downtown here, many of them at the Alexandria Hotel just down the street, and that’s something we didn’t anticipate.

“So we’ll be installing a children’s book section in the next few days,” she said.

Although the library did not advertise the opening day of its new lending branch, long-time patrons of the Central Library slowly began filtering in to browse among the new hard-covers and paperbacks, 120 magazines and 300 Spanish-language books.

“We’ve had a lot of old patrons come in today, mostly elderly people who live downtown, people we recognized when they walked in but haven’t seen in two years,” Albers said.

She said one woman walked up to the librarians “and said she was so excited, and thanked God, because she’d had to join two book clubs to get books she used to get at the Central Library.”

“She is going to be a real regular here, I’m sure,” Albers said.

Library officials said the Book Stop will operate until the temporary Central Library opens just upstairs, taking up the nine-story building formerly occupied by the Design Center. When the bigger library opens late this year with 1.1 million books, the Book Stop will be converted into a room for children’s books, and the popular reading section will move across the hall.

Library officials said the Spring Street operations will continue until the renovated and expanded Central Library opens at its old location at 5th and Flower streets in late 1992.

On Tuesday, city officials said the renovation of the Central Library moved a step closer to reality when the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved its design. The design, part of a $152.4-million construction project, was previously approved by the Community Redevelopment Agency, the Library Commission and two city cultural panels.