North Hollywood Police Hold School Library Book Drive

Los Angeles Police officials and a local bookseller Wednesday presented Lankershim Elementary School in North Hollywood with more than 300 books for the school’s library, which was virtually empty until police started an annual book drive last year, police said.

With Wednesday’s delivery, the school library has more than 1,000 books, said Principal Velia Ortiz Jones. About half of the books delivered were donated by David Dutton, owner of Dutton’s Books in North Hollywood, Sgt. Roger Deranian said. The other half were collected by local service organizations, he said.

On hand for the delivery were Dutton, Ortiz Jones and Capt. Rick Dinse, commander of the Police Department’s North Hollywood division.

North Hollywood Division officers came up with the idea for a book drive after the station adopted the school in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Adopt-a-School program two years ago, Deranian said. They discovered that the school had a modern library but owned only about 50 books. Ortiz Jones said the school’s annual $3,000 book budget covers only a fraction of the books needed to fill the library.

The Adopt-a-School program encourages local businesses and agencies to help schools by donating money, equipment, time and personnel.

The donated books cover all subjects and all grades, Ortiz Jones said. A large number are in Spanish, the predominant language at the school, Deranian said.