COUNTYWIDE : 5 Libraries to Open Sunday Afternoons

Five county libraries will be open Sunday afternoons beginning this Sunday under a plan approved by the county Board of Supervisors.

Camarillo Library, the E.P. Foster Library in Ventura, Ojai Library, the Ray D. Prueter Library in Port Hueneme and Simi Valley Library will be open Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m., officials said.

In September, four of the libraries were forced to close Sundays because of staffing and financial problems, said Susan Peterson, community libraries manager for the Ventura County Library Services Agency.

The reinstatement of the Sunday hours is the last step of a staffing and financing plan approved by the supervisors in the fall. Officials had cut back the hours because there were not enough librarians to cope with the heavy workload at some of the county’s 15 libraries.

For example, although the number of requests for information increased from about 166,000 in 1984 to about 225,000 requests in 1989, staffing levels were not increased to cope with the increasingly heavy workload, said Dixie Adeniran, director of the county Library Services Agency.

The supervisors appropriated $318,600 from a contingency fund so the library could hire more help, said Jim Becker, senior administrative analyst for the Library Services Agency.