COUNTYWIDE : Library System Marks 75th Year

Ventura County’s public library system marked its 75th anniversary Tuesday with a skit recalling the tumultuous time that led to the agency’s formation.

Performed for the County Board of Supervisors at the Government Center in Ventura, the skit began with the spirited re-enactment of a meeting on April 8, 1915, when the free county system was established. Two women in floor-length gowns and bonnets handed out yellow ribbons that carried the message: “I am for the county library.”

Opposition had come from Oxnard, which had its own library and didn’t want to be part of a larger system. What finally swayed the 1915 board was an impassioned speech by Adolpho Camarillo, one of the county’s wealthiest and most influential residents.

“We do not ask you to establish one,” said Camarillo, played by John Ledesma in the skit. “We demand it.”

With the board’s approval, the free county library system was established, but only the Ventura library participated. Before that, members of the Ventura library paid $5 a year and non-members paid 25 cents a month to borrow books.

By the end of 1916, Ojai, Fillmore, Saticoy and Piru had joined Ventura in the new system. During that first year, 855 books were purchased and card-carrying patrons numbered 145.

By 1921, Elizabeth Russell Topping had begun her 30-year stint as library director. She rode on horseback to the far reaches of the county, her saddlebags filled with books. The bookmobile she started in 1924 delivered books to schools, ranches and migrant camps.

As the library system grew, its colorful history continued. In 1936 Margaret Mitchell’s book “Gone With the Wind” caused an uproar among county patrons who believed that it was too racy. During World War II, Topping mounted a community drive to supply books to ships carrying troops overseas.

In 75 years, the Ventura-based system has grown to 17 libraries, more than 750,000 books and other items and about 182,000 cardholders. Only the libraries in Santa Paula, Oxnard and Thousand Oaks are not part of the system.

The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Tuesday honoring the county library agency.