Library Books a Variety of Events to Lure Patrons Back

Wearing sneakers, shorts and a wary look, Gary Woods seemed like someone more comfortable on a tennis court than on the sixth floor of an aging office building in downtown Los Angeles.

The playing court was exactly where the Woodland Hills tennis instructor had come from the other day when he arrived for an unusual how-to-get-rich seminar at the city’s temporary Central Library at 433 S. Spring St. at the edge of Los Angeles’ gritty Skid Row.

Library operators have rebuilt the 2-million-book collection devastated in a 1986 arson fire and are restoring the damaged building at the center of the city’s glitzy high-rise district.

Now they are trying to do the same to their downtown patronage.

The three-hour talk by self-styled marketing whiz E. Joseph Cossman was the latest move to attract new readers to the rented, circa-1929 office building that is housing the Central Library’s books until August, 1993.

Librarians say many are apparently unaware that the temporary site has been open for two years. Others are scared off by its location.

“Downtown L.A. is, hmmmm, interesting, “ said Woods, who acknowledged that it took someone like Cossman to lure him to Spring Street, where he joined 250 others in the seminar’s turn-away crowd.

“This area’s a little disconcerting,” said salesman Mike Anderson of Long Beach. “Downtown L.A. tripped me out,” said fledgling entrepreneur Keith Walters of San Diego, who was stopped by panhandlers outside the library.

Cossman credits his visits to public libraries--where he perused patent abstract books for ideas for mail-order products such as ant farms and plastic fishing lures--for making him a multimillionaire.

“I wanted my seminar to bring a whole new set of users to this library--the workingman on the street,” said Cossman, who plans to return to the library July 13 to repeat his lecture.

Flyers handed out at the seminar told of the replacement of patent books wiped out by the fire. “The Central Library is back in business, ready to serve you in many ways,” they announced.

The April 19, 1986, blaze consumed about 400,000 volumes, said library spokesman Bob Reagan. Another 600,000 were water-damaged. Quick work by librarians and hastily recruited volunteers allowed the volumes to be quick-frozen until they could be defrosted, dried and reshelved at the rented Spring Street site.

Library marketing efforts over the last two years have boosted patronage to about 90% of the pre-fire level, Reagan said. Besides special events such as the Cossman lecture, officials offer weekly activities such as puppet shows for children living in the Spring Street area’s dingy hotels and Spanish-language services for the neighborhood’s Latino residents.

To attract workers from the high-rise business district, tours of the temporary library are regularly scheduled and the library’s sixth-floor auditorium is offered for use by groups. Those attending functions there are given applications for library cards.

Officials admit that many longtime readers failed to follow the branch from its 65-year-old landmark site on 5th Street to the $253,800-per-month temporary location in the former Title Insurance Co. building.

Ironically, said chief downtown librarian Betty Gay, the Spring Street location boasts amenities that the original branch never had. They include the auditorium, air conditioning, more open shelf space for book browsers and indoor $6.60 valet parking.

It also has tighter security--controlled by guards stationed at a single entrance. Street people are welcomed, provided they come to read, officials said.

“Quite a few come in to get their act together. They’re not all drunks or nuts,” said Billie Connor, librarian in charge of the patent collection and science and technology books.

As the fire has proved to everyone, “A library is a wonderful place for people getting back on their feet,” she said.