Lawndale Seeking to Expand Its Library : Funding: The city’s population growth has made the one-room facility obsolete. Plans to enlarge it hinge on obtaining a state grant.

It’s 3:30 p.m., and the tiny Lawndale Public Library is buzzing with activity. The cushioned chairs are taken by three men reading the newspaper, and several people are seated at a long wooden table flipping through books and magazines.

About a dozen children just out of school descend on the room, flinging down their backpacks to thumb through videocassettes. A teen-ager looking for a bit of privacy wanders into the children’s section, plopping himself into a chair meant for much smaller legs.

As the room continues to fill with patrons, it becomes clear that the city of Lawndale has outgrown its one-room library, the South Bay’s smallest.

Built 33 years ago, the Lawndale Library at 14615 Burin Ave. was designed for a community of 20,000 residents. Today, it serves a population 35% larger, 27,000 people, and lends 7,000 books a month, the equal of much larger facilities.

Although Lawndale readers have access to several other well-stocked libraries in the area, officials with the Los Angeles County Public Library, which owns and runs the Lawndale branch, say the city deserves more.

To that end, county library officials have come up with a $2.1-million plan that would use state, county and city funding to double the size of the library and boost its collection by 50%.

The expansion and renovation project is largely contingent on the library’s receiving a $1.1-million state grant under the California Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 1988, which provided $75 million for libraries throughout the state.

In the first round of grants earlier this year, only eight of 50 applicants received grants. The biggest award--and the only one in Los Angeles County--went to the Redondo Beach Main Library, which received $10 million. The success of its neighbor city is expected to have little or no impact on Lawndale’s chances.

To help the Lawndale Library qualify in the second round of awards, to be made later this year, the Lawndale City Council is planning to deed about 6,000 square feet of city land to the county for the library expansion. Under an agreement being finalized by City Atty. David J. Aleshire, the city also would lease 3,000 square feet to the county for a 40-space parking lot and give about $400,000 to the project. The terms of the bond program require municipalities and counties to contribute substantially to their local projects.

The county, which would spend $553,000 on the library, would be allowed to keep the property indefinitely, as long as it is used for library activities. The agreement, which will be ready for council approval June 20, would be void if the state does not award the grant.

But even if the proposal is unsuccessful, library officials say they are optimistic that Lawndale eventually will get a new library, simply because the project has generated such strong community interest and support.

“We don’t have a specific secondary plan for how to finance it, but I am hopeful . . . that we may be able to come up with some joint method of financing the project if the grant application fails,” said David Flint, chief of administrative services for the county library system. “It’s not a simple thing to walk away from.”

Flint said the Lawndale Library has less space in proportion to the city’s population than any other city library in the South Bay.

And although it is busy, many residents said they would use the library far more if it weren’t so neglected and under-equipped.

“The current library is a monstrosity,” City Councilwoman Carol Norman said last week. “It’s noisy, you walk in, it’s ugly. It’s crowded together. It’s so unattractive. If I were a child, I wouldn’t want to sit there and read. As an adult, I don’t want to sit there and read.”

Although the county once actively renovated and built new libraries, it was forced to commit its entire construction budget to operating costs in the wake of Proposition 13, the 1978 tax-cutting initiative. Today, virtually the only source of county library construction funds is from the bond issue.

To cope with the cutbacks, some wealthy communities have gone to their voters for bond issues to support their local libraries. Voters in the well-heeled Palos Verdes Library District, for instance, approved the sale of $16 million in bonds this week to fund an expansion of its facility.

But Lawndale, a poorer community with a history of low property taxes, has not been so lucky. To date, the library’s only outside support has come from the Friends of the Lawndale Library, a small group of patrons that raises about $400 a year at its annual book sale.

The city’s rapid demographic changes--from a predominantly white community to a racially mixed one--have also put a strain on the tiny library.

Although Lawndale has developed a highly regarded collection of Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean literature, those newer volumes have come at the expense of others. “We are just so limited by space,” said Community Library Manager Nancy Yuan.

Lawndale city officials first planned to renovate the library three years ago as part of a $5-million Civic Center renovation project. But voters rejected the plan in April, 1988, after critics accused the council of wanting to build a Taj Mahal.

Last year, a citizens committee recommended that city officials improve the library with some of the proceeds from the sale of its interest in the Galleria at South Bay, but that money is designated for an array of capital improvement projects.

If the grant from the state bond fund goes through, a section of the existing building will be demolished to separate it from the county health center. The remaining 2,700-square-foot building will be extended south.

The resulting one-story, 6,143-square-foot building would allow library officials to increase children’s programs and to add a conference room and reference area. The plans also include an enclosed outdoor patio.

“When you compare Lawndale with other libraries in the South Bay, I think it’s kind of antiquated,” George Rodriguez, 44, said as he perused a stack of new arrivals last week. “It has old books, small quarters, no place to park. It’s overcrowded. Since (I’ve) been here, it’s exactly the same. It needs some changes.”

Although most patrons say they support the expansion proposal, longtime resident Yolanda Dahilig expressed fear that her local library would lose some of its small-town charm.

“This one to me is nice and cozy,” Dahilig, 50, a frequent user of the library, said Tuesday. “You come here and know the people. I like it this way. When I want a bigger library, I can go somewhere else.”