Fount of Knowledge : On Its 65th Birthday, Logan Heights Library Expands Its Services

Alina Rosas recalls going to the library in Logan Heights when she was a kindergartner, walking with her sisters from their home near Chicano Park.

Now, the 29-year-old clerk at the library remembers the arches, columns and walls as being so much bigger. The children sat on carpet squares covering the cold floor. Today the library has tables and chairs and even a computer for the children.

On its 65th birthday this month, the library shows no signs of retirement. In fact, the staff is expanding the library’s language and cultural resources to better serve the community.

The words at the front of the building still read “Library,” but another sign adds “Biblioteca.”

Library workers not only check out books, they help patrons find vital community services.

Circulation has more than doubled in 10 years as one library worker has hit the streets to let people know they can check out books.

When outreach worker Adolfo Ocampo asks a group of third-graders what books they have at home, they raise their hands and answer in unison. It is an excitement for reading that he never tires of seeing.

The Burbank Elementary School class is one of dozens that visit the library, bringing in so many young people fascinated with reading that librarians had to start limiting each student to five books each to keep from running out.

During the library tour, Ocampo explains about nonfiction, fiction, research books and books available in Spanish--now a third of the total selection. Ocampo then reads the class a story before turning the 32 youngsters loose to choose books for checking out.

Ocampo literally walks the streets as part of the county’s Partnerships for Change program. He visits schools and businesses to get the word out that there are books to check out.

A library is “paramount to learning,” Ocampo said. “We have an alarming number of children dropping out of school, especially Hispanic children.

“It is crucial for people to start learning and using the resources available to them. Especially by the children, who are just beginning the start of a successful life.”

A decade ago, 27,000 books a year were checked out of the library. Now circulation is 60,000 yearly.

Logan Heights was the busiest of the four city branches when it opened in 1915, with 25,000 books borrowed.

Logan Heights residents were so eager for a library at the turn of the century that they were willing to pay rent for an unoccupied store at 28th and Marcey streets. The library moved from place to place until it found its existing home 65 years ago at Logan Avenue and 28th Street South.

Logan Heights residents are still excited about their library, fighting off a proposed closing in 1976. Elementary school students are among the library’s biggest customers.

A newly installed computer was surrounded by girls one recent weekday. One put her finger to the screen, counting seven wheels on a card, and she matched the card with another displaying the numeral 7.

The educational games give the library a noisy, homey air.

Librarian Juan Ortiz nodded toward a boy about 14 years old scanning magazines at a table, saying he had been worried about the young man.

“For a little while I thought he was going to go off” to join a gang, Ortiz said. “His father passed away, and his mother is trying to make ends meet with a part-time job.”

But, instead of gangs, his mother steered him to the library. And, through the library, she got involved with the local PTA. Ortiz said many library patrons find out that the library staff is there to help with more than just book referrals.

Patrons’ questions range from repairing appliances to rearing children. The latter he has directed to school and youth counselors. Others he has helped to find college classes or a collection of Don Juan stories in Spanish.

The Spanish language book selection at Logan Heights library, about a third of the 20,000 books, is rivaled only by that at the downtown main library, the librarians said.

Spanish language Readers Digest books are popular with Luis Silva, 74, a retired shipyard worker. Silva said he has difficulty finding Spanish books to read and comes to the library for the variety.

With a relationship “how to” book open, 26-year-old Arthur Stanley says the library is a home away from home. The youngest of six children, Stanley remembers his sisters taking him to the library all the time, checking out Dr. Seuss and Babar the Elephant books.

Today he used the library table to fill out his unemployment papers, neatly tucked into an envelope under a Star Trek book. Stanley says he still enjoys going to the familiar Logan Heights library even though he could go to a library closer to his home in the South Bay.

At a nearby table, Jose Garcia, a ninth-grade student at Memorial Junior High-Middle School, was in the library to write an opinion report for school. Garcia, who moved to San Diego from Tijuana 2 1/2 years ago, said he goes to the library to use the computer and find reference books to do his homework.

Garcia said he is lucky to live so close to the library. Just visible out the library window, framed by a Mario Torero mural, looms the back side of Memorial.

The neighborhood has changed during the last 20 years, said library clerk Rosas.

“Its more transient than it used to be, there’s a lot of change” she said. “The homes will have the same family for two or three months, and then they’re gone.”

The changing readership is one reason outreach programs need to be continuous, even for children in school, because they move on after one semester, Rosas said.

The Logan Heights Branch Library is open every day of the week: Monday and Wednesday from noon to 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sunday from 1-5 p.m.