Hours to Be Cut at 5 Libraries

Faced with a mandate to trim $356,312 from its $5-million budget, the Glendale Library on Jan. 4 will reduce operating hours at its five branches.

A variety of other changes have been implemented or are proposed, including leasing rather than buying books, renting out library meeting rooms for use by community groups and installing a profit-making computer system for use by the public. Increased donations and volunteer help also are crucial to the plan, officials said.

City Manager David H. Ramsay has said an emerging money crunch in government requires basic structural changes in city operations.

“We are not alone in this,” said Chuck Wike, library community relations manager. “Every city division was asked to cut back. We’ve pondered it and sat on it for months,” he added..

The shortened hours are expected to save about $120,000 in annual utility costs for lighting, heating and air conditioning. The rest of the cuts are being made mostly in allotments for purchasing books, magazines and other supplies, which Wike said should be “relatively unseen” by library patrons.

A total of 47 hours will be trimmed from operation of the Brand, Casa Verdugo, Chevy Chase, Grandview and Montrose branch libraries. However, hours will be staggered in order to meet demand, and all branches will be open on Saturdays. Currently, Chevy Chase and Grandview are closed Saturdays.

Operations at the Central branch at 222 E. Harvard St., which serves two-thirds of the system’s 1.3 million annual patrons, will not change.

No layoffs are planned, although a city hiring freeze has left about 5% of the library’s 100 staff positions vacant, Wike said. Staff jobs are supplemented with the help of about 200 volunteers who provide a variety of services

The library, which offers services free to the public, also is attempting to raise some of its own funds. A Friends of the Library group formed in February has raised $20,000 this year, Wike said. Although the fund raising may seem meager compared to the loss in operating funds, “that’s $20,000 that we didn’t have without the Friends,” Wike said.

More than 1,900 people attended the group’s kickoff event in February, highlighted by a talk by author Ray Bradbury. Membership doubled to almost 500 this fall when a fund-raising event featured a symphony orchestra performing the music of George Gershwin on the main floor of the Central Library, Wike said.

Fund raising is dependent mainly on monthly book sales, and donations are sought continually.

The library’s annual budget for purchasing books has remained at about $400,000 for several years because of the recession, which has reduced the library’s buying power by 27% from 1989 to 1991 when inflation is factored in, Wike said. The city in 1985 purchased 7,500 more books than it could afford last year, he said. This year’s cuts will further reduce the budget.

To compensate, the library recently has subscribed to a leasing service that provides multiple copies of books in greatest demand.

At a cost of $3,400 a year, the McNaughton Book Leasing Program, based in Williamsport, Pa., supplies a core collection of 400 books, plus another 200 books a year, distributed monthly, said Nora Goldsmith, library adult services coordinator.

The leasing service can supply as many copies as needed of popular fiction and nonfiction books, such as the current best sellers by author Danielle Steel and “Scarlet,” a sequel to “Gone With the Wind.” Once demand diminishes, extra copies can be returned to the leasing service, which also maintains and repairs books.

“The leasing service is ideal for us in a lot of ways,” Wike said, because it saves on purchase, cataloguing, maintenance and storage costs. He said it also reduces the waiting time for the most popular titles, which averaged two to three months.

Despite that change, Wike said the waiting period for some books is bound to increase because of the diminished budget.

“It’s becoming the same way all over L.A. County,” Wike said. “You won’t be able to go somewhere else to find a book.” To compensate, the library is calling on the community to donate popular new books after the purchaser has read them.

Library officials said they also are considering several profit-making enterprises, including a new computer system expected to be in operation by next year. The system would feature computer terminals at convenient locations, such as in the Perkins Building at the Civic Center and in kiosks on Brand Boulevard. Customers could access a large variety of information ranging from City Council agendas to the full yellow pages for the Glendale area. They could also research library catalogues and other public information and send electronic messages to city officials.

The information would be free to customers, but space and listings would be sold to commercial advertisers to cover the cost of the system and to generate a profit for the library, Wike said.

The library also is considering ways to better use its facilities as public meeting places at higher prices “that would fit in with the market rate,” Wike said.

Changes in hours at branch libraries beginning in January are as follows:

Brand Library Art and Music Center, 1601 W. Mountain St.; closed Monday; open 1 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday; 1 to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Casa Verdugo, 1151 N. Brand Blvd.; 1 to 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday; 1 to 8 p.m. Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday; closed Friday; open 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Chevy Chase, 3301 E. Chevy Chase Drive; closed Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; open 1 to 8 p.m. Wednesday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Grandview, 1535 5th St.; closed Monday; open 1 to 8 p.m. Tuesday; 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday; 1 to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Montrose-Crescenta, 2465 Honolulu Ave.; 1 to 8 p.m. Monday and Thursday; 1 to 6 p.m. Tuesday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday; closed Friday; open 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The Central Library will remain open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.