Cutbacks May Close Books on Libraries : Government: Another year of severe fiscal trims could force more municipal branches to shut. Hours, book budgets and services have already been slashed.

Just as their business booms, municipal libraries throughout the San Gabriel Valley are reaching the cracking point under the weight of some of the harshest budget cuts in 15 years.

Libraries across the region have been forced to close more hours this year, buy fewer books and cut services, such as story-telling for children and authors’ lectures. Combine that pattern with the closing in November of three San Gabriel Valley branches of the Los Angeles County Library, and many of the area’s libraries appear headed for their own kind of endangered species list.

“We’re going to be a completely television society,” grumped Bryant Giles, a junior college French and Spanish teacher. He is also a longtime user of the Pasadena public library system, where there is talk of closing some or all of the eight branches next year.

Library patrons like Giles are increasingly restive about cuts in hours and book budgets, librarians say.

Steve Pierson was trying to catch up on some work in his office in the Covina Public Library one recent Friday, but people kept pounding on the door.

“People stood there hoping that I’d let them in,” said Pierson, director of the library, where operations have been slashed to four days a week, including the loss of Friday service. “It’s ironic. This is supposed to be the age of information, but we’re making information harder to get.”

Call it the librarians’ lament: The public loves library services; they couldn’t be more popular.

“We’re tampering with something that’s a success,” said Ed Szynaka, director of the Pasadena Public Library.

The problem is money, not customers. Just after most San Gabriel Valley cities had finished laying off staff and trimming frills from budgets last summer, Gov. Pete Wilson and the state Legislature agreed on a fiscal plan that required skimming an additional $1 billion from revenues that ordinarily went to municipalities.

In the San Gabriel Valley, that amounted to additional trims of nearly $30 million.

Already reeling from a recessionary shrinkage of sales tax revenue, most cities embarked on a grim hunt for additional fat to cut, often finding it in libraries.

“If it’s a choice between a librarian and a fireman, the librarian is going to lose,” said Deborah Clark of the Alhambra Public Library.

“We’re in a situation where we’re right up against the wall,” said Chuck Wicke, community relations manager for the Glendale Public Library.

The signs of decline are everywhere, librarians say. In Pasadena, purchases of books have been limited to 10 a month per library branch, down from 40 to 50. Up to 67 readers fill the waiting lists for some best-sellers. In Monterey Park, where Asian-Americans go to find reading materials in their native languages, about 120 of 400 periodical subscriptions have been canceled.

In Alhambra, 200 grammar school students fruitlessly searched the shelves recently for the Mark Twain books used in their classes. In Glendale, library patrons, informed that branch libraries will be closed an extra weekday, thrust money into the hands of staff.

And everywhere, patrons are using libraries in greater numbers, particularly on days when libraries in adjacent cities are closed.

In Altadena, crunch day is Monday since the Pasadena libraries have been closed that day since last fall. “On Monday afternoon, they’ll be 10 deep at the circulation desk,” said District Librarian Bill Tema.

The number of books checked out in Altadena has increased by about 6% in each of the past two years, he added. Ironically, increasing library use is a function of hard times, librarians say.

“The library is a good place to find a resume book or to meet other people looking for jobs ,” said Clark of the Alhambra Public Library. “It’s also a good place for people who just don’t know what to do with themselves to go and read.”

City libraries are fighting the squeeze with a variety of strategies, including more volunteers, fund-raisers and fees charged to non-residents.

In Pasadena, a 10-member citizens’ panel is considering various proposals--including a tax measure--to bail out the library, which has endured three straight years of cutbacks.

The Pasadena library has lost 65%--or $389,000--of its book budget, more than 300 subscriptions to periodicals, 50% of children’s story hours and all of an authors’ lecture series. Beginning last fall, the central library remained closed on Mondays and most weekday mornings, and the system’s eight branches closed an extra weekday.

Most of the library’s staff voluntarily gave up raises last year in order to save $110,000 in the operating budget.

But libraries that cut back so drastically reach a point where a library ceases to be a vital community institution, Szynaka said. The Pasadena system is approaching that point, he said.

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘What is a library if it can’t buy books and if its doors are closed?’ ” Szynaka said.

Workers who once ran programs are now relegated to desk positions, stamping and receiving borrowed books, he said, and the city’s eight branch libraries are--compared with their previous levels of activity and service--little more than Hollywood sets.

“We’ve still got buildings that say ‘library’ on them,” Szynaka said with a shrug.

The prospects are for continued bloodletting, librarians say. Word has come from Gov. Wilson’s finance officials that the state will seize even larger amounts--probably 2 1/2 times as much--of city property tax revenues next year.

San Gabriel Valley librarians--including those who have so far avoided deep cuts--are feeling more vulnerable than ever, responding defensively to discussions of the libraries as discretionary services.

Squeezing library budgets is easier in the short run than cutting other services, said Glendora Public Library Director Connie Tiffany. “You don’t see the blood on the carpet the first day you make the cut,” she said. “But it’s insidious. Over the long term, it can change the whole quality of life.”

Libraries are as much a part of the fabric of society as police departments, insisted Pierson.

“We help people improve their lives, help kids stay off the streets,” he said. “We’re part of the long-term solution to a lot of social and crime problems.”

Tiffany says she worries that people will get used to service-depleted libraries.

“As libraries become less accessible and as they don’t provide the materials the people need, people will just learn not to use libraries,” she said. “And quietly and invisibly, we’ll become a less informed, less literate society.”

Library Budget Cuts Here is how state budget cuts have affected libraries in some San Gabriel Valley cities during the past year. Cities not listed are in the county library system, which has cut the book-purchasing budget by 60% systemwide:

Alhambra: laid off four part-time workers, cut book budget by 10%.

Altadena: will not replace 25-year-old heating and air conditioning units, cut book budget by 50%.

Arcadia: reduced book budget by 9%.

Azusa: no cuts.

Covina: reduced service to four days a week, laid off two full-time employees and one part-time worker.

Monrovia: no cuts.

Monterey Park: closing on Saturdays, laid off one full-time worker, reduced book budget by 15%, charging fees to users from other cities.

Pasadena: central library closed on Mondays, branches closed an extra weekday, book budget reduced by 32%.

Pomona: closing library on Fridays, cut book budget by 20%.

Rosemead: under county library system; branch closed

San Marino: no cuts.

Sierra Madre: replaced one full-time worker with a part-time worker, expecting to make at least 10% cut in book budget.

South Pasadena: added a children’s librarian, increased book budget by $5,000.

West Covina: under county library system; branch library closed.