Proposed Cuts in Library Services

* The article concerning the proposed cuts in library services (“At Best, Budget Chops Library, Fire Services” June 4) caught my eye because I already knew about the proposed cuts from friends who work at the Cypress branch library.

Because the branch’s book acquisition budget is frozen, I have been buying current books and donating them to the library immediately after reading them.

Using the figures from The Times article as a basis for a rough calculation--$3.8 million saved if 27 branches close on Fridays--I figured that the Cypress branch would need an additional $141,000 over the next year to stay open on Fridays, or about $3.53 for each man, woman and child in Cypress.

For my family--my husband, five children and myself--that comes to $24.71. I can’t get myself into Disneyland once for that amount of money. It comes close to filling the tank of our Dodge Caravan. A pair of good kids’ athletic shoes, not fancy, costs more.

So here are three suggestions for everyone who wants to keep their local branch library open:

First, buy one hardcover book that your local branch library can use (Ask! They’ll be happy to tell you!) and give it to the branch library.

Second, check out an armload of books and keep them out until the overdue fine comes to about $3.50 times the number of people in your family. (Videotape fines add up fast at $2 per day!) Then march back to the library with a big smile on your face, turn the books in and pay that fine.

Third, write to Orange County Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino and tell him what you’ve done.

Insist that library services cannot be cut. Perhaps if enough people donate to the library, a happy surplus will slop over and save the fire stations. Fire services aren’t expendable either.

CECELIA E. HENDERSON

Cypress