L.A.’S NEW LIBRARY : Voices

“I think it’s very important to get the Central Library open, but I still feel that the regional libraries are the most important of all because they get into the community, where people take out books. The old Hollywood Library, which was up near Franklin, I kind of grew up with because I lived right around the area as a kid. When the library was burned down in 1982, I was very upset--I couldn’t believe anyone would torch a library. I asked the city if we could donate money to rebuild the library in the memory of my mother, who gave me a tremendous respect for the written word. They were delighted, obviously, and Mayor Bradley was very cooperative. Needless to say, the idea of building something with private money and turning it over to government to run has a lot of complications. But everybody at the library got behind the thing, because it was the private sector stepping up and saying, “This is a priority.”

I’m afraid, ultimately, that it’s going to fall to the private sector; I just don’t see that much public support for libraries. Priorities come in, and people who don’t read say, “Why should I support a library?” You see it even in the work. A lot of the screenplays I see are not reflective of any depth of reading--it’s really rehashes of old movies and TV shows. There’s so much experience to be gained out of books. I have a secret hope people will once again discover reading.”

Sam Goldwyn, Jr., CEO of The Samuel Goldwyn Co. and member of the Central Library’s Save the Books campaign

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“I began heading to the Central Library 20 years ago. My boyfriend and I would write and research our papers there and then trip off to Olvera Street for taquitos . The Central Library has been my main resource ever since. When I began researching a book on my grandfather (who designed many landmark buildings) I was lucky enough to find Tom Owen, an extremely knowledgeable librarian, who led me to all the material and later helped me reconstruct a bibliography when my computer and disks were stolen a few years ago. What worries me now, though, is that budgetary problems have begun to cut into the library’s accessibility. Now, with kids needing to be encouraged in critical thinking through the written word we find shortened hours, even whole days when the libraries are closed. Where will the future Tom Owenses come from, given UCLA’s shutdown this year of its library science department? It’s not a good sign.”

Karen Hudson, author and marketing consultant

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“Mention the word ‘docent’ and many people think of those affluent ‘ladies who lunch,’ the ones with time on their hands and social ladders to climb. But the truth is, we’re an eclectic group. Among us--and 65% are retired people--you’ll find optometrists, lawyers, teachers, DWP workers. I put in 30 hours a week as a waitress at Hamburger Hamlet. I began working at the Central Library in 1980, when the docent group was just being formed, and have been impressed by the tremendous clientele of recent immigrants trying to learn the language, and the city, by sifting through the collection. People in the suburbs, though, seem reluctant to visit. When I went to the zoo recently to re-register library-card holders, the comments I got were: ‘too dirty, too dangerous.’ But crime happens anywhere. I just wish people would use common sense and stop prejudging. One of the best things in life that’s still free is the library.”

Delores McKinney, president of the Los Angeles Library Docents and chief of its guided book tours

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“The reading and signing I’m doing at the Central Library in October will be the first time I’ve ever set foot in it. As a writer, I didn’t go the academic route. I went to movies, man. When other kids were in the library, I was always in a movie theater: the Vista, the Los Feliz, the Roxy in Glendale. I don’t know anybody who goes to the library, unless they’re students, and I think this has to do with the literary situation in Los Angeles. This is not a literary town. Angelenos do go to poetry readings a lot these days. This was not the case before. The spoken word has made a comeback, and that’s encouraging. The word on the page is a wonderful, intimate experience, but the word when you hear it spoken, that’s something else altogether. That’s a sensual experience as well as an intellectual experience. Maybe the spoken word renaissance in L.A. will lead people to check out more books, and write more books. That’s a possibility.”

Ruben Martinez, journalist

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“Just look at our new story theater, at the beautiful old ceiling, newly restored, and at the stage, which has been set up for plays, marionettes, film screenings and even for live video broadcasts. It’s a wonderful interactive space, which will have the capacity to enter into the 21st Century. People think that the fire made this all happen. It didn’t. For over 25 years we’ve been trying to get a new building. When I first started in the Science Department in 1976, there was a place called Rat Alley, and another called Toad Hall, and there was an off-site repository. It was a continual struggle to find places to put really basic stuff, a lot of wasted time and energy. But now the physical building is beautiful, spectacular, and almost complete. You can sit in the children’s theater and almost see someone telling a story to a child. Pulling them up into the story. Getting them involved.”

Betty Gay Teoman, director of the Central Library

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“Our community outreach program focuses on supporting education, youth and minorities, and campaigning for the library has been a way to fulfill all three objectives. While the library is a tremendous asset for the city, the crown jewel of the new downtown, we don’t want this place to become an elitist architectural monument--it’s a space that has something for everyone.

Obviously private business can’t take over the full load of funding projects like the library renovation. But more and more companies now are realizing that they have a responsibility to be involved in the community because that’s your market.”

Lodwrick M. Cook, CEO of ARCO and chairman of the Los Angeles Library Foundation.

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“One of the problems this country has is that its priorities are just misguided and out of sync. The first thing that’s cut in our high schools are arts programs and literature programs and libraries, and then we wonder why our citizens are so violent. Art and reading and libraries are what give people humanity. About a month and a half ago, we blew up--when I say we, I mean the country--blew up a $1 billion dollar missile that was outdated. They admitted that it was useless. It blew up off the coast of California, and nobody said a word. The city of Frankfurt has a $1 billion arts budget. Berlin has a $1.5 billion arts budget for the city. The United States has $130 million for the National Endowment for the Arts for the whole country, and they want to cut that out. But I still have hope. My son reads a lot. He’s 10. He’s got a really well-stocked library, so my wife and I both just continually buy him books. He tells us when he’s through with all the books, so we have to go out and buy more. He has a pretty good library, for a kid.”

Quincy Troupe, poet and former member of the Watts Writers Workshop.

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“We don’t want to be just the branch library of downtown. We’re a resource for everyone, I don’t care where they live. When you want to learn how to use a computer. When you want to leaf through hundreds of magazines that you’ve never even seen the titles of before. When you just want to sit in that atrium and gaze up at something that’s bigger than you. To dream. People come to this place for hope. They start with one question, and it leads to a hundred more.”

Elizabeth Martinez, Los Angeles City Librarian.

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“When I was in high school in the late 1930s, we lived at 7th Street near Ingraham, in an apartment building called Prince Rupert, which was kind of upper middle class. It had a ballroom. Now it’s an awful slum. It was so close to downtown I used to walk to the (Central) Library. It was sort of a second home for me. The architecture was so good you felt good to be in it, and away from the Depression, which was just outside the door. The Library was the center of my life for two or three years. I did a lot of reading there--I even learned about sex there, by reading Freud. That was before Playboy, of course; information wasn’t that easy to get at that time. You had to dig for it. Today, books are so cheap and there so many bookstores--I don’t whether children who are interested in books even use the library. They have to walk so far to get to one, and then it’s probably closed.”

Jack Smith, columnist, Los Angeles Times.

Chapter and Verse Editor: Alex Raksin Art Directors: Michael Hall, Diana Shantic News Editor: Jim Hollander ‘Voices’ Reporters: Jackie Austin, John Horn, David Kipen, Donna Perlmutter, Michael Webb.