Neighbors Welcome Library’s Reopening : Northridge: Community members are comforted by robust recovery of 50,000-book branch. Some return books due Jan 17.

Another piece of the Northridge neighborhood puzzle was put back in place Monday when the neighborhood branch library reopened nearly six months after being severely damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake centered just a few blocks away.

In some ways, life at the library resumed Monday as if it had never been disrupted by the quake: Johnathan Joo came to read some magazines; Mark Watkins stopped off to look for the name of an attorney; the members of the Reno family returned an armload of books that were due the day of the quake.

There was no sign of the temblor’s mess, which sent tiles tumbling from the ceiling, overhead lights crashing onto tables in the children’s section and books and shelves spilling onto the library’s linoleum floors.

“We’re glad it’s back,” said Patricia Reno, with daughters Anna, 12, Sarah, 10 and Theresa, 9, in tow. “There’s nowhere else to go really that’s nearby.”

The Reno family had come to turn in the books, 14 in all, that had come due on the third Monday in January.

“We heard that it was going to open back up today on the radio, so we decided we should probably turn our books in,” she said. “I don’t think they’ll fine us for turning them in late.”

Not a chance, a clerk assured her and the family handed over the books and went off to find some more.

Old-timers ran into each other, exchanging greetings and earthquake stories. Though the branch is neither the city’s biggest nor its busiest, neighbors and employees alike said the 50,000-book repository is as much a part of the neighborhood as the strip malls and Cal State Northridge, just a block away.

“Some people come in every day,” said Carmen Lofrano, the reference librarian who has worked at the branch for 22 years. “And we know each other by name. That’s one of the good things about being someplace a long time.”

After the earthquake, Lofrano said, he came by the branch and was stunned by the apparent damage.

“I looked through the window and it was a mess,” he said. “Every single book I could see was on the floor. It was depressing. . . . Especially for me, having worked here for so long.”

The building, which cost FEMA and the city $110,000 to repair, had no structural damage, however. And the cost included a new carpet and the library’s first paint job in 19 years, Lofrano said.

Several other quake-damaged libraries in the San Fernando Valley remain closed.

City branch libraries in Canoga Park, North Hollywood, Chatsworth, Granada Hills and Woodland Hills remain closed due to earthquake damage, but are scheduled to reopen in the next three or four months.

University officials say CSUN’s Oviatt Library will reopen in the fall.