County Libraries

* Thank you for your editorial, “Libraries Get a Renewed Shelf Life” (July 25). The proposed County Library Community Facilities District (CFD) would cost the average property owner less than $30 a year, which is roughly equivalent to the cost of one best-selling book, or less than the price of four movie tickets. In return, communities which support the CFD would receive increased library service hours, and patrons would finally appreciate the new materials arriving on library shelves. The neighborhood public library is a vital and most important station on the “information superhighway.”

ALAN ROCKMAN, Library Assistant

San Dimas Library

* PEN Center USA West, an organization of professional writers committed to the cause of freedom of expression, is concerned about the future of Los Angeles County public libraries. Unless $30 million is secured by September, one of L.A.’s most valuable cultural resources will be decimated by the closure of 51 libraries.

If you remember the exhilaration of checking out your first book, or learning a new skill, of transporting yourself to another time and place, of finding a serene and secure place to study, now is the time to say “libraries are worth it.”

SHERRILL W. BRITTON

Executive Director

PEN Center USA West, Los Angeles

* You missed perhaps the most recent example of community involvement in building a new library. After 11 years of effort, the Donald Bruce Kaufman Brentwood Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library was dedicated July 17. I believe it will be a showcase of beauty and function and a model of what communities can do.

HELEN STEVENSON, President

Friends of the Kaufman Brentwood

Branch Library