TARZANA : School Library Renamed for Its Top Volunteer

After 35 years of tidying bookshelves, ordering new books and patching up old ones in the library at Tarzana Elementary School, Eleanor Robinson, a lifelong volunteer, was presented with a pleasant surprise Friday at a school gathering.

An assembly on the topic of heritage and culture was interrupted briefly to announce that the school library, which she has taken care of since her first child attended school there in 1960, will be renamed after her.

“This is such a shock,” said Robinson, as three students handed her a plaque and a bouquet of pink roses.

Robinson has done volunteer work at the school library every weekday, from about 2:30 to 4 p.m., to keep the books and room in order.

“I think the schools need all the help they can get,” she said, when asked in an interview why she has devoted so much time to the library. “The teachers are overworked, so I help. And I love it.”

Daryl Johnson, a fifth-grade teacher, said that Robinson is a pillar of the Tarzana Elementary School community. “She knows every book” in the library, Johnson said.

Robinson said she helped establish the school’s first actual library, a converted kindergarten room, back in 1966. “Some of those books are still here,” she said.

The new library is located in the school’s main building.

One student, Stephen Trammel, 11, said that he sees Robinson at the library all the time. “I don’t know if I could do that,” he said.

His classmate, Gal Ifrah, 11, added, “She’s really dedicated her life to children.”

Looking at the schoolchildren and parents who had gathered in the newly renamed library after the assembly to view a display of reconstructions of the California missions, Robinson said, “Books and children are my two favorites. I don’t know in which order, though,” she said.