Public Libraries Need Government Funding : To help maintain services, the city of Ventura has formed a campaign committee. You can also volunteer for a Friends group.

How is it possible that public libraries (conceived and promoted by Benjamin Franklin) are not protected and fully funded by private and government agencies, even in these times of fiscal insecurity?

Everyone of us can remember at least one occasion when a book discovered or an event attended in the library enriched our lives. It’s pay-back time. We can lobby elected officials to provide the money to maintain library services by joining the city of Ventura Library Campaign Committee, which is seeking a secure source of funding for libraries. Call Cherie Brant at 653-6245.

Or we can donate time and money as a member of a local Friends of the Library. One example: The Thousand Oaks Friends of the Library has established a book endowment fund to supply funds in perpetuity for book purchases. The interest generated will be donated to the library. For details on how to make a tax deductible gift, call Ruth Ann Cooper at 371-1501 or Kathy Lewis at 498-9773.

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Another busy week at Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura: Parents and children are invited to join representatives from Laurel Springs School today at 7 p.m. to plan a summer reading program for first-graders through high school students. Reading lists will be distributed.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, novelists Joseph Shaffer (“The Trowbridge Women”) and Charles Coulter (“Ponce’s Fountain”) will describe how they began writing and achieved publication in their senior years.

Joan Raymund, editor of Rivertalk Magazine, will read from her poetry collection, “The Chair Game,” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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Steve Pelsman will read poetry at 8 tonight at Cafe Voltaire, 34 N. Palm St., Ventura. The ongoing poetry series also features open readings. Sign-ups begin at 7:30 p.m.

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Theatre by the Sea at Channel Islands Harbor presents Storybook Theatre for children, ages 4 to 9, at 10 a.m. every Saturday. Call 645-5624.

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Michael Connelly’s new Harry Bosch mystery, “The Last Coyote,” is set in post-earthquake Los Angeles. Connelly, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, will sign at 1 p.m. Sunday in Mysteries to Die For, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks.

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Children love to be read to, and actress Karen Moncharsh will do just that at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Ojai Table of Contents, 208 E. Ojai Ave.