CYBER-HOLD: Book lovers don’t have to wait...

CYBER-HOLD: Book lovers don’t have to wait for the librarian to reserve a title anymore. Library patrons can do it themselves using new computers that have been installed in Ventura County’s 15 branch libraries . . . Librarian Joel Goldberg admits the machines are “a little intimidating” for techno-phobes. But they are quite easy to use, he said . . . The hot books this summer: “The Rainmaker” by John Grisham and “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” by Mary Higgins Clark.

ENDLESS BUMMER: Envious of that Dewey Weber you spied during the last swell at Surfer’s Point in Ventura? Don’t be, it might be a fake (E1). Detectives are tracking down makers of counterfeit surfboards in garages as close as Agoura. But Jim (Oz) Oswald, the manager of Val Surf and Sport in Thousand Oaks, said he hasn’t seen any fakes nor has he heard of them . . . A top-of-the-line short board goes for $350--if someone offers a board for less, surfers should be suspicious, Oswald said. “People should know something is wrong.”

GENERATION GAP: Keeping up with her energetic, 6-year-old grandson is not the only challenge Jan Richman faces. Richman, 57, is one of a growing number of Ventura County grandparents who have primary custody of their grandchildren (B1) . . . A lot has changed in 20-some years since she raised her daughter, Richman said. Diapers are disposable. Playpens have become play yards . And the disciplinary swat on the behind is taboo . . . “It’s almost like you need to take a class on re-parenting.”

SAVE THE GRASSES: Federal biologists are being criticized for their management of sensitive wildlife and grasses on Santa Rosa Island (B1) . . . Connie Rutherford, a botanist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is proposing to list 16 native plant species on the Channel Islands for protection . . . It is something that must be taken care of soon, before introduced grasses overtake them, she said. “If we wait, it will be that much more difficult.”