Backing Books With Tax Dollars : In hard times, L.A. County may have to come up with new ways to save libraries

Pasadena seemed to be bucking a trend when, in June of 1993, it voted a new tax to support its excellent but threatened city library system. The 1990s seemed, to put it mildly, to be no era of government services.

Two years later, however, Pasadena seems to have begun a trend of its own, at least in its San Gabriel Valley vicinity. In June, 1994, South Pasadena and Altadena, bordering Pasadena on the south and north, approved their own library tax assessments to repair slashed budgets and restore once curtailed or eliminated services.

And Arcadia, just east of Pasadena, earlier this year approved a major, $4.9-million, 12,000-square-foot expansion of its own handsome but aging and overcrowded library. The project will include seismic retrofitting for the existing building as well as improvements in library technology and overall infrastructure.

Library news is not all good, by any means. The Los Angeles County library system, whose enormous and widely dispersed clientele includes some of the neediest in this region, faces a cut of as much as 27% in funding as the state’s budget crisis ripples outward to the counties. No library closures are planned, but Sunday service at all of the 87 county libraries will be ended and the system’s book budget will be reduced 65%. Given the unprecedented budget troubles the county faces, there’s no expectation that the fortunes of its libraries will improve.

So voters--and, of course, taxpayers--need to consider the tremendous value of the local public library. Are more city/county consolidations in order? When voters are given the choice, the local library is the public service they are least willing to sacrifice or, to put it another way, most willing to make sacrifices for. This is particularly true when they can keep their library-supporting tax dollars close to home. During this budget crunch, book lovers of Los Angeles County will probably have to put their heads together to ensure that the local public library survives.