SEAL BEACH : Leisure World Library to Reopen on Friday

Leisure World residents are looking forward to checking out a few good books Friday with the reopening of the library, which has been closed since June for conversion from public to private operation.

Once threatened with closure by cash-strapped Orange County, the 22-year-old library was purchased by the retirement community’s governing Golden Rain Foundation for $225,000 at an auction in June. It is the first private acquisition of such a facility, according to county library officials.

Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva and County Librarian John M. Adams are among those invited to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning.

Volunteers have been scrambling to load inventory records into a new computer system and put identification labels on books, tapes and videos.

“That has been quite a job,” foundation board member Paul Snow said. “We’re talking about thousands of items.” Snow helped engineer the purchase of the library with Councilman George Brown, also a Leisure World resident.

Some residents have questioned the wisdom of spending retirement community money on the library. The foundation spent an additional $35,000 to purchase the library’s books and materials. But Brown said the need is critical for many of the community’s 8,700 residents.

“Many of our residents would be unable to venture outside Leisure World to a public library,” Brown said. “We spend money on our golf course, on our swimming pool and a whole variety of clubs in here. The people of Leisure World will get as much use or more from the library.”