Library Funding Is Money Well-Spent

* Money Magazine and some retirement publications rate the desirability of a place to live in part by the size and hours of the local library. The quality of the library, in other words, is considered a very important aspect of the cultural background of any community.

Yet, in spite of the gains in the educational library facilities, we are having a difficult time keeping the public library in Camarillo and other county communities open full time because of a severe shortage of money. How strange an anomaly this is. And all this because of a shortfall in funds of just about the cost of a single book or one magazine subscription a year--per household. That’s not per person, but per household.

For the cost of that one book, we’ll have access to about 82,400 existing volumes, all the purchase of more, plus the updating of technological books. Now, that’s a deal.

That’s all that the funding measures P and V will ask for on the March 26 ballot--just $25, or a fraction of 1% of the average property tax. And it is automatically canceled after five years, so it cannot continue more than that into the future, as some levies do, or be used for other purposes.

ROBERT BENSON

Camarillo