Library Revises Rule to Allow Naming Branches After Leaders

The Los Angeles Library Commission on Monday changed its naming policy to delete a controversial provision that reserved the honor for million-dollar donors. From now on, the tribute will be offered instead to historical heroes or community leaders.

The old policy gained national attention in June over a commission decision not to name the Watts library branch for Alma Reaves Woods, a volunteer who has devoted four decades to promoting literacy in her community.

After the City Council voted to override the commission’s decision, Woods’ name ended up on the gleaming $3-million facility before its gala grand opening. With the commission’s unanimous decision Monday, the same could happen for other grass-roots activists.

The new naming guidelines say branch names should emphasize geography to help locate libraries but can also include individual honorees, living or dead.

“It’s a very inclusive policy,” said City Librarian Susan Goldberg Kent.

“This is a comprehensive policy that allows for flexibility,” said Commission President Lucy McCoy. “It offers any number of opportunities to recognize individuals for their contributions to the Los Angeles community and beyond.”

During the Alma Woods controversy, dozens of Watts residents begged the commission to make an exception to its previous naming policy--which, in an effort to spur fund-raising, said branches could only be named for philanthropists who gave $1 million or more. But the panel refused to do so before its months-long review of the naming policy was complete.

The protesters took their case to City Hall, where they won a unanimous council vote to rename the branch for the 71-year-old Woods, who lugged books to the Nickerson Gardens housing project for decades, then went door-to-door campaigning for the bond measure that built the new Watts branch.

“It’s a wise decision--and one whose time had truly come,” Woods said Monday. “There are many people who really, really honestly, sincerely make great contributions to mankind, and they don’t have the money to back themselves up. I’m ecstatically happy.”

City libraries have typically been named for deceased historical or literary figures. Since Mayor Richard Riordan’s Library Commission passed its controversial million-dollar policy in 1994, no such donors have emerged.

Before drafting the new policy, Kent surveyed large public libraries nationwide, as well as local school districts and other public agencies that have many buildings.

Most emphasized geography, naming libraries or schools for the neighborhoods or streets where they are located.

The city’s new policy also places geography as the No. 1 criteria but adds that facilities can be named for a “recognized leader, living or deceased, who has made prominent contributions” to areas from American literature to history to industry,” or to “a community leader, living or deceased, who has made significant contributions” to the library system and who serves as a role model.

The new policy also lays out a clear process for naming new branches or changing names of existing facilities, including a public meeting in the community surrounding the library.