Ventura Advised to Leave County’s System and Form Its Own Agency

The city should withdraw from the county library system and form its own independent library agency to provide the hours and service that residents want from their local branches, a preliminary consultant’s report released Thursday recommends.

After running its own system for several years, the city should then consider joining a limited regional library partnership among other cities in western Ventura County, according to the report by San-Francisco based library management consultant Beverley Simmons.

Although the two recommendations appear contradictory, Mary Lou Schill of the city of Ventura said the city model is a tried and true model, while a joint approach is still new, but could garner benefits of cost-sharing on a smaller scale.

The $55,100 study--which began in September and will wind up in January when a final report is presented to the City Council--comes as city officials across Ventura County are studying whether to break apart the financially strapped county Library Services Agency and form other arrangements among cities.

Like the county consultant’s report, Simmons acknowledges that the city will need additional funds to support improved library services. She also suggests creating one central library for Ventura’s collection--now divided between two main libraries and a smaller branch.

She made recommendations based on discussions and forums with more than 250 Ventura residents--either through small focus groups, a town hall meeting broadcast on local television or interviews. More than 90 middle and high school students also provided evaluations of the current services.

The report found services woefully inadequate.

*

The most glaring shortcomings included extremely limited service hours, a confusing schedule, small outdated collections and lack of public programming beyond children’s storytelling.

The report also concluded that a city Ventura’s size needs to more than double current library space to serve readers.

Currently, books are crammed so tightly on shelves that it is hard to get them off, and shelves are so high that people often cannot reach the books. Aisles between shelves are so narrow that people have no space to sit down and read. The three libraries combined have only 29,900 square feet, while a city with a population of 92,000, like Ventura, should have closer to 60,000 or 80,000 square feet, the report states.

Finally, the report pointed out that Ventura’s aging library buildings lag behind the times and cannot accommodate the explosion of information technology that is sweeping the nation.

*

Councilman Jim Friedman, a staunch library supporter, called the report enlightening and embraced most of the recommendations.

“This confirmed that the state of our libraries is really deplorable,” he said. “A city of this affluence should not be operating under these conditions. People have got to wake up and realize that we have a crisis here.”

The crisis developed over the past five years with steady cuts in state funding that have forced the county to slash library staff and hours in half. In recent years, Ventura has supplemented the county’s contribution, paying $270,000 in the past year to keep the Avenue library open and to extend operating hours for the other two branches.

For a more permanent solution, Simmons proposes radical changes.

The report recommends forming a single central library with regular hours. In the short term, the city should form a central library with the combined resources of E. P. Foster and Wright libraries.

*

In the longer term, a new central library should be built, the report said. Eventually, the city should expand library services to two or three branches, including the existing Avenue library. To ensure a smooth transition to a city library system, the city should hire its own city librarian.

If the city decides to withdraw, it should inform the county by December 1997 and form an independent system by July 1, 1998.

The report made a compelling argument for the city taking over its own libraries. By Simmons’ analysis, the city could offer the same level of services for less than the county system. In addition, the city could wield more control over decisions that are extremely local, such as library hours and locations.

But paying for a new system would cost more than the city’s share of property taxes that now goes to the county library agency. Simmons does not specify how funds should be raised, but said city officials would inevitably have to go to the voters for support.