County Chief of Libraries to Leave Post

The director of the Ventura County Library Services Agency, which has been hit by massive budget cuts in recent years and is now in the midst of a major reorganization, announced Friday that she is retiring.

“My reasons are personal and have to do with family,” Dixie Adeniran said of her decision to step down as library director after 17 years. “It’s been very trying and exhausting, and one of the first things I’m going to do is rest.”

Adeniran, 53, said her decision to retire had nothing to do with the library agency’s financial problems or its impending reorganization. Nor was she forced to leave, she said.

“This was my personal decision,” said Adeniran, who started her career as an extra-help librarian at the Simi Valley branch in 1974. “I’ve been thinking about this for quite awhile.”

The library director, whose gross salary was $103,633 in 1995, will take leave Feb. 8. But her retirement will not officially become effective until March 30.

County officials and library personnel said they were surprised by Adeniran’s announcement.

“There’s a great deal of sadness,” said Alan Langville, manager of the agency’s community libraries division. “There were tears when she announced it to the staff here this morning.”

At the same time, library employees don’t blame Adeniran for leaving, given the strain that she and her agency have been under during the last five years, Langville said. The agency has seen its $10-million budget sliced in half by the state during this time, forcing layoffs and cutbacks in library services.

“Some staff people congratulated her for getting out,” Langville said.

Supervisor Kathy Long said Adeniran, who had gallbladder surgery last year, has been under tremendous pressure and yet has managed to maintain her professionalism.

“I expect it’s been pretty wearing on her,” Long said. “I think she’s done a very good job under very difficult circumstances.”

Others, however, said they were disappointed that Adeniran had not shown more leadership and come up with her own rescue plan for the 15-branch library system when its budget was decimated by the state.

“There were not any significant changes made when the library money was taken away by the state,” Supervisor Frank Schillo said. “That has caused a lot of problems. There should have been some adjustments internally. She should have come up with her own reorganization plans.”

Long and Schillo are members of a newly formed countywide committee that is developing a reorganization plan for the library system, which serves Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Port Hueneme, Ventura and Simi Valley.

They have proposed that the cities take over the libraries in their communities, while the county would continue to operate those in the unincorporated areas.

Under this plan, Schillo said, the Library Services Agency would probably be dissolved. But he said that does not mean that all agency personnel would lose their jobs.

He said a new agency or consortium would be formed to jointly purchase books and perform other administrative duties for the independently operated libraries.

Meanwhile, county Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester said he might appoint an interim director once Adeniran leaves. He said that with the future of the library agency up in the air, there would probably not be any need to find a permanent replacement.

“It’s been a very difficult three or four years,” he said. “We wish her the best.”