Library Director Deserves Our Thanks

I am saddened but not surprised that Dixie Adeniran decided to resign as director of Ventura County libraries. As all book lovers in the county know, our libraries have been beset with impossible conditions the last five years. It must have been agonizing to head up a system that was forced to close some branches and reduce hours at others to less than half of the time the public expects, to say nothing of trying to maintain the collection without funds.

As one of her public, I send my thanks to her and the other struggling employees who have served us. I am ashamed and angry at what Ventura County and California have allowed to happen to our libraries.

County Supervisor Frank Schillo’s criticism of Adeniran is a cheap shot. It’s outrageous that he blames her for not finding a solution. It has been his responsibility and that of the other county supervisors to find funds for the libraries. Schillo has proposed innovative--and lousy--ideas as solutions that he can’t even sell to the government leaders of the cities most injured by the decline of our libraries.

What is needed is m-o-n-e-y, Frank. To criticize Adeniran at this time is like running up to a lifeguard who is giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a drowning victim, pulling her away, and insisting that she give swimming lessons to that person and to the others who are standing around on the beach watching. Get help or get out of the way!

REV. RICHARD WESTON-JONES, Thousand Oaks