Library Balks at Donation of Computers

Dave Bianco would like to give away $15,000 worth of computer equipment to E.P. Foster Library.

But officials say they cannot accept the computers at this time because the county library system is planning a major reorganization and it is unclear how the machines would be used.

This has left Bianco, a member of the city’s library advisory committee, a bit miffed.

“I’m hard pressed to figure this out,” Bianco said Thursday. “The city is so used to giving money away, I guess they look at gifts with a jaundiced eye.”

Bianco says he and other library boosters have spent the past year collecting donations for new computer equipment. They have four new machines and four remodeled computers ready to go. In all, they want to give the library 14 computers that would be used by library patrons to log onto the Internet.

If only officials would sign off on the program. Library officials say they have just cause for holding up the Benjamin Franklin Project, so called because the Revolutionary statesman was a leading advocate of public libraries.

Richard Rowe, interim director of the county’s library system, said he has told E.P. Foster staff members not to move ahead with the Franklin Project. Rowe said it is too soon to proceed because the financially troubled county library system is poised for a major restructuring.

“I put the project on hold,” he said. “It’s premature.”

He said Ventura is preparing a study that examines how space will be utilized at the E.P. Foster Library once the restructuring takes effect. County and city officials need to take a close look at where the computers will be placed, he said. Moreover, city officials--who would gain greater financial and operational control of the library under the restructuring--want a host of questions answered. A staff report asks such queries as:

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Should the computers be used primarily for staff training or public use? What will be the costs of keeping the new technology center up-to-date? Is the program simply duplicating programs at local schools?

Ventura City Manager Donna Landeros said Franklin Project advocates have just recently unveiled details of their proposal. Still unanswered, she said, is whether the computers should be put in the library’s Topping Room.

She said the first-floor room has degenerated into a storage area over the years. The city manager said it might be better to restore it as a community meeting place rather than a computer lab, as project advocates have requested.

Rowe noted that three Ventura libraries--Wright, Avenue and Foster--have recently gotten a technology boost anyway. A $30,000 state grant will enable the libraries to have two Internet-ready computers available to the public at each site by the new year, he said.

In the past, none of the three libraries have had computers available to the public, other than terminals used to access the county system’s holdings, Rowe said.

Bill Fulton, an urban planner who chairs Ventura’s library advisory committee, said the library restructuring has forced staff members to take a close look at pending proposals. They now have larger responsibility in making the system work, he said.

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“The city is now in the loop, for the first time ever,” Fulton said. “That’s one reason the city wants to look at the Franklin Project in a larger context.”

Yet while county and city officials haggle over the new program, local residents are falling further behind in the Information Age, Bianco argues. He handed out a sheet at this week’s committee meeting rebuffing the city staff memorandum.

Bianco’s report states that the whole point of the program is to get community members comfortable with using the Internet to get information.

“This is a giant leap forward toward a smart city,” Bianco said. “A city that is online, where government and citizens can interact. It puts us in a whole new category of access to information.”

George Berg, an Ojai resident and member of Save Our Libraries, said the delay in the Franklin Project is hard to justify. He noted that several businesses, such as California Federal Bank and Ventura Avenue Cable, have pitched in to help make the program work.

“I hope the city backs up and lets the project go ahead, and they can get all the credit they want for it,” Berg said. “It could be an excellent example of city, county and private cooperation. Or it could be an excellent example of bureaucracy in action.”