Libraries Under Renovation

Once upon a time the library at Dyer Street Elementary School was a sad place.

Shelves sat half-empty, books went untouched. Even the window blinds were fraying at the edges.

“It was functional, but it wasn’t welcoming,” said Principal Jim Morris.

“Welcoming” is the sort of word Morris and others at the Sylmar campus are now using to describe their library, which is about to double in size and gain an inviting new atmosphere.

For the renovation, Dyer Elementary teamed up with Wonder of Reading, a nonprofit organization that has made a virtual mission of rejuvenating elementary school libraries in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The organization has helped refurbish 18 libraries since it began venturing onto Los Angeles campuses 4 1/2 years ago. Twelve more will be renovated next year, one a month.

When Dyer Elementary’s spacious library reopens Friday, it will feature dinosaur chairs and window benches, floor pillows and tugboat seats. Carpeting will replace a cold linoleum floor.

And then there’s the new mini-amphitheater where students can lounge during story time.

“Kids deserve beautiful libraries,” Morris said.

Each Wonder of Reading library project comes with a $40,000 price tag.

Schools have to raise half of the money. The Wonder of Reading chips in the other half--$10,000 toward construction and $10,000 for new books.

After renovating the libraries and restocking their collections, the Wonder of Reading trains tutors to work one on one with students.

“Our purpose is to inspire in children the love of reading,” said Christopher Forman, chief executive of Pacific Theatres Corp., which created Wonder of Reading. “We want to give them the resources that will allow that to happen. Those resources are a bright, sparkling space in which to discover books.”

New books are precisely what Dyer Elementary’s library needs.

The school has just 3 1/2 books for each student, a paltry collection limited by the tiny size of the old library.

Dyer’s dearth of reading material is typical in the Los Angeles district, where campuses average just over five library books per student.

By comparison, schools in California average 11 library books per student. The state this year allocated $158.5 million to bolster school library collections. Education officials want to increase the number of books to 20 per student.

The figure nationally is 16 to 20 books, depending on varying estimates.

In the meantime, the Wonder of Reading contribution will bring Dyer Elementary’s collection to about four books per pupil.

The increase is modest, but it is welcomed at a library that until recently featured 40-year-old books that rarely left the shelves.

There is a trade-off for the new library: The crowded school is giving up a classroom to make way for the expansion, forcing yet one more teacher to serve as rover.

But teachers say the lost classroom is worth the sacrifice, and they are eagerly preparing for the dedication ceremony.

Morris and his staff have big plans for their big library. They want to open the doors before and after school, and perhaps on weekends. And the library will provide a home for a program in which parents tutor students.

“We need a library that makes kids believe in the pleasure of reading,” Morris said.

If the experience of other Wonder of Reading schools is any indication, Dyer Elementary’s library may be in for a renaissance.

The library at Rosemont Avenue Elementary School in Echo Park has become a center of school activities since it was expanded and renovated nearly three years ago, school officials say.

Students and parents flock to the library virtually every day before and after school. Retirees, parents and college students volunteer to read to children.

The library has its own mini-ampitheater, where teachers and students gather for stories. And it offers a Saturday program for struggling readers.

Once-disheveled bookshelves have been replaced by orderly and colorful book collections. Books are everywhere, displayed not only in the shelves but on top of the shelves and on tables, along with student work.

There are plenty of plans for next year, when students from nearby Belmont High School will begin tutoring the children weekly and children’s author Evelyn Gallardo will pay weekly visits. A new class will teach parents how to use the library.

“It’s a dream come true,” said library coordinator Brad Rumble.