Library Check-Out

Book lovers of all ages turned out Sunday to celebrate the newly renovated and much-expanded E. P. Foster Library.

But, as it turned out, the festivities were a tad premature.

A few required finishing touches will delay the library’s official opening for another week.

“With this big of a construction project, we still came pretty close to opening on schedule,” said Donna Roff, Foster’s principal librarian.

Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the unveiling of a stained-glass-like mural that now graces the building’s main entrance, Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) joined the public and local officials to tour the inside of the new facility.

Guests waxed enthusiastically about the result of the nearly $2-million renovation that took almost seven months to complete. With the opening of the once off-limits second floor, along with a new ventilation system, carpeting, bookcases and a fresh paint job, the library is a far cry from its former cramped and aging condition.

“It’s a dream come true for the whole community,” Mayor Jim Friedman said.

By using the second floor, which now houses the children’s section, the library has doubled its public space to 32,000 square feet.

Bright and airy, with its own entryway off the parking lot, the second floor is also the location of a homework center, which library officials hope to fill with 24 computers for schoolchildren to use.

“It’s great with all this space up on the second floor,” Roff said. “There’s space so people can move around and find seating. I used to call it a stand-up library.”

The Foster branch is now the second-largest county library behind Simi Valley’s, said Starrett Kreissman, director of the county library system.

Foster is owned by the city of Ventura, but is operated by the county. The city contributed $1.5 million to its renovation and took over its ownership earlier this year.

On Nov. 29, the library will open for full operation with 10 computers featuring Internet access for library patrons, but officials are hoping to acquire 48 more terminals with money from the Gates Foundation, operated by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda.

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The Foster Your Future library campaign and San Buenaventura Friends of the Library are also raising funds for the additional computers, as well as new furniture, said Will Thompson, president of the library support group.

“Libraries are just as important as public schools,” Thompson said. “When school is not in session, the library is open, and these librarians can show you the difference between garbage information and useful information.”

So far, the two groups have collectively raised $150,000, but are hoping for an additional $350,000. Thompson said the furniture to be acquired must be of good quality and sturdy.

“When a 200-pound fullback from the football team throws himself into a seat, he expects it to hold him,” said Thompson, a retired pilot who flew with TWA for 30 years.

While Sunday’s celebration was a mostly festive occasion, some patrons of the Avenue Library said their neighborhood branch was suffering from the reopening of Foster.

During the renovation, library staff was transferred to the Avenue branch, along with two computers linked to the Internet. The smaller library also had extended operating hours. But now that Foster is reopening, the staff and computers were transferred back downtown, and the Avenue branch will be open 17 fewer hours each week.

Len Evans, a founding member of the Westside Community Council, circulated a petition outside the Foster branch Sunday in an attempt to encourage city and county officials to fund additional staff and equipment for the Avenue branch.

“To get the hours and the equipment and the staff, and then to just lose them, we’re just not willing to let that happen,” Evans said.

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David Bianco, chairman of the Foster Your Future library campaign, said complaints by Avenue branch supporters demonstrated how critical libraries, with free Internet access available to everyone, have become to communities.

“They are about linking the community with what it wants for itself,” he said.

But Bianco, beaming that Foster has space for 48 computers, said Ventura now has one of the most wired libraries anywhere.

“This is an information center, a democratic public institution,” he said. “And it is as important as any business on Main Street, and more so.”