A Library Worth Checking Out

The public library system is one of America’s treasures. Keeping pace from the era of hardback books through the years of the paperbacks to the days of the Internet, the libraries provide access to knowledge.

But the bricks and mortar, let alone the books and computers, aren’t cheap. In South County, the Capistrano Unified School District is about to team up with the county to build and operate a library for joint use by students and the public.

The joint use of a public library would be a first for the county. It’s an experiment with possible pitfalls as well as some promise.

The library will be at Ladera Ranch school, which will serve students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The school would be sole user of the first floor while classes are going on; the public would use the second floor during the day. Both floors would be open to everyone after school. That arrangement could go far toward providing the needed security for the students and shielding adults from swarms of exuberant youngsters racing through aisles where silence is the custom.

Orange County will pay $1.5 million toward the library, with the money coming from fees imposed on the developer of Ladera Ranch. Capistrano Unified will pay the rest, an amount still undetermined.

Joint-use attempts elsewhere have met with mixed success because of conflicts over matters like who employs the librarians--the county or the school--security when adults are around children, and having some books, rooms and computers off-limits at certain times. Favoring the Ladera Ranch experiment is the newness of the planned community, where the first homes were sold last year. Most residents, realizing the community could not afford its own library, will be accustomed to joint use.

The recession of the early 1990s and the bankruptcy of 1994 pushed Orange County’s library system back on its heels. On some days the buildings were closed; on others they were open for fewer hours. The libraries have made a marvelous comeback. If they can share their expertise more widely, economically and efficiently, they will benefit.