Odyssey Dinners Hit a Home Run for Library

Re “Library Benefit Has a ‘Let Them Eat Cake’ Attitude,” Voices, Nov. 3: The money raised by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, through events like the Literary Odyssey Dinners, has transformed the Los Angeles Public Library from a great library into an extraordinary one. The contributions from thousands of individuals, foundations and corporations augment city funds and allow the library to enhance its offerings with state-of-the-art technology, literacy programs for children, homework aides for students, career resources for teens, additional books for all ages and much more. These services, and the library’s more than 15,000 annual programs, are free and open to everyone.

Thanks to the hard work of the Literary Odyssey Dinners organizers, who raised $350,000, the library can double the number of its adult literacy centers to 12 branches citywide. The success of the dinners extended beyond this cause; Eli Broad announced a gift of $200,000 to the foundation and challenged other philanthropists to join him in support of the library.

Susan Kent

L.A. City Librarian

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Calvin Naito wrote about the elitism sanctioned by the library’s fund-raiser. I agree. I am probably an average user of the library, usually at the Westchester branch or the Central Library. I could make a donation, but it would not have met the minimum $300 to qualify for an invitation.

How about celebrating some of the library staff? The business and economics section at the Central Library is powerfully staffed with folks who are a fount of knowledge about those areas and know where to find what I need.

I enjoy mentoring young people. In one instance, at my Westchester branch, my need was to select four to five books at graduated levels of difficulty to use with a high school student who I perceived was reading well below his grade level. One of the librarians provided excellent assistance, and the books he selected for my project were really on the mark. These folks and possibly others serving at other locations could have been given a place at the dinners.

Tracy Rumford

Los Angeles