Measure L Isn't Just About Books, Mar Vista Librarian Says

It’s 9:35 on a Wednesday morning and there are already more than 20 people lined up outside the Mar Vista branch of the Los Angeles Public library on Venice Boulevard.

When the doors finally open at 10 a.m. they stream in. Mothers with children in strollers head to the back room for storytelling, students make a beeline for the reference section and by 10:01 every single computer terminal is taken.

Senior Librarian Carole Kealoha says that’s the way it is every day, or at least every day the library is open. Despite the fact that the Los Angeles Public Library's budget is only 2 percent of the city’s entire budget, in the last two years funding across all of LAPL’s 73 libraries has been cut three times.

Some $22 million of its $130 million budget has been slashed; services have been cut from seven to five days a week  (for the first time in the LAPL’s 139-year history), and library staff has been cut by 28 percent.

The LAPL has gone to great pains to draw up a document outlining the benefits of voting yes on Measure L in the March 8 election. The measure would increase the library’s funding from the city’s general fund from .0175 percent to .03 percent over the next four years. Measure L is not a tax and would be subject to audits.

The LAPL projects that should Measure L pass, by 2015 it will have enough money to reverse the cuts and restore services back to 2008 levels, which include six-day services at all of the city’s 73 libraries and seven-day services at its nine regional libraries.

However, should Measure L fail, the LAPL says it could lose an additional $28 million, which in turn could lead to 64 of the city’s 73 libraries being closed.

Over the last few weeks a great deal of statistics have been bandied about when it comes to what Measure L means, but as Kealoha points out, none explain what the cuts have really meant to the libraries and their patrons.

“I’ve lost three staff in this branch,” said Kealoha. “Two half-time employees and one full-time.” The half-time employees were messenger clerks whose job it was to shelve the books and process all the newspapers.

“Now we have to shelve them ourselves and we simply don’t have the time or manpower. We do have some volunteers,” she added, “but they can only do the alphabetical shelving, we can’t give them more complex tasks.” As a result, Kealoha says things have become difficult because many books just aren’t in the right place anymore and shelving is taking much longer.

Kealoha also lost her full-time adult librarian who spent the majority of his time on the reference desk, answering questions and looking up information. “Now we have to spend more time on the reference desk ourselves, which cuts into our outreach time and our programming. I had started a science fiction book club in cooperation with Venice Library but we had to cancel it.”

The Mar Vista Branch library now has only three permanent librarians, one of whom is half-time, along with four full-time clerk typists who work on the circulation desk, and two messenger clerks.  Kealoha says there’s no backup for people who get ill or take vacation. “We simply don’t have anyone to call in if someone gets sick,” she said.

Some influential organizations, including the League of Women Voters, are urging people to vote no on Measure L, arguing that those funds that would be earmarked for the libraries are needed to support police and fire services.

The LAPL has responded strongly, saying in no uncertain terms that the libraries play an intrinsic part in helping to prevent crime by offering the city’s largest after-school program, providing children alternatives to gangs and drugs, assisting teens in preparing for college and helping adults and children learn to read. Currently 90,000 children visit the city’s libraries every week.

During a coffee break, Kealoha teared up as she talked about the many latchkey kids in the city. “If those [latchkey kids] are not here, where will they go after school?” she asked. 

She points out graffiti scrawled on the library’s windows by local gang members and talks of the time her 10-year-old son and her husband were trapped in a local parking lot during a gang shooting.

“Those gangs are out recruiting every day and I don’t want to see children joining gangs. [The library] is a safe haven and we want to keep our kids safe,” she said.

Kealoha added there are so many other programs and services that libraries provide in helping people get back on their feet and becoming active members of society.  “We have people who come here to use the computers, many of whom don’t have Internet access at home or their computer or printer is broken,” she pointed out.

She noted that the recession has also driven more people to the libraries as they cannot afford to either buy or fix their computers or pay for their Internet any longer, and they certainly can’t afford to buy books. “We’re busier than we’ve ever been,” she said. And with more and more people unemployed, many of them come to the libraries for job seeking and resume writing assistance.

“We also offer tutoring online, free eBook and video downloads, research assistance and computer classes,” she noted.

One of the draws that Kealoha is most proud of is the library’s storytelling program. “Introducing children to reading at a very young age has always been a huge part of our outreach,” she explained. “It’s part of our mission along with helping parents teach their kids to read and setting them up for the future.

“It all goes back to Thomas Jefferson,” she said. “Providing education and equal access to everyone creates a democracy.”