OAK PARK : Hearing on Library Facilities Planned

Oak Park residents will have an opportunity tonight to express their views on how the community can improve its library services.

County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk and Dixie D. Adeniran, director of the county’s library services agency, will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. at Oak Park High School to discuss the community’s library needs.

Oak Park’s public library operates jointly with the Oak Park High School library in a small building on the high school grounds.

Community leaders and library officials maintain that the library is underused because some residents feel uncomfortable going onto the high school grounds or sharing the library with students.

In addition, the library is open to the public only from 1 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday because it is used by high school classes in the mornings, librarian Kathryn Desio said.

Desio said members of the public are also frustrated by a lack of parking at the facility.

Parking spaces are usually taken by school staff and students.

Moreover, the library’s collection of 15,000 books is about half the size that it should be for a community such as Oak Park, which has 13,000 residents, Desio said.

Officials are considering building a new library in Oak Park, Adeniran said.

Another alternative to be discussed tonight is working with Los Angeles County to build a large library that would serve both Oak Park and other communities located on the other side of the Ventura County line.

The meeting will be in room C-10 at the high school.