Overdue Books : Plans for the Platt Avenue branch go back to 1970 when a young family thought their children would use the facility as they grew up. Now building has begun but it comes a generation too late.

The sight of heavy equipment working on the long-vacant lot in Woodland Hills jolted me out of my early morning stupor as I passed by on my way to work.

They are actually starting to build the library, I thought. About time!

Back in 1970, when we were house-hunting, the west San Fernando Valley looked like a great neighborhood for raising a family.

Streets were safe, schools and shopping were nearby. Best of all, the triangular weed patch on Victory Boulevard behind the gas station near Platt Avenue was the site of the future Platt Branch Library.

We would make sure our children, then 3 and 1, would use that when they were school age. Surely it would be ready by then.

Before long the children entered elementary school. For budgetary reasons, the library hadn’t been built yet, so I took them to other branches. I also volunteered in the school library, which was filled with old, out-of-date books in bad repair, had no librarian and needed all the help it could get.

In the spring of 1974, when the children were in second grade and kindergarten, some neighbors formed a Friends of the Library group which tried to hasten the process.

The original funding plan had not been approved, so the group organized an effort to raise the money through a local assessment district.

The story was that, if we could finance the building, the city would come through with the books and staff.

I eagerly went to meetings, signed the petition and urged my friends to do so also. The attempt came to nought, and I for one pretty much gave up hope of ever having a library in our neighborhood.

The vacant lot just sat there year after year, its sign announcing the future library growing more and more shabby. Weeds and litter accumulated, making the lot an eyesore.

Every few years a crew came in to cut the weeds and clean out the litter, but that was all.

The children finished elementary school, went through high school driving to the other branches or going to Cal State Northridge when they needed to do extensive research. Soon they left for college; now they have moved out completely.

The old sign gathered graffiti and posters, then disappeared. We forgot about the promised library, and the city apparently did too.

Interest rekindled in the mid-1980s. A new, revised sign appeared in 1988. Then, in 1989, a bond measure to build the library actually passed. It won’t be long now, I thought. Great! But almost four more years slipped by.

Finally the equipment is there, leveling the lot; it is going to be built at last. Eventually I will have to go only a few blocks to check out books.

I’m grateful that a new library can be funded in this time of widespread library budget cuts.

For us, however, this library is a whole generation too late.

Our house is too big for us now that the children are gone, and we are nearing retirement.

We will probably move away before any grandchildren arrive, maybe even before the library is finished.

Wherever we go this time, I’ll make sure a library is already nearby.

I’m not going to wait another generation.