Over the last year, we've seen the Los Angeles Library Public Library System drastically cut hours, staff, and services. So, it was amazing to hear that the Los Angeles County Library System has opened a new branch in Acton. The Acton / Agua Dulce Christopher Colombo Brevidoro Library opened on September 29, 2010. According to their website, the library is named in honor of Christopher Colombo Brevidoro, an Italian immigrant who founded the Colombo Lilac Ranch with his wife Ida Brevidoro. Their sons, John and Robert Brevidoro, donated the land in 2003 to the County of Los Angeles for a new library.
This library is new. Really new. Everything inside was purchased new for the collection. We did speak to a librarian who said that some older books that had been donated from other locations would soon be making their way over. It is kind of an amazing thing to browse the shelves of so many new books. Most have never been opened before. They've filled the collection with a little bit of everything. Kudos to the Photography/Music section where I found a bunch of punk rock books.
They have a large children's area seperated from the rest of the library, about two dozen computer stations, and a nice selection of dvds and cds. Each cd is labeled on the spine with an easy to read black text on white sticker. Amazing! Why don't more libraries do that?
Everyone we came in contact with, both the librarians and patrons, had a sense of excitement and wonder. People were really interested in what the library had to offer. It was a good feeling.
And keeping with the tradition of local artists providing pieces to libraries, we find two great examples inside. Above the main desk hangs David Baker's "Reading Gives Your Imagination Wings". Two vibrant metal wings guard a scroll with this inspirational message. Across the library is Anne Marie Karlsen's "Frontier". It appears to be five patterned discs, but as you look closer, you see the patterns are made up of images from the Antelope Valley.
We took the 14 up to the library, passing the "Oak of the Golden Dream" (supposedly, where gold was first discovered in California). We passed by Vasquez Rocks and did our best Star Trek impersonations. We stopped in for breakfast / lunch at Crazy Otto's, home of the world record holding "World's Largest Omelette".
To summarize, head north out of town. Eat a big breakast at Otto's. Walk it off at Vasquez Rocks. Relax at the Acton / Agua Library.
LA County Library has served the Acton area since at least the early 1930's but the present-day building is the area's first permanent branch location. Prior to 2010, residents had several options for County service - visit a branch in the Santa Clarita proper (the closest was the original location of the JoAnn Darcy Canyon Country branch 15 miles to the west on Soledad Canyon Road before it was taken over by the City of Santa Clarita), subscribe to the Books-by-Mail service (headquartered at Lancaster Regional), or wait until the bookmobile visited the area.
ReplyDeleteThere were two early branches in the area, Acton and Camp Acton. I couldn't find the exact locations of these branches from my research at the Huntington Library. The regular Acton branch served the sparse community most likely from a school in the area that also subscribed to the Library's supplementary book service (a service that supplied an elementary school with all the curriculum-required textbooks and library materials). Camp Acton, which was most likely south of the present-day 14 Freeway off Soledad Canyon, was a County-operated inmate camp so it was considered an "institutional" branch and over at least the next 20 years, the Camp alternated between inmate help and a librarian-in-charge. Older books and magazines rotated out of the community branch collections were often supplied to the institution branches.
Bookmobile service began in 1948 when the Newhall MobiLibrary began routes in the Santa Clarita Valley including the Acton/Agua Dulce area. From the mid 1970's to 1992, a specialized bookmobile based at Lancaster Regional called OASIS provided specialty materials to senior citizens in the Antelope Valley and the Acton vicinity.
As for "Agua Dulce", there was also another small community branch most likely at a schoolhouse.
When those branches closed, the Newhall Mobilibrary (later renamed Santa Clarita Valley Bookmobile) provided service to the area until the present-day Acton-Agua Dulce branch opened in 2010. Some of the area residents today still use the services of the Antelope Valley West Bookmobile, which has a few stops in the Acton vicinity.
Supplementary book service to elementary schools ended in 1946 when the Library transferred the division to the Superintendent of Schools (now known as the LA County Office of Education). In this service, the 3-4 childrens librarians in the division frequently consulted with the Superintendant of Schools to obtain a list of State-approved textbooks and additional reading material for the K-12 curriculum and by 1946, there were 83 school districts in the County that subscribed to the service as well as a lot of County Library branches that were attached to schools. Today, the LACOE Digital Library service is the vestige of this program and they still provide support to K-12 school librarians and media technicians in all the other districts except LAUSD (which has their own Library services division).