Library readies for new management
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

Even as time is growing short, the Ventura County Library District staff at the Moorpark Library diligently continues to serve local patrons. The 11 employees at the local branch are hard at work readying the small library for a big transition.

Moorpark City Librarian Mary Stewart is finishing up inventory lists before she hands off the library and its contents to the city at the end of the day tomorrow, Dec. 30.

The facility will be managed by a consulting firm hired by the City Council earlier this year.

“We’re working very hard to make this as smooth a transition as possible for everybody,” said Stewart, who’s been the local library director for the past 15 months.

While patrons look forward to a positive change, they said they’ll miss the existing staff members, who will take positions in other libraries.

“People have been appropriately interested to make sure the staff here has jobs. The patrons know us and residents have been very gracious and generous,” Stewart said.

Under county auspices, the library’s 11 employees have been sharing the equivalent of six fulltime positions. Three work full time, four share halftime schedules and four student librarians each work 10 hours per week.

Stewart will go on to manage the Oak Park Library branch of the Ventura County Library District. That library is in an unincorporated area of the county. The newer facility has a smaller staff and is open fewer hours.

“I haven’t been thinking about where I’m going because I’ve been focused on the Moorpark library,” Stewart said.

Most of the other employees at the Moorpark branch will go to work at the new Camarillo library. One employee is going to Ventura, Stewart said. Two of the four student librarians will stay at the new city library.

While bidding farewell to the city’s municipal library endeavor, Stewart said she encourages city officials to find a larger facility for the small but thriving branch as soon as possible.

Library records indicate the Moorpark library had more than 18,000 registered borrowers in January 2006. Half are children and young adults, Stewart said.

The Moorpark community is well-educated and people here value their library, she said.

“The local branch is small, but it holds a lot. It’s a real resource for the community and Moorpark residents have high expectations,” Stewart said.

The city hired Library Systems and Services LLC to manage and staff the library for at least the first 18 months of operation.

The library will be closed the first week of January to prepare for the changeover. There will be a soft opening week from Jan. 8 to 12, and a grand opening ceremony is set for Sat., Jan. 13.

The local branch, which will be open on Sunday afternoons, was accepted into the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System, thus enabling patrons to borrow materials from other libraries. Moorpark will become an official member on July 1, 2007. Until

then the local branch is an associate member, allowing patrons to immediately begin using the cooperative’s book loan program.