Ventura
County
Biographies
VENTURA COUNTY FREE LIBRARY
“ALL ROADS LEAD
TO THE VENTURA COUNTY FREE LIBRARY”
An institution is a name but the
county library of Ventura is more, it is a living organism. Its unofficial motto is, “All roads in
Ventura County lead to the Ventura County Free Library.”
Started in 1916 by Miss Julia Steffa, the county library has grown from a little room in
the court house to a library with ninety-five branches. Besides its official branches it sends books
to those who are too far away to get to a regular branch. Its main branch is the Ventura City Library,
started in 1874 and established as a Free Public Library in 1878. What tales of sacrifice and work the women of
Ventura could tell of the establishment of the city library. Mrs. Myrtle Shepard Francs says in “The
History and Reminiscences of San Buenaventura,” Page 15: “It was in this period that my mother and
Mrs. Bailey formulated the plan of a public library, the whole town joining in
and working for a fair that cleared six hundred dollars. Mr. Bailey acted as librarian for several
years without remuneration.” Mr. J. F.
Newby was the next librarian and Miss Florence Vandever
was librarian from February 14, 1888 to 1924.
It was partly due to the farsightedness of Miss Vandever
that the city library of Ventura became a branch of the county library.
The city library and the county
library combined under one librarian in the library building at 651 East Main
Street in Ventura. This building was the
gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Foster of Ventura who gave it to be used for the
purpose of a library and city hall. It
is admirably suited for this use, but the town has grown faster than was ever
dreamed and today both the library and city hall need additional space.
Miss Julia Steffa
organized the county library. She had
executive ability of the highest order and it is to her work that the present
system is largely indebted. She took the
brunt of planning for the library work in the new building and it is to her
care and Mr. Foster’s generosity that the county owes the almost perfect
equipment in the way of building and furniture that it now has.
The building houses the lively
commerce and exchange of books that goes on at the county library. When the library does not have books it
borrows from the State Library. It also
borrows from other libraries through the union catalog at the State Library
from which the location of library books throughout the state can be
found. In this way books that can no
longer be bought are often borrowed, and the use of books too expensive to buy
is obtained.
To the county library belong all the
elementary school districts but one and all the high school districts but
one. By cooperative buying and exchange
of books, the schools can always have fresh new books on their shelves instead
of the old cast-off ones of former school generations and an exchange may be
made at any time.
The same is true of the
branches. No small branch can afford to
buy all the books asked for; sometimes books are only wanted by one or two
people and then lay for years unread, but in a county library branch when such
a book has been read by those who want it, it is passed on to another branch
where people are wanting it, and when they have finished, to another. It is always to be had, but it is also being
used. The saving in expenditure is
especially great in little used non-fiction books. When reference material is needed for short
time use, it is sent out from the main library to the branch where it is
needed. The library does a tremendous
amount of school reference work and sends out hundreds of copies of the
National Geographic alone for classroom use, as well as supplementary texts,
dictionaries, maps, globes, pictures, music records, sheet music, etc.
In this day of centralization the
county library is an excellent example of the economy in government that can be
effected by centralization. Just to
compare the budgets of the branch libraries with those of independent libraries
is a revelation of economy in administration.
There is centralized cataloging, buying of periodicals, books, etc.,
done by people who work faster because they specialize in their work and are
used to getting out quantities of work, whereas in smaller places all the work
has to be done by one person and often is not done for sheer lack of time.
The county library has, as has been
noted above, ninety-five branches and one hundred twenty-seven thousand, eight
hundred eighty-six volumes. The city
library has three branches and ten thousand, nine hundred twenty-six
volumes. Eleven assistants are employed
at the headquarters in Ventura.
Twenty-eight assistants are scattered over the county. There are three assistants in the city
library.
Miss Elizabeth R. Topping is the
head librarian. Prior to coming to
Ventura, Miss Topping was first assistant in the Monterey County Free Library
at Salinas. Before that she had been
librarian at Marshfield, Oregon, and at Everett, Washington. For the past twelve years, since 1921, she
has been librarian of the Ventura County Free Library. She is a graduate of Cornell University and
of the New York State Library School and holds a life certificate as a
certified county librarian of the State of California.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 347-349, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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