Topanga Canyon Library: Not Just Another Pipe Dream

In an age of library closings and cuts, here’s some good news: a brand new library for Topanga Canyon, CA. Story from Huffington Post.

The two women who spear-headed this decade-long — and yes, it was well over a decade — quest were themselves fifteen and eighteen year residents of Topanga, moms of kids in the Topanga elementary school, all of whom used to visit the weekly Las Virgenes Bookmobile. One of the mom’s, Cynthia Scott, became a volunteer, and she — inspired by her kids — started gathering petitions about getting a library. She now works for County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the third crucial element in this triad of a deal.

The second mom, Adriane Allan, was a library science student who got a Masters in Library Science from UCLA. In 2001, she had been working on a paper about the importance of libraries to their communities, and something sparked. She called Supervisor Yaroslavsky’s office, where they were — quite understandably — a tad discouraging. Nevertheless, she started to gather all kinds of information for her paper. What would it take to build a library in Topanga?? Names, facts, feasibility studies… The figures were discouraging, to say the least, but she wanted to finish her paper!! (This woman is now a Santa Monica Children’s Librarian, bless her heart.)

The article’s author Jodi Lampert adds…go kiss your librarian, today!!