Library Offers Literature and Life Skills

Saying that libraries should provide access to the world, state Librarian Kevin Starr on Tuesday joined other state and local officials in dedicating the California Conservation Corps’ new Anacapa Library.

Located at the corps’ center at Camarillo State Hospital, the library is part of a pilot project funded by a $30,000 grant from the federal Library Services and Construction Act. Its shelves are stocked with 1,000 titles selected by members of the conservation corps, and there is also Internet access through a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit organization.

What makes the Anacapa Library different from other repositories is that its 70 users, CCC members ages 18 to 23, need reading materials that emphasize life skills alongside the classics, Starr said. Many of the corps members have not finished high school.

“A library such as this needs books on sexuality and history as well as the classics,” Starr said. “And they need books for young women so they can learn about their place in the world.”

Corps members, Starr said, are at the age when life is full of drama, confusion and exhilaration, and the Anacapa Library will help them turn their aspirations into reality.

“Once you make that vital connection, once you see that enhancement to the internal landscape is made, then you are going to find the future that awaits you,” Starr said.

CCC Director Al Aramburu, during a social gathering, stressed that members of the conservation corps need goals and objectives.

“We need to give them folk heroes, ethnic studies, access to multimedia, a place for social gatherings,” Aramburu said.

Aramburu said he hopes to have libraries in all 11 CCC centers across the state.

On Tuesday, CCC member Andrea Beehl of Oxnard was using a computer to look for job listings on the Internet. Beyond the practical uses of the library, she said, the room will be a great place to unwind after a day of work.

“It’s nice to have somewhere to go and hang out with someone you usually wouldn’t hang out with,” said Beehl, 21.

“I think this is the greatest thing the corps has done,” she said.