Help with homework. A safe place to go after school. Classes and events. Free printing services. Computers with Internet service.
These are some of the resources that make Los Angeles libraries an essential part of the community – especially with the cost of living in the area being so high. Librarians like Meredith Sires, in the Arroyo Seco Public Library, understand how important libraries are in the lives of families.
“Having a place that is open and available to anyone regardless of income, background, and housing situation makes a huge difference in folks’ lives,” said Meredith Sires, a Highland Park children’s librarian. “Families can rely on us to support them when they need extra school support or when their parents need extra support in job hunting, that makes a big difference.”
Los Angeles Unified School District students get issued a so-called “Student Success Card,” which virtually acts as a library card with added benefits for LAUSD students and their parents, according to Dora Suarez, one of the librarians at the Arroyo Seco branch.
Using the card, students are allowed to check out up to three books per day free of charge with no late fees or damage fees incurred. Students are allowed to print up to 25 pages for free, with each day counting as a separate transaction. Student Success Card holders are allowed to use the online services provided by the library such as free access to Tutor.com, an online tutoring service facilitated by Princeton Review, access to Scienceflix, an interactive stem research tool for kids in grades 5 through 10, and Bookflix, an online e-book library with a wide collection of often interactive fiction and non-fiction titles.
A service that is often overlooked by parents is the “Tech2go” packets provided by the library, Suarez said. A library cardholder can check out a tech packet that contains a laptop, a mobile wifi hotspot as well as a mouse. Along with tech literacy courses provided at the library, these services can aid older parents in need of a digital lifeline for their children’s schooling needs.
Some services are free of charge entirely for non-cardholders as well. For example, the STAR volunteering program facilitated by Sires at the Arroyo Seco branch is a read-aloud storytelling hour for children ages 3-5, entirely manned by volunteers. STAR has an impressive collective of veteran volunteers such as Katherine Pina-Garcia, who has been a volunteer since 2013.
“Sometimes their parents or grandparents take care of them and maybe [the parents’] English isn’t so good, yet they stress how important education is and they try to instill in them things like reading and listening. It’s a very encouraging atmosphere,” Pina-Garcia said.
Parents are usually oblivious to the kinds of services that the library provides.
Natalie Perez, a mother of two boys and a regular at the Arroyo Seco branch, said she didn’t know about most of the services offered, and that the printing service would be especially helpful.
She added: “We mostly check out books. I have been interested in coming on Saturdays to read. I’ve heard that they have volunteers read on Saturdays.”
