Downey City Library
Dan Rooker from the Downey City Library presented a timely program about the problems veterans face when returning to integrate into their communities.
Most cities do not maintain their own library: they are furnished with a branch of the Los Angeles County. But in the 1960’s, after Downey became a chartered city in 1956, it chose not only to have its own city-council government, and its own police, fire and public works departments (think about asking the County to hurry up and fix a pothole in a Downey street), but its own Library.
Our Downey Library is superior to the county branches which cities around us have, and that undoubtedly is one of the reasons why Downey has such a strong sense of its own individuality. Inhabitants of towns surrounding Downey come to our library to share its resources. When asked, what makes Downey so special, now add, to the local government, businesses, service clubs such as Rotary, our own YMCA branch, the Hospital and Symphony and Theatre, a Library which offers what Downey citizens want.
Not only does the Library contain an excellent supply of Books: one hundred thousand of them, divided into a large fiction area, plus non-fiction books, and a huge children’s reading room, plus a large reference and computer department. Its cool air-conditioned interior is a comfortable place where senior citizens can go when the temperatures soar in the summer. And its Friends Gift Shop sells gently used books at incredibly reasonable prices.
Our Library sponsors dozens of reading programs for children, and teens, as well an adult literacy program, and trains volunteers to help, among its many varied services.
One thousand persons a day use the Downey Library. There are eight fulltime employees, four of them professional librarians, plus many part-time workers. As Dan explained, Librarians serve because they like helping people. So when recent city budget cuts were mandated by the council, and staff was cut back, these librarians took on an additional fifty percent work load, without additional compensation, to keep the services coming.
Dan presented a project to involve Downey Rotary. When War Comes Home, by Aaron Glantz, is a book about the government’s neglect of soldiers who have come home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It considers how America “deifies its veterans and then casts them off like damaged goods” (Amazon review). How to treat the returning combat veteran’s mental health issues has become a major concern for America.
The book will be made available in quantities so it will be available for Downey citizens to read and discuss. It touches on the recent scandals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and the Bush Administration’s poor handling of veteran’s benefits.
This situation has sparked an effort to help those of us remaining at home to understand the pressure on soldiers who are returning. After bearing the stress of combat and seeing friends killed, veterans often understandably have difficulty re-integrating into civilian life. On Veterans Day in November the Downey Library plans to offer a program where speakers will discuss their frustrating experiences.
In the meantime, the Downey Library is preparing packages for serving service men and women, who have requested a specific book while on assignment in a war zone. The Library will try to find the book and fill the request, but will also add to the package such welcome little items as tooth paste, candy, lip balm and a personal note or letter.
We will keep you posted as to future developments.