Council Names 5 to Library Committee

The Ventura City Council unanimously appointed five members to its newly formed Library Advisory Committee on Monday night to guide the libraries into the next millennium.

The five members are: William Fulton, an urban planner; David Bianco, creator of Elder Hostel International; Jean McPherson, a marketing executive; Ilene Gavenham, a librarian in Santa Paula; and George Tillquist, who served on the Library Advisory Board until it was dissolved in April.

Councilman Gary Tuttle, who headed the three-member committee that selected the five members, said the diversity of the members is a plus.

“I think they are a good balance,” he said. The Library Advisory Committee will replace the now-defunct Library Advisory Board.

The seven-member Ventura County Library Advisory Board was established in 1878 when the Ventura Free Library was formed. After the city joined the county library system, when it was launched in 1916, the board served as an advisory board to the county system.

The new Library Advisory Committee will advise the City Council on a number of issues, including whether to remain in the county library system and how to consolidate services, and how to extend library hours. The committee has five members, rather than the board’s seven, bringing it in line with the city’s other committees.

Four of the new committee members were on hand to express enthusiasm for their new jobs. Bianco, who heads the center for Studies of the Future/Elder Hostel, based in Ventura, is already active. He announced to the council that his organization has decided to donate $4,000 toward getting Internet access for the public at E.P. Foster Library. He said he expects the Internet to be up and running at the library by this fall.