Christina Pompa

Professor donates books

The sun warmed the winter afternoon one Tuesday last January as Cal State Long Beach Political Science Department Chair Dr. Gerry Riposa got into the cab of an orange and white rented U-Haul truck loaded with 2,000 books and headed to South Central.

His final destination was the Alma Reaves Woods Watts Branch Library were CSULB President Robert Maxson waited with several community leaders and citizens, including library namesake Alma Reaves Woods, a community activist who has spent much of her life supporting library causes and encouraging young kids to read.

"We got our boxes and carts, rolled up our sleeves and began unloading the books,"Maxson said.

The donation of books to the public library came as the result of a book drive project Riposa began in late October, which was supported by President Maxson.

Inspiration for the drive came when Riposa visited the library last fall while doing research for a project examining the economic development of South Central with a focus on Watts.

"I started walking around the stacks and I saw that there were noticeable gaps, air space on the shelves."Riposa said. "I looked in the social science section and the humanities section and they only had two books on black studies and one book on womenÕs studies printed in 1972."

Although there was a shortage of books, Riposa was impressed with the programs offered by the library which was recently expanded from 3,400 feet to12,500 feet and serves approximately 8,000 patrons a month, according to Norma Anders, head librarian. The library offers adult and youth reading projects, an English as a second language program and a grandparents and books program which trains seniors to read to children, Anders said.

"We intervene at every level to encourage literacy,"said Anders, who has worked at the library for 23 years and is also a CSULB alumnus.

Anders was surprised when she got a call from Riposa offering to help the library.

"No one has ever called us and said 'I like what you do and I want to help,Õ"Anders said. "In more affluent areas this happens, but for those of us who reside in socially impacted communities, this does not happen for us."

Riposa asked the departments of the College of Liberal Arts to participate in the book drive to help the public library which also serves as a literacy center. He also asked for support from Cal State Los Angeles political science department and the geography department at Chico State.

Several departments also donated money, enabling Riposa to present the library staff with $500.

"Watts library is a community institution, not just a place where people go, check out books, take them home, read them and bring them back,"Riposa said.

The library is a safe haven for children to go to after school, Riposa said. The donation of new and used books included, current text books, novels, monographs, childrenÕs books and classics.

"We expect this to be the beginning of a good relationship,"Anders said. "One person really can make a lot of difference."