NORTHRIDGE : Library Branch to Reopen Monday

The dangling lights have been reattached and the bookcases bolted to the floor, and the Northridge branch of the Los Angeles Public Library will reopen for business Monday.

Shaken by the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake, the library at 9051 Darby Ave. has been closed nearly six months as crews completed $110,000 worth of repairs.

“The damage was mostly cosmetic,” senior librarian Lina Daukas said, with light fixtures shaken from ceilings and cracks splitting the walls, but no structural damage.

The falling lights could have impaled patrons, had any been in the building when the early morning temblor hit, Daukas said. So the fixtures have been recessed into the ceilings.

For workers at the library, the temblor brought building improvements they had sought for years.

“We’ve been repainted after 20 years and we now have carpeting,” Daukas chuckled.

Library hours will be 12:30 to 8 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays and 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays.