Library Committee to Meet Within Month

A new advisory committee to oversee the Orange County Public Library system will hold its first meeting within the next month, officials said.

The committee was formed late last year as part of a reorganization of the 28-branch library system.

The panel will be made up of representatives from cities served by the system as well as two county supervisors, one representative of the Orange County City Managers Assn. and one representative from a city with its own library system.

County Librarian John M. Adams said the committee will give communities a stronger voice in the way their branch libraries are run and how money is spent.

Under the reorganization, libraries in Irvine, Costa Mesa and Laguna Niguel recently began Sunday operating hours for the first time in nearly two decades.

Adams said he expected to increase the budget for new books, periodicals and other materials later this year. The materials budget was cut as part of the reorganization, which ended the use of library reserve funds to balance the system’s budget.