IT SOMETIMES TAKES the threat of losing an old friend to make you appreciate just how much you need him, and so it has been with the announced closing of the H.P. Wright Library in Ventura.

A source of comfort, entertainment, and a home away from home for many Venturans, the Wright is a victim of budget cutbacks in the County Library System. The closing has sparked an uprising of sorts in Ventura which has secretly pleased me. To see an organized effort of this sort for a facility of knowledge is truly remarkable in an age when so many other things compete for our attention.

Long supportive of efforts by the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library to privately raise money to keep the facility open, I recently joined a group of my fellow Venturans on the newly convened Ventura Library Plan Steering Committee.

In these dog days of budget cuts, our group of motivated citizens is the substitute for the $100,000 library plan exercise axed from the city's budget last year.

"It's time to have this conversation and see it through to the end," Deputy Mayor Bill Fulton told us last week.

The Wright is losing its lease from Ventura College in 2015 and chances are it won't be renewed. A smaller facility than the E.P. Foster Library Downtown, it's unable to house the collections of both libraries and does not have a meeting room or computer center. The much smaller Avenue Library receives money from federal sources. So the Wright was targeted for closure by the county in an effort to consolidate and save money it doesn't have any more.

But it's the most popular library in the city, with a circulation of 210,556, thus the uprising.

San Buenaventura Friends of the Library has raised enough money to keep the facility open until late October. If the Ventura sales tax measure passes in November, with the added revenue, the facility could potentially stay open until the lease is up in 2015, at least. If not, well, it's likely the Friends will give up the effort and the facility will close.

A DENIZEN OF THE EAST END, I must admit to traveling more frequently to the Oxnard Library when my children were very young in the late '90s. A larger, newer facility with a better children's collection, the city-run library had predictable hours, which our three Ventura libraries have never had. The now-closed bookstore Adventures for Kids drew us out as well.

But we've also spent time in the comfy beanbag chairs at the Wright, talked to the friendly librarians who obviously love their jobs, and watched the students trail over from Foothill High after school.

The city has property available in the Community Park on Kimball Road near the 126 Freeway to build a large, new facility for the entire city, but doesn't have the funding identified. I envy the cities of Camarillo and Oxnard for their new state-of-the art facilities. In 1997, a comprehensive study recommended the city withdraw from the County Library System altogether, but we never followed through.

LIbraries of the future may need to look very different than they do today. Books can be downloaded digitally and reference materials are available online. When surveyed, our group lamented the lack of community programs and activities offered in Ventura libraries. Meeting facilities, an auditorium and possibly a coffee/juice bar would be great additions.

Our group has a big, lumpy piece of clay to mold. Citizen input will be very important. The entire community is being invited to weigh in. The idea is to have a strategic plan to present to the council by May of 2010.

Your constructive thoughts are welcomed in this space, or you can send me an email.