Book Bucks: A recent statewide study of...

Book Bucks: A recent statewide study of libraries showed that money and service hours have stopped hemorrhaging after a couple years of butchery. Local agency director Dixie Adeniran is not surprised; Ventura County’s funding held steady last year, and special money from cities bumped up some hours. . . . Even so, “our system as it is currently constituted is dying,” she says. “There has to be more money.”

Lifetime Visit: Steve Fox moved from New York to Los Angeles 25 years ago, and from L.A. to Ventura County four years ago. It was then that he found “the California I thought I knew,” he says. . . . “Ventura County is not crowded, it’s safe, the people are friendly, I could move around, I wasn’t constricted. One of the reasons I left New York was because of those feelings.” Now he and a partner are publishing a county tourism guide (D5C).

Whom You Know: Remaking Burbank with a giant movie theater complex was relatively easy for Victor Georgino. He was a member of the city’s Kiwanis Club, the parks commission, the YMCA. “I used to run into Burbank officials at Little League games,” he says. . . . Georgino has no such contacts for his latest project: a theater complex in Ventura. But he does have contacts in show business (B1).

On Display: With a new director this year and a new exhibit this week, the Ventura County Maritime Museum is pushing for a higher profile. . . . Former Navy officer Mark Bacin is reorganizing the 5-year-old museum, says docent president Bob Scott. And noted Malibu artist John Kelly is showing a selection of prints through July 2. . . . “The most universal comment from visitors to the museum is, ‘My God, we didn’t know this was here!’ ” Scott says. He hopes that’s changing.