Inside Leisure Village comes to the Broome Library
By Stephen E. Stratton, Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs/John Spoor Broome Library
Inside Leisure Village is a newspaper that has been published since 1979 in Camarillo. It contains news, information, and details into the life of the Leisure Village community, which is located in the northeast section of town. The large planned senior community began construction in 1973 and was completed in 1984. There are a total of 2136 housing units that make up the large community. Leisure Village resident Bob McQuivey, the former board chair of Leisure Village, wanted to find a way to preserve them. Jerry Spector, a photographer for the newspaper and father of a librarian, approached the John Spoor Broome Library earlier this year with questions regarding the possible gift of past newspaper issues. The men, along with Inside Leisure Village Editor, Stan Reshes, were concerned that the history of Leisure Village might be lost or forgotten if access to the paper copies was lost. The Village historian had faithfully stored a copy of each issue over the years.
In total, close to 400 individual issues of the newspaper were given to the Broome Library, a full run of the newspaper since its first issue. Matt Cook, head of Unique and Special Collections at Broome Library said, “Leisure Village is an important part of Camarillo, Ventura County, and the Central Coast. This material will be used by our students, the public, historians, and researchers.” The Broome Library is always very happy to receive gifts that contain information that can help the students or faculty further their research. “We’re eager to partner in this relevant project,” explains Cook. “More and more people are moving into retirement communities as baby boomers retire. Our students will be able to use the newspaper to learn more about the history of Leisure Village as well as learn how to digitize and care for this historical material. When completed, the ILV archives will be useful and easy for anyone to access.” It takes Broome Library employees approximately five hours to digitize and make accessible each issue of ILV. Once the work is complete, all the issues covering 34 years will be fully searchable for students, faculty, and residents to study activities or fondly recall events in the life of the Camarillo neighborhood.