EDITORIAL A CIVIC SUCCESS L.A. HAS SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF IN THE REVAMPED LIBRARY SYSTEM.

FOR all the things that Los Angeles bungles, every once in a while something shows city leaders are capable of putting the public interest first.

The renovated Northridge Library, which reopened Monday in an attractive new building chock full of more books, magazines and DVDs than before, is an example of a good, successful, but rare municipal project.

In fact, it's just one of the 63 library construction and reconstruction projects funded by two bond issues over the last five years that have transformed the city's system into something to be truly proud of.

The new branches are hooked up with a virtual branch making the system accessible to almost anyone with its online offerings, such as the reservation system, the library's catalog and collection databases.

What's more, the library projects have been so well managed that librarians expect to have bond money left over for more library projects than originally planned.

Hats off to the city's librarians and Chief Librarian Susan Kent for showing us how public projects can work. We only hope the managers handling the bond construction funds for the schools and the city's park improvements took notes.