LIBRARY MARKS SILVER ANNIVERSARY; EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE POSED GREATEST CHALLENGE.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Its doors opened 25 years ago today and its shelves hold more than a quarter-million books, magazines, government documents and audio-visual materials.

The Valencia Public Library, part of the Los Angeles County system, will celebrate its silver anniversary today with a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. open house at 23743 Valencia Blvd.

A generation ago, the library's trusty card catalog system helped guide patrons through the stacks. That method for determining which materials are in their collection and which have been checked out has been replaced by a computerized version, said Josie Reyes, manager of the Valencia branch. The library also has a computer with access to the Internet and CD-ROM computer work stations.

``We have now gone to the Information Superhighway,'' Reyes said. ``We're changing with the times.''

One thing that hasn't changed since the library's 1972 opening is its size - 22,966 square feet - although its patronage has swelled as the community has grown, said Reyes, library manager since 1988.

In the 1995-96 fiscal year, the most recent statistics available, the Valencia branch had 59,773 library card holders in its records. That same year, customers checked out 671,721 books and materials to its patrons and librarians answered 516,180 of their reference questions.

Those statistics make Valencia one of the county library system's branches with the highest circulation, Reyes said.

It was only three years ago that the library's future seemed murky, since much of its collection was unsalvageable due to water damage when a pipe burst in the Northridge Earthquake.

``We lost a lot of periodicals - back issues of magazines, and government documents,'' Reyes said. ``We also lost a lot of reference materials that were out of print that we weren't able to replace,'' she said.

Until the Jan. 17, 1994, quake, Reyes said, her biggest projects had been moving the branch's collection out of the way as workers recarpeted the library. The bar-coding and computer cataloging of every book and material in its collection was the next big undertaking, but both projects paled in comparison to trying to ``put the library back together'' after the quake damage, Reyes said.

Rita Lance joined the Valencia Library a year after it opened and has been there ever since. She catalogs the assorted state and federal documents that are supplied to the branch because Valencia Library is an official government depository, she said.

One of the most popular aspects of the library as it marks 25 years serving the community is the lending of books on tape, Lance said.

Some things at the Valencia Library never change, whether it's the early 1970s or the late 1990s, Reyes noted. ``It's still a very popular place where students come and do their homework,'' she said.