Local News in Brief : Arts Festival to Aid Library

When UK/LA--a celebration of British arts--comes to Los Angeles next year, one of the beneficiaries will be the Los Angeles Central Library’s “Save-the-Books” campaign. At a City Hall news conference Tuesday, Mayor Tom Bradley, along with American and British officials backing the festival, announced a dinner to raise cash for books damaged in the April, 1986, library fire.

The Feb. 28 fund-raiser at the Biltmore Hotel will feature a major draw: Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and his wife, the Duchess of York (the former Sarah Ferguson). Half the dinner’s proceeds will be earmarked for the project restoring three-quarters of a million books that were damaged by water and smoke and threatened by rot. The balance will be used to underwrite the festival, scheduled to run Feb. 4 through April 28.