Change is afoot in Santa Clarita, and change can be a scary thing. We know what we’ve got now; what will things look like if we change them?

Americans demanded change in the 2008 general election, and they got it. Are things better? Worse? Certainly they aren’t the same.

For the unionized employees and longtime county library patrons who packed Santa Clarita City Council Chambers on Tuesday, change was a frightening concept.

We’ve always had a county-run library system with millions of books, DVDs and other resource materials that could be reserved online and conveniently picked up within days. The friendly and dedicated librarians were always willing to hunt down the obscure title, help students with projects and run wonderful programs that introduced children to the joys of reading.

Here at The Signal, we’re in favor of reading.

Now, along comes the Santa Clarita City Council, pulling out the rug and taking it all away.

Or so it seemed to the library employees who will either have to transfer to another county library or reapply with a new operator if they want to stay in place, losing their union benefits in the process.

And so it seemed to the library patrons who appreciate the service they’ve received from the county and don’t know what shape the new services will take.

The City Council voted to take over operations of the city’s three libraries for one simple reason: The city can and will meet the public’s expectations for service, and will dramatically increase those services when it opens the new, vastly larger library in Newhall — which the city paid for entirely.

The county could not and would not maintain current service levels over the long haul, much less expand them.

While it’s true that the city of Santa Clarita would collect enough library-tax revenue to sustain its own library system, the county does not.

The Board of Supervisors subsidizes the county library system to the tune of at least $24 million in general-fund money annually.

The library must compete with every other county department — sheriff, fire, public works and parks, to name a few — for those finite general-fund dollars.

The county’s proposed 2010/11 budget slashes $4.8 million from the previous $24 million that the library system got from the county’s general fund.

The county library system is already eliminating services such as the county’s adult-literacy program, and cutting entire days from the schedule at various libraries.

Councilwoman Marsha McLean, who serves on the County Library Commission, noted Tuesday that cracks are forming in the county library system. Well, a 20-percent cut in the county’s general-fund contribution to the library system in a single year — roughly the cost of running all three Santa Clarita libraries — isn’t a crack. It’s a gaping hole.

Just as it has done with cross-town roads, recreation programs, open-space preservation and gravel-mine fighting, the city had to step in where others couldn’t or wouldn’t tread, and fill that hole.

Opponents chastised the city for rushing to take over the libraries. It’s not the case.

In 1999, when the city built the Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library — because the county refused to spend the money to replace the previous, inadequate Canyon Country library — the city conducted a feasibility study for operating the city libraries.

The feasibility study showed it was viable to take over the library system. City leaders decided they weren’t ready to take over the libraries and chose to remain with the county.

We’ve matured as city in the last decade. While the clouds of financial uncertainty were darkening at the state and county level, the city was winning awards for fiscal management and financial accountability.

The city knows that if there is a municipal service that’s too important to leave to other agencies that can’t guarantee a future for it, we must do it ourselves as Santa Clarita residents.

Tuesday was the beginning. Now comes the heavy lifting.

The point has been made repeatedly that the city has no experience in running libraries. That much is true. That’s why, to handle day-to-day library operations, the city has contracted the services of a professional firm that, based on the number of libraries it operates, is the nation’s fifth-largest library system.

But the city and the operator aren’t mind readers. For the libraries to provide the services and resources you want, you will need to participate in the process and make your voice heard.

You will have that opportunity in the months and years ahead.

Just like you, we will be watching and advocating. Just like you, we will hold our City Council and city staff accountable to their promises of increased service, 100,000 additional books, easy access to 29 million volumes from other libraries — and friendly, competent, credentialed librarians.

We believe that is exactly what they will do, but that’s the beauty of it, really. We know where to find the people whose feet we’re going to hold to the fire: right down the road at Santa Clarita City Hall.