Los Angeles Public Library

For the county library system, see County of Los Angeles Public Library.

Los Angeles Public Library
South entrance at Hope Street
Country	United States
Type	Public
Established	1872
Location	630 West 5th Street Los Angeles, California
Coordinates	34.0508°N 118.2539°W / 34.0508; -118.2539
Branches	72
Collection
Size	6,393,429
Access and use
Circulation	18 million
Population served	3,844,829 (city) 18,783,638 (metro)
Other information
Budget	US$134,630,543
Director	Martin Gomez, City Librarian
Staff	828
Website	www.lapl.org
References:

The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) system serves the residents of Los Angeles, California, United States. With over 6 million volumes, LAPL is one of the largest publicly funded library systems in the world. The system is overseen by a Board of Library Commissioners with five members appointed by the mayor of Los Angeles.

Library cards are free to California residents. Circulating books, periodicals, computer access and audio visual materials are available to patrons. The Library's Rare Books Department is located in its downtown Los Angeles location. There is also an extensive selection of databases covering a wide variety of topics, many of which are available to remote users who hold an LAPL library card. Examples include full-text databases of periodicals, business directories, and language learning tools. Despite the development of accessible databases and public access to the Internet, LAPL's Central Library, located at 630 West 5th Street Downtown Los Angeles, between Grand Avenue and Flower Street, remains an important research library.

The library has an extensive collection of historic photographs from a variety of sources, including the former Los Angeles Herald-Examiner newspaper, the Security Pacific Bank Collection, as well as portfolios by noted local photographers. The "Shades of L.A. Collection" is an archive of over 10,000 images from the city's family photo albums (collected recently by former Photo Collection manager Carolyn Kozo Cole) shows the diverse history of all people living here. Many images can be viewed via the online photo collection.

Aggressive expansion and growth of the system began in the 1920s. Under Library Board of Commissioners Chairman Orra E. Monnette, the system gained the support of Los Angeles citizens and has added to the large network of branch libraries with modern buildings to keep pace with the growth of the city.

Central Library

Los Angeles Central Library at Flower Street

The Richard Riordan Central Library, originally constructed in 1926, is a downtown Los Angeles landmark. It is the third largest public library in the United States in terms of book and periodical holdings. Originally the Central Library, the building was renamed in honor of the longtime president of the Board of Library Commissioners and President of the University of Southern California, Rufus B. von KleinSmid. The new wing of Central Library, completed in 1993, is named in honor of former mayor Tom Bradley. The complex (i.e., the original Goodhue building and the Bradley wing) was subsequently renamed in 2001 for former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue designed the original Los Angeles Central Library with influences of ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean Revival architecture. The central tower is topped with a tiled mosaic pyramid with suns on the sides with a hand holding a torch representing the "Light of Learning" at the apex. Other elements include sphinxes, snakes, and celestial mosaics. It has sculptural elements by the preeminent American architectural sculptor Lee Lawrie, similar to the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, also designed by Goodhue.

Some of the more notable collections included the Science and Technology Library in a special alcove above the general Science Department which included a complete collection of all Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) publications including the complete Patent Gazette and Trademark Gazette issues from the opening of the PTO. It also included a complete set of the entire registration books published by the United States Copyright Office starting from Volume 1. These collections were restored when the Central Library reopened.

A portion of the four-part mural by illustrator Dean Cornwell depicted the stages of the history of California at the Los Angeles Central Library.

It was extensively renovated and expanded in a Modernist/Beaux-Arts architecture (according to the principal architect of the renovation Norman Pfeiffer) from 1988 through 1993, including an enormous, eight-story atrium dedicated to former mayor, Tom Bradley. The interior of the library is decorated with various figures, statues, chandeliers, and grilles, notably a four-part mural by illustrator Dean Cornwell depicting stages of the history of California.

The building's limited access had caused a number of problems. Generally, the accessible public stacks in the reading rooms only displayed about 10 to 20 percent of the actual collections of the Central Library. For anything else, a patron had to submit a request slip and a clerk would retrieve the desired material from the internal stacks. Internal stacks were packed very tightly and had very little headroom. For example, while the normal reading rooms had ceilings of anywhere from ten to fifteen feet, the internal stack areas were many shelves of about six-foot height, stacked internally, so that while the public access area was about two floors plus the Science and Technology alcove, the internal stacks were approximately five or six floors. To fix this would have required substantial renovation, a cost the city was not willing to cover, especially after hours of operation were cut in response to the 1978 property tax reduction measure Proposition 13.

The catalyst for the renovation was the devastating arson fire of April 29, 1986. Although the building was safely evacuated, its vintage construction precluded the ventilation of heat and smoke, and limited firefighter access. Some 400,000 volumes—20 percent of the library's holdings—were destroyed, with significant water and smoke damage done to the surviving works. A second fire on September 3 of the same year destroyed the contents of the music department reading room.

As part of the rehabilitation plan, LAPL sold its air rights to developers, enabling the construction of the eponymous Library Tower across the street. The skyscraper was subsequently renamed the First Interstate World Center and later the U.S. Bank Tower. Additional funds were raised through corporate and personal contributions which flowed from the effort of the "Save The Books" campaign formed by Mayor Tom Bradley.

The campaign, co-chaired by Lodwrick Cook, then CEO of Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) had targeted a goal to raise $10 million through corporate and individual contributions ranging from schoolchildren's nickels and dimes to $50,000 contributions by Los Angeles businessman Marvin Davis and MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman. Dr. William Eugene Scott (w. euGene Scott), an LAPL neighbor and member of the 43 strong blue ribbon committee, donated the use of his University Network television studios and himself to what became a 48-hour telethon to raise $2 million towards the total objective.

The Library's renovation was completed in 1993. The Central Library reopened on October 3, 1993.

Branches

Little Tokyo Branch in Little Tokyo

Encino-Tarzana Branch in San Fernando Valley

Chinatown Branch, Los Angeles Public Library

Pico-Union Branch Library, Pico-Union neighborhood, Los Angeles

West Valley Regional Branch, Reseda, San Fernando Valley

Besides the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles, the system also operates 72 branch locations in the city's many neighborhoods:

Angeles Mesa Arroyo Seco Regional Ascot Atwater Village Baldwin Hills Benjamin Franklin Donald Bruce Kaufman – Brentwood Cahuenga Canoga Park Chatsworth Chinatown Cypress Park Will and Ariel Durant Eagle Rock Echo Park Edendale El Sereno Encino – Tarzana Exposition Park – Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Fairfax Felipe de Neve Frances Howard Goldwyn – Hollywood Regional Granada Hills Harbor Gateway – Harbor City

Hyde Park - Miriam Matthews Jefferson - Vassie D. Wright Memorial John C. Fremont John Muir Junipero Serra Lake View Terrace Lincoln Heights Little Tokyo Los Feliz Malabar Mar Vista Mark Twain Memorial Mid-Valley Regional North Hollywood Amelia M. Earhart Branch Regional Northridge Pacoima Palisades Palms – Rancho Park Panorama City Pico Union Pio Pico – Koreatown Platt Playa Vista

Porter Ranch Robert Louis Stevenson Robertson San Pedro Regional Sherman Oaks Silver Lake Studio City Sun Valley Sunland – Tujunga Sylmar Valley Plaza Van Nuys Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Vermont Square Vernon – Leon H. Washington Jr. Memorial Washington Irving Alma Reaves Woods – Watts West Los Angeles Regional West Valley Regional Westchester – Loyola Village Westwood Wilmington Wilshire Woodland Hills

The Cahuenga Branch, Lincoln Heights Branch and Vermont Square Branch are the three remaining Carnegie libraries in the Los Angeles Public Library System. Six were originally built and three acquired through annexation, but six have been demolished.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
• Donald D. Lorenzen, City Council member who supported renovation of library

External links

• Official Los Angeles Public Library website
• Los Angeles Public Library online Photo Collection: Photo Collection search engine.
• Library Foundation of Los Angeles
• SaveLAPL website opposing budget cuts impacting L.A. libraries
• Los Angeles' Very Special Libraries
• Fodors.com— L.A. Central Library
• Consider The Library op-ed from LAist