Main Library 101 Pacific Avenue Long Beach, CA 90822 (562) 570-7500

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Directions

• The Main Library is located Long Beach Civic Center. Parking is available in the Civic Center parking structure located at Broadway and Chestnut. The first 30 minutes are free; $1.25 for the next 90 minutes when validated at the Checkout Desk.
• Long Beach Transit: The Main Library is located one block west of the Long Beach Transit Mall and across the street from the Blue Line Metro stop at First and Pacific.

History
The earliest Long Beach library was founded on Jan. 1, 1896, and was housed in a room adjoining the City Council office at the corner of Pine and Pacific. In 1899, the library moved into the new City Hall next to Pacific Park. A Carnegie Foundation grant was secured to build a new library building, and the park was chosen for the site. In 1909, the new Long Beach library opened, very near the location of the present Main Library. In 1915 Pacific Park was rededicated as Lincoln Park as thousands of onlookers cheered and the U.S.S. Saratoga fired a 21-gun salute. The library in the park was a center of culture in a proud and growing city.

For more than six decades, the Main Library in Lincoln Park served the public well, but the need to house a growing collection, combined with the effects of a damaging fire which struck the library in 1970, made construction of a new library a necessity. In 1973, work began on the new Civic Center complex, and in 1976, the new Main Library was opened, adjoining the new Long Beach City Hall. The statue of Abraham Lincoln, dedicated in 1915, still stands next to the Main Library, a link to our proud history as the library moves into the 21st century.

Tours of the Main Library are available by reservation only. Please call the Community Services Department at (562) 570-7500 to reserve a tour time. Tours last approximately 30 minutes.

City Council Representative
Long Beach City Council 2^nd District, Suja Lowenthal

General Collections

• Children & Young Adult: popular fiction titles as well as subject material to support homework needs
• Adult: popular fiction and non-fiction, periodicals and newspapers, and small rotating media collections, including audio books
• Media: circulating collections of videos, DVDs, audio books, and music CDs of all genres
• Music: The Main Library houses an extensive, indexed collection of popular music from the early 1900s to the present. In addition, miniature scores, piano-vocal scores and librettos of operas and musicals are available. Although individual sheet music does not circulate, many bound collections of music may be checked out.

Special Collections

Genealogy

The genealogy collection is comprised of about 2,000 volumes and is supported by Questing Heirs, a volunteer organization which periodically donates material to the collection. One of the highlights of the collection is Roots, a growing reference collection of African American genealogy resources.

Long Beach History Collection

Please visit our Long Beach History Collection page and our How to Research a Long Beach Home page for more information.

The Loraine and Earl Burns Miller Special Collections Room

The Miller Room, located on the lower level of the Main Library, is an elegant art reference center. Design and construction of this reference area was made possible by a generous gift from Loraine Miller Collins in memory of her late husband, Earl Burns Miller. The Miller Room was opened in 1978. The hours for the Miller Room are Tuesday - Saturday, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

There are several special reference collections housed in the Miller Room:

• The Miller Fine Arts Collection: Emphasizing Oriental art, the collection includes beautifully illustrated works on Chinese painting, Japanese prints, Chinese and Japanese ceramics, Korean arts and Oriental rugs, sculpture and crafts. There are also a variety of books on selected American and European artists, as well as on art history, architecture, and photography.
• The Bertrand Smith Sr. Collection: Rare texts dating back to the 15th century are also found in the Miller Room. These were presented to the library by antiquarian Bertrand Smith Sr., founder of Acres of Books bookstore in Long Beach. The collection includes first editions by 19th century American authors, many rare European texts, and a two-volume facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible.
• The Marilyn Horne Archives: Photographs, magazines, books, programs, recordings, interviews, and personal letters chronicling the life and operatic career of former Long Beach resident Marilyn Horne form another collection housed in the Miller Room.

Government Publications

The Long Beach Public Library is a depository library for documents from the State of California and the Federal Government. Many of the materials, which are on an wide variety of topics, circulate. Highlights of the collection include U.S. Code, CFR, West's Annotated CA Codes, and Barclay's Official CA Code of Regulations.

Programs