Central Library opened to the public in July 1926. On January 29, 2026, to kick off the library's centennial year, a time capsule that was placed in the building's cornerstone during the original construction was unveiled to the public for the first time.
Alice Bucknell's video work, The Alluvials, was born of research in the Los Angeles Public Library. Now playing on the Library's immersive Central Library Video Wall, The Alluvials explores the politics of drought and water scarcity in a near-future version of Los Angeles. The story is told through a variety of nonhuman and elemental perspectives, including the Los Angeles River, wildfire, a 400-year-old sycamore called El Aliso, and the ghost of the city's celebrity mountain lion, P-22.
