Located on Level Three (L3) of the Goodhue Building | phone: 213-228-7350
For general queries please contact specialcollections@lapl.org
Hours of Operation
The Special Collections Reading Room is available by appointment between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m, Monday-Friday.
Please note that materials are not available for check-out.
To Make an Appointment
Please fill out the Online Appointment Form. A staff member will contact you within 24 hours, Monday-Friday. We do not accommodate same-day appointments. Virtual appointments (1 hour max.) and weekend appointments are available for patrons unable to visit the library during regular hours.
Department Staff
- Ani Boyadjian, Department Manager, Research & Special Collections | 213-228-7223
- Angi Brzycki, Senior Librarian, Digitization & Special Collections | 213-228-7357
Materials & Collections
The two largest special collections of the Los Angeles Public Library are the Photo and Map Collection. The map collection is located in the History Department and contains more than 225,000 physical items, including local, national and international cartography.
The Digitization & Special Collections Department manages Los Angeles Public Library’s rare books, archives, and many of the library’s digital collections viewed on LAPL's digital collections, TESSA. Reproductions and reuse requests can be made by visiting tessa.lapl.org.The Los Angeles Public Library finding aids are available here: Online Archive of California.
The Special Collections Reading Room holds rare and archival materials on a wide variety of subjects, with a focus on Los Angeles communities.
Collections include:
- African American history
- Autograph Collection
- Book Arts Collection
- Bookplate Collection
- Brockman Gallery Archive
- California Prints Collection
- Culinary history
- Fruit Crate Labels
- George B. Smith Biblioteca Taurina (Bullfighting Collection)
- Gladys English Collection of American Children’s Book Illustration
- Japanese Prints Collection
- Leo Politi Collection
- Los Angeles history
- Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Archive
- Los Angeles Resistance Collection
- Lydia R. Otero Archive
- Lummis’s Californiana and Mexicana Collections
- Menu Collection
- M.F.K. Fisher Correspondence Collection
- Photographs
- Rare Books
- Rare Maps