The Library will be closed on Monday, November 11, 2024, in observance of Veterans Day.

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Central Library Atrium. Detail of the chevron design motif at the base of a column.
Central Docents, May 05, 2017

For 50 years, nationally recognized architect Norman Pfeiffer has applied creativity, innovation, and technical proficiency to an impressive portfolio of outstanding renovations and additions to library and arts buildings throughout the country.


Bitcoin logo.
Tamara Holub, March 17, 2017

Bitcoin is both a currency (monetary system) and a software program. Introduced in 2009 as open-source software, Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. It is decentralized in the sense that is has no regulatory authority such as a central bank.


Illuminations, a series of lanterns by Ann Preston in the Bradley Wing. Photo courtesy of Karina Buck
Central Docents, March 15, 2017

A highlight of our docent tours is Ann Preston's Illuminations, a series of lanterns that descend the southern escalator landings of the Tom Bradley Wing.


 Suffragettes on Parade, LAPL Photo Collection (sometime before 1920)

March 8 marks International Women’s Day, a global celebration that has taken place yearly since the early 1900s. IWD celebrates women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements and contributions and calls for action to increase gender equality.


Portrait of Thurgood Marshall

“You do what you think is right and let the law catch up”—Thurgood Marshall


Scott Joplin
Alan Westby, February 21, 2017

2017 marks the hundredth anniversary of the death, at the age of 49, of Scott Joplin, one of America's first great composers, and the composer of arguably the first important American opera: Treemonisha.


Tower Reconstruction, 1991.
Central Docents, February 10, 2017

The shortest answer to the question of importance is that without the funds which the city received for the sale of the air rights above the Central Library site, we might not have the Goodhue Building today. Instead of being renovated, it easily might have been demolished.


Sanctuary Cities Map
Jack Stephens, January 30, 2017

President Donald J. Trump’s January 25, 2017 executive action threatening the withholding of federal funds to sanctuary cities, counties and states has raised again, perhaps as never before, the issue of local law enforcement involvement in immigration enforcement in the United States.


"Top Secret"
The recent and ongoing news coverage of Russia’s alleged tampering with American elections is just the latest example of possible skulduggery between the two countries.

1926 Mural
Central Docents, December 14, 2016

I love taking tours through the old children’s room in the Central Library because it’s the only place in the building where one can stand close enough to the ceiling to see how artist Julian Garnsey’s painting skill created the illusion of wooden beams. The secret behind the illusion?


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