The Long Beach Public Library (LBPL) is an American
public library system
A library consortium is any cooperative association of libraries that coordinates resources and/or activities on behalf of its members, whether they are school, public, academic, special libraries and/or information centers. Consortia exist on a v ...
located in
Long Beach, California.
Main Library
The Main Library's first building was funded by a $30,000
donation from Andrew Carnegie and $4,000 of city funds. The Library opened in 1909 within Pacific Park, now known as Lincoln Park, downtown on Pacific Avenue at Broadway. When the building site was condemned for construction of a New Main Library and City Hall building in the late 1970s, the library was moved to a building located on Ximeno Avenue, for a period of about 18 months.
In 2015, the Long Beach Public Library became the first library in California to begin circulating zines publicly in its collection. Now the main branch houses a few hundred zines to take home.
In January 2019, the Main Library was permanently closed in lieu of the new location, which reopened on September 21, 2019 as the Billie Jean King Main Library, with
King attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony herself. The building occupies a first floor and lower level at 101 Pacific Avenue, at the intersection of Ocean Boulevard and Pacific Avenue, across the park from its former location.
The library displays nine murals titled "9 Children's Stories" by artist Suzanne Miller, created with the support of the
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...
and
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
.
Branches
The Long Beach Public Library operates the following branches:
AlamitosRuth BachBay ShoreBrewittBurnettDanaEl DoradoBret HarteLos AltosMark TwainMichelle Obama
The Alamitos branch was constructed by the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
in 1938.
Databases and downloadable media
Databasesare available to Long Beach Public Library cardholders.
Overdrive Audio Books for Downloadare available free to LBPL card holders for work, school, or on the road.
Kanopystreaming is available free to LBPL card holders
Click hereto find out about getting a library card.
References
External links
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Long Beach Public Library on Facebook
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Libraries in Los Angeles County, California
Organizations based in Long Beach, California
Library
Federal depository libraries
Public libraries in California