The San Diego Central Library is the main branch of the

San Diego Public Library The San Diego Public Library is a public library system serving the city of San Diego, California. History The San Diego Public Library was established on May 19, 1882, by an elected board of library trustees, one of whom was civic leader a ...

, which is a public library system serving the city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Description and history

In 1952, the Carnegie library was demolished and a new Central Library was opened at the same location on June 27, 1954. That library closed permanently on June 9, 2013, to begin the 10-week process of transferring its 2.6-million-item collection to the new library. Over the years, many branch libraries have also been opened throughout the City. In 2010, construction began on a new $184.9 million, Central Library at 330 Park Boulevard in downtown San Diego. This 9-story structure was designed by San Diego architect

Rob Wellington Quigley Rob Wellington Quigley (born 1945) is an American architect with offices in San Diego and Palo Alto California. He is known for focusing on sustainable design, community activism, grassroots planning, and affordable housing. Education and ea ...

. It is topped with an iconic steel-and-mesh lattice dome over a two-story rare-book reading room. It opened on September 30, 2013. The library displays numerous books and collections, including the Sullivan Family Baseball Research Center. The Center houses the second largest collection of baseball memorabilia in the U.S. It was founded in 2000, with a donation of books from the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

. By 2012 its collection included thousands of books, films, magazines, baseball cards and other memorabilia. It was intended to be the "go-to place for baseball research west of the Mississippi". The Central Library also houses a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

high school,

e3 Civic High School e3 Civic High is a free public charter high school serving grades 9 thru 12 located in the landmark 400,000 square foot downtown San Diego Public Library. History The city of San Diego had been studying the possibility of a new central library ...

, which is billed as the only school in the U.S. to be housed within a library. The school is located on the sixth and seventh floors of the library and is visible to, but not accessible by, the public. The school serves grades 9 through 12. It opened on September 3, 2013 with an initial student body of 260 ninth and tenth graders. Additional grades were added in 2014 and 2015 resulting in a student body of approximately 500.

Awards

In 2013, the Central Library received several awards. It received the National Award for Excellence in Structural Engineering, and the Decorative Concrete Council, a specialty council of the American Society of Concrete Contractors awarded the library "Best of Show". The Central Library also received an Orchid Award from the San Diego Architectural Foundation's Orchids & Onions Awards.

References

External links

* {{coord, 32.7089, -117.1542, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title 1954 establishments in California 2013 establishments in California Libraries in San Diego Library buildings completed in 1954 Library buildings completed in 2013 Public libraries in California