The Library will be closed on Sunday, March 31, 2024, in observance of Easter

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illustration of the teen'scape space in Central Library
Central Docents, November 12, 2015

When you take our free docent-led art and architecture tours of the Los Angeles Central Library, we always point out Teen’Scape, one of the nation’s first libraries within a library designed by and exclusively for teens.


Looking South On Hill Street, 1940
Deborah Savage, October 14, 2015

While many books by and about photographer Ansel Adams are in the Art Department, the History Department also holds many books he wrote and illustrated. Born in San Francisco a few years before the 1906 earthquake, Adams achieved fame for his beautiful black and white photographs of Yosemite Valley.


Pictorial Map of Mexico, Fischgrind Publishing, Cartographer Miguel Gomez Medina, 1931
Glen Creason, September 15, 2015

This masterpiece of pictorial mapping is an original from the earliest printings of the famed Fischgrind Publishing house and one of the mysterious Miguel Gomez Medina’s greatest works.


Central Library's Hope Street facade: sculpture of Nicholaus Copernicus
Bob Timmermann, September 25, 2015

If you enter the Central Library on Hope Street, there are six sculptures that appear on the facade of the building.


View of Central Library and the Maguire Gardens
Central Docents, August 27, 2015

Our free art and architecture tours of L.A.'s Central Library begin by taking a look at the exterior of the historic 1926 Goodhue Building.


Everett Robbins Perry 1876-1933
Central Docents, July 20, 2015

Our free art and architecture tour of L.A.'s central library begins in the 1926 Goodhue Building, famous for its sculpture, murals, painted ceilings, and wonderful architecture. The building has another great feature, something which seems ordinary to modern eyes, but which wasn't ordinary at all in 1926.


Recently, we found a folder tucked away at the back of a file cabinet in the Social Science, Philosophy & Religion Department.


Literate Fence
Central Docents, June 13, 2015

The elegant Literate Fence, on the Fifth Street side of the library, was designed by Washington state industrial metal artist, Ries Niemi (b.1955). The Deco design, completed in 1993, echoes the design of the original library building.


Julian Garnsey
Central Docents, May 02, 2015

Our free docent-led art and architecture tour of the Los Angeles Central Library always includes a stop in the International Languages Department, through which visitors can find the library's original 1926 Children's Department, with its decorated ceiling and Ivanhoe-themed murals.


Ana Beker
Deborah Savage, March 24, 2015

A colleague in the History Department recently came across an old book whose drab cover hides a fascinating adventure story.


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