Winter in Los Angeles is a strange thing if you have grown up with “real winter” elsewhere. Where are the leaves changing colors, the bare winter branches...the snow? We experience everything from…
Shaun Barger is a Los Angeles-based novelist who detests cold weather, idiot plotting, and fascism. He splits his days between writing, resisting the siren’s call of Hollywood’s eternally mild summer…
The library’s Los Angeles Herald Examiner photo collection spans seven decades, from the mid-1920s to 1989 and is a treasure trove of all things Los Angeles. For many years, the newspaper gravitated…
We think of springtime as the season for planting gardens, but that’s not the case here in Southern California, where summers can be scorching and rains only come in the winter. Here in L.A. County…
Science is a long and occasionally embarrassing process. Take for example the exploration of Mars. From the natural philosophers of ancient times to the InSight Mars Lander heading to Mars today, we…
Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, television writer, and bestselling author. His guide to composition, Robert’s Rules of Writing, has been adopted for many college classrooms, and he has…
The TV serialization of two novels, Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies, has brought attention to a new crop of novels. They are edgy, psychological, thriller, suspense stories with distinct…
When you work at Central Library, at some point in your career, you will be taken on a stairwell safety tour which guides you through a maze of long lonely corridors snaking under and around the staff…
Halloween has become a huge, month-long celebration in these modern times and not just for candy and death as I recall it meant when I was a brat. Adults dress-up as much as kids now, and parties…
I'll be the first to admit it, Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love everything about it from the spooky atmosphere and dressing up in a costume, to—I confess—all the candy! As an adult and a…
Jack-o’-lanterns, trick-or-treaters, clever costumes and spooky decorations—Halloween is one of the most beloved holidays in the United States. But where exactly did Halloween come from? What customs…
Victoria "V.E." Schwab V.E. Schwab has been called “the heir to Diana Wynne Jones.” She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Shades of Magic series, as well as a number of middle grade and…
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, better known as Monsignor Romero or San Romero has represented a symbol of social justice against repression and poverty in El Salvador and throughout Latin America…
Erin Entrada Kelly, the author of the Newbery Award-winning book Hello Universe, spoke at the Central Library a few months ago as part of our Summer Author Series. Audience members wrote questions for…
Kanopy offers Los Angeles Public Library cardholders 24/7 online streaming access to the most acclaimed movies and documentaries from award-winning filmmakers. These films are often difficult or…
Rebecca Serle is a full-time writer, which means she gets to wear pajamas to work. She went to the University of Southern California, then got her MFA from the New School in NYC. (She likes New York…
It was a typical day in my 11th grade English class, except my teacher offered a rare extra credit opportunity—to write a 100-word essay on the topic, "What a Library Means to Me." She explained that…
A month after the first of two fires burned through the Central Library in 1986, a collective effort by the City of Los Angeles raised $3.2 million. This was yet another plus in a major reconstructive…
When the gleaming “new” Central Library opened its doors on October 3, 1993, seven years after the devastating fires of 1986, it touted the latest innovations in computer automation. The now familiar…
Temperatures are rising, the environment is suffering, and income inequality is widening. Amidst the confusion, a charismatic politician takes the presidency with the promise to, “Make America great…
Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. Djèlí Clark spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. His writing has appeared in Daily Science…
In retrospect, it is ironic that the fire took place when it did: April 29, 1986. On that day, progress was quietly continuing with plans for a renovation of the original Central Library and a new…
A number of travelogues have been written about Los Angeles throughout the decades with a myriad of opinions on the cultural and social climate of the city. The City of Angels has been both praised…
The day my own dear Central Library reopened I got my name in the L.A. Times which elicited ragging from pals around the city. “As soon as I crossed the threshold I got down on my knees and kissed the…
