By Christina Rice, Senior Librarian - LAPL Photo Collection

When Jackie Robinson broke through Major League Baseball's unwritten, but understood, color barrier in 1947, he instantly became an inspiration for people across the country. He also became largely associated with Brooklyn, the city where he rounded the bases with his...

By Christina Rice, Acting Senior Librarian -- Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

When the last issue of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner was published on November 2, 1989, its main rival, the Los Angeles Times, ran a full-page ad that read, "It is with sadness that we mark...

By Glen Creason with Marc Horton
Los Angeles Public Library Reference Librarians

This is a shout-out about Freegal (login with your LAPL library card number and PIN), the digital music service provided by the Los Angeles Public Library, that lets you download three songs per week for...

By Christina Rice, Acting Senior Librarian -- LAPL Photo Collection

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but as in so many cities and towns throughout the country, his impact on Los Angeles was strong and far-reaching. King visited L.A. on numerous occasions to speak about...

By Christina Rice, Acting Senior Librarian -- LAPL Photo Collection

In the early part of the 20th century, Southern California was a land bathed in seemingly perpetual sunshine, scented by fields of orange blossoms as far as the eye could see, with beautiful young maidens dancing though its crisp, clean...

Looking for holiday gift ideas for your bookish friends and relatives? Something good to read in the new year? Or are you just as obsessed with those year-end lists as we are?

If so, look no further than the Los Angeles Public Library's Best of 2012 lists. Our librarians selected...

By Christina Rice, Acting Senior Librarian -- LAPL Photo Collection

The Los Angeles Times once referred to photographer William Reagh as, "a sort of Ansel Adams of the Angels." For decades, Reagh pointed his camera in the same direction, documenting the ever-evolving city of Los Angeles, much as Adams did...

The American Library Association's Teen Read Week is this week, October 14-20. To celebrate, the Los Angeles Public Library is hosting dozens of teen authors for readings, signings, and Q&A sessions at our branches around the city, and for a teen lit mini-con, YAy for YA! on Saturday, Oct. 20...

By Candice Mack, Teen Librarian

What do you think of when you imagine what a librarian looks like?

Let's hazard a guess -- older female wearing a frumpy dress, glasses, a stern look, and her white hair up in a bun?

While there may be some librarians who...

By Glen Creason, Map Librarian -- History & Genealogy Department

Once upon a time historians had names like Thucydides, Gibbon, Toynbee, Tuchman, Schlesinger or Durant, but now everyone who has a wireless connection and a few hours of free time can add the title to their names with impunity. The...

By David Hagopian, Reference Librarian, Encino/Tarzana Branch Library

This August, the community of Tarzana will be celebrating the "Tarzan Centennial," commemorating 100 years since the publication of author Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous novel about an English Viscount raised by apes, Tarzan of the Apes (1912).

Ever wondered why the...

By Bob Timmermann and Christina Rice, Los Angeles Public Library

London is hosting its third Summer Olympics, pushing it ahead of several other cities that have played host to the games twice, including our fair city, Los Angeles.

The Olympics first came to Los Angeles in 1932 during the...

By Andrea Borchert, Librarian, Science, Technology & Patents Department

Here at the Los Angeles Public Library we have a huge collection of cookbooks. We have cookbooks for slow cookers, blenders, and microwaves. We have cookbooks focused on individual ingredients and...

By Christina Rice, Acting Senior Librarian -- LAPL Photo Collection

To drive past the corner of Mission Road and Selig Place in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, you'd never guess they once stood there; giant beasts of the wild, made of stone, who welcomed visitors passing...

By Jennifer Ishimoto, Adult Librarian, Silver Lake Branch

Approximately 8,500 Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have lived in the Los Angeles area since the 1960s, and their story of migration and assimilation to Los Angeles, while attempting to keep Native Hawaiian culture alive, is a complex and fascinating one....

By Central Library Librarians Joyce Cooper, Christa Deitrick, and Mary McCoy

It's summer reading club time at your local public library, but why should the kids get to have all the fun? Along with the holidays, it's the time of year when we're most likely to carve time out of...

By Madeleine Kerr, Children's Librarian at the Exposition Park - Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Library

There's an event at the Central Library's Taper Auditorium this coming week on Thursday, June 7, 6:30-7:30 p.m., an event that showcases teen writers from all over Los Angeles who will be reading their...

By Elyse Barrere, Young Adult Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library

When you're a teenaged book lover summer reading is the best reading! The freest reading! It's staying up all night under the covers with a flashlight because you don't have class in the morning reading! This summer the Los Angeles...

By Bob Timmermann, Senior Librarian at Central Library.

On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Kings earned just their second trip to the Stanley Cup Final in franchise history, after defeating the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-3 in overtime, to win the Western Conference Final in five games. The Kings, who...

By Christina Rice, Acting Senior Librarian -- LAPL Photo Collection

When Herman J. Schultheis disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala in 1955, it seemed any sort of public legacy was destined to vanish with him. His wife, the former Ethel Wisloh, never remarried or made any public statements about her...