The Oakland Public Library is the public

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Opened in 1878, the Oakland Public Library currently serves the city of Oakland, along with neighboring smaller cities Emeryville and

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. The Oakland Public Library has the largest collection of any public library in the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties ...

, featuring approximately 1.5 million items. It consists of a main library located in

downtown Oakland Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California, United States; roughly bounded by both the Oakland Estuary and Interstate 880 on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lak ...

, and 16 branch libraries throughout the city (see below). Special services within the Oakland Public Library system include the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO), th
Second Start Adult Literacy Program
and th
Tool Lending Library

History

The Oakland Library Association was formed in 1868 as a subscription library. The poet Ina Coolbrith was hired as librarian in 1873. In 1878, the library was reformed as the Oakland Free Library, the second public library created in California under the Rogers Free Library Act. ( Eureka was first.) With her personal style, Coolbrith nurtured the reading habits of many young Oakland students including

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

and

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance, who performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the US. Born and raised in ...

. Coolbrith's nephew Henry Frank Peterson replaced Coolbrith in 1892, greatly expanding the library's circulation as well as improving accessibility by completing a

card catalog A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also c ...

system. Charles S. Greene, poet and former editor of the ''

Overland Monthly The ''Overland Monthly'' was a monthly literary and cultural magazine, based in California, United States. It was founded in 1868 and published between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. History The '' ...

'', became librarian in 1899 and served until 1926. Mabel W. Thomas, who served as assistant librarian and chief reference librarian under Greene, and retired in 1948, began a collection of books, periodicals, and other material that were the foundation of the California Room in the 1940s and now contained in the well-use
Oakland History Room

Main library

The Main Library has occupied its present location at 125 14th Street near

Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. It is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife refuge, designate ...

since 1951. It is one of the largest public library facilities in the Bay Area. It features popular reading materials, business resources, government publications, videos/DVDs/CDs, maps, and a computer lab for the public. It is also houses the Oakland History Room, including primary materials and unique books that explore the history of the East Bay; a large and active Children’s Room; and the TeenZone. Adaptive technology is available for persons with disabilities at this and other sites. Call (510) 238-4974 for more details.

Branches

As of 2018 the Oakland Public Library has 16 branches. Dates listed in the following list of current branches indicate the year the branch was established and, if the branch has since moved, the year the current location opened. * 81st Avenue (2011), 1021 81st Avenue **This branch is jointly operated with the Oakland Unified School District and serves two elementary schools as well as the neighborhood. Construction funding included grants through the California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2000 (aka Proposition 14). * Asian (1976, current location 1995), 388 9th Street * Brookfield (1957, current location 1992), 9255 Edes Avenue * César E. Chávez (1966, current location 2004), 3301 East 12th Street, Suite 271 **This branch, now named after worker rights activist César E. Chávez, was formerly named the Latin American Library Branch, and was established in 1966. It was one of the first public libraries in the United States to offer services and materials in Spanish, and was the first library branch exclusively dedicated to the Spanish-speaking community in the United States. * Dimond (1915, current location 1980), 3565 Fruitvale Avenue * Eastmont (1945, current location 1998),

Eastmont Town Center Eastmont Town Center is a shopping mall and social services hub located on bounded by Foothill Boulevard, Bancroft Avenue, 73rd Avenue, and Church Street, in the East Oakland, Oakland, California, Frick neighborhood of East Oakland, Oakland, Cal ...

, 7200 Bancroft Avenue, Suite 211 * Elmhurst (1911, current location 1949), 1427 88th Avenue * Golden Gate (1899, current location 1949), 5606 San Pablo Avenue * Lakeview (1930, current location 1949), 550 El Embarcadero * Martin Luther King Jr. (1970), 6833 International Boulevard **This branch, now named after civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., was originally established in 1916; it was named the Lockwood Branch in 1929. In 1970, it was replaced by a new facility, which is the present library. It features a black history collection, containing books written by or about people of African descent. * Melrose (1911, current location 1916), 4805 Foothill Boulevard ** One of four Carnegie Library Branches in Oakland that were built between 1916-1918, thanks to the Carnegie grant of $140,000. Because of the early donation of the land, Melrose Branch was able to begin its construction before the war, and with $35,000 (¼ of the grant) of the funding the Carnegie architect William H. Weeks was able to add more resources to use more materials such as including a marble lined foyer, compared to the construction of the other 3 sites. The Classical Revival style was designed by William H. Weeks, and C. Christensen. The Classical Revival building is in the form of two rectangles set at angles with a generous rotunda betwee

** This Branch is a historic Landmark. The ordinance date is November 4, 198

* Montclair (1930), 1687 Mountain Boulevard * Piedmont Avenue (1912, current location 2012), 80 Echo Avenue **This branch had been on 41st Street at Piedmont Avenue (Oakland, California), Piedmont Avenue since 1932, but had to move when the building owner raised the rent. The library is now on the grounds of Piedmont Avenue Elementary School. * Rockridge (1919, current location 1996), 5366 College Avenue * Temescal (1899, current location 1918), 5205 Telegraph Avenue **The Temescal branch houses the Temescal Tool Lending Library, one of the few of its kind in the Bay Area, which allows library patrons to check out tools for various kinds of repairs and home-improvement projects, as well as books, videos, and other instructional materials. * West Oakland (1977), 1801 Adeline Street

African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO)

African American Museum and Library at Oakland (2008)

The African American Museum & Library at Oakland (AAMLO) is a non-circulating library that archives historic collections and reference materials documenting the African American experience in California. Among the more than 160 collections in the library are archives relating to Martin Luther King Jr.,

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

, the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

, Africa, and genealogy. Materials include photographs, manuscripts, letters, diaries, newspapers, recorded oral histories, videos, and microfilms. AAMLO’s two galleries host changing exhibitions of art, history, and culture."Discover AAMLO," a brochure of the facility, published by the Oakland Public Library.

References

External links