The Fullerton Public Library (FPL), is a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

system that serves the City of Fullerton, California and its surrounding communities. The Library holds more than 200,000 volumes and serves a population of ca. 142,000. FPL is overseen by a Library Board of trustees with five members appointed by the City Council.

Timeline

1888 The Gem Pharmacy, owned by William J. Starbuck, ran a "traveling library" supported by private donations. Books could be checked out free of charge. 1902 Mrs. James Dean opened a "free reading room" on the NW corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Spadra (now called Harbor Boulevard). It was intended to fill the idle hours of oil field and migrant workers. 1906 The City Fathers established a free public library under Ordinance No. 46 two years after the City incorporated. Population 2,000. 1907 The City's first library building was erected on the NW corner of Pomona and Wilshire Avenues with a $10,000 grant from

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

. 1927 A separate Children's Library was built as an annex to the Carnegie library. Mary Campbell served as the first children's librarian. Later the building was relocated to Hillcrest Park for use by the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

. 1942 The Carnegie Library was razed to make way for a new building on the same site. The construction project was funded by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) of the federal government. Population 11,000. Today this building houses the Fullerton Museum Center. 1955 The City introduced the very first

bookmobile A bookmobile or mobile library is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Bookm ...

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

. Population 43,412. 1961 The Friends of the Fullerton Public Library was established. 1962

Norton Simon Norton Winfred Simon (February 5, 1907 – June 2, 1993) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was at one time one of the wealthiest men in America. At the time of his death, he had amassed a net worth of nearly US$10 billion. S ...

and the Hunt Food & Industries Foundation, donated a building and park located in Southwest Fullerton, to the City on the condition that it is "used solely for a public library and public library park." The donation became known as th
Hunt Branch
and is located at 201 S. Basque Avenue. Population 64,100. 1971 A joint powers agreement was entered into between the County of Orange and the City of Fullerton for the purpose of issuing $1.3 million in revenue bonds to finance construction of a new Main Library on Commonwealth Avenue. 1972 Ostrich Eggs for Breakfast; a History of Fullerton for Boys and Girls, written by children's librarian Dora May Sim and illustrated by Wanda Collins, was first printed. The book would become required reading for all Fullerton public school third grade students. 1973 The new Main Library at 353 W. Commonwealth Avenue was dedicated. The former library at the corner of Pomona and Wilshire Avenues would later become home to the Fullerton Museum Center. Population 90,000. 1986 The Fullerton Public Library became the first public library in Orange County to computerize the circulation (checking in and out) of books by barcoding books and library cards. 1987 For the first time in its history, the Library checked out more than one million items in a single year. 1994 The Fullerton Public Library was the last public library in Orange County to replace the

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 ...

with a computerized card catalog on computer terminals for public use. The Fullerton Public Library Foundation was established. Population 119,500. 1997 The City Council approved the Library Board of Trustees' plans to expand the Main Library. The City launched the library's first web page. Population 125,000. 1999 Construction began on a $1.6 million expansion of the Main Library funded primarily with a Redevelopment bond. The Children's Library closed for 12 months during construction. 2000 The Library Foundation raised $318,000 in support of the Children's Library expansion and for library technology. The Friends of the Library contributed an additional $45,000 towards the expansion project. A new bookmobile arrived. The Main Library received a private donation from the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

for new public computers and a technology lab.

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

service became accessible to the public. A

self-checkout Self-checkouts (SCOs), also known as assisted checkouts (ACOs) or self-service checkouts, are machines that provide a mechanism for customers to complete their own transaction from a retailer without needing a traditional staffed checkout. When ...

machine at the Main Library was installed. Population 128,255. 2005 The Library began digitizing photographs in the local history collection and making them available via the Internet and the library's catalog. Both the Main Library and the Hunt Branch became wi-fi hotspots, supporting laptop computer connections to the Library's databases and the Internet. Population 135,672. Library entrance

2006 The Fullerton Public Library celebrated its 100th year in operation. The library also participated in One Book, One Community, with programs about and influenced by Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner. 2007 Began its first adult summer reading program, called the Women of Mystery, which shares the same mystery theme with the children's summer reading program, Get a Clue. 2008 The Library had its second annual One Book One Community Program on Homer Hickman's Rocket Boys. 2009 Library expansion plans are moving forward with construction slated to begin March 2010. 2011 July 23 The Main Library reopens after a $10 million expansion and remodel. The library added a new conference center, group study rooms, a cafe, expanded Local History room, and redesigned teen area, computer lab, and floor plan. The newly redesigned library was certified

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

gold. 2011 Read

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize ...

for its annual Fullerton Reads celebration. 2012 Celebrated

Farewell to Manzanar ''Farewell to Manzanar'' is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. The book describes the experiences of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family before, during, and following their relocation to the Manzanar internm ...

as part of its Fullerton Reads program.

Carolyn Johnson Children's Room

The children's department in the Fullerton Public Library is named for Carolyn Johnson. Carolyn Johnson began as a children's librarian at the Fullerton Public Library in 1945 until 1959 when she became Children's Services Coordinator. She remained in that position until 1981 when she became director of the library until her retirement in 1990. The children's department serves children with books, activities, and computers from birth until 8th grade. They provide a variety of programs targeting different ages, including toddler storytime, pre-school storytime, Book Babies, and Bedtime Bears (storytimes for families in the evening), school visits, school nights, parent nights, and the After School Club (crafts, activities, puppet shows, and stories for elementary aged children). Each summer the Fullerton Public Library has a Summer Reading Club where approximately 3200 kids participate. This includes members of the Read to Me Club (where parents read to not yet literate children), elementary age children, and young adults (7th grade to 12th grade). The children's department also creates lists of recommended reading for grades K-8. Furthermore, the library also offer
Tumblebooks
which is an online database of children's

e-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

The Bookmobile

Established in 1955, Fullerton Public Library established the first bookmobile in

In October 2012, the library's ad hoc committee recommended that the current bookmobile which had been largely out of service since 2011, should discontinue service entirely. As of 2016, the Bookmobile has been sold, and the library no longer provides Bookmobile service.

Local History Room

Th
Local History Room
formerly known as the Launer History room is dedicated to information regarding Fullerton, Fullerton history, and to a lesser extent the surrounding communities. The Local History Room was originally established in 1973 with funds from Lulu Convis Launer in honor of her late husband Albert Launer. Many of the materials in the history room are from Fullerton's early history and development and include books, scrapbooks, personal narratives written by early residents, program brochures, periodical and newspaper clippings, maps, local telephone books, city directories, photographs, videotapes, microfilm, slides, posters, and memorabilia. The local history room has several projects in the works including digitizing two photograph collections which are available online: th
Fullerton Building Survey
as well as th
Centennial Collection
. In 2012, the library undertook an oral history project, interviewing almost 20 Fullerton residents who had lived in the city since the 1950s and in some cases since the 1920s.

Hunt Branch

The second branch/location of the Fullerton Public Library is th

. The building was designed by renowned architect William L. Pereira, the architect of the

Transamerica Pyramid The Transamerica Pyramid is a 48-story futurist skyscraper in San Francisco, California, United States, and the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline. Located at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets in the ci ...

in San Francisco, CA. The Hunt Branch is located in south-west Fullerton and was donated in 1962 to the city by the Norton Simon Foundation and

Hunt Foods Hunt's is the name of a brand of preserved tomato products owned by Conagra Brands. The company was founded in 1888, in Sebastopol, California, as the Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co., by Joseph and William Hunt. The brothers relocated to nearby Sa ...

for express use as a public library. The Hunt branch had been proposed as a future site of the future Norton Simon art collection, however, negotiations fell through, and it became the Hunt Branch instead, while the art went to the

Norton Simon Museum The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Sim ...

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

. The Hunt Branch provides books, computer access and

wifi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

, programs for children and adults including story-times, book-clubs, and after-school activities, and rental meeting room space. In March 2013, the Hunt Branch was temporarily closed. Its future is currently being debated; however, the Fullerton City council has not provided funding to operate the branch through June 2015. Neighboring property owner (Grace Ministries) is currently leasing the building on a month-to-month basis.

Teen Area

The Fullerton Public Library features the Teen Area, created in 2007 and expanded in 2011 to serve Fullerton area teens with a dedicated space within the library. The room consists of a quiet study/reading area and a room for group work and fun events as well as a private group study room. The teen collection features over 1700

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

titles, over 2500 young adult book titles, and over 500

graphic novels A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

available for check out or browsing and an art wall with art from young talented Fullerton area artists.

Special Collections

* Mary Campbell Collection: over 500 rare and antique children's books including a 1902, first edition of ''Just So Stories'' by Rudyard Kipling * Fullerton Local History Collection *

Small Business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...

Collection * Travel Collection *

Large Print Large-print (also large-type or large-font) refers to the formatting of a book or other text document in which the typeface (or font) are considerably larger than usual to accommodate people who have low vision. Frequently the medium is also increa ...

Book Collection * Foreign Language Material Collections: Spanish, Korean, Chinese.

Publications by the Fullerton Public Library

Ostrich Eggs for Breakfast
A history of Fullerton written for children by former Fullerton Public Library Librarian Dora May Sim.
Images of Yesterday: Fullerton Photo Album
A collection of photographs from Fullerton's History researched and compiled by Evelyn Cadman and Jane Mueller.
Images of America: Fullerton
A collection of photographs from the Launer History Room's photograph collection.
Postcard History Series: Fullerton
A collection of over 200 postcards depicting Fullerton's history from the Launer History Room's collection as well as private contributions.

Photo gallery

File:FPL's Lobby.jpg, Library lobby File:Self check out machines.jpg, Self check out machines File:Reference area.jpg, Reference books File:Study area and copy center.jpg, Copy center and study tables File:Sorting machine.jpg, Book sorting machines File:Local History room.jpg, Local History room File:New expansion entrance.jpg, Entrance to the Conference Center File:FPL's Computer lab.jpg, Computer lab File:Teen Area.jpg, Teen Area - quiet zone File:FPL's Teen Area.jpg, Teen Area - active zone

References

External links

The Fullerton Public Library

Fullerton Public Library’s online catalog

Fullerton Public Library's Young Adult blog
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