Local Resources - California Collection at Rosemead Library

By Beverly Mateer Taylor

Californiana Collection Rosemead Library
8800 Valley Blvd.
Rosemead, CA

Hours: Tuesday-Wednesday, noon to 8pm
Thursday, 10am to 6pm
Friday, noon to 5pm.
Saturday, 8am to 5pm
Closed Sunday and Monday
Telephone (626) 573-5220
Website: http://colapublib.org/services/collections/californiana/

The Los Angeles County Library has collected materi­als documenting the development of California and Los Angeles County throughout the library's hundred years of service to the public. These materials were scattered throughout the system until 1988, when the Californiana Collection room was opened in the Rosemead Library.

This growing collection contains over 17,000 books and 200-plus magazines and newspaper titles on paper and in microfilm. It also includes dissertations, pamphlets, oral histories, and audio-visual materials related to the her­itage of both the local area and the state. Many items are rare and/or out-of-print. Since the collection is archival as well as for reference, none of the items circulate.

Browsing the shelves of the collection is fasci­nating. Fiction about California and by California authors stands next to the non-fiction books. Quirky self-pub­lished books and promotional tracts stand next to more scholarly, authoritative local and state histories. Biographies include people who were important in the history and development of California, well-known busi­ness and political figures, Hollywood personalities, and scoundrels. Travel books published at various times and many histories of California from the Mission Days to the present are here.

There are also volumes from genealogical publishers that include such titles as "Southern California Vital Records of Los Angeles County, 1850-59," by Ted Gostin, and "Los Angeles County Marriages, 1851-1877," in four volumes.

The collection has several of the local history/biogra­phy volumes that were prevalent during the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. One is a particularly handsome, oversized volume on Napa County, published in 1878, with many full-page sketches. Many of the other titles were the same titles I have seen at other area libraries.

The following titles illustrate the variety of the collec­tion:

• "Fifty Years of Masonry in California"
• "History of Jews in Los Angeles," by Vorspan and Gartner, ca. 1870;
• "The History of the San Francisco Disaster and Mount Vesuvius Horror," by Banks and Read, ca. 1906;
• "A History of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Northern and Central California," by Dorcas Spencer, 1911;
• "Biography of Spring Street in Los Angeles," by Swigert, ca. 1945; and,
• "San Diego Back Country 1901," by Gordon Stuart, ca 1966.

THE NEWSPAPER COLLECTION in microfilm and/or paper is a major strength of this collection, and includes the "Record Edition" of the Los Angeles Times from 1881 to the present. The older issues are not indexed, but more recent ones are.

A sampling of other titles include incomplete runs of many local area papers, such as:

• Alhambra Advocate (1898-1900)
• Altadena Press (1929-44)
• Azuza Herald (1927-28)
• Banning Record (1909-10)
• Downey Champion (1888-95)
• Calaveras Chronicle (1850s), etc.

Topic-centered titles include:

• Alta California (1849-91)
• California Catholic (1888-89)
• California Jewish Review (1925-29, 1977-present)
• Camp Cook Clarion (1942-46)
• Camp Roberts Dispatch (1942-46)
• Camp San Luis Obispo (1942-45)
• and many others. Here again there are no indexes, so searching can be tedious.

Do not expect to find many telephone books and city directories. There are some, but runs are incomplete and spotty. This is not a focus area for this collection.

All materials in the Californiana Collection must be used in the library. They are included in the online cata­log of the L.A. County Library, which can be accessed online <http://catalog.colapl.org/> as well as in the library.

Beth Krupsaw, the Californiana librarian, provides ref­erence services as well as access to the locked collection.

For best service, call ahead or stop at the library's ref­erence desk to get a printout of items likely to be most useful, since there is no public-access catalog in the Californiana room.