Mon 10am-6pm; Tues-Thurs 9am-8pm; Fri 12pm-6pm; Sat 10am-6pm; Sun 12pm-5pm.
The bold new San Francisco Library, in the heart of the Civic Center is not your father's library. This gem is huge, clean, and thoroughly modern.
The San Francisco Library system had humble beginnings. Famous San Franciscans Andrew Halliday and Denis Kearny called for the creation of the city's first free library back in 1877. Finally, in 1879 the first free public library opened its doors, with 5,656 books. However it was a reading room only, and a wire fence protected the tomes from theft by the masses. Finally, in 1881, the public was allowed to withdraw books free of charge.
The library's mission statement states, "The San Francisco Library is dedicated to the free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community."
The library grew quickly, and soon outgrew the first building. The collection moved to City Hall back in 1887, but the disastrous 1906 earthquake and fire decimated some 140,000 of the collected 160,000 volumes at the time.
Fortunately, the Andrew Carnegie Foundation assisted the construction of the main library with a $375,000 grant that helped build it in 1915. Carnegie donated another $375,000 for assistance with the San Francisco Library's branch system. Carnegie's contributions are gratefully acknowledged with an inscription which still stands inside the main library's entrance area.
The main library continued growing rapidly, and reached half a million books by 1944. Today, the library contains over three million text, with approximately one third residing in the main buildings. The entire system contains 27 facilities, and stores over 37 miles of texts, in various collections.
In 1988 the city and county of San Francisco passed a $109.4 million bond measure to secure financing for the replacement of the aging, old main library, and others buildings in the library system. The "New Main" as it is often referred to, which was dedicated in 1996, is sparkling white, in the Federal Style. However once inside you will see a gallery and rotunda which is unlike any library. Glass and light permeate the interior and the spiral walkway allows visitors (and security) to see many areas at once.
The New Main Library does contain books, though they're actually hard to find, but also many other research and study areas, plus an interactive center that is second to none. The public can walk in off the street and be on the Internet, via a high speed hook up in seconds. Sometimes there are lines of people waiting to use the terminals, but available spots open up quickly. The library, the city, and numerous public, private, and nonprofit agencies have linked together to build bridges in cyberspace, using the library system as the main causeway. The "City/Link Bridge" is designed to transform libraries from their traditional roles into community-based resource outlets. The idea is to make free health care, educational, cultural, and governmental information available to various media all over, including the Internet and public television. Free Internet terminals are available at each of the branches of the library system.
The main library in the Civic Center offer an incredible array of diverse information, separated into various departments. Some of these include the Art and Music Center, A San Francisco Historical Center, Gay and Lesbian Center, A Business and Technology Center, International Center, African American Center, and many others.
The San Francisco Main Public Library is definitely worth a visit - to see what can be created by the union of knowledge, spirit, money, and creativity.
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