The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles might not have the historical gravitas of the New York Public Library’s lion-flanked headquarters. Or the architectural edge of Seattle’s angular ...

In this file photo from 2012, librarian Glen Creason sits with a 1935 volume 10 Sanborn map at the Los Angeles Public Library. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times) By James Bartlett ...

Los Angeles’ Central Library, the largest public research library west of the Mississippi, features a collection of vintage movie posters. In 1986, two arson fires destroyed 400,000 books ...

Photo by jibbit via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr "On April 29, 1986, ... 1986, a major emergency fire at the Los Angeles Central Library was so challenging, ...