San Diego Central Library, San Diego, California
During a fun-filled visit to San Diego for the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition, Rachael and I made a side trip to the San Diego Central Library. If you’ve never been, it is worth checking out - especially the fantastic rare books collection. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves!
The library is just a block or two away from Petco Park, the San Diego Convention Center, and the bustling Gaslamp District. That puts it in the heart of a really dynamic part of the city. It is a decidedly urban library, but (at least during this visit) calmer than some big city libraries we’ve seen. The building is a nine-story concrete structure topped by a wonderfully sculptural dome.
Heading to the library.
The entry is a broad plaza with vined pergolas for shade and, in what turned out to be a rarity in the city, plenty of seating. This area was active during our visit. The atrium is a soaring three-story space, with gently curved concrete arches, multiple service desks, and stylish escalators to the upper floors. There are also TWO payphones, two more than we see in most libraries.
The library’s amazing atrium
Not one but TWO payphones!
Our first stop was the second floor, which houses a big part of the non-fiction and reference collection. As we walked the floor, we found many study rooms (locked), as well as an unexpected health check area. It included a blood pressure station, scale, and a variety of related resources. We stopped by the reference desk, where we asked about the study rooms. It turns out you need a library card from a California library to access these spaces. That seemed very strange.
Rachael arrives on the second floor!
It turned out that Rachael and the reference librarian, Sarah, kinda sorta knew each other through their respective social feeds. This happened more than once on our visit to San Diego. You can find Rachael on TikTok, where she’s Boston Book Bitty.
Rather than visit each floor (two of which are a high school), we zipped straight to the top to see the view, the art gallery, and the rare books and special collections.
Let’s start with the view. The rooftop offers panoramic views of the city, much of San Diego country, and - on a clear day - Tijuana to the south. All of this is framed by the massive metal dome that sits atop the library. On our visit, the sky was clear and bright and blue. It was a perfect time to spend time up there in the open air.
Looking up through the dome.
The next stop was the art gallery. It featured an exhibition of the works of James Hubbell. I wasn’t familiar with him but really loved the organic nature of his art and design. A lot of it reminded me of Antoni Gaudi, whose work I had the opportunity to see earlier this year in Barcelona.
From there (the gallery, not Barcelona . . .), we made our way to the Marilyn & Gene Marx Special Collections Center for a tour of the Hervey Family Rare Book Room. It was there that we met Special Collections Manager Matthew Nye, our guide to the collection’s more than 9,000 items. His knowledge of - and enthusiasm for - the collection was amazing and made the visit truly memorable.
Let us share a few of the highlights:
Fore-Edge Books. These are volumes with illustrations along the fore-edge (the edge opposite the spine) that can only be seen when the pages are fanned in a very purposeful way. I’d heard of them but had never seen one in person. The library has 200 examples and Matthew showed us several.
Miniature Books. The library has more than 500 miniature books. The smallest of them was of the alphabet and was so tiny - just a fraction of the size of the dime used for scale! What’s nice about them is that they take up so little shelf space! Ha!
Bird Books. Not just any bird books, but a multi-volume illustrated set from the 19th century. Amazingly, they had been part of the library’s circulating collection until recently. Now, they are safely shelved on the ninth floor. The illustrations are amazing.
Ancient “Books.” We place books in quotation marks because not all of these items are books in the traditional sense. These included a 4,000-year-old Babylonian cuneiform tablet, a single leaf from a theological manuscript from the 10th or 11th century, and a page from an illuminated manuscript. It was all very cool to see.
Matthew’s Favorites. When we asked Mattew for his favorite items in the collection, he didn’t hesitate. It was Boccaccio’s Decameron. The library has several editions, including one from the 15th century, published just a century after the book was written.
The way special collections can move you through time and space is one of the things that makes them so special. To see items that have been so carefully collected, conserved, curated - and made available to the public - was a wonderful thing. To have someone like Matthew walk us through so much of the collection was a rare and welcome opportunity.
If you’re in San Diego, make a point of visiting the rare books room to see not only the collection, but also the space itself. Beautiful. If you’re not in San Diego, we encourage you to find a library with a rare books collection near you and to prepare to be amazed!