Celebrating the Main Library

The Main Library celebrates its 75th Anniversary in 2026, but it also celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2028. How is it possible? Well, it all depends on how you count. 

The current building that houses Oakland's Main Library opened on January 7, 1951. But Oakland definitely had a Main Library before that! There's some quibbling about the date here, too, but Oakland's first free, taxpayer-funded public library opened on November 7, 1878. At the time there was just one library, so the Main Library was just called "Oakland Free Library" or "Oakland Public Library." But Main was also the headquarters of a system that had multiple reading rooms even in its early years. Those reading rooms later expanded their services to become what we now know as branch libraries. The name "Main Library" was applied later, as branches were opened. So it's perfectly reasonable to say that 2026 is the Main Library's 75th anniversary if you're celebrating the building or its 148th anniversary if you're celebrating the institution. We think any excuse to celebrate the library is a good one, so we're fully prepared to celebrate both. 

So let's talk about a few of the things that make the Main Library so special. 

Main has the biggest and most in-depth collection of any Oakland Public Library. We're home to special local history collections in the Oakland History Center, extensive periodical collections in the Magazines & Newspapers Department, and we're a repository government documents with a collection of federal, state, and local government publications. If you've visited you may have noticed the donut-shaped layout of the public areas. In the center of the donut we have office spaces and closed stacks housing thousands of books and other library materials. If you don't see it on the shelf, just ask - we might have it in storage!

Main is home to Second Start, a free adult literacy program that's been helping people improve their reading and writing skills since 1984. Books for Wider Horizons, also based at Main, trains volunteers to present preschool storytime at dozens of sites throughout the city. Main offers tons of events for adults, teens, and children - it's always worth checking the events calendar to see what's coming up. We always have exhibits on display in the building on both the first and second floors, and usually there are also small displays in the individual departments.  

There are also a huge number of people working behind the scenes at Main. These are the people that handle hiring and interviews, ordering books and electronic materials, planning systemwide programming, cataloging, processing and sorting new materials so they're ready to be used, maintaining OPL's website and computer systems, creating craft kits, coordinating LINK+ and ILL (InterLibrary Loan) services, crafting library policies, writing grants, and much more. 

There have been changes through the years to exactly which services the Main Library provides, and how those services are organized, but essentially Main is now and has always been both a stand-alone library and the hub of a system supporting Oakland's branch libraries. We're happy to be celebrating our 75th Anniversary this year, and looking forward to celebrating our 150th along with all the branches in 2028. 

For more about the current Main Library, including many more photos of the building, stop by the second floor by July 7 to see our current exhibit, which is all about the Main Library. For more information about OPL history, and the history of the Main Libraries that preceded our current building, check out our previous blog post 143 Years of Oakland Public Library History and see our online collection of photos of the Main Library from 1902-1950. If you still want to know more, visit the Oakland History Center, where we keep an extensive Library Archive of all types of materials relating to Oakland Public Library's history. We hope you'll stop by and visit us soon.