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General Information

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SCL Murals

Books & Periodicals

The Library has approximately 30,000 books that range from 1930 to present on the subjects of labor, women, civil rights, civil liberties, people of color, left culture, peace, radicalism, socialism, communism, Marxism, and other political theories and movements.
Books may be checked out by SCL members ($40/year; students $20/year), who live in the Los Angeles area. Books are not available through inter-library loan.

SCL has approximately 3000 periodical titles corresponding to the above subject areas. Access to the periodicals is by title only. An inventory of Los Angeles related periodicals is available. Periodicals do not circulate.

Special Collections

The Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research is a major archive for materials on social change with an emphasis on social changes that took place in Los Angeles. Special collections include 25,000 pamphlets, 1500 posters, 2000 photographs, 100 documentary films, 100 videos, 3500 audio tapes, extensive subject files (newspaper clippings, magazine articles, reports), and organizational files (Los Angeles and national grassroots organizations).

Archival Collections

The archives include those of political organizations, legal records of lawyers who defended political activists, personal papers of activists, and special collections created by the Library on specific themes (e.g., the ILGWU Research Collection, the South Central Los Angeles documentation project). These collections are the heart of the Library's holdings for the study of Los Angeles social history.

Registers contain detailed information of a particular collection. The registers usually include a history of the organization or individual, scope and content notes, and a box or container list of the collection contents. Collection titles with links will take you to their register.

Information about SCL and other collections and archives that preserve historical material related to the Los Angeles region is available on the L.A. as Subject website.