Pomona, CA
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Library Mission
The Mission of the Pomona Public Library is to provide Library services and materials which meet the diverse informational, educational and recreational needs of all of the citizens of the City of Pomona. The Library's resources and services include a circulating book collection in English and other languages of over 300,000 volumes; newspapers and magazines; adult reference and information services, Internet access; audio-visual materials; a large genealogy collection; and programs for children, young adults and adults.
Library History
The First Pomona Public Library
The Pomona Public Library began in 1887, and was originally located in a single room of the Ruth Block Building located at Third and Main. The Library was open for three hours, two afternoons per week, and the collection consisted of 400 books.
The Library would subsequently move to three rooms in the Union Block Building, on Second and Thomas Streets in 1892. It remained at this location until the Carnegie Building was completed in 1903.
Pomona's "Carnegie" Library
On June 11, 1903, construction was completed on a new Public Library Building, located at 380 North Main Street. The project was funded by a $15,000 grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The new building housed 15,000 books, and was staffed by a Librarian and two assistants.
In 1912, the Library received a second Carnegie Foundation grant of $10,000, which added two wings to the library building, and doubled its size.
1939 Library Expansion by the Works Progress Administration (WPA)
The original Carnegie Library building, completed in 1903, and expanded in 1912, was enlarged for the last time in 1939. The building was finally closed in 1965, when it was replaced by the current building.
Unique Collection:
Frasher Foto Postcard Digitization Project
The Frasher Foto Postcard Digitization Project has enabled the Pomona Public Library to select, scan and display on the Project's Web site, more than 5000 representative images from our Frasher Foto Postcard Collection. The Project was made possible by a grant of Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds through the California State Library for FY 2002-2003.
The photographic postcard images used in this project were selected from the Library's extensive collection with the assistance of a three person team of expert consultants: Michael Dawson, of Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles, California; Sally Stein, Professor of Art History, University of California at Irvine; Jennifer Watts, Curator of Photographs, The Huntington Library, San Marino,California. The picture postcards chosen for the project were scanned by the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) of the University of California at Los Angeles. The Project website was designed by Visual Perspectives Internet Inc. (VPI) of Irvine, California. The project utilized ContentDM, a digital collection management software tool created by DiMeMa Inc., to create, organize, publish and retrieve the digital objects that appear on the Project Web site.
The Library gratefully acknowledges the invaluable contributions of Special Collections Assistant Susan Hutchinson, and Volunteer Betty Peters. Without their dedicated efforts to arrange, identify and organize the Frasher Postcard Collection, this Project could not have been attempted, let alone completed.
Visit our Online Digital Images Collections
Unique Collection:
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Collection
The collection also includes the original typewritten manuscript of By the Shores of Silver Lake and Remember Me, one of Michael Landon's scripts of the television series Little House on the Prairie. Also on display are also copies of the original correspondence between Mrs. Wilder and Miss Webber, signed first editions of the - Little House - books and copies of the books in other languages.
There are two sets of Ingalls family dolls. Bea Brooks, a prominent Pomona doll maker, created one set in the 1950's. The other was hand-carved by Minnesota artist Harvey Hultquist.
The Pomona Public Library continues to promote the books and heritage of Laura Ingalls Wilder. In 1967 the first Gingerbread Sociable was held at the library to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mrs. Wilder's birth. A Gingerbread Sociable has been held the first Saturday in February every year since then with live music, pioneer craft displays and apple cider and gingerbread.
The Clara Webber Collection specializes in books about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family. These books are for use in the library only.
The manuscript, facsimiles of the letters between Mrs. Wilder and Miss Webber and other items from the Wilder Collection are on permanent display in the alcove off the Children's Room.