All LA County Library locations will be closed on Wednesday, December 25, 2024 and January 1, 2025 in observance of Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Libraries will close at 5 pm on December 24 and January 31. Our digital library is open 24/7.
Do you know a Spanish-speaking adult who wants to learn basic reading or writing in Spanish? Students will learn the sounds of the alphabet, read and write simple words, and learn writing skills in Spanish. For adults.
The course is not a Spanish as a second language course and was designed for adults who never went to school or who attended for only 1 – 2 years.
The program is held in the Chicano Resource Center located inside the library. For more information, please call the adult literacy staff at 562-367-0500.
East Los Angeles Library was established on May 1, 1923, with a small collection of books in the corner of a local store. Three months later, a small building was constructed to house the collection.
In 1924, another building was constructed at Kern Avenue near Whittier Boulevard to become the new site of the public library. Then in 1932, the library moved to 679 Fetterly Avenue, where it was located for 35 years before being moved to a new building, on the corner of Third and Fetterly in 1967.
Thanks to funding from Gloria Molina, Supervisor of the First District, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the library moved into its new location in September 2004.
This brand new library building is over 26,000 square feet, nearly double the size of the old building. The library is located within the East Los Angeles Civic Center, which also includes the East Los Angeles County Hall, Courthouse, Probation Department, Sheriff's station, Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, and Belvedere Park Lake. The library now offers expanded services and collections and an expanded Chicano Resource Center in a separate room.
Community residents requested that the new library reflect Mayan design and themes. Since many Mayan structures in southern Mexico and Central America were astronomical observatories, the designers incorporated references to the sun and the moon, both themes in Mayan art, in the pavement at the entrances and in the lobby.
The interior foyer features artist Jose Antonio Aguirre's monumental mosaic mural cycle "OUR LEGACY: Forever Presente..." which is a visual tribute to East Los Angeles' proud cultural heritage and socio-political struggle.
