Library : Library Card Designs

A new series of four Historic Glendale cards will become available to borrowers at all Library sites on July 26, 2008, the same day the Library opens its newest branch, Library Connection @ Adams Square.

	Many library borrowers still use their original thin plastic "barcode" library cards.
	A "credit card" style borrower's card featured the Library logo in the 1990s.
	Cards for children and teens were introduced in 2005. The Teen card was designed by then Glendale High School students Min Ji Yi and Eun Jung Lee.
	The children's card was designed by Children's Room Manager Theresa Robinett based on features found in the Children's Room. She also designed the set of the Library's popular GTV6 televised storytime program, TreeHouse Tales.
	The Library celebrated 100 years of service to the community in 2007. Adult borrowers could trade in their old Library Cards for one of six new Centennial Library Cards featuring historic photos from the Library's Special Collections Room, or a mini key-card. Most of these popular designs are still available.

Central Library
1914
View / Hide

Brand Library
1904
View / Hide

Glendale Hotel
1890's
View / Hide

Grand Central
Air Terminal
View / Hide

Central Library
1949
View / Hide

Red Car
1955
View / Hide

Central Library, 1914
Library services in Glendale were first provided in 1906 when the members of the Tuesday Afternoon Club, a social and philanthropic organization, raised money through a series of lectures to fund a library collection. The library opened in a renovated poolroom with seventy books, and became a municipal library the next year. The Central Library building shown here opened in 1914 with the help of a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Corporation. By 1923, the City's 35,000 residents were borrowing about 150,000 books a year. The Casa Verdugo Branch was established in 1926 as the library system's second neighborhood library and in that same year the Central Library building was enlarged to twice its original size.

Today the community borrows over 1 million items every year from the Library's collections of almost 700,000 books, over 25,000 music CDs and almost 14,000 movies. The addition of wireless Internet and the ability to download literally thousands of magazine and newspaper articles make the Library and its website--open 24 hours, seven days a week--valuable community resources. The Library continues to expand and grow with its community and in this year residents will be able to visit its new branch in Adams Square.