Santa Barbara is Invited to Celebrate the 100th Birthday of Central Library

The Central Library is celebrating its 100th birthday this Sunday, August 27, from 1-5 pm with cupcakes, crafts, LEGO, a time capsule, building tours, and more!

The Santa Barbara community is invited for birthday cake, and to sample some of the educational enrichment programs the library offers to support students at this open house event, including MakerSpace, coding, circuitry and robotics, building with LEGO, as well as reading with therapy dogs! Attendees are also invited to write a letter or bring an object to deposit in a time capsule that the Library will open on its 125th birthday. 

Children and families are also invited to help create a model of the city using LEGO! Two sessions are offered: one at 1:30 pm and one at 3:30 pm. Register for the program online at SBPLibrary.org or call (805) 962-7653. This program is presented in partnership with Play Well TEKnologies which brings LEGO®-based engineering-focused educational programs with the hope of inspiring the next generation of engineers, architects, inventors, and innovative thinkers. For more information on our partner visit their website: play-well.org.  

This Sunday marks the 100th Anniversary of the opening of Central Library. Frances Linn and the Library Board of Trustees were determined to open the library that day, despite the fact the building wasn’t yet completed, because it was the first day of school.

“Without ceremony the doors of the new public library were opened to the public at 9 o’clock this morning and the librarians began lending and receiving books. All about the great reading room were signs of unfinished work. From other parts of the building came the sound of hammers and busy workman and carpenters in aprons and painters, with brushes and pails, now and then passed in the library among the librarians and the patrons at the reading tables or the book racks. The library was opened today before the building was finished so that the students who begin their fall term of school today may not be hindered in their work by the lack of library accommodations.”      

            -Santa Barbara News-Press, August 27, 1917

Perched on the corner of Anacapa and Anapamu, the Central Library has experienced many changes in the last 100 years: surviving the 1925 Earthquake, undergoing a number of minor and major building renovations, integrating technology, the online catalog, and the Internet into its programs and services, all while continuing to be the heart and soul of Santa Barbara.

Now more than ever, the Library is serving the community and meeting its informational and educational needs by providing a full calendar of free programs and classes for all ages, including early literacy storytimes, MakerSpace, Homework Help, computer coaching, Adult Literacy services, workforce readiness training, book clubs, poetry readings, and so much more. The library lends not just books, but provides access to databases, digital books, audiobooks, movies, and music, and lends wireless hotspots that provide internet access anywhere.

Join the Library for a birthday party to celebrate not only the history of the library, but all the programs, events, and services that support the educational enrichment of children, the lifelong learning of adults, and makes the Central Library a community hub. The Library has been an asset to the City of Santa Barbara for 100 years, due to the vision of early residents and the continued support of the community. 

“Two women met in one of Santa Barbara’s larger hotels, one for many years a resident of the city, the other a visitor. The new comer remarked with enthusiasm on the delights of the climate and the natural beauties, to which rhapsody the Santa Barbara woman assented with characteristic loyalty and exclaimed: ‘Yes, God has done pretty nearly everything for us here. But have you seen our public library? That’s all to our credit.”

            -Frances B. Linn “The Heart of Santa Barbara,” The Western Woman, March 1931

Santa Barbara Public Library is dedicated to being a credit to the community for the next 100 years, too.

Information about Santa Barbara Public Library System locations, hours, events, and programs is available at SBPLibrary.org. All Library programs are free and open to the public.