Why Everyone (Except Donald Trump and Xi Jinping) Loves the Reagan Library

Atop a Ventura County Hill Sits an Institution That Has Succeeded Far Beyond Politics

Here’s a new rule of thumb for Californians: If Donald Trump and the Chinese government both want to boycott a Golden State place, you should get yourself there as fast as you can.

Which means that now is the time to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, which in April, became a target of autocrats from Mar-a-Lago to the Middle Kingdom.

President Trump recently suggested on his Truth Social account that he would boycott presidential debates at the Reagan Library, in part because the chair of the institution’s board is …

by Joe Mathews | May 9, 2023

Where I Go: The Garden Library I Grow

Before I Plant, I Curl up With My Favorite Ecologists, Journalists, and Victorian Naturalists

by Beth Py-Lieberman | August 21, 2020

My gardening habit was born on the day my mother died. Grief-stricken beyond belief, and thinking that her boundless spirit might linger still in the sun-loving plants she had long …

The African American ‘Hidden Figures’ Who Desegregated the South’s Public Libraries

In Jackson, Blacks Endured Beatings and Dog Attacks to Gain Entrance, While in Birmingham They Used Sit-Ins to State Their Case

by Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. Wiegand | October 16, 2018

Historians of the civil rights era, between 1954 and 1968, have crafted an impressive body of literature focusing on the resolve of young black community activists who bravely resisted racial …

How World War II Turned Soldiers Into Bookworms

American GIs Devoured Paperbacks on the Front Lines, Spawning a New Generation of Readers

By Molly Guptill Manning | April 8, 2016

In January 1942, thousands of New Yorkers gathered on the steps of the legendary New York Public Library, at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, wearing their Sunday best and warmest …

How One City’s Library Adapts to Tweens, Teens, and New Families

Santa Ana Is a Yeasty Mix of Immigrants and Trendy Urbanites

By Heather Folmar | September 1, 2015

The Santa Ana Public Library is an old library. It was founded in 1891 by white, middle-class migrants from the Midwest who wanted to replicate their hometown libraries. But like …

Who Are the Homeless People in My Library?

A Fresno Librarian Made a Documentary to Get More Than a Glimpse at the Lives of Patrons She Serves Every Day

by Lisa Lindsay | April 8, 2015

Several years ago, when I first began working as a librarian at the Central Library in downtown Fresno, I escorted a daily customer named James toward the door at closing …

Get More Zócalo