History
The Oakland Library Association was formed in 1868 as a subscription library. The poet Ina Coolbrith was hired as librarian in 1873. In 1878, the library was reformed as the Oakland Free Library, the second public library created in California under the Rogers Free Library Act. (Eureka was first.) With her personal style, Coolbrith nurtured the reading habits of many young Oakland students including Jack London and Isadora Duncan. Coolbrith's nephew Henry Frank Peterson replaced Coolbrith in 1892, greatly expanding the library's circulation as well as improving accessibility by completing a card catalog system. Charles S. Greene, poet and former editor of the Overland Monthly, became librarian in 1899 and served until 1926. Mabel W. Thomas, who served as assistant librarian and chief reference librarian under Greene, and retired in 1948, began a collection of books, periodicals, and other material that were the foundation of the California Room in the 1940s and now contained in the well-used Oakland History Room.
Read more about this topic: Oakland Public Library
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