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10 inspiring L.A. libraries for when you want free AC and a quiet place to work

Aug. 9, 2023 4:57 PM PT

The early 20th century industrialist Andrew Carnegie once described the free public library as a cradle of democracy “where neither rank, office nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.” It’s an ideal that continues to thrive in the L.A. region’s most beautiful libraries, many of which are open to everyone regardless of how much money you have or where you live.

“There’s no place like it,” said Joyce Cooper, director of branch services for the Los Angeles Public Library. “Where else can you just walk in off the street and get help for whatever you need?”

When libraries started reopening after the worst of the pandemic, Cooper and her colleagues noticed an uptick in the number of people using their local branch as a de facto co-working space.

She gets it.

“It’s a nice, quiet place to be if you don’t want to be home and you don’t want to buy a coffee,” she said. “Also, our Wi-Fi speeds are off the charts.”

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While some coffee shops dissuade their customers from spending the day working in their spaces by setting time limits for how long you can sit at a table, or restricting outlet access, Cooper and her team are doing just the opposite.

To support patrons who want to use the library as a co-working space, the Los Angeles Public Library recently launched a project to install tabletop outlets in more of its branches and ensure that there are more hydration stations where people can fill up their water bottles.

“Our mission is to connect people to the resources they need,” Cooper said. “That may not be a book, but maybe it’s help applying for MediCal, or CalFresh, or making it easier to use our spaces.”

Your local library might be the most convenient place to spend the day soaking up that specific library hush — not to mention the free air conditioning — but if you don’t mind a little extra driving, you can find some truly extraordinary libraries that you are equally welcome to utilize.

Here are 10 of my favorites with tips on where to park and sit.

Showing Places

An ornate room with checked tile floor, long tables, chandeliers and columned arches over bookshelves down the sides.

Hoose Library of Philosophy, USC

University Park Library

USC’s Hoose Library of Philosophy is the school’s oldest library and its most ornate. Built in 1929 and located in the Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy, it resembles a Hogwarts set with beautifully painted walls, tall graceful columns, towering arches and a large stone fireplace. There are five long wooden tables down the center of the room, but even more inviting are the small curved alcoves formed by bookshelves against the walls. The library is open to the public Monday through Friday, from noon to 4 p.m., but you need a USC ID to check out books. If you’re planning to stay a while, try to find street parking on Exposition Boulevard. If that fails, the closest paid lot is the McCarthy Structure at 620 McCarthy Way, where two hours will cost you $8. The library, in the Mudd Hall of Philosophy, is also just a short walk from the Expo Park/USC Metro stop on the E line.

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Manhattan Beach Library

Yes, it’s modern. Yes, it’s lofty. Yes, it has a ton of desks and outlets plus a few glass-enclosed study rooms. But the real draw of the Manhattan Beach Library is the million-dollar ocean view that can be yours for free. Head up the blond wood staircase, pass under the large jellyfish sculptures, and you’ll find desks and easy chairs arranged in front of floor-to-ceiling windows that offer spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean. The library is an easy walk to coffee shops, restaurants and the beach — perfect for when you need a break.

You’ll find free two-hour parking in the Civic Center parking lot off of 13th Street, but keep in mind that the two-hour time limit is strictly enforced.

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(Deborah Netburn / Los Angeles Times)

Brand Library & Art Center

Glendale Library

Housed in the former home of real estate developer Leslie Coombs Brand, the Brand Library & Art Center is brimming with old-world luxury. The gleaming white exterior was modeled after the East India Pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but the interior was, and still is, traditional late Victorian. Choose a seat in what was once Brand’s drawing room, dining room or reception hall and enjoy the hand-painted ceilings, pocket doors, carved fireplace and oil paintings lining the walls. Access to the library’s extensive art and music collection is available for anyone with a library card, which you can get no matter where you live, as long as you have a current ID. Parking is easy and free.

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Desks and chairs next to a window that looks out at the Pacific Design Center's red, green and blue buildings.

West Hollywood Library

Beverly Grove Library

If you’re looking for a comfortable, bright, attractive, modern co-working space, the West Hollywood Library is hard to beat. On the second floor you’ll find low lounge chairs and small wooden desks facing the floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on the brightly colored Pacific Design Center. A modern carved wooden ceiling floats above the library’s shelves, offering an earthy counterpart to all that glass. Need to take a meeting? No problem! You can reserve one of three study rooms for an hour. And if you want to get some exercise in, the West Hollywood Aquatic Center’s swimming pool is on the roof; an individual lap swim costs $7.50. The library validates parking for up to three hours if you park in its structure.

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The Tom Bradley Wing of the Central Library has a sculpture hanging in its multistory atrium.

Los Angeles Central Library

Downtown L.A. Library

For many of us, the Los Angeles Central Library is hallowed ground. Maybe it’s the sheer size of the building that stretches over nearly an entire city block, housing eight levels of open and closed stacks, workrooms, reading rooms and a computer lab. Maybe it’s the abundance of mystical details scattered throughout the structure — a goddess statue on a staircase flanked by a pair of sphinxes, the pyramid on the roof, the flame motifs that symbolize “the light of learning.” This temple of knowledge has myriad places to work, but one favorite is the fiction and literature department on level three of the Tom Bradley Wing. Look for a seat at one of the wooden tables overlooking the dangling sculptures in the atrium. And if you parked in the lot beneath the library, remember to validate your parking ticket before you leave.

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A library with two levels of bookshelves and people seated at tables in the center.

The Philosophical Research Society Library

Los Feliz Library

Tucked into a quiet corner of Los Feliz not far from Griffith Park is the dark and atmospheric Philosophical Research Society Library, just beyond two heavy wooden doors carved with the likenesses of Confucius and Plato. The society and its library were founded by the revered 20th century scholar Manly P. Hall, who envisioned it as a public space where wisdom seekers and other curious souls could access the work of history’s greatest sages and philosophers. Glass and wood bookshelves line the walls, while an oversized copy of Hall’s esoteric opus, “The Secret Teachings of All Ages,” is on display in a corner. Visitors can peruse up to three books at a time from the collection, which includes works on world religions, philosophy, psychology, astrology and divination. The library is open to the public Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 6 p.m. and free parking is available on-site.

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A T. rex skeleton looms over a red-and-white lighthouse and small round wood tables with chairs.

Cerritos Library

The Cerritos Library is a library on steroids. The entrance features a 15,000-gallon saltwater aquarium. The popular children’s section includes a 40-foot replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, a lighthouse that kids can play in, and a model of the space shuttle. And you’ll find a fireplace with a holographic fire in the “old world reading room” on the first floor.

But if you’re here to work, head to the fiction and language section on the second floor. This is the quietest part of the library, where you’ll find desks and cubicle-like work spaces. One thing to know before you go: Wi-Fi access is free for those with a Cerritos library card. Otherwise it will cost you $5 a day. Parking in the small lot just outside the library or in the nearby underground garage, however, is free.

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Powell Library rotunda features arched windows and a glass-and-metal hanging light fixture.

Powell Library, UCLA

Westwood Library

The Powell Library’s 10,000-square-foot main reading room with its show-stopping painted plaster ceiling and towering arched windows is currently closed for seismic upgrades (it is expected to reopen this fall). But you can get a taste of the 1929 Romanesque Revival building’s historic architecture in the smaller but still impressive rotunda on the second floor of this UCLA library. There you’ll find leather armchairs and several tables beneath a soaring domed ceiling.

“Night Powell” on the first floor is a less glorious but quieter place to work, with rows of desks and small cubicle-like work spaces. The general public is allowed to use the library. You’ll find the closest parking in lots 2 and 5.

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Woodland Hills Branch Library

Woodland Hills Library

Inviting and earthy, the interior of the Woodland Hills branch of the Los Angeles Public Library resembles a modern and oversized wood cabin. There’s wood paneling on the walls and ceiling and the carpet is somewhere between sage and moss green. In the main reading room you’ll find a towering angled ceiling and large, wide windows that frame views of the eucalyptus trees shading the parking lot outside. The building opened in 2003, and on a recent afternoon the spacious reading room with 10 rectangular tables and a handful of comfy armchairs was nearly full. Despite the steamy, 90-degree-plus heat outside, regulars had come prepared with hoodies, sweaters and even one puffer vest. The air conditioning was on full blast and it felt great. Another bonus: Parking is free and abundant in the lot out front.

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A corner of a library featuring a globe, a window with long drapes, and shelves of books with a lamp.

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA

Jefferson Park Library

Hidden behind a vine-covered brick wall in West Adams you’ll find the stunningly ornate William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, which specializes in rare books and manuscripts and has one of the best Oscar Wilde collections in the world. It was built as a private library by the outrageously wealthy William Andrews Clark Jr. in 1926 and now is part of the UCLA system. You’ll need to make an appointment to see its stunning interior, complete with marble walls, bronze bookshelves and painted ceilings. (If you go, pay special attention to the nude figures on the ceiling in the entry hall. Some say they all feature the face of Clark Jr.’s longtime lover, Harrison Post.) The public is invited to use the library’s collection, but you will need an appointment to do that too. This is really a research library, not the type of place where you can plan to work all day, but I included it anyway because it’s definitely worth a visit.

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