When we are not answering your questions or preparing programs, the staff in the California History Room spend our time working to improve your access to the History Room collections, care for the collections, add materials documenting California’s history, and generally convey the richness and diversity of California’s past. Check out what projects we and some of our Library colleagues are working on! If you have any questions about these projects or our collections please feel free to contact us.
California COVID Diaries
The California State Library is working with local libraries to collect COVID-19 stories from across the state. We invite you to share your experience — so that we can preserve these memories for future Californians.
CAL@170
The California State Library is presenting Cal@170, a collection of 170 stories commemorating California’s 170 years of statehood. The aim is to offer examples of California’s unique character and that of its residents, past and present. That means among the good there will be some bad. For every success story, there’s a failure, a tragedy, an injustice. It’s from these mistakes that we learn and grow stronger together. For more information and to share a story, visit Cal@170.
Broadside Card File Project
The History Room has a large poster collection that few people know about because the only records for it are in an old card-file. While we started transcribing our poster card file before the pandemic, we have been able to make real progress during quarantine. Many of these posters are still under copyright, so we cannot post images online, but if you want a copy for personal use, please contact us!
Manuscript Finding Aid Project
During quarantine, we tackled the gargantuan task of transcribing all of our typewritten finding aids so that you can get a better sense of each collection and request materials from home. While they aren’t all available yet, you can see our progress in our catalog. If you want more information about the contents of a specific file in these collections, please contact us!