Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Library & Archive

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Library & Archive is the most comprehensive transit operator-owned library resource in the United States. As the only multimodal transportation library in Southern California, we serve employees, the public, governments, and research institutions around the world. Our origins date back to the days of the Los Angeles Railway in 1890, but we were reintroduced to the public by the Southern California Rapid Transit District in 1971. Our collection contains approximately 250,000 items of significance to Los Angeles transportation history from 1873 to the present. This includes 45,000 books, reports, studies, conference proceedings, plans, maps, and drawings, 20,000 microfiche reports, more than 20,000 photographs and images, over 700 videos, several thousand ephemera, and a growing collection of publicly-accessible full-text digital documents. We collect, preserve, and provide access to archival materials from our predecessor transit agencies: Pacific Electric, Los Angeles Railway, Metropolitan Coach Lines, Los Angeles Transit Lines, Asbury Transit, Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, Southern California Rapid Transit District, and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission