2023 Gift Guide
₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊ happy holidays! ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊
A wise aardvark once said, “Having fun isn’t hard, when you’ve got a library card.” When you give the gift of a library card, you’re not just handing someone a cute piece of plastic —you’re helping them access a whole world of free community resources, cultural events, art classes, and —of course— books! So, slip a sign-up form into a cute Los Angeles Public Library tote or plan a date for you and your bestie and sign up for your cards together because a library card is this season’s hottest gift.
state park pass
Is it really spring in LA if your Instagram isn’t covered in photos of people standing in the poppy fields? A library card can get you and your besties into the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, as well as over 200 other state parks, for free. All you have to do it check out the State Park Pass from a participating library and you’ll receive a free vehicle day-use entry to any participating park.
Museum Tickets
Through the Discover & Go program, your library card can help you score free or discounted tickets to various museums, science centers, and theaters throughout LA. Personally, my favorite participating museums are the Natural History Museum, the most romantic place in LA —the African and North American Diorama Halls— and the La Brea Tar Pits, home to the sabertooth tiger…puppets!
LAPL Museums and Tours
In case you think you’ve already been to every single museum in LA, the LAPL also has its own —underrated— museum exhibits and tours. Celebrate the LAPL’s 150th anniversary at the Central Library with vintage library swag and some cute (and creepy) puppets. I’d recommend Shades of LA: A Los Angeles Photo Album, focusing on the stories, photographs and oral histories collected in the nineties. Tour the exhibits yourself or take a free, docent-led tour of the library.
EXPEDITION LA
If your bestie is looking to spend more time outdoors, the library has a number of programs to help them enter their nature era. Expedition LA hosts everything from hikes, and bird walks to outdoor art classes. The library also features a number of hiking books, and maps if they prefer to head into the wilderness on their own —well, maybe not actually on their own. We recommend re-reading the Wikipedia summary of 127 Hours!
Festivals and celebrations
The library hosts and participates in a number of festivals, and celebrations throughout the year (all super fun, and free!) Celebrate the Libros Festival —a two-day event featuring Spanish and bilingual storytelling, performances and author appearances in September. Or honor Black culture in Los Angeles during June Jubilee. Individual libraries also host smaller events throughout the year, celebrating everything from cultural heritage to Pride!
LA MADE
The library hosts so many different art classes and events, it’d be impossible to name every one. But I do want to give a specific shout-out to their L.A. Made series, which features music, dance, and theater with local entertainers throughout the city. For example, here’s just a small sampler of their December and January events: linocut printmaking classes with Nova Community Arts, a kimono and obi fashion show, a performance by Hand Habits, and staged readings of Pulitzer Prize-winning plays by Interact Theatre Company.
octavia lab
The Octavia Lab is one of my favorite spaces in the library. Named after the ICONIC writer—Octavia Butler— the lab has all sorts of incredible tools available to use for free! Including a 3D printer, a laser cutter, sewing machines and a poster printer. There’s also recording, and photography studio spaces available. You will need a library card, photo ID and a signed user agreement to access there resources.
clubs galore
We all know in the age of Covid, social media, and anxiety, making irl friends is basically impossible. Lucky for you each library branch has different clubs to choose from like the World History or Mystery book club. If talking books isn’t your thing, there are a bunch of different groups aimed at having everyone just hang out and work on their own art projects, like Knitting Club and B.Y.O. Needle Arts Club. I’m particularly obsessed with the Walking Book Club, where you can go on a light walk while talking about any books you’ve read and loved recently. If in-person isn’t for you, several of these groups, including the Weekly Art Circle, are virtual.
ZINES! ZINES! ZINES!
For anyone interested in reading or making zines, the library is an incredible resource. Not only do a number of LAPL locations have their own zine libraries, but the library also hosts so many events catering to zine creators, including an online zine club and classes on book- and zine-making. If you’re new to zines, I love the zine reading lists the library created to serve as introductory guides to their collection–I know I’m going to have to check out Josh Chapman’s A Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek.
reading challenges
Does anyone else miss when Pizza Hut would give you a free personal pan pizza if you read enough books? Sadly, Pizza Hut’s reading program had an age limit, but the library’s does not! That’s right, the library’s spring, summer and winter reading challenges are open to adults and feature all kinds of age appropriate swag. My LA tote bag from the summer reading program gets complimented everywhere I go!
covid tests
Really not much to say here, except that —in my opinion— we should all be getting Covid tested often, and we should not be paying for those tests! But guess what? The library has some for free! They tend to run out pretty quickly, so I’d recommend calling whatever branch you’re going to to make sure they’re available. LAPL also regularly hosts vaccine clinics where you can get your Covid, flu and monkeypox vaccines. Check out their Health and Wellness calendar for updates!
exercise classes
If you know anyone that’s spending way too much money on exercise classes, let them know that the library has so many different free classes, for all different experience levels and abilities. There’s Zumba, yoga, tai chi, and even some seated exercise classes. They also host online meditation sessions, if that’s more your speed. And, if traditional exercise classes are a little too intimidating, you should check out the dance classes the library hosts, including line dancing and African dance.
community classes
Something I hear constantly from my fellow floundering young adults is “Why didn’t they teach us [practical skill] in school?” While I can’t speak to the failures of the American education system, I can say the library offers so many classes on things I really, really needed someone to teach me. Don’t know how to enroll in Covered California? There’s a class for that. Need money for groceries? These monthly classes teach you how to sign up for CalFresh. There are eviction response classes, virtual legal clinics, and even CPR classes. If you or anyone you know is working on getting citizenship, the library also has a number of free citizenship classes.
career resources
If your bestie is interested in becoming a (gender-neutral) girlboss, they should definitely be making use of the library’s job and small business resources. The library can help you find a job, manage your finances, and even start your own small business. If you’re currently in the job market, I really recommend taking advantage of websites like LinkedIn Learning and Learning Express Library, both of which you can access for free with your library card. These sites feature online tutorials in different skills that you can actually add to your resumé.
mini THERAPY HORSES
Technically, this is just one event, and probably shouldn’t warrant its own category/section, but ever since I heard that the library sometimes hosts miniature therapy horses, it has taken over my life. It haunts me. Would meeting a miniature therapy horse fix me?Surly there’s no way that the Mini Therapy Horses program, whose slogan is “Hooved angels, healing hearts and minds,” can do the work of years of therapy and medication. Right?
The Library Store ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊
Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with the Library Store? It has a physical location at the Central Library, as well as an online store. There you can find so many different gifts for the library-obsessed in your life–t-shirts, notebooks, pencil cases, mugs, and even LAPL-themed washi tape. They also have plenty of non-library themed items as well, including collaborations with local artists and some great books on L.A. history and culture. If you’re going to shop online this holiday, why not give your money to the library, instead of a certain wannabe cowboy?
Library Book Sales ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊
Go to a library book sale! Libraries regularly host sales with hundreds of used books, DVDs, and CDs available for ridiculously low prices. An easy way to keep track of all the sales happening in your area is through the Book Sale Finder emailing list. Either go to one yourself, and gift your bestie with a bag of lovingly curated used books, or you can visit one together and have fun picking out books for each other.
need some book recommendations? Here are some of our faves from this year featured in Junior high’s monthly guest curated bookshelf in partnership with our friends at north figueroa bookshop!!!
The Bluest Eye — Toni Morrison
Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner
Decoding “Despacito”: An Oral History of Latin Music — Leila Cobo
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love — Sonya Renee Taylor
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous — Ocean Vuong
Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons — Anthony Christian Ocampo
Fangirls: Scenes from Modern Music Culture — Hannah Ewens
Misfits: A Personal Manifesto — Michaela Coel
Tesoro — Yesika Salgado
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory — Raphael Bob–Waksberg
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement — Angela Davis
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body — Roxane Gay
New American Best Friend — Olivia Gatwood
Sister Outsider — Audre Lorde
“You Just Need To Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People — Aubrey Gordon
Thank you for supporting your local library! Enjoyed this gift guide? Go thank a librarian! Take a free class! Did you know the LAPL forgave all outstanding fees in 2020. Now you don’t have to worry about that late fee from 2007!
𝓍𝑜𝓍𝑜,
𝒥𝑜𝒽𝓃 𝒢𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒥𝓊𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓇 𝐻𝒾𝑔𝒽