Megan and Rick,  
Thank you for your consistent diligence in archiving and preserving historical media.  The resources you preserve become more valuable in so many ways as every day passes.
Hank Grebe

A community-supported independent library & artist workshop of printed material, fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts.

The Prelinger Library in San Francisco offers thousands of historical maps, zines, documents, books and other materials, all of which are available for artists to reference or reuse. Its collections serve activists, writers, musicians, composers, poets, novelists, journalists, and historians. The Library was established in 2004 and has served over ten thousand reserach visits. Its collections have supported the production of artists talks series, films, novels as well as open-ended explorations by people working across all media types. As a 100% community-supported project, the Library s free to pursue equity and justice, abolition and libration, and to serve the community as a trans- and queer-safe space and infoshop for survival and resistance. The Library puts hospitality first and offers sparkling water or tea to every visitor.

The collections also hold government-produced documents from eras when artists and writers were widely employed in their production, offering art and literature in unexpected places as well as roadmaps toward civil societies. With stacks materials ranging from eighteenth century documents to works produced this week, the room serves as a slip in spacetime within which a couple hundred years of human experience and experiments can be browsed. Library hosts represent a range of subject-matter expertises including public transportation, radio science, zine making, natural history, library science, book arts, moving image history and production, and nonfiction writing.

The Library also exists as an experiment in analog–digital hybridity. Its [stacks can be explored remotely here](https://prelingerlibrary.org/stacks/v2/) (please press the STARS button for maximum experience). Many items that have been digitized can be accessed through browsing Stacks Explorer, or directly at our portal at [Internet Archive,](https://archive.org/details/prelinger_library/v2&tab=collection) our longtime ally in the fight for free access to cultural materials.

The Library is currently open for drop-in visits three days a week in San Francisco. Please [visit our website](https://prelingerlibrary.org/home/) to check the current open hours when planning your visit. Information about artist residencies, more about the history of the Library, and information about the people behind the project can all be found on the website.

The Library's founders also operate a sibling organization in parallel, which is a film archives (Prelinger Archives). Moving image materials from the archives can be accessed through its [portal at Internet Archive here. ](https://archive.org/details/prelinger)

Prelinger Library

LGBT+

Racial Justice

Gender Equality

Join us in supporting women-led nonprofits.

Women Led

Transgender

Libraries

Discover nonprofits researching and exploring space.

Join us in supporting nonprofits researching and exploring space.

Space

Discover nonprofits supporting the visual arts.

Join us in supporting visual arts nonprofits.

Visual Art

1279515062

148788709

1524399316

test

167058366

1873740264

188270313

2052641908

2088874155

We are a nonprofit, so instead of charging fees we rely on the generosity of donors like you.

Choose a donation for Every.org

2140519340

2183212369

2269066361

2310049938

2477281247

2551237796

2774030336

2880853031

2883383521

2899462032

316638097

3323783059

3381177838

338811242

3545345297

3705164611

3842241318

3934974605

4167807122

506613571

1287028958

1858760411

2104603717

225261647

2407957277

2729980760

2939442496

3440869557

4143568784

434649596

671754822

87081813

99361

1014384873

1112422858

153399038

2028390811

220342792

2266630408

2519810400

2539558839

2826465835

2843798242

2898624300

3259439560

339774024

3642494300

3902459442

4250940449

472232120

585491400

641510716

91682487

Prelinger Library

Join Henry to support Prelinger Library

Join Henry to support Prelinger Library

Prelinger Library

Donors

Become a supporter!

Become a supporter!

Turn this donation into a movement

Prelinger Library

.css-1o4xpbk-UserDonationPage--css{width:100%;}.css-eiin6b-UserDonationPage--css{display:inline-block;--textSize:1.25rem;--lineHeight:1.5rem;line-height:var(--lineHeight);font-size:var(--textSize);width:100%;}Prelinger Library

Join Henry to support Prelinger Library

Join Henry to support Prelinger Library

Prelinger Library

Donors

Become a supporter!

Become a supporter!

Turn this donation into a movement

Prelinger Library

Prelinger Library