#22034 Browsing Nostalgia in San Francisco, California

What are you looking for? DIY magazines from the 60s? A century's worth of maps of California? Old cigarette ads? The history of candy? How about a 1950s book on puberty? Whether you come armed with a bizarre research topic or just want to peruse, the Prelinger Library in SOMA is worth a visit. The private library was founded by Rick Prelinger and Megan Shaw Prelinger and houses over 40,000 books, periodicals, government documents, and ephemera. Strengths include North American landscape (cultural geography, travel and tourism, car culture), housing and city planning, advertising and consumerism, and media and technology. It also has a vast collection of government documents, maps, and historical text books. The Prelinger rejects the Dewey Decimal system and instead promotes browsing and serendipitous discovery with it unique organization of themes and topics. It also has over 3,000 ebooks and visitors are encouraged to take copies home on their USB Drives.