101 Pacific Avenue
Long
Beach, CA 90822
(562) 570-7500
Mondays
Associated Radio
Amateurs of Long Beach (ARALB) is planning a month-long exhibit depicting the
history
of
Amateur Radio in Long Beach. The display will run from May 3rd to
May 29th, at the Long Beach Public Library
(LBPL), Main Branch. The LBPL will
provide us six locking display cases and a large bulletin board
(~16' x 6½').
Five of the six cases will be used to display historic photographs and Amateur
Radio artifacts, each roughly
corresponding to an FCC Part 97.1 principle. The
sixth display case and bulletin board will be used to display ARALB/W6RO/ARES/RACES/ARRL
materials. The following introductory statement will be displayed at
the
library entrance:
Serving Long Beach
since 1928, Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach (ARALB) helps provide
emergency communications during catastrophic events when other technologies like
telephones, cell phones and computers, stop working.
This year marks the 25th
anniversary of their Amateur Radio station, W6RO. You can visit W6RO aboard the
Queen Mary and learn how Hams communicate with others around the world. ARALB
offers classes and
testing sessions to anyone who wants to become licensed as an
Amateur Radio operator. To learn more, see
their exhibit on the first floor of
the library, and visit their website at
www.aralb.org.
The Main Library is located at 101 Pacific Avenue in the Long Beach Civic Center. Parking, validated for $1.25 for two hours, is located in the Civic Center parking structure at Broadway and Chestnut.
The earliest Long Beach library was founded on Jan. 1, 1896, and was housed in a room adjoining the City Council office at the corner of Pine and Pacific. In 1899 the library moved into the new City Hall, next to Pacific Park. A Carnegie Foundation grant was secured to build a new library building, and the park was chosen for the site. In 1909, the new Long Beach library opened, very near to the location of the present Main Library. In 1915 Pacific Park was rededicated as Lincoln Park, as thousands of onlookers cheered and the U.S.S. Saratoga fired a 21-gun salute. The library in the park was a center of culture in a proud and growing city.
For more than six decades, the Main Library in Lincoln Park served the public well, but the need to house a growing collection, combined with the effects of a damaging fire which struck the library in 1970, made construction of a new library a necessity. In 1973, work began on the new Civic Center complex, and in 1976, the new Main Library was opened, adjoining the new Long Beach City Hall. The statue of Abraham Lincoln, dedicated in 1915, still stands next to the Main Library, a link to our proud history as the library moves into the 21st century.
Tours of the Main Library are available by reservation only. Please call Social Science Department at 570-7500 to reserve a tour time. Tours last approximately 30 minutes.
The Main Library has a wealth of resources waiting to be discovered ,come in and see.
Display
materials were provided by ARALB Past president. Dennis Kidder,
WA6NIA; W6RO Manager. Nate Brightman
,K6OSC; and ARALB Historian, Marilyn Boone, KF6GZF. Principal
exhibitor were Carina Lister, KF6ZYY;
Thomas Gibbons, W9EYB, Fred Wagner, KQ6Q; and Michael Fox, W6MFJ.