What year was
your department established?
1917 as a subscription initative by the Anchorage Women's Club, 1922 as the Anchorage Public Library.
The first Anchorage Library in 1916 or 1917 - next to the Sidney Laurence photography company.
What are some defining moments - the good, the bad, or the wild - that shaped your department?
- 1929: Library run by Anchorage Public Library Assocation, subsidized by City of Anchorage.
- 1945: Anchorage Public Library Association transferred all property and assets to the City of Anchorage following the sudden illness and subsequent death of longtime librarian Mary Wever. The library opened in its new location, a Quonset hut located at 5th Ave and F Street known as the "Cow Palace," in November 1945.
- June 1955: Z.J. Loussac Library, championed and funded by former mayor and businessman Zachary J. Loussac, was dedicated at 427 F Street. It included a collection of Alaskana materials donated by the family of pioneer banker Warren N. Cuddy, the start to what would become the Alaska Collection.
- 1965: Spenard Library and Chugiak Library moved to GAAB supervision.
- 1967Grandview Gardens Branch Library opened on Primrose Street as the first official city branch
- 1980s: Project '80s brought about the current location of Loussac Library, designed to serve Southcentral Alaska.
- Late 1980s: Anchorage's economic recession forced the closure of four library branches.
- 1998: Anchorage Municipal Libraries partnered with the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS) to start a lending partnership that would soon include libraries across Alaska.
- 2003: Budget cuts decreased library staff by 20%.
- 2006-2011: the Library Renewal Initiative brought a new logo, a new name (to Anchorage Public Library), and a capital campaign that saw Wi-Fi hotspots at all libraries, the return of the Mountain View library, a new location for the Muldoon Library, a new community room for the Girdwood Library, and a new location for the Chugiak-Eagle River Library; simultaneous city budget cuts saw the elimination of 14 positions and the closure of the Samson-Dimond Library in 2010.
- 2017: Phase I of the Loussac Master Plan is completed, featuring a new main entrance to the library.
The updated libraries in the late 2000s were a huge hit with the community. Pictured here: the 2008 ribbon cutting of the Gerrish Girdwood Library and the 2010 grand opening of the Mountain View Library.
Wild times at the Chugiak-Eagle River Library - reshelving books after the 2018 earthquake.
Name a few key staff or community members that have shaped your department and share one or more stories that reflect their impact. Anchorage Public Library would not exist as it does today without the efforts of Z.J. Loussac. Several reasons are outlined in the
Library's history booklet.
The beloved "Cow Palace" library in a Quonset hut (opened in 1945) served its purpose, but was eventually replaced with the grander and larger downtown Z.J. Loussac Library in 1955.
Where can people learn more about your department?
Visit the
Library's history booklet.
What is one interesting fact about your department's history that people may not know?
Anchorage Public Library holds a copy of almost every Anchorage School District high school yearbook; with copies dating back to the early 1900’s and consecutively from the (West) Anchorage High School class of 1953.
The Anchorge Public Library staff - pictured here in 2025 - are here to help!
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