Check It Out: Want to know your Newport? Visit the library

The Newport Beach Public Library is home to many resources about the city, from books in our local-history collection to access to local high school yearbooks and local directories, genealogical information from subscription databases, microfilm dating to periodicals from the 1920s and more.

The local-history room of the library contains many rare books written about Newport Beach and the surrounding area. Books written about Balboa, Corona del Mar and Lido Island, personal recollections of the area, pictorials and more can be found on the second floor of the Central Library in the local-history area, facing the ocean. Books can be accessed as reference materials by visiting the reference desk. We have photocopiers and a digital scanner for preserving your findings.

The yearbooks are a popular component of the collection. We own yearbooks from Newport Harbor High School from 1938 through 2013 and Corona del Mar High from 1971 through 2013.

The library also retains historical crisscross directories of people and businesses from 1938 to about 1978 as well as historic white and yellow pages from roughly 1971 to 1986. These can be an asset in nailing down a defunct business by address or locating the whereabouts of a family residence.

For those conducting genealogical research, the library subscribes to two databases that can be of tremendous help. Heritage Quest Online is usable from home with the use of your library card by visiting our database page under the eBranch tab. Ancestry.com is also available to library card holders, but only from a physical library branch. Both databases provide access to birth, marriage and death records, census records, and much more.

The historic Daily Pilot and Orange Coast Register newspapers, available on microfilm right behind the Central Library’s reference desk, are useful in tracking down old news articles, announcements, obituaries and even advertisements.

We retain the Daily Pilot, through its many incarnations, all the way back to 1940 through about 2005, with digital access after 2005. The Orange County Register is available from 1987 through 2009.

And regular users of our microfilm reader will rejoice in knowing that our Library Foundation has just funded a new top-of-the-line digital microfilm reader that adds several new viewing enhancement features and the ability the print, save and email images. The new equipment should be in general use by the time you are reading this article.

Meanwhile, our Kids These Days: Growing Up in Newport Beach webpage at newportbeachstories.org offers experiences of growing up in the city, through different generations. Nostalgic memories of Newport Beach blend with the experiences of modern teenagers.

CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public Library. For more information on the Central Library or any of the branches, please contact the Newport Beach Public Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2. Visit us online at https://www.newportbeachlibrary.org.