Library

Collection and Services

The LA84 Foundation library collection covers virtually all aspects of amateur and professional sport. It includes approximately 40,000 printed volumes, 6,000 microform volumes, 7,000 videos, 400 periodical titles, and 90,000 photo images. The library supplements these holdings by providing access to several commercial online database services and the World Wide Web. Olympic information is a particular strength of the collection.

Highlights of the Collection:

• The official report of every modern Olympic Games.
• Dozens of Olympian oral histories.
• The Avery Brundage Collection on microfilm.
• Complete video sets of all NBC, CBS and ABC television coverage of the Olympic Games and Olympic Winter Games since 1988.
• Minutes of early International Olympic Committee meetings and extensive runs of IOC and U.S. Olympic Committee periodicals.
• Bid documents of cities seeking to host the Olympic Games.
• Complete or nearly complete runs of dozens of periodical titles such as Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, Ring, Women's Sports and Fitness, the Journal of Sport History, Research Quarterly, Street & Smith annuals and Track & Field News.
• Thousands of professional team media guides and events programs.

The LA84 Foundation collection is housed in the modern 10,000-square-foot Paul Ziffren Sports Resource Center.

Reference Service & Fees

The LA84 Foundation Sports Library staff responds to reference questions received by telephone, mail and email. The following policy will apply to reference services:

• If a librarian can answer a client’s phone or email reference question(s) in 10 minutes or less, the LA84 Foundation will provide the information at no cost.
• If in the professional judgment of the librarian the research and response will take more than 10 minutes, the librarian will estimate the time needed to complete the job. LA84 Foundation will charge the requestor $40/hr. for any portion of an hour beyond the first 10 minutes.

Example:

Photocopies made as part of the research will be charged at 10¢ a page. The client will pay for any shipping costs. The estimated fee must be paid in advance by VISA or MasterCard.

If you have a reference question(s), please email it to library@LA84Foundation.org.
Be sure to include a phone number where you can be reached during business hours.

Circulation Policy

The LA84 Foundation Sports Library loans most of the books and videos in its general collection. Library users may borrow up to three items at a time.

There are three ways to borrow a book or video from the LA84 Foundation.

1. Ask your local public, college or school library to submit an Interlibrary Loan Request to the LA84 Foundation Library. The loan fee is $10 per item.

2. Check out the book in person at the LA84 Foundation Library. The loan fee is $5 per item, payable by VISA or MasterCard.

3. If you are a coach in Southern California and have joined the free LA84 Foundation Coaching Listserv, you may borrow up to five items at a time. There will be a $1 transaction fee each time items are borrowed.

Call (323) 730-4646 or email the library (library@LA84Foundation.org) for more details.

Image Reproduction

The use of hand-held digital cameras, video devices and/or portable scanners by library visitors is prohibited. All digital captures of library materials must be performed by library staff only.

Users may request copies of the photographs, moving footage and digital scans from printed material in the collection. The library is not a stock photo or footage house. Requests for photos, digital scans and footage are handled on a case-by-case basis

If the LA84 Foundation owns the rights to a photo image, or if we are confident that a photo is in the public domain, we usually will duplicate it. The LA84 Foundation will duplicate no more than 25 images for any client. The library charges $30 to create a digital image from a photographic print or printed material. If an image has to be sent to a photo lab for processing, the client will pay the LA84 Foundation a service charge plus any lab and shipping fees. If the LA84 Foundation owns rights to the image, additional licensing fees may apply.

There is very little footage in the LA84 Foundation collection that is owned by the LA84 Foundation or is in the public domain. Therefore, there is very little moving footage that the LA84 Foundation will duplicate for clients. Duplication fees are a minimum of $50 for 30 seconds or less. Additional lab, shipping, stock and licensing fees typically are added to the base price.

We try to be scrupulous about protecting other people’s copyrights. When in doubt about rights ownership, the LA84 Foundation will not duplicate a photo or footage.

Catalog: The library's catalog is accessible on the World Wide Web. To catalog.