Burbank (Calif.) Public Library has seen some “additional business” in the six weeks since Universal Studios closed its Research Library, according to Sharon Cohen, BPL library services manager, but she said the impact of the closing on BPL was limited because “Universal had been scaling down their operation for some time.”
The Universal Studios library “was the oldest and largest remaining collection of its sort in town—a vital resource for screenwriters, producers, art directors and set designers who relied on its books, magazines and indexed images to give their projects credibility,” the March 5 Los Angeles Times noted.
The library had more than 50,000 books and magazines, and its more than 5 million clippings—organized by topic and crammed with photographs—were used to shape the look and feel of thousands of movies and TV shows in the course of 84 years. It was closed to save money.
BPL has housed a similar collection—the Warner Research Library—since 1975. Only 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. still maintain their own research facilities, while the former Samuel Goldwyn Studios library is housed at DreamWorks SKG in Glendale, California.
Posted March 20, 2000.