9 free things you didn’t know you could get with an L.A. library card

Tired of paying to park to hike at Malibu Creek, stroll through L.A. State Historic Park or watch the sunset at El Matador? Just check out a California State Library Parks Pass and you can forgo the meter at select state parks, including nearly a dozen in L.A. County.

Heads up: The parking pass isn’t accepted at Dockweiler, Point Dume, Santa Monica and Will Rogers State Beaches, as well as Castaic Lake State Recreation Area and Will Rogers State Historic Park. You can check the full list of valid parks and borrowing locations here.

Also, we’d suggest taking advantage of this one pretty soon: The state’s proposed 2024–25 budget doesn’t include an extension of the pilot program, which means it could have mere months left. However, California State Parks may still strike a partnership with another organization to keep the program going in some form.

Each branch has a limited number of hang tags, good for up to nine people in a single vehicle, available to borrow for three weeks. You’ll find the passes at 72 city libraries and 85 county libraries.

What has four strings and is available for checkout at 17 different LAPL branches? A ukulele. You can pick up the instrument, case, chord book and tuner for three weeks. As for learning how to play, if only someplace had related books and online courses… (ahem, the library totally does). 

Browse the library’s “Discover & Go” hub and you can secure discounts or gratis tickets to some of L.A.’s most notable institutions, including two tickets to the GRAMMY Museum, two adult and four kids tickets to the La Brea Tar Pits, two tickets to film screenings at the Academy Museum and 20% off L.A. Opera tickets.

You may find a different selection of institutions depending on your address (for example, the L.A. Zoo is only available to city residents). If you find that all of the passes are booked up, make sure to check back at the beginning of the month and don’t forget that the county library offers tickets to a similar but smaller selection of spots.

Forget trying to find a serviceable walking stick: The library puts together backpacks with a compass, flashlight, two trekking poles and a printed hiking guide.

Find them at the Central Library, Baldwin Hills and Chatsworth branches with three-week checkouts. Call to check availability.

You can check out e-books (Libby), watch movies (Kanopy), listen to music (Freegal), tap through magazines (Pressreader) or some combination of them all (hoopla) using your library card number and pin (the county offers the same selection). And in the spirit of digital media, you don’t even need a physical library card: a digital one will do.

Sure, the selection might not compare to some premium streamers, but where else can you find services that are free to use, don’t have ads and aren’t trying to upsell you on a subscription?

Named after local legendary sci-fi author Octavia E. Butler, the Central Library’s relatively new Octavia Lab is stocked with all sorts of creative gadgets that would otherwise cost you thousands of dollars to own and maintain. Whether you want to use a VR headset or step in front of a green screen, they’re all free to use (printers will eventually incur nominal fees once the soft launch period is finished).

To access the Lab, you’ll need a library card, photo ID and a signed user agreement. Open Mon, Tue, Fri, Sat 1–5pm; Wed, Thu 3:30–7:30pm. Located on LL2 in the Central Library in DTLA.

It’s a good idea to keep a few basic tools at your disposal, but if you’re not regularly doing handiwork, chances are you don’t own a sander or a bolt cutter. Forget about plunking down cash on a power tool just for a single project: The L.A. County Library can lend you everything from a stud finder to a power washer and a bike pump to a sewing machine.

You can borrow tools for up to seven days at the Compton, Lancaster, Norwalk, Rosemead and San Fernando libraries.

The next time you find yourself without a computer (technology always seems to malfunction at the most inconvenient times), consider letting the library help you out instead of shelling out for a new device. Dozens of branches at the L.A. Library can lend you a Chromebook for a staggering six months, and that even includes a mobile hotspot with unlimited data. And if you need to print off your work? You can do that at any branch, with up to 10 free pages. The L.A. County Library offers a similar deal on Chromebooks, though it’s limited to six weeks (with an option to renew).

(But, you know, be polite please.)

Did you ever wonder what your street is named after? Or why there was an alligator farm in Lincoln Heights? If anyone can get to the bottom of it, it’s a librarian—who you can call, text, email or chat with to find an answer, or at least some clues to set you on the right research track. Beat that, ChatGPT.

You can ask questions Mon–Fri 10am–5:30pm.