The Santa Clara County Library District is an open forum promoting knowledge, ideas, and cultural enrichment. The library provides free access to informational, educational, and recreational materials and services. In response to community needs, the library provides diverse resources on a wide variety of subjects and viewpoints and helps people use these resources.
Charlie’s Corner is an independent neighborhood bookstore carrying a wide assortment of children’s and young adult literature. We cater to every child’s needs by providing a rich and dynamic selection of exciting new titles as well as children’s classics that span generations. Through our interactive story times featuring music, food, Spanish, and French storytellers, we hope to help children explore and develop a love for stories in a creative and cozy environment.
If you’re looking for a pleasant place to peruse a lot of books, seek no further! Since 1992, Dog Eared Books has been supplying a book-hungry San Francisco with new, used, and remaindered books as well as magazines, calendars, and notebooks. We’re a general interest store, so we have a little of everything, but we do specialize in Beat, off-beat, small press, and local literature. Our staff of is happy to help you locate specific titles or you can roam around discovering wondrous obscurities you never knew you couldn’t live without.
Borderlands Books is a San Francisco independent bookstore specializing exclusively in science fiction, fantasy and horror.
GGP is an independent bookstore located in the Montclair Village neighborhood of Oakland. We specialize in personalized recommendations and literary fiction for all ages. Small but mighty!
BookShop West Portal is a locally-owned, independent bookstore located in the heart of the West Portal neighborhood, just one block down from the West Portal MUNI Station and right across from the Empire Movie Theatre.
Chronicle Books is an independent publisher based in San Francisco and they’ve been making their mark on our local and global book community since the Summer of Love. Their headquarters in South Beach is located inside an old maritime machine shop and warehouse. There, they have four floors of publishing services and a storefront on the ground floor. You can also find their books and a wide selection from their publishing partners at a second location at the Metreon.
If you’re looking for a pleasant place to peruse a lot of books, seek no further! Since 1992, Dog Eared Books has been supplying a book-hungry San Francisco with new, used, and remaindered books as well as magazines, calendars, and notebooks. We’re a general interest store, so we have a little of everything, but we do specialize in Beat, off-beat, small press, and local literature. Our staff of is happy to help you locate specific titles or you can roam around discovering wondrous obscurities you never knew you couldn’t live without.
San Francisco Zen Center is a Soto Zen community where the offerings of zazen, study and work practice are available to a diverse population of students, visitors, lay people, priests, and monks. All are welcome.
The San Francisco Public Library system is dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning, and the joys of reading for our diverse community.
The oldest independent black bookstore in the country. Books by and about black people everywhere.
Built in 1927, the Nourse [275 Hayes Street] is a landmark venue located in the heart of San Francisco’s performing arts district (across the street from Davies Hall musicians’ entrance). City Arts & Lectures restored and reopen the stunning 1,687-seat hall in 2013 (it was closed to the public for over thirty years). The hall features original architectural details, excellent acoustics, and a well-designed layout with unobstructed views throughout the orchestra and balcony, as well as state of the art lighting, a Meyer Sound system, new curtains, plush upholstered seats, newly decorated green room, and a dressing room. The Nourse is an ideal venue for a wide range of performances and a uniquely beautiful setting.
The California Historical Society is a non-profit gallery, bookstore, public research library and archive. Our mission is to inspire and empower people to make California’s richly diverse past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives.
The City Hall you see today took two years to build. Steel, granite, and four floors of white marble interiors make up San Francisco’s symbol of resilience, built after the previous City Hall was destroyed in the Great Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906.
UNITE HERE! Local 2 is the union of 12,000 hospitality workers throughout San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. Our members work in hotels, restaurants, clubs, and other food service facilities, providing service to millions of guests every year. Together, we fight to ensure that service workers are treated decently and receive a fair share of the wealth our industry produces.
Alexander’s is centrally located in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Walking to our store is always a great option. We are a short walk from Union Square and the Moscone Convention Center (3 to 4 blocks) and just a half block off Market Street on Second Street. We are about a ten minute walk from the Embarcardaro waterfront, Chinatown, North Beach or AT&T ballpark, the home of the San Francisco Giants.
Books Inc. is the West’s oldest independent bookseller – we’ve been around since 1851 – and Opera Plaza is our largest location!
Third Plateau is an impact-oriented strategy firm that partners with the world’s most passionate and daring changemakers to reimagine, expand, and realize their social impact.
A charming general interest bookstore on the Bay side of the Ferry Building, Book Passage serves visitors and locals, offering regional maps, guidebooks, and Bay Area literature, postcards and gifts. An extensive children’s book selection in our “Kids’ Corner” features books for the youngest readers through teens, and an array of activity books and games. New releases and classic fiction, staff picks, cookbooks with an emphasis on local cuisine, and books on current events fill the store. Like the other two Book Passage locations in the Bay Area (in Corte Madera and Sausalito) the Ferry Building venue hosts author signings and literary events several evenings a week. Visitors have included Chelsea Clinton, George Saunders, Dave Eggers, and Nigella Lawson.
Built in 1926, the historic Marines’ Memorial Theatre is an intimate 564-seat jewel box theatre located in the heart of San Francisco’s theatre district between Union Square and Nob Hill. Recently renovated to expand the lobby and upgrade the orchestra seating to be much more comfortable, our historic Union Square theatre is available as a setting for events in San Francisco, including keynotes, celebrations, educational presentations and more. We are also dedicated to bringing the best national, international and local Music, Dance, Author Talks & Lectures and theatrical or film presentations to Bay Area audiences.
The Booksmith has been the indie book headquarters of Haight-Ashbury for more than 40 years. Since 2007, the store has been owned and operated by Christin Evans and her husband who also revamped the famous Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. Driven by the mission to reestablish bookshops as community gathering places, The Booksmith team has created an event venue, a second home, a book-loving community and so much more.