Auburn_Avenue_Research_Library_on_African_American_Culture_and_History

The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History is a special library within the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. It is in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn Historic District. The Auburn Avenue Research Library opened in 1994 as the first library in the Southeast to offer specialized reference and archival collections for the study and research of African American culture and history and of other peoples of African descent. Its collection was housed at other libraries and became known as the Samuel W. Williams Collection on Black America.
Covering 50,000 square feet, the Auburn Avenue Research Library's four-story red-brick and black-granite building houses a library research area containing general reference books and materials, study areas, and a reading room as well as a public section with exhibit cases, general reference materials, and main reading room, and its archive of library stacks in the center of the building on the second and third floors.The library is open to the public. Appointments are encouraged for access to its archival collections. In 2001, the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History received a Governor's Award in the Humanities.The library re-opened in 2016 after being closed for about two years during a $20 million renovation.