John Steinbeck Library funding, saved the library. Had the libraries closed, Salinas would have been the largest city in the United States without a library. John Steinbeck Library The John Steinbeck Library is a public library in Salinas, California. The library was named after writer John Steinbeck in 1969. The library held the Steinbeck archives until 1998 when they were transferred to the new National Steinbeck Center. The library made national headlines in 2004 and 2005 when it, along with the two other libraries in Salinas, were on the verge of closing because of insufficient funding. In 2005, a nationally covered read-in drew
National Steinbeck Center affiliated programs. The National Steinbeck Center Archives constitutes of over 45,000 historical documents, family documents, manuscripts, letters, photographs, films, interviews, and artifacts all pertaining to author John Steinbeck and the history of his hometown of Salinas. The Archives department manages and preserves these holdings. Currently the NSC is working to digitize and make their collection browsable online. Interested researchers, scholars, historians and students are able to reserve and schedule time to research the collections with the archivist. Events and outreach programming makes up the bulk of the National Steinbeck Center's time, effort, and budget. The Center plans and runs over