The book collection includes key reference works on Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley, and general California history. Popular reference sources include the Design and Historic Preservation Reports of the City's Planning Department as well as a nearly complete run of Pasadena city directories dating from 1893 to 1976.
Other important books include:
- Carew, Harold D. History of Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley. 3 vols. S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1930.
- Carpenter, Thomas D. Pasadena: Resort Hotels and Paradise. Pasadena, CA: Castle Green Times, 1984.
- Chapin, Lon F. Thirty Years in Pasadena. Southwest Publishing Co., 1939.
- Crocker, Donald W. Within the Vale of Annandale. 1968.
- Ethnic History Research Project, Pasadena, CA. Pasadena, CA: City of Pasadena, 1995.
- Farnsworth, R.W. C. A Southern California Paradise. Oakland, CA: Pacific Press, 1883.
- Giddings, Jennie Hollingsworth. I Can Remember Early Pasadena. Los Angeles: Lorrin L. Morrison Publishing, 1949.
- Lund, Ann Scheid. Historic Pasadena. Pasadena Historical Museum, 1999.
- McCloskey, Jane D. 6 Horses and 10 Head: Two Hundred Years on the Rancho San Pasqual, 1770-1970. Pasadena: Wood & Jones, 1971.
- Page, Henry Markham. Pasadena: Its Early Years. Los Angeles: Lorrin L. Morrison Publishing, 1964.
- Pasadena Community Book. Ed. William L. Blair. Pasadena, CA: Arthur H. Cawston, publisher, 1943.
- Pasadena in the Gay Nineties. Ed. C. F. Shoop. Pasadena, CA, 1955.
- Reid, Hiram A. History of Pasadena. Pasadena, CA, 1895.
- Scheid, Ann. Pasadena, The Crown of the Valley. Chatsworth: Windsor Publications, 1986.
- Seims, Charles. Mt. Lowe, The Railway in the Clouds. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books, 1976.
- Wood, J. W. Pasadena, California: Historical and Personal. J. W. Wood, 1917.
