A library grand opening in Balboa Park on Tuesday offered new research opportunities at the San Diego Automotive Museum.
The Berg Family Trust Library has a collection of 45,000 automobile books, magazines and hard-cover repair manuals dating back to 1901.
“We all have a car story. Whether we brought our kids home from the hospital or we went on a family trip. We all can share a story about something that happened involving a car," said Lenny Leszczynski, the museum's Chief Executive Officer.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony included members of the Berg family, who donated a majority of the funding for the library, which also included the Skeets Dunn Research Center. The Dunn Center holds volumes that are over a century old.
The museum has shared motorized vehicles and their histories with visitors since 1988. That got the attention of the Berg family who wanted to donate whatever it took to protect and promote content that could be used for recreation and research for hands-on learning.
“A computer can this and a computer can that. Computers store zeroes and ones. They don’t store ideas and they definitely don’t store dreams," Jim Berg said.
The library is expected to become an educational hub that compliments what visitors learn on the showroom floor.
The Automotive Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed Mondays. Access to the library and all its free content is available with a paid admission to the museum. None of the material can be checked out.
Plans could include in-person readings by automotive authors and a children's book club.
“The windshield is far larger than the rearview mirror for a distinct reason. What's happening in the future is more important than what happened in the past," Berg said.
