Mission

The Erik Erikson Library was established to serve the members and candidates of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, and to educate other mental health professionals and the public at large on the discipline of psychoanalysis. The library collection holds books, journals and other materials for the study of psychoanalysis in theoretical, applied and clinical applications. Library services include, but are not limited to, acquisition of books.

The Library belongs to national and regional networks:

• The National Library of Medicine;
• The National California and Nevada Medical Library Group;
• San Francisco Bay Area Libraries Network;
• Northern California Consortium of Psychological Libraries;
• The Freeshare Group at the National Libary of Medicine.

History

In 1952 the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute Library contained 100 books, bound journals and 800 reprints. It was temporarily located on Post Street but was later housed above Shumate's Drug Store at the corner of Sutter Street near the offices of Drs. Windholz and Reider. Twenty people had the key to the library--their typewritten names and initials are still legible in the Library Committee report of 1954. The Library hired professional staff in 1972. Now, in 2004, carbon copy typewritten papers, typewriters and catalog cards have been replaced by contemporary tools of the trade.