Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Library

This facility, the heart of New Angeles’ public library system, takes up the bottom third of the 15870 Heartland starscraper. Although it has an impressive neoclassical facade at plaza level, most people enter via the major Metro station in the building’s basement. Within the library are dozens of floors full of comfortable seating for readers, tables for researchers, and public terminals for anyone without a suitable PAD. Members have electronic access to literature, periodicals, ragsheets, and old-fashioned newspapers going back centuries.

Of course, the majority of New Angeles’ public library system exists on the Network, and one need never leave the comfort of home to access a book or conduct research. However, the City Library maintains a number of rare and valuable records and manuscripts unavailable on the Network. Some of this is sensitive information that can only be accessed by people with the proper clearance and is only available on a secured and independent network on the Blue Floor. However, most of these records are simply so old that they only exist in physical form. A collection of physical volumes was purchased from Ecuador’s national library when the City Library was founded, and the library has obtained countless private and public collections since. Patrons who wish to study them have the rare and dubious pleasure of carefully flipping through physical pages to find the information they seek.

The rarest and most valuable of the library’s physical documents are kept in a sealed vault beneath the building. This vault also contains important documents from New Angeles’ founding, in case electronic records become compromised. Needless to say, this vault is off-limits to the public.