John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library

About

Home to over 16,000 volumes, plus ephemera and archival materials, on food and drink. For researchers, professionals, and the interested public.

Story

The John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library at SoFAB, a partnership with the New Orleans Public Library, is built on the premise that books tell the story of the foodways and beverage culture of their time and place. Thus we collect culinary books from across the globe.

We consider the community cookbook an important document of the time and people who have created it. How else could we know what that hospital auxiliary or that church group eats at home?

The library is open to the public and serves as a culinary resource to scholars, journalists, and students.

Archives
Currently home to over 11,000 volumes, a growing number of important collections, and a treasure-trove of literary and graphic culinaria, the facility returns library access to a neighborhood that has been without it since 1946, when the city's only library then open to African Americans closed its doors.
The Menu Project is an ongoing effort to collect, catalog, and digitize menus from every restaurant throughout the South and beyond. The database records the public history of eating and equips scholars with a critical tool in their study of American foodways.

Research
The SoFAB Culinary Library, the culinary branch of the New Orleans Public Library, is a unique resource for residents, visitors, and researchers in the fields of fitness, nutrition, policy, and public health.
An open resource that facilitates the professional development of current and future culinary artists.