Offbeat Libraries : L.A.’s offbeat libraries offer knowledge on subjects ranging from plants and family roots to horse racing and nudists.

1. ELYSIUM NUDIST & NATURIST ARCHIVES

* 814 Robinson Road, Topanga Canyon

This special library, surrounded by eight lush acres, reflects the vision and passion of the book publishing empire of the late Ed Lange, founder of the nonprofit Elysium Fields, the county’s only nudist colony. Lange left a collection of more than 10,000 still photos and hundreds of books and magazines that date to the 1920s. Open by appointment only. Call Chris Moran at (310) 455-1000.

2. CALIFORNIA FILM COMMISSION LOCATION LIBRARY

* 6922 Hollywood Blvd.,

Suite 600, Hollywood

Catering to the needs of the film industry, brides looking for a glamorous, fairy-tale wedding site and special-event planners, the commission has more than 300,000 photographs of locations statewide. The files are organized by subject and region and include books, maps, brochures and a database with more than 7,000 names of location contacts. Open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Residents who want to list their property can call the library at (213) 736-2855.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Library in Beverly Hills stocks more than 8,000 movie and television show scripts.

3. PACIFICA RADIO ARCHIVES

* 3729 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood

Since 1959, the oldest collection of public radio programming in the country has been housed at the progressive radio station KPFK-FM, committed to freedom of expression. Built from the tape collection of the five radio stations of the Pacifica Foundation, the library maintains more than 40,000 documentary tapes of historical events. Visitors and mail order clients can listen to recordings that include Watergate and Iran-Contra hearings, talks by linguist Noam Chomsky and feminist Gloria Steinem, music by jazz great Duke Ellington, Malcolm X speeches and the oral memoirs of the crew that dropped the first atomic bomb. The library is free to visitors, but there is a small fee for mail order tapes. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For access to the library through Worldwide Web, the address is: https://www.igc.apc.org/pacifica. Or call (818) 506-1077.

4. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

* 122 S. San Fernando Blvd., Burbank

If you are interested in digging up family roots and knowing whether your forebears arrived on the Mayflower or if you are descended from royalty, here’s a good place to start. Volunteer genealogists offer classes and will help direct your research, beginning with a pedigree chart of your family history. Open

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, but closed the third Sunday of the month. (818) 843-7247.

For a collection of German genealogies, try the Immigrants Library in North Hollywood. The Sons of the Revolution Library in Glendale deals predominantly with the Revolutionary War period, but it has a Civil War section. More extensive records on genealogy and classes to help researchers can be found at the Mormon Temple History Center on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

5. PLANT SCIENCE LIBRARY

* Los Angeles County and State Arboretum,

301 Baldwin Ave., Arcadia

Gardening enthusiasts and landscape designers can reap a harvest of help from horticulturists and botanists at the only Southern California plant science, 26,000-volume library open to the public. Would-be herbalists can study one of the library’s oldest books, “A Newe Herball, or Historie of Plants,” published in 1578, to learn about plants used to treat ailments during the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. (818) 821-3222

6. CARLETON F. BURKE MEMORIAL LIBRARY

* 201 Colorado Place, Arcadia

Gamblers on their way to play the ponies at Santa Anita Park can pick a historic winner at the California Horse Racing Hall of Fame, a museum and library located in the headquarters of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Assn. It houses racing chart books from the early 1900s, and decades of the Daily Racing Form’s West Coast edition. More than 10,000 horse-related volumes, microfiche files and periodicals are used not only by gamblers, but also to study genetic lines to plan horse matings. The library is named for a late Santa Anita racing official and a leader of California racing, whose collection evolved into the library. Free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. (818) 445-7800

7. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIBRARY FOR SOCIAL STUDIES AND RESEARCH

* 6120 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles

This unique institution, founded in 1963, documents the history of social movements in the West and was started by Emil Freed, a well-known labor organizer, avowed Communist and local activist. The library’s documents trace local episodes such as the Hollywood studio strikes of the 1940s and the work of the L.A. Committee for the Protection of the Foreign-Born, which fought political deportations from the ‘40s through the ‘60s. Freed’s books, documentary films, pamphlets, magazines and photographs from the ‘20s make up much of the library’s holdings. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. (213) 759-6063

8. PAUL ZIFFREN SPORTS CENTER LIBRARY

* Amateur Athletic Foundation,

2141 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles

Scholars and browsers visiting the largest sports library in the nation can view treasures dating to the 19th Century: professional and collegiate basketball media guides and game programs, and books and magazines on outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing, and on bullfighting. There is also an index of 175,000 sports personalities, facilities and events, with another 1.5 million references to a news clipping file. The library was named for the former chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on even-dated Saturdays. (213) 730-9696

NOTE: The Los Angeles County Public Library system includes four resource centers providing materials on different racial and ethnic groups: the Black Resource Center is in the A.C. Bilbrew Library in Los Angeles, the American Indian Resource Center is in the Huntington Park Library, the Asian Pacific Resource Center is in the Montebello Library and the Chicano Resource Center is in the East Los Angeles Library.