LOS ANGELES — It’s not always easy to know when it’s time to start a new chapter, but Paddy Calistro and Scott McAuley feel certain the time is now.

The couple founded their small publishing company Angel City Press back in 1992 with a simple mission: “To prove that people wanted to read about Los Angeles,” Calistro said. “We had no idea that 32 years later we would still be doing this.”

Calistro and McAuley love LA, and their catalogue is proof. Since their first title, “Hollywood Du Jour” by Betty Goodwin, they’ve published books about architecture, local history and personalities — not to mention one of their favorite spots: the LA Central Library.

In fact, they’ve worked with LAPL on several titles, so when they began thinking about retiring, they had an unorthodox idea: to gift the publishing house to LAPL.

“The library is a safe place for everyone,” Calistro said. “And now it’s going to be a safe place for these books.”

City Librarian John Szabo, who wrote the foreword for “Los Angeles Central Library: A History of Its Art and Architecture,” remembers the day Calistro and McAuley first approached him with the idea.

“They said, ‘We’d like to give you the press. What do you think?’ And so I said, ‘Wow,’” he said. “I think this is new ground. A press and a publishing business being part of the library certainly is very unique.”

An avid fan of Angel City Press’ collection, Szabo feels the company and the library are already fundamentally on the same page when it comes to preserving the history and stories of the City of Angels.

“The library shares those stories, tells those stories, preserves those stories all the time, and Angel City Press will just give us another tool, another vehicle to share stories about this place… And the library will help amplify that,” he said. “It’s really very, very special to me. We’re very committed to our shelves reflecting the diversity of Los Angeles, our staff reflecting that diversity, our public programing reflecting that diversity.”

With 8 million books in circulation and more than 70 locations, LAPL is the fifth largest public library system in the country. As they branch out into publishing, Szabo said the aim is to continue publishing an average of eight titles a year on LA and Southern California under the new imprint called Angel City Press at Los Angeles Public Library. 

Not all the books will revolve around the library, though Szabo said there is plenty of material inside the library’s special collections and archives to fill quite a few tomes — like their unique selection of gorgeous pop-up books. 

“It’s certainly one of many, many possibilities,” he said, while peering into a display case that showcases a few examples.

Ultimately, Szabo would like to see the existing catalogue expand into e-books and children’s books, which makes sense because a lifelong love of libraries often starts in childhood. 

It certainly did for McAuley, who spent his childhood Saturdays going to the library in Modesto with his father, who would read the periodicals while his son perused the shelves.

“I always had fantastic memories of this library and of just being able to see what you want and read what you want,” he said.

Libraries put the endless possibilities into the hands of readers and Calistro and McAuley feel confident they are putting the company they created into the right hands as well.