Collections and Library

The Oakland Aviation Museum collects items in accordance with three primary goals. 

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• Education: Acquisition of collections to educate students, researchers, and others on the practice or aviation history and maintenance.

• Preservation: Acquisition of collections to preserve and protect the historic materials regarding the history of Oakland Aviation for current and future generations. 

• Programming: Acquisition of collections to support ongoing exhibition, education, and public programming held in the public sphere of the museum.

Collection Scope

The Oakland Aviation Museum collect objects and archival material that pertain to the museums primary collections areas relating to: 

• Oakland Airfield, Municipal Airport and International Airport

• Oakland Naval and Military history relating to Aviation (Alameda, Moffet, and Oakland Airfields)

• Airlines that flew in and out of the Oakland and Alameda County

• Aviators from Oakland and Alameda County

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The museum is no longer accepting Books as donations and due to space constants is no longer accepting unsolicited donations. If you would like to donate items to the Oakland Aviation Museum please complete our Donation Questionnaire

Library

The Daly Research room is currently closed

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The Daly Research Room contains more than 7,000 published aviation-related books, magazines and manuals. The Library’s collection is open to both researchers and the general public.

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The Library, located within the Oakland Aviation Museum. Titles in the Library’s collection include both technical works and aviation-related fiction and nonfiction books.

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If you have a research request,contact the Collections team via email at or in writing. Please note that the Library cannot undertake research requests for commercial purposes. If you make an appointment in advance, we can prepare some materials for your visit. The collection does not circulate.

Collections Catalogs & Finding Aids

Search the Keys Catalog for records of:

• Library materials

• Archival collections

• New acquisitions

• RSS feeds of searches, user & staff contributed tags, user & staff created lists, etc.

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Search WorldCat.org for records of:

• Library and archival materials worldwide, including ours

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Search the Online Archive of California for:

• Finding aids ("guides") to archival collections in California, including ours

Search the NPS Museum Collections Catalog for records of:

• Objects and artifacts in the NPS, including ours

• Archival collections in the NPS, including ours

• NPS collections, including ours

• Searching multiple resources, including other NPS libraries

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