The Manhattan Beach Library has won a national award from the American Library Association for its Bruce's Beach Commemorative Collection on African and African-American history.

The collection won this year's ALA's PRXChange Award for materials, collections and services; in the category for libraries with budgets of over $20 million (as part of the Los Angeles County Library system).

The collection was donated to the library by Manhattan Beach resident and retired UCLA professor Anthony Lee, whose work has focused on the history of Africa and the African diaspora. Lee donated his personal collection of research texts to the library in commemoration of the signing of the bill to return the Bruce's Beach property to the Bruce family in 2021. 

The collection contains more than 1,000 volumes in a total of five languages for adults, teens, and children. The books cover a range of subjects including African history, culture, and politics, as well as the history of the Black experience in America.

For the competition, the collection was up against more than 215 entries in print and electronic formats that were submitted from more than 100 institutions, including public, academic, school, state, and special libraries. Entries were judged based on the quality of content, format, design, creativity, and originality. 

A display about the collection and other prize winners was shown on Sunday at the American Library Association's national conference in Chicago.

The collection can be seen on the second floor of the Manhattan Beach Library.