The Louisiana Historical Center library houses some 28,000 items related to various aspects of Louisiana history, the history of the Mississippi Valley, the Gulf Coast, and especially the territory that was part of the Louisiana Purchase. The library contains numerous pamphlets, material in typescript form, and a great deal of manuscript material from the period when Iberville settled Louisiana. All of the printed histories of Louisiana are on the shelves ranging from LePage du Pratz, Father Hennepin, B.F. French, Martin, Gayarre, Maringy, to present-day writers.

The Historical Center library also has a considerable amount of space devoted to old city directories of New Orleans ranging from 1838 to the present day. Included in this collection are city directories from before and after Hurricane Katrina. In addition to these directories, the library also houses the New Orleans Genesis, genealogy resource books, and genealogy vertical files. All of these can be found by using the card catalog indexes in the Historical Center reading room. Included in the card index is the card catalog cemetery index which is a listing of tombstones in the older New Orleans cemeteries.