The Alvar Branch Library is a publicly funded and managed library that serves more than 370,000 residents in the city of New Orleans, near the Gulf of Mexico on the Mississippi River, Louisiana. It is an affiliate branch of the New Orleans Public Library, founded in 1897 and previously known as the Fisk Free and Public Library, with a collection of over 35,000 volumes. Now, it has expanded to fully cater to its patrons with 15 branches, and Alvar Branch is one of them, having been opened in 1940. The branch contributes to the overall collection and services of the parish library system, which includes more than 603,000 books and serial volumes, more than 9,000 E-Books, more than 31,000 audio files, and more than 40,000 video files. The parish library system circulates more than 1.1 million items, has more than 138,000 registered borrowers, and receives more than 1.1 million visitors annually across its 15 locations.