City directories contain alphabetical lists of business firms, corporations and private citizens, as well as numerical street guides, and often miscellaneous directories of city, county, state and United States officers, churches, clubs, colleges and schools, labor organizations, secret and benevolent societies, etc. They are invaluable tools for local and family historians. The first local directories were published in 1881.

Both the Chico Branch of the Butte County Library and Meriam Library, Special Collections had partial sets of the directories. In 2004, the respective Friends organizations donated funds to scan the directories to preserve the oldest years and to provide a more complete set in both locations. In addition to the online digital files (prior to 1923), both libraries have compact discs of more recent years (see How to Find Holdings). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act restricts electronic distribution without the express consent of the copyright owner, so only the volumes before 1923 are available via the Internet.

Thanks to Nancy Leek (Chico Library) and Pam Bush (Meriam Library) for coordinating this project. Thanks to the Special Collections Department for coordinating the project and supervising the scanning. Thanks also to Deborah Besnard for the restoration and rebinding of many of the original volumes that were literally falling apart.