The annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar will be held Oct. 27 at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library.

The bazaar is an excellent way to become acquainted with the astounding number of libraries and historical societies across the city and their amazingly diverse collections. As any experienced researcher will tell you, historical material on Los Angeles is not always in a logical place, and tracking it down is often a treasure hunt — to cite my favorite examples, the records on the early history of USC’s medical school are at UCLA; most of the Herald Examiner photos on the Black Dahlia case are not at the Los Angeles Public Library with the rest of the Her-Ex photos, but in the John Gilmore material at UCLA.

This year’s bazaar includes several interesting panel discussions:

–Start Your Engines: How L.A. Became the Center of Car Culture.

–CSI Los Angeles: Archival Case Study investigation, which sounds especially interesting.

–Wish You were Here: Los Angeles in Postcards.

–Southern California Ranchos and Homesteads.

There will also be a presentation by Natalie M. Fousekis, head of Cal State Fullerton’s Center for Oral and Public History, on getting started with oral history.

And a documentary by Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler on the 1980s band Fishbone.