More Information, Please

If you’ve ever been given a phone number and have searched in vain for a name or address to match, a couple of reverse telephone books can help.

Available to businesses and individuals alike, Pacific Bell Street Address Telephone Directories and Haines Criss-Cross Guides allow users to fill in the missing pieces of an incomplete address, using a telephone number instead of a name. And vice versa: If you have an address, you can find out the telephone number. Phone numbers are listed numerically, whereas streets are ordered first by alphabet, then by number.

Using information compiled from county records, the phone company and the U.S. Census Bureau, Haines shows how long an individual or company has resided at an address and lists all the names of individuals at that address.

Haines Guides are available for a number of geographic areas and are updated annually for a minimum fee of $225. Pacific Bell’s Street Address Telephone Directories are updated every three months or six months, depending on the area, and cost from $39 to $118.

Pacific Bell Street Address Telephone Directories can be ordered from Pacific Bell but are not available at the library. Haines Guides are available at the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Branch downtown. Librarians, however, cannot release information over the phone.

Pacific Bell Street Address Telephone Directory: (800) 848-8000.

Haines Criss-Cross Directory: (800) 562-8262.