With over 500,000 books, scores, and pamphlets focused on the core subject areas of art, art history, music, theatre, and dance, the FAL has one of the largest such collections in the Southwest.
With the addition in July 2009 of the collection of the former Audio Visual Library, the subject matter extends beyond the Fine Arts to include the Liberal Arts. In addition to educational DVDs and videocassettes, the collection includes numerous feature films and television shows available for 7-day loan.
Current journal issues are arranged alphabetically by title on open shelves located on the third level. Bound volumes of periodicals are shelved in call number sequence along with books on levels four and five of the library. Call numbers and holdings for bound periodicals are indicated in the Library Catalog. Some of our journals are also available in digital form through our Find a Journal page.
The reference collection on the third level includes standard reference materials such as encyclopedias, directories, dictionaries, and bibliographies, as well as specialized materials such as iconographical dictionaries, discographies, and indexes to theatrical seasons. Catalogs of collections of major museums are also shelved here. A few selected titles are shelved in our Ready Reference section which contains more time-sensitive information.
The audio-visual collection includes compact discs, DVDs, audio and videocassettes, videodiscs, phonodiscs, and interactive media. Holdings of these materials are listed in the Library Catalog and may be requested at the Circulation Desk.
Use the Music Search page in the Library Catalog to find CDs, DVDs, scores, and other audiovisual formats.
The Fine Arts Library has an extensive collection of materials in both microfilm and microfiche which is kept in cabinets on level 3. A state-of-the-art reader/printer is located nearby. Circulation Desk staff are available to help users with microform materials.
