The Orwig Music Library collections include materials on all aspects of music to support the Music Department curriculum and to provide
material for general use by the Brown community. All music material is listed in our online system BruKnow.
The Music Library has more than 21,000 reference and circulating books in all areas of music scholarship, history, theory, composition, and ethnomusicology.
More than 24,000 scores are housed in the Music Library, including performing editions, facsimiles, collected works of individual composers, chamber music parts, study scores, and full orchestral scores. Scores circulate outside the Library.
The Library subscribes to more than 150 music periodicals and bulletins, including over 100 online music journals. Current issues are shelved in the upper reading room. Older issues are bound and shelved with books by call number in the open stacks on the lower level. Indexes to periodical articles about music are located in the reference room and through several online abstracting and indexing services. Periodicals do not circulate.
The Music Library houses an excellent collection of recordings, including extensive collections of classical music, American traditional
music, musical theatre, jazz, and a growing collection of world music and popular music. In all, the Library has more than 43,000 recordings in
all formats. All recordings are housed in closed stacks and must be requested at the circulation desk. All formats of recordings can be
used in the Library.
» For borrowing information, see Policies on Access and Use.
In addition, the Library offers a growing collection of online audio resources available both on campus and off campus via the off-campus access service.
The Music Library has a growing collection of more than 1,100 videos, including opera performances, documentaries, new media performances, and
ethnomusicology videos. They are listed in BruKnow and may be viewed in the Library. Request them at the circulation desk.
» For borrowing information, see Policies on Access and Use.
There are two important archives in the Library. The Walter Neiman Archive of Sound Recordings was established in 1984 in memory of a distinguished alumnus of the class of 1946. The goal of the Neiman Archive is to document the history of sound recording, performance practice, and musical life in the 20th century. About one-third of the current collection are opera recordings. The James T. Koetting Ethnomusicology Archive honors a former professor in the Music Department. The Koetting Archive contains material on world music, both published (sound recordings and videos) and unpublished (field tape recordings, photos, field notes). Please ask Library staff for assistance to access both collections.
A great deal of music material has been relocated to the Library Collections Annex. Users may request materials from the Annex by using the "Request This" link from the Library catalog. Please contact the Orwig Music Library at orwig@brown.edu if you need any assistance with requesting music items from the Annex.
A "new book shelf" is maintained in the reference room for newly cataloged books. They are displayed for about two weeks, after which time they are integrated into the collections. Items on the new book shelf can be checked out at the circulation desk.
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