Special and Distinctive Collections
Northwestern University Library is well known nationally for the depth and breadth of its collections. In particular, these five collections are known throughout the scholarly community worldwide as collections of distinction. For guides to other collections, see Research Guides A-Z. To contact the librarian responsible for a specific subject, see the Directory of Subject Specialists.
AFRICANA
Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies
University Library, Level 5, East Tower
847-491-7684; reference desk 847-467-3084; africana@northwestern.edu
The Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies houses an extensive collection of materials pertaining to all aspects of Africa . Computer workstations are available for searching NUcat and special online Africana files. At the entrance to the library is a reference desk, staffed by a librarian from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. , Monday through Friday. Specialists are available for research assistance, including computerized literature searches, classroom instruction on use of the library and methods of bibliographic research, and individual research consultations.
ART COLLECTION
Deering Library, Level 3
847-491-7484; art@northwestern.edu
Northwestern University Library's Art Collection houses over 140,000 catalogued
volumes and subscribes to 450 journals and over 20 major databases in art,
architecture, design, photography, and related visual arts. The Collection
supports the research and curricular needs of Art History, Art Theory and Practice,
and other arts and humanities departments. Collection strengths include 19th-
and 20th-century Western art and architectural serials.
MUSIC LIBRARY
Deering Library, Level 2
847-491-3434
The Northwestern University Music Library is among the nation's largest music libraries and is distinguished internationally for its extensive holdings of printed music and archival materials documenting music composed since 1945. The library offers roughly 300,000 volumes of books, printed music, sound recordings, and journals, maintains subscriptions to over 400 periodicals and a full array of online resources, includes thousands of music manuscripts and pieces of correspondence, and houses the archives of John Cage and other notable musicians. Additionally, the Music Library’s computer lab provides a multi-purpose workplace for beginning- to mid-level music-technology projects. The library serves the Northwestern University School of Music, the entire Northwestern University community, and researchers from around the world.
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections
Deering Library, Level 3
847-491-3635; spec@northwestern.edu
The holdings of the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections
include more than 225,000 printed items. There are rare books and periodicals,
posters, manuscripts, ephemera, archives, and photographs. The library
contains excellent collections of 20th-century European art and social
movements such as art nouveau, futurism, dadaism, surrealism, expressionism,
constructivism, and the Bauhaus and all in the original languages. The
Women's Collection focuses on the women's liberation movement from the
late 1965 to the present and is comprised of 4,000 periodical titles,
thousands of ephemera files, and several thousand monographs. Our holdings
of monographs and serials from the Gay movement are growing each year.
Theater history is represented by the Edward Gordon Craig Collection
and the entire Archives of the Gate Theatre of Dublin, 1928-72, that
includes prompt books, production files, and over 50 scrapbooks of clippings
for every play, photographs, playbills and correspondence.
The rare book collections include significant holdings of works by Samuel
Johnson, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Taylor the Platonist and the Dance of
Death as well as facsimiles, incunabula, Aldines, Elzevirs and other
early printed books from European intellectual history. There is a growing
collection of African American history and literature as well as collections
of Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Frank Lloyd Wright, and early fly fishing
books. There are large holdings of first editions of American and English
literature, 1890 to 1970, and related "little magazines" also
are part of the department.
All books and serials are cataloged in NUcat; other holdings can be found through departmental guides and the department’s web page that contains listings of manuscript collections, guides, and image sites (including a collection of 1,200 photographs of the Siege and Commune of Paris, 1870-71) as well as appropriate links.
TRANSPORTATION LIBRARY
University Library, Level 5, North Tower
847-491-5273; trans@northwestern.edu
Northwestern's Transportation Library, founded in 1958, is one of the largest transportation collections in the country. It also features materials on law enforcement and police administration and an extensive collection of federal environmental impact statements. The library indexes journal articles and conference papers on transportation and law enforcement in its database, called TRANWeb. These resources support the educational and research activities of Northwestern's Transportation Center , the Center for Public Safety, and other University departments. They also serve as a resource to business and governmental organizations outside the University. Materials acquired by the Transportation Library since 1978 are cataloged in NUcat; materials acquired before 1978 are listed in card and book catalogs in the Transportation Library.
