Collections
The Arts Library has more than 300,000 volumes in the fields of architecture, architectural history, art, art history, design, fashion and costume, film, television, photography, theater, and urban design. More than one-third of these holdings are stored in the Southern Regional Library Facility. Most of the rest are housed in the open stacks of the Arts Library's main facility in 1400 Public Affairs Building. Most open-stack materials circulate to readers with valid UCLA Library cards; major exceptions are reference works and current unbound periodicals. A small number of frequently requested items designated for permanent or specific course reserves are kept in closed stacks behind the circulation desk, from where they can may be requested. Materials in Arts Library Closed Stacks Audio-visual Media are also shelved at the circulation desk, with a circulation period of one week for University of California students, staff, and faculty.
Art and Art History
The collection covers all aspects and periods of art and art history. It is strong in the area of Italian Renaissance art; seventeenth-century Dutch art; African art; pre-Columbian art; Asian art in Western languages, with Asian language materials housed in the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library; South and Southeast Asian art; Latin American art; new media; photography; and contemporary art in general. Among its other strengths are museum studies, iconography, art theory, exhibition catalogs, and electronic resources. The library has an outstanding collection of artists' books, which complements those in the Library Special Collections.
Architecture and Urban Design
The architecture and urban design collection spans all areas of architectural and urban design history, theory, and practice. Focal points include contemporary European, Japanese, and U.S. architecture as well as mid-century modernism, twentieth-century Southern California architecture and urban design, and West Coast design.
Design and Media Arts
The Arts Library collects selectively in all areas of design and design history, including digital design, interactive media design, media arts, game, graphic, industrial, typography, ceramics, fashion, furniture, glass, jewelry and textile design.
Film and Television
Collections in film and television encompass monographs, reference works, periodicals, and microforms on the history, criticism, and theory of film and television, with particular strength in American film history and growing collections covering international film and media. The library selectively collects works on the production, including pre- and post-production, of film and television in support of the academic curriculum in this area. Some materials are also housed in the Research Library. Library Special Collections contains archival collections related to film and television, with particular strengths in American film; these include studio collections and personal papers as well as significant stand-alone collections of scripts, stills, and promotional materials. With the exception of very selective titles held in the Arts Library, films and videos themselves can be accessed through the UCLA Film & Television Archive or Instructional Media Collections and Services. More information about UCLA video collections, including streaming media, can be located on the Film and Video Collections guide.
Theater
Theater as a subject is both a form of literature, placing it within the humanities, and a performing art, which is primarily the Arts Library's purview. These collections are split, with the Research Library collecting in the history of world theater, dramatic criticism, and plays as literature. In support of the theater department's production needs, the Arts Library collects materials on theater production, including acting, set design, and playwriting, along with a limited number of items on the history, theory, and criicism of theater production. It also maintains a Selected Plays & Monologues collection for auditions and exercises and serves as the central location for periodicals and reference materials in theater. In addition, Library Special Collections houses many archival collections related to theater.
Special Collections
- The Arts Cage (1400 Public Affairs Building) houses rare, valuable, fine bindings, unusual formats, or fragile books and periodicals in closed stacks; materials from this collection must be paged at the circulation desk for reading in a special area and cannot be photocopied. However, patrons may use the library's self-service scanner in some cases for reproduction.
- Non-circulating, Special Collections material from the Southern Regional Library Facility with the catalog location SRLF Non-Circ Request at UCLA Arts Library can be paged at the Arts Library Circulation Desk or by contacting Arts Library staff at arts-circ@library.ucla.edu.
- The portion of the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana, formerly held in the Arts Library, is now housed in UCLA Library Special Collections and the Southern Regional Library Facility.
- UCLA Library Special Collections contains personal paper collections historical records, and rare books and manuscripts in architecture, art, design, and in performing arts, with particular emphases on film, television, and theater.
