Music Collection

Sara Miller McCune Arts Library Project

The Library is creating the new Sara Miller McCune Arts Library by bringing together the Music and Art & Architecture Collections into a modernized space in the main Library building. The Music Library permanently closed to the public on Monday, August 5. Music collection materials will be inaccessible for public browsing until the opening of the Arts Library on December 2. Music Course Reserves and Interlibrary Loan pick-ups moved to the main Library Services Desk at the start of Summer Sessions on June 24. 

Please visit the Sara Miller McCune Arts Library Project page for the latest project information.

Music collection

The Music collection at UCSB emphasizes musics of the Western art traditions and diverse world cultures, particularly the vernacular and traditional music of Eastern Europe, India, the Middle East, and the United States. Formats include books, scores, sound recordings, journals, videos, and microforms.

PLEASE NOTE:

78-rpm discs and other historical formats are held by the UCSB Library Department of Special Research Collections. See below for more information.

Music holdings in the Department of Special Research Collections

• The Performing Arts Collections of the Department of Special Research Collections (SRC), located in the Main Library, hold significant collections of primary-source music research materials. These include:
  • Sound Archives
    • Historical sound collections: primarily 78rpm discs, 1920s-1950s
    • Cylinder project: digital transcriptions of wax cylinders, pre-1920s
    • DAHR (Discography of American Historical Recordings): database of over 280,000 master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era, with audio streaming of more than 30,000 recordings
  • Manuscript Archives
    • Circus and Magic Collections -- Film, Radio, and Television Collections -- Historical Sound Recordings -- Music Collections -- Theater Collections -- Small Collections.
  •  listening and viewing facilities as well as a state-of-the-art laboratory for playback and preservation copying of audio, video, and film
  • Please contact the Performing Arts Curator, David Seubert, for more information (805-893-5444). For instructions on arranging access to SRC sound materials, see Performing Arts Collection: Access to the Sound Recordings.
• The collections of CEMA (California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives) contain additional performing-arts research materials.

More Information

• Music Subject Guide