Music & Dance Library
The Music and Dance Library collections reflect the course offerings and faculty interests of the Ohio University Schools of Music, Dance, and Interdisciplinary Arts. The collections include books and periodicals on music and dance, music scores, and recordings, all of which are cataloged in the library catalog and are available for students, faculty, staff, and community members to use.
Find and Contact Us
The Music and Dance Library is located in 530 Glidden Hall.
Full Ohio University Campus map
- Phone: (740) 593-4255
- Carla Williams, Music and Special Projects Librarian
Technology Available at the Music and Dance Library
- Computers: Five Apple iMacs and three Microsoft Windows PC's
- Software: Adobe Creative Suite, Auralia, Boardmaker, Finale, Macgamut, and Musition
- Peripherals: color printer, 2 large-bed scanners, 2 MIDI keyboards
- AV equipment: record player, Blu-Ray player, VHS player, cassette tape player, 3 external disc drives, 40-inch flat-screen HDTV, studio-quality speakers
- Power: Omnicharge portable batteries to charge your laptops and other electronics anywhere in the library
Music Resources
Special Collections
Joel Forrester Collection
OHIO alumnus Joel Forrester “is a renowned musician who has, among other accomplishments, studied composition with Thelonious Monk and wrote the theme tune for NPR’s ‘Fresh Air.’ As a prolific composer, he also provided music for the early films of Andy Warhol, accompanied silent films at the Louvre and co-founded, recorded and toured with the Microscopic Septet.” (Gatherings, Spring 2024)
The Joel Forrester Collection includes over 2,500 original tunes in both lead sheet and WAV file formats. Also in the collection are event posters, photographs, correspondence, and writings.
Resources:
For access to the collection, contact Carla Williams
Nancy Huffman Rue Sheet Music Collection
In June of 2018, retired Ohio University librarian Nancy Rue donated her vast collection of popular sheet music to the OU Libraries. Housed in the Music and Dance Library, the Nancy Huffman Rue Sheet Music Collection consists of over 2,000 pieces of sheet music, most of which dates from the early decades of the twentieth century—the Tin Pan Alley era.
Rue recalls that her life as a collector began when she inherited her maternal grandmother’s sheet music collection. This, as the basis of her collection, was expanded over time by acquiring pieces from estate sales and auctions. Rue refined her collecting criteria to the composers, performers, categories, and cover artists she found most appealing and collectable, thereby creating a core collection.
Resources:
- Nancy H. Rue, "The Nancy Huffman Rue Sheet Music Collection: Background and Recollections" (2018), available within the Rue Collection at the Music and Dance Library.
- Gatherings, Spring 2024
For access to the collection, contact Carla Williams.
Richard D. Wetzel Collection
The Richard D. Wetzel Collection represents the career of longtime School of Music faculty member Dr. Richard Wetzel. It consists of over 900 books about music, nearly 200 music scores and anthologies, and well over 4,000 recordings in various formats.
The collection also contains rare books, including Charles Burney’s A General History of Music from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period, 2nd ed. (1789), John Hawkin’s A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (1776), and several composite volumes of late 18th- and mid-19th-century sheet music.
There are several sub-collections within the Wetzel Collection that contain the scores and papers of composers Karl Arendt, Carl F. Heyl, Eusebia Hunkins, Mark Phillips, and Richard Syracuse. (The Eusebia Simpson Hunkins papers, available in the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, complement those found in the Wetzel Collection.)
For access to the collection, contact Carla Williams.