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Ohio University Libraries
30 Park Place
Athens, OH 45701

Music & Dance Library

Entrance to Glidden Hall, School of Music at Ohio University

Welcome to the Ohio University Music & Dance Library!

The Music and Dance Library can be found near the elevator on the fifth floor of Glidden Hall (the music building). Inside the library you will find computers, study tables, soft seating, and many scores, recordings, and books. There is also an AV Room where you can view or listen to recordings in almost any format. 

The Music and Dance Library is a great place to study, to attend tutoring sessions, and to get help with your research or finding a score. Need a break? We have jigsaw puzzles, chess, checkers, and even coloring available.

Contact Us

Phone: (740) 593-4255

Carla Williams, Music and Special Projects Librarian

 

Visit Us

530 Glidden Hall, Ohio University Athens Campus

Glidden Hall Information and Directions

Research Guides

Our Research Guides provide information about and instructions for using resources that are important to the study of music and dance.

Music and Dance Research Guides

 

Collections & Spaces

The Music and Dance Library provides you with access to thousands of books, scores, and recordings to support your success as a Music, Dance, or Interdisciplinary Arts student. This includes databases and periodicals specific to music and dance. These collections are available for students, faculty, staff, and community members to use. Best of all, you can borrow almost everything! 

Technology available at the Music and Dance Library for student, faculty and staff use:

  • Computers: 5 Apple iMacs and 3 Microsoft Windows PC's
  • Software: Adobe Creative Suite, Auralia, Boardmaker, Finale, Macgamut, and Musition
  • Peripherals: color / black and white printer, 2 large-bed scanners, 1 MIDI keyboard
  • Audio / Visual 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

The Audio Visual Room is a place for listening and viewing and can also be used for small group study. The AV Room (Glidden 530 B) is just inside the library to the left. Inside you will find soft seating, a 40-inch flat-screen HDTV, studio-quality speakers, and following equipment:

  • Record player
  • Blue-Ray player
  • VHS player
  • Cassette tape player
  • Mac mini

To access the AV Room, ask at the Music & Dance Library Service Desk. There are also a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse that can be borrowed from the Service Desk.

The Music and Dance Library Special Collections Room houses rare and special items and collections relating to music. Included in the room is a seminar space, as well as a large collection of 33 1/3 records (vinyl) most of which can be found in the OHIO Library Catalog.

For more information see Special Collections information below.

For access to the room and its collections, contact Carla Williams.

 

Special Collections

Photo of Forrester's donations of vinyl, tapes, and CDs staked behind a small post card sized advertisement

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 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

Images from the Nancy Huffman Rue Sheet Music Collection

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 Magazine, spring 2024 issue

For access to the collection, contact Carla Williams.

Richard D. Wetzel

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.