The art and architecture collection of the Brown Fine Arts Library contains books, exhibition catalogs, and periodicals on all media, periods of art and architectural history with particular emphasis on Western Europe, the United States, the Greco-Roman world, the Ottoman Empire, China and Japan; 20 – 21st Brazil and Latin America in general, film and photography. A special collection of livres d’artistes is housed in the Woodson Research Center.
The Brown Fine Arts music collection contains music scores, sound and video recordings, periodicals and books on music. The focus of the collection is on music from the western classical tradition, with holdings in western popular genres such as jazz, blues and gospel and folk. Music from nonwestern traditions are also represented. Archival holdings include a collection of autograph scores and first editions of the composer Francis Poulenc, and a number of microfilm collections of music manuscripts and other materials.
- Scores, books, the fine arts reference collection, and current and back issues of periodicals are shelved in the Brown Fine Arts Library. Pre-1975 periodical volumes may be requested from the Library Service Center if the digital full text is not available.
- New books and scores are on "new books" shelves in the Brown Fine Arts Library.
- Rare fine arts materials and art oversized materials are kept at the off-campus Library Service Center, where they may easily be retrieved with an LSC Request.
- Selected rare art and music materials are located in the Woodson Research Center, 1st floor.
- DVDs on art, architecture, and music are located in the Fondren DVD collection, 1st floor. Streaming videos are provided by Films on Demand and Kanopy via the library’s online catalog or via these urls.
Located on the 3rd floor of Fondren Library.
The Architecture, Art and Music librarians are located in B35 (basement)
Fondren Library - MS44
Rice University
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892