Arthur Mendel Music Library

In 1997 the music collections of Princeton University were brought together for the first time with the opening of the Scheide Music Library in the Woolworth Center for Musical Studies. At William Scheide’s request, the music library was renamed to honor former Princeton faculty member and Scheide’s teacher Arthur Mendel (1905–1979) for his outstanding contributions as Bach scholar, performer, editor, critic, and teacher to the discipline of music. Books, printed music, sound recordings, periodicals, microforms, and videos/DVDs are housed on the three floors of the library. Also included are listening facilities, computer work stations, equipment for viewing and scanning microforms and videos/DVDs, photo reproduction equipment, a reading room, seminar room, and graduate student study carrels. The library also subscribes to a wide variety of electronic resources that include databases, electronic books and journals, streaming audio and video services, and primary resources. In total, the Mendel Music Library collections support the complex and varied research and performance needs of Princeton’s preeminent music faculty, some fifty graduate students in musicology, music theory, and composition, undergraduate music majors and non-majors participating in the various performance ensembles, and Princeton students, faculty, and staff from all subject areas who include music as part of their interdisciplinary study or personal interest. In addition, research collections of the music library are widely used by researchers from all over the Northeast and beyond. Also housed in the Mendel Music Library are collections supporting the dance program and music theater. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Firestone Library complements the Mendel Music Library by holding the rarest parts of Princeton’s music collection. Foremost among these resources is the Hall Handel Collection, a collection of first and early editions of the works of George Frideric Handel, which is the largest collection in the United States. In a room adjacent to the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, visitors will find William Scheide's private library. Although it is not primarily a music collection, this library includes some extraordinary musical treasurers, such as the fair copy of Wagner's Das Rheingold, a Beethoven sketchbook, and autograph manuscripts of works by Mozart and Bach. Some numbers: The Mendel Music Library collections include over 65,000 monographs, 60,000 scores, 94,000 sound recordings (40,000+ CDs), 2,600 video recordings, 18,000 microfilm titles, and 770 periodical titles.

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