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Eugene Ormandy Music and Media Center

Otto E. Albrecht Music Library
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center/4th Floor West
3420 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
(215) 898-6248

Hours for Oct. 11: closed

The Eugene Ormandy Music and Media Center is named for the long-term conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, whose professional papers, conducting scores, and recordings the Penn Library holds. The Center houses more than 34,000 sound recordings of Western music, as well as art and traditional musics of the world in LP disc, cassette, and compact disc formats. The Music Library's video collection is also housed here and includes DVD and laser disc recordings of opera and ballet as well as a diverse collection of video tapes, primarily related to the study of world music. All compact discs and video recordings, as well as a portion of the LP and cassette collection, are listed in Franklin, the Penn Library's online catalog. For older LP discs and cassette recordings, the Recordings Card Catalog, located in the Ormandy Center, should also be consulted. Hints for finding recorded materials in Franklin may be found in the guide Searching for Music Materials on Franklin

The Center's facilities include turntables, compact disc and cassette players, a reel-to-reel tape machine, and DVD, laser disc and VHS players. All videotape players are capable of playing PAL, NTSC, and MESCAM formats. Consult the document, Public Video Players in the Penn Libraries, for a more detailed description of available equipment and facilities. All of the audio and video equipment is used with headphones, though up to three individuals may listen/view together.

A valid Penncard or other form of photo ID is required to use the Ormandy Media Center collections and facilities. Circulating compact discs and videorecordings have a loan period of seven days. A limit of four sound recordings and four videorecordings may be borrowed at one time. Compact discs designated in Franklin as circulating "In Library Only" have a loan period of four hours. Reserve materials and all cassettes and LPs circulate in the library for a loan period of four hours. Special permission to borrow recordings for class presentation may be granted. In addition, certain course-reserve materials circulate overnight at the discretion of the instructor. Patrons are welcome to use the Center's audio-visual equipment for listening and viewing of personal recordings, although priority is given to those using library-owned materials.