Visit Us
What you need to know to visit the Music Library.
Otto E. Albrecht Music Library
Today's Hours:
8:30am - 6pm | Library Hours
Phone:
Email:
Location:
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 4th floor west
3420 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
| Directions
The Albrecht Music Library serves the research and teaching needs of Penn’s Music Department and the Penn music community.
Hours
-
Albrecht Music Library Hours: 8:30am - 6pm -
Ormandy Music and Media Center Hours: 9am - 6pm
Using the Music Library
Browse Library Spaces
Find out about rooms in the Music Library that you can use for study, recording, and more, or go directly to our room reservation service.
Use the Ormandy Center
How to find, visit, and use the resources available in the Eugene Ormandy Music and Media Center.
Borrow Musical Instruments
Find out about instruments and related equipment that you can borrow from the Libraries.
Reserve a Laptop
Check the Music Library's laptop reservation calendar.
Place Materials on Reserve
Add books, journal articles, scores, and audio-visual materials to Course Reserves.
Research Resources & Collections
- The Basics
- Music Primary Sources
- Reference Sources
- Articles, Full Text
- Musical Scores
- Streaming Audio & Video
Search the Catalog
Search for books, scores, sound recordings, and more in the library catalog.
Search Worldcat
Find and request materials from libraries all over the world.
Browse our Research Guides
Find credible music resources available at the Penn Libraries.
Request a purchase
Want to suggest an addition to the Penn Libraries collections? Let us know!
Marian Anderson Collection
Explore our collections by and related to singer Marian Anderson. You can also view some of these collections through our digital portal or browse them in the library catalog.
Eugene Ormandy Collection
Eugene Ormandy served as conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1937 to 1980 and was the beloved architect of the "Philadelphia sound." The Ormandy Collection includes music scores; papers and correspondence; programs; photographs; recordings; oral histories; and audiovisual material.
Beethoven Cabinet
The cabinet, when in Beethoven's possession, was located in the Schwarzspanierhaus ("the house of the black-robed spaniards") in Vienna. Beethoven moved into the house on October 15, 1825 (Memories of Beethoven, p. 131, n. 104) and lived in an apartment on the second floor until his death in 1827.
Philadelphia Orchestra Collections
The records of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association document its activities from 1900 to 2023 through administrative records, concert programs, photographs, scrapbooks and audio and visual recordings.
Explore More Collections
At the core of the collection are scores in both scholarly and performing editions, literature on music history and theory, ethnomusicology, jazz, popular music, and microforms of primary sources.
Oxford Music Online
The authoritative resource for music research with over 52,000 articles written by nearly 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history and cultures of music around the globe.
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
A comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples. Each volume contains an overview of a geographic region, a survey of its musical heritage, and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances.
More Music Reference Sources
See the full list of online music reference sources available at the Penn Libraries.
Music Periodicals Database
A music journal resource with more than half a million indexed articles, plus detailed abstracts and full text from 1874 to current, covering the scholarly to the popular.
RLM Abstracts of Music Literature
Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) publishes a comprehensive bibliography of writings on music serving the global music research community. Today RILM Abstracts of Music Literature has over 1,000,000 records in 143 languages from 178 countries.
More Full-Text Music Articles
See more sources of popular and academic music articles available online.
Library Catalog
Search for scores available at the Penn Libraries.
WorldCat
Find and request musical scores from libraries all over the world.
BabelScores
Read thousands of contemporary musical scores online.
Classical Scores Library
Find in-copyright digital scores of the classical canon, as well as a resource for the discovery of lesser-known contemporary works.
Naxos Music Library
The world´s largest online classical music library, offering streaming access to more than 188,285 albums with more than 2,890,503 tracks of both standard and rare repertoire.
Music and Performing Arts (Alexander Street Press)
Combines audio and video that spans all time periods, hundreds of thousands of seminal artists, composers, choreographers, and ensembles.
Staff Picks Spotify Playlist
An introduction to Classical music curated by Music Library staff.
More Streaming Music and Video
Find more options for streaming audio and video of musical performances online.
News, Exhibits, Events
Event Series: Music in the Stacks
A collaboration between the Albrecht Music Library and the Department of Music, Music in the Stacks brings Penn musicians into library spaces for drop-in, public performances throughout the semester.
Online Exhibit: Re-covering the Ney Collection
“Most of the books that have been recently published in Turkey on how to play the Ney make direct reference to the oldest Ney in the world kept by the University of Pennsylvania” --Juan Castrillón
The online exhibit discusses and documents an exhibit presented in 2020 in the Marian Anderson Gallery.
Browse All Events
Find out about the engaging events, compelling lectures, and skill-building workshops happening across the Penn Libraries.
List
Eric Krewson
Library Specialist ekrewson@pobox.upenn.edu
Stephen Mantz
Music Technical Services Librarian mantzs@upenn.edu
Liza Vick
Head, Otto E. Albrecht Music Library & Eugene Ormandy Music & Media Center lizavick@upenn.edu
Florrie Marks
Music Library Administrative Assistant fmarks@upenn.edu
Lloyd Frank
Library Specialist lfrank@pobox.upenn.eduLocation and Accessibility
Accessibility
The accessible entrance of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center opens into the Goldstein Undergraduate Study Center. This entrance is on the ground floor of the building facing Blanche P. Levy Park and College Hall. A wheelchair accessible doorbell is located on the railing leading toward the door.
