The Robert Goldwater Library
The Robert Goldwater Library is a non-circulating research library dedicated to the documentation of the visual arts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Native and Precolumbian America. Part of the Museum's Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, the library is open to adult researchers, including college and graduate students.
Mission
In furtherance of the Mission Statement of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the mission of the library is to support the collection, preservation, study, exhibition and appreciation of the art and material culture represented in the collection of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. To that end the library has primary responsibility for identifying, evaluating, locating and acquiring the essential literature on these cultures and making it available to museum staff and the general public, both on site and via remote access.
Collection
The Library collection comprises over 20,000 books published worldwide, with an additional 10,000 volumes of periodicals, including current subscriptions to 150 journals. Subject strengths include the art and material culture of West Africa, Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya (Indonesia), and Precolumbian Mexico and Peru, with extensive holdings in related disciplines such as anthropology, ethnology, and archaeology. The library routinely collects exhibition and auction sales catalogs, as well as academic theses and dissertations.
WATSONLINE, the Museum’s online library catalog, provides access to the Goldwater Library’s holdings, as well as many of the other MMA libraries, with a full range of searching options. WATSONLINE is also the gateway to an ever increasing array of free and subscription-based electronic resources, including online journals. The Goldwater Library maintains a del.icio.us account with a selection of electronic resources of particular interest to researchers in our subject fields.
A library staff person is available during public hours to assist the visiting researcher. Library staff will also answer ready reference and bibliographic questions by telephone, fax, or gro.muesumtem|yrarbil.retawdlog#liame. The library answers questions about specific art objects in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas and will assist researchers on other publicly or privately held objects. However the library staff cannot provide expertise on attributions or valuations.
A small percentage of the Museum's library collection, including works formerly in the Goldwater Library, is housed in offsite storage. Materials housed Offsite can be retrieved electronically unless they are available in another MMA library, or unless the reader prefers not to wait for the 24-48 hours it takes to have them delivered.
Hours & Access
Located on the mezzanine level of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, the library is open Tuesday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is closed Mondays, weekends, and staff holidays. No appointment is necessary except for the period from August 1 through Labor Day. Where possible unscheduled changes in library access will be posted on the library's blog.
To visit the library, a pass must be obtained from the Reception Desk in either the Great Hall (82nd Street, main entrance) or the Uris Center (81st Street, ground floor), where directions to the library will be given. Museum visitors intending only to use the library do not pay Museum admission.
Policies and Guidelines
All materials other than those in the Reading Room reference collection must be requested through the Circulation Desk by using call slips. Researchers can request items (up to five items at a time) until 4:15 p.m. daily. The stacks are open only to designated staff.
A black-and-white photocopier located in the Reference Room is available to researchers for $0.25 per exposure. (Cash only.) The library cannot assume responsibility for any possible infringement of copyright laws in the copying of materials in the collection.
- Coats and nonessential packages must be checked at a Museum checkroom located on the main and ground floors before entering the library.
- Researchers must sign in upon arrival.
- Food and drink of any kind are forbidden, as is smoking (which is prohibited throughout the Museum).
- Photography is permitted; please ask a staff member first before photographing.
- Cell phones must be turned off during your library visit.
- Researchers may use laptop computers. Wireless Internet access is available.
History
The library began in the spring 1957 as part of the Museum of Primitive Art. The library's founder, Allan Chapman, always claimed that it began with fifty books and a typewriter. (And, yes, that's the typewriter.) During the Fall of 1976 the Library of the Museum of Primitive Art was moved to the first of several temporary office quarters at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The same year the Library was renamed The Robert Goldwater Library of Primitive Art, in honor of Robert Goldwater (1908-1972), first director of the Museum of Primitive Art. (The "of Primitive Art" was dropped from the library's name when it re-opened to the public.) In 1980 the library relocated to the mezzanine floor of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, then still under construction. The Goldwater Library opened to the public in February of 1982.
Head Librarians
- Allan D. Chapman (1957-1988)
- Ross Day (1988- )
