Within our location in the Woolworth Center, Mendel has numerous physical resources that students, faculty, and staff can use. We have the expected books, scores, and periodicals in addition to technology such as print release stations, scanners, computer workstations, and audiovisual equipment.
Collections
As we mentioned in our first post, Mendel houses the Princeton University Library’s performing arts collections (the areas of music, theater, dance, and musical theater). This includes musical scores, books on music literature and dance, CDs and DVDs, current periodicals on the performing arts, and back issues of music periodicals.
Circulating Scores
Mendel’s circulating score collection is on the second floor. Most of the collection is “quarto” sized (indicated by a “q” at the end of the call number) and located centrally on the second floor. Study scores make up the first few rows of stacks, and large — “folio” or “elephant” — scores are in the back corner and have an “f” or “e” in their call number. These scores include repertoire from pre-Baroque times up through very recently composed works, some of which are even by Princeton faculty members. Circulating scores have the location code “(MUS)” and have call numbers beginning with “M”.
Music Literature
The music literature collection is also located on the second floor, in the high density shelving. To optimize our shelf space, oversized books are shelved separately after the other music literature items. Music literature items have the location code “(MUS)” and call numbers beginning with “ML”.
Pedagogical Texts
Pedagogical texts are in the second floor high density shelving after the music literature collection, have location code “(MUS)”, and have call numbers beginning with “MT”. Oversized items are also shelved separately.
Reference Materials
Reference materials do not circulate (you may only use them in the library) and are located on the first floor. Standard reference materials are differentiated from the circulating collection by the location code “(SV)”. Some reference materials are facsimiles and are further differentiated by the location code “(SVF)”. A small number of items are held behind the circulation desk and are considered “locked”, which is indicated by “(SVL)”. These locked items may only be handled with the permission of the full-time library staff. The final subset of reference materials have the location code “(SVR)” and are the only reference materials on the second floor. Items with this location code include dictionaries and other guides. They are held in the second floor reading room.
Periodicals
Current issues of periodicals are held in the second floor reading room. Back issues for music periodicals are typically rebound and moved to the bound periodicals section on the first floor, indicated by the location code “(MUSPE)”. Other non-music periodicals are usually moved to Firestone once bound.
Audio-visual Materials
Audio-visual materials, including CDs and DVDs, are kept behind the circulation desk and can be retrieved upon request, but they may only be used inside the library; Mendel has media players that will be discussed in the next section.
Off-site Loans
Some of the most valuable offerings of the Princeton University Library are the various off-site materials that are available to patrons.
One of these programs is Borrow Direct, which allows PUL patrons to borrow materials from twelve partner university libraries: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, and Yale. Interlibrary Loan (ILL) works similarly. Both have online request systems on the PUL website.
PUL also has a partnership with the Columbia University Libraries, Harvard University Library, and the New York Public Library through the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP). ReCAP serves as off-site, high density storage for materials with more than 16 million holdings and is located on Princeton’s Forrestal Campus. PUL patrons may request any item held at ReCAP regardless of its owning library. Deliveries from ReCAP occur twice a day.
Technology
In addition to “traditional” library materials Mendel Music Library has printers, a photocopier, scanning equipment, computer workstations, and audiovisual equipment.
The printers are connected to PawPrint, the University’s cloud printing system, which allows you to print documents and retrieve them at any PawPrint printer. The library computers are already set up to print to the PawPrint network, but you will need to set up your personal computer using the steps at https://princeton.service-now.com/service?sys_id=9745&id=kb_article. After printing to “PawPrint Printers”, which should show up in the list of printer options on your computer, you can go to any PawPrint printer on campus and log in, usually by scanning your TigerCard, and “release” the print job. Each student has a free printing quota of several thousand pages each academic year. Printers are located on the first two floors of the library.
Mendel’s photocopier requires a pre-paid copy card or your TigerCard (which will be charged using Paw Points) to make copies. As an alternative to paying for photocopying, free scanning equipment is also available (see below). The Mendel photocopier is located on the first floor.
Both a standard document scanner and a specialized scanner for books are available on the second floor of Mendel and are free to use. Documents scanned on these scanners can be saved to a USB thumb drive or as email attachments.
Mendel’s other technology and equipment includes external disk drives and headphones that can be borrowed for in-library use. Information and FAQs are available on Mendel’s website at https://library.princeton.edu/music/about/equipment.
Circulation
So, how does circulation work at Mendel? If you’re an undergraduate student, most items circulate for eight weeks, but there are some exceptions to this policy — including reference materials, CDs, and DVDs — that you can see at https://library.princeton.edu/music/about/policies#loan_periods.
Once your loan period is up, you can renew your loan online at https://library.princeton.edu by going to Library Services > My Accounts and logging in with your Princeton NetID and password via CAS. You may also visit, call, or email us for help with renewals.
Holds can also be placed online through the library catalog at https://catalog.princeton.edu or by speaking with a library staff member.
Reserves
Reserves are actually both in the library and online, but they’ll be a pretty important part of your Princeton experience so we’ll discuss them now. Reserves are materials that your professor or instructor has set aside as important or relevant to the course. They often include supplemental texts and audiovisual materials related to the course. Physical course reserves for undergraduates are held behind the circulation desk and may be used for three hours at a time by request during which the item will be charged to your account. Reserves may not leave the library. Online reserves are available through the link in the sidebar of the course’s Canvas site. They virtually circulate for three hours using CAS.
Research
Part of Mendel’s mission is to support the research of faculty and students in the Department of Music and the Programs in Dance, Theater, and Musical Theater. Darwin Scott, the Mendel Music Librarian, has put together resource guides which are available in the right sidebar of Mendel’s website at https://library.princeton.edu/music. These are a great first stop for any research inquiries and introduce the numerous resources available through Mendel. The library staff is also available to help you with your research inquiries, both via email and in-person at the library.
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