The goals of the Center for American Music are to preserve, create access, and educate. The materials held at the Center for American Music are meant to be actively used.

The majority of the Center's collections are catalogued through Pittcat, the University of Pittsburgh's online library catalog.

Finding aids are in the process of being developed for those collections that are not cataloged.

Portions of our collection have been digitized. For more information, please visit our Digital Collection page.

The Center's reading room is open by appointment only, to students, scholars, and anyone else with an interest in using our holdings. You do not need to be affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh in order to use our collections. When you visit our collection, we'll ask that you fill out a Library User Form (or you can print out a copy of the form now and bring it with you). For more information on access please see our Hours & Access page.

Classes are welcome to use our collections as well and we are happy to provide instruction on a variety of topics including Foster, Blackface minstrelsy, music creation and dissemination, and 19th century American Music. Please schedule a class visit by contacting us via the phone number and email address listed below.

Please note: we are a special collections library, so all materials must be used on site. The majority of materials are also accessible via inter-library loan, a service provided through your local library. Please note: only photocopies (not original items) will be sent in response to a request.

For research questions, go to the University of Pittsburgh's Ask a Librarian page or contact us directly. This service is free of charge.

Photographs of Center for American Music holdings, including Stephen Foster related items, duplications of our recordings, photocopies of scores and other materials are available for research and publication. For more information, including fees. please see our Rights and Reproduction page.

To schedule an appointment to use the library, please call 412-624-4100 or email us.