New York Library for the Performing Arts

http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html

The NY Public Library for the Performing Arts is located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and specializes in materials related to the arts. According to their mission statement, "the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters and photographs."

I honestly don't know much about the performing arts, at least not in the sense that I'd know what to look for in a library dedicated to it. At first, the Performing Arts Library did not appear to have a separate OPAC. There is a search bar at the top right of the screen, but it's for the entire New York Public Library. However, on when I chose the Dance page, I was offered a link to the catalog of the Dance collection, called LEO: http://leopac.nypl.org/ A search for "Bob Fosse" turned up 40 results, and not all were at the Performing Arts Library. The movie "Bob Fosse's Broadway" has three copies at the Performing Arts Library and one at the 58th Street branch. The separate pages for different areas of the library -- music, drama, arts administration, etc. -- each contain a link to the same LEO OPAC. The page for each area of the library contains fairly comprehensive information about what the collection does and does not contain.

There's also a "selected Internet resources" page with links to all kinds of arts-related websites, like a database of dance studios across America, foundations and grants for the arts, and links to film festivals. I was really impressed by the breadth of sites they linked to, and found that to be a really valuable resource.

While I do think this service is best suited to people who have specific needs (as all special libraries generally are), it was neatly laid out and accessible to anyone, with some really great resources.