The library collects English-language books and pamphlets on motion pictures, as well as important foreign language publications and a few selected books in allied fields such as television, radio, theater and music. The collection is international in scope and encompasses the early pre-cinema years to the present; hundreds of new titles are added to the holdings each year.
The library’s collection includes popular and scholarly works on a wide range of topics. Holdings include books on the cinema history of the United States as well as countries around the world; reference works and general film history; biographies and career studies of actors and filmmakers; and genre books looking at everything from adventure films to Westerns.
The collection also includes works on every aspect vital to the filmmaking process, from screenwriting to marketing and exhibition. Recent additions focus on the latest video/digital filmmaking processes currently in use.
Among the many rare items in the holdings are Eadweard Muybridge's 1881 first edition of Attitudes of Animals in Motion, Moving Picture Annual and Yearbook for 1912, and a copy of the novel Gone with the Wind, autographed by all of the film's principal cast members as well as its producer and director.
Books and pamphlets are available without an appointment to researchers who visit the library. To find books and pamphlets in the library's collection, go to the Library Catalog.