Music

Culminates multiyear effort to unite Library collections and services in central, state-of-the-art space

This article was originally published in UCSB’s The Current. 

The new Sara Miller McCune Arts Library will open to the public on Monday, December 2. 

The creation of this thoughtfully designed and vibrant new space with state-of-the-art technology on the main Library’s 1st floor Mountain Side was made possible by the generosity of philanthropist, arts lover, and longtime UCSB donor Sara Miller McCune. The gift was made in collaboration with McCune’s social science publishing company, Sage Publishing. 

The new Arts Library is opening in late fall quarter. 

Art & Architecture and Music print collections are inaccessible for public browsing until the opening of the Arts Library but can be requested via UC Library Search. 

UCSB Library is creating a new Arts Library by bringing together the Music and Art & Architecture Collections into a modernized space on the main Library’s 1st floor Mountain Side. 

The Music Library will permanently close to the public starting Monday, August 5. 

UCSB Library is creating a new Arts Library by bringing together the Music and Art & Architecture Collections into a modernized space on the Library’s 1st floor Mountain Side where the Art & Architecture Collection is currently housed. As part of the project, the Music Library collection and services will be moved from the Music Building to the main Library. 

The Art & Architecture space – inclusive of collections and study space – will be closed to the public for construction starting Monday, April 1. 

Project Will Combine Music and Art & Architecture Collections in Modernized Space in Main Library

UC Santa Barbara Library is planning a new Arts Library by bringing together the Music and Art & Architecture Collections into a modernized space in the main Library building. The project will bring together all library services under one roof for the first time since 1969.

In Fall 2022, the archives of the music and comedy duo Smothers Brothers were donated to the UC Santa Barbara Library’s Performing Arts Collection on behalf of the two brothers, Thomas and Richard Smothers.

On January 1, 2022, an estimated 400,000 pre-1923 sound recordings formerly restricted through copyright entered the public domain, thanks to the passing of the Music Modernization Act (MMA). 

The Grammy Museum Foundation issued a $10,000 grant to the UC Santa Barbara Library to preserve, digitize, and make accessible a portion of the groundbreaking radio broadcasts of the CBS Symphony conducted by Bernard Herrmann in the 1930s and 1940s. 

UCSB Library is one of 20 organizations that received a 2022 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in April for a Recordings at Risk project. 

Nearly $50,000 is now available for the project, “Preserving America’s Radio Heritage: The Recordings of Variety Show Pioneer Rudy Vallée.”