Bands Library

The Illinois Band Library maintains one of the world's largest repositories of printed band music for performance.

The Illinois Bands library is a performance library and is charged specifically with serving the rehearsal and performance needs of all Illinois Bands and our conductors. Due to the amazing volume and history of the collection, it also serves as a resource for research. With the incorporation of new digital files, many of the oldest and most historic titles within the collection have been scanned to ensure longevity and usability of the entire collection. In addition to performance materials, the Illinois Band Library maintains reference materials, wind band recordings, and performance history catalogues in support of band faculty and students. The library is currently administered by a graduate conducting student and a staff of student workers.

The Illinois Bands Library space consists of the main library room (open to the public), the work room, and four rooms of collection stacks.  
 

Visiting the UI Band Library

The Illinois Band Library Collections database is available only for in-house use. If you plan to visit or view specific music titles, please send your request by e-mail to bands@illinois.edu to schedule your visit and to ensure we can serve your request. The primary research facility in the Band Building is the Sousa Collection and Center for American Music. The Illinois Bands performance collection, however, has a wealth of historic and contemporary performance materials and creates a perfect complement to the true research facility located on the second floor of the Harding Band Building. As a performance library for such a large band program, the Illinois Bands library is not a loaning library, nor is it a preservation library. It is a working performance library and is active throughout the entire year.