Theatre and Dance

Fine Arts Library

The Fine Arts Library is a resource you don't want to neglect during your studies as a fine arts major at UT. The Fine Arts Library (commonly referred to as the FAL) is a unit of The University of Texas Libraries and contains the art and music collections and most of the theatre and dance materials. The FAL collections and services support research and instruction in the College of Fine Arts.

The FAL collection includes approximately 300,000 books and scores, 900 current serial subscriptions, 36,000 compact discs, 4,400 video cassettes and videodiscs, 6,200 reels of microfilm, and 24,000 microfiche. The library has a dedicated theatre librarian who is available to help our students.

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Fine Arts Library: Before and After

Beth Kerr is the Theatre and Dance librarian, acting as the liaison between Department of Theatre and Dance students, faculty, and staff and the FAL. Her primary roles include 1) instructional training, 2) buying theatre and dance materials and facilitating gift donations to expand the collection, and 3) coordinating the reference services for the FAL. Here are a few important services the FAL provides:

1. Instructional Training: "Information literacy" is a hot button word these days among librarians. According to the National Form on Information Literacy, Information Literacy is defined as "the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand." "Basically, it is not just knowing how to find the book, it is knowing why you want to find the book," Kerr sums up.

Instruction Services offers Online Tutorials as well as Tours and Classes that provide a general overview and familiarity with the collections and detailed instruction on research methods.

To arrange a tour or a hands-on research methods class, contact Beth Kerr at bethkerr@mail.utexas.edu.

2. Expanding the theatre and dance collections: Outside of receiving donations from individuals, Kerr continually purchases scripts, books, videos, and other publications that will enhance our collections. She relies heavily on suggestions from faculty and students.

Submit an Online Suggestion Form to make your suggestion!

3. Reference Services: Can't find enough information on your paper topic? Don't have enough publications for your bibliography? Rely on the FAL reference librarians to help you track down what you need.

Ask a Librarian is a service that enables you to ask University of Texas library staff reference questions. Questions can be submitted by email or you can chat with library staff.

Questions can be submitted by email at any time.

Chat is available: Monday - Thursday, noon - 6pm and Friday, noon - 4pm. Chat service is currently not available Saturday - Sunday and during university holidays.

You can also ask a question in person during reference desk hours or by telephoning the reference department.

For more information, visit the Ask a Librarian page on the UT Libraries website.

Beth Kerr

Beth Kerr

Use Beth Kerr for all your research needs while you're here at UT. Like all librarians, her passion in life is to teach and help others. She will help you become information literate and learn about the amazing resources UT Libraries offers.

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