Visitors and TexShare

General information

Visitors are welcome to enter the library during our visitor hours. You will be asked to sign-in at the circulation desk with a photo ID upon each entry. You will be able to search the library catalog and use materials in the library.

To borrow materials it is necessary for you to get a TexShare borrowing card from your public or college/university library. You can apply for a borrowing card for use at TCU at the library's circulation desk. This borrowing card will allow you to check out 5 books at a time for a period of 28 days. Renewal privileges are not available in this borrowing category.

Visitors are also welcome to join the Friends of the TCU Library which allows up to 10 books to be checked out at a time and in-person renewal privileges. A TexShare card is not required for the Friends of the TCU Library program. Please note that processing time required for the Friends of the TCU Library program is 2 business days and books will not be able to be checked out during this time.

Accessibility services

Visitor hours:

For exceptions to regular hours, please check the library hours page.

Day	Admitted from:	No longer admitted after:	Must depart by:
Sunday	1 pm	5 pm	5 pm
Monday	7 am	8 pm	9 pm
Tuesday	7 am	8 pm	9 pm
Wednesday	7 am	8 pm	9 pm
Thursday	7 am	8 pm	9 pm
Friday	7 am	5 pm	5 pm
Saturday	1 pm	5 pm	5 pm

Quick links

Resources available

Visitor databases

Contact us

Reviewed 12/13/2012 by James Lutz .

Visitor computers

The library has 17 computers available to any visitor who wishes to search the library catalog, or use one of the online databases available to all visitors (see list below). These computers do not offer general Internet access, or application programs like word processing. Three of the guest computers are located in the library entrance lobby, and three more are located near the main entrance to the Information Commons lab. Others are placed in stack areas around the building, to provide convenient access to the library catalog while retrieving books and other materials.

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Reviewed 1/25/2013 by Kerry Bouchard .

Visitor databases

Welcome! Visitors may search the library catalog, as well as the databases listed below. For assistance in using the library catalog and in using the databases for finding articles, please consult SearchPath, a step-by-step tutorial.

Databases available for use by visitors (in-library use only)
Browse by: All Categories Arts & Humanities Business/Economics/Ranch Management eBooks General Reference Multi-Disciplinary Music/Media Newspapers Nursing & Health Sciences Political & Military Science Religion & Philosophy Science Social Sciences

African American Music Reference	Contains 50,000 pages of text reference, biographies, sheet music, images, lyrics, and discographies which chronicle the history and culture of the African American experience through music. It includes comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression. (More...)
American Song	A streaming audio database containing 50,000 tracks covering the music from America's past. The database includes songs by and about American Indians, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys, Civil Rights, politics, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests and more. (More...)
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Knowledge)	Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It fully covers 1,160 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals. It also indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals. (More...)
BBC Shakespeare Plays	BBC Shakespeare Plays has streaming videos of all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays. (More...)
Classical Music Reference Library	Contains more than 30,000 pages of essential reference materials, spanning the history of Western classical music. Included are Baker's Dictionary of Music, Biographical Dictionary of Musicians and Student Encyclopedia of Music. (More...)
Classical Scores Library	Contains 400,000 pages of classical scores from both in-copyright and public domain editions includes in-copyright material from Boosey and Hawkes and selected material from the University Music Editions microfilm series. Coverage of score types includes (More...)
Contemporary World Music	A streaming audio database incorporating contemporary reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, and other worldwide genres. (More...)
Dance Collection Catalog	The New York Public Library Dance Collection catalog contains bibliographic descriptions of materials about all forms of dance, from all cultures, in print and other media. It includes works in other languages and serves as an index to international dance periodicals. *To search Dance holdings, select Dance Research Collection.* (More...)
Dance in Video	This growing database will ultimately offer hundreds of videos featuring all forms and styles of dance, including performance, documentary, interview and instructional videos. Up-and-coming as well as leading companies and individuals are featured. (More...)
Database of Recorded American Music (DRAM)	An anthology of sound recordings including: classical music, folk music, opera, jazz, country music, early rhythm and blues, musical theater, experimental music, electronic music, early rock and Native American music from the United States. (More...)
EIO-Italianistica / EIO-Italian Studies	Italian Language and Literature, Music, Architecture, Art, Social Sciences and History. Monographs, conference proceedings and journals in Italian Studies. (More...)
EVIA Digital Archive Project	A collaborative endeavor to create a digital archive of ethnographic field video for use by scholars and instructors. Each user must create an individual account from an on-campus computer. (More...)
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online	Devoted to music research of all the world's peoples including an overview of the region, a survey of its musical heritage, traditions and themes; and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances. Articles include photographs of musicians, instruments, and the cultural context of dances, rituals, and ceremonies. (More...)
Grove Music Online	A reference resource covering all types of music styles, terms, genres and concepts, Grove Music Online comprises the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd ed.). Many articles have been updated since. Useful for biographical searches, and includes bibliographies and sound samples. (More...)
History of Western Music (Oxford)	Oxford History of Western Music offers a narrative account of the evolution of Western classical music. (More...)
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text	International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text (IBTD with Full Text) is the definitive research tool for the study of theatre and the performing arts. (More...)
IPA Source	The web's largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. (More...)
Italianistica / Italian Studies	Italian Language and Literature, Music, Architecture, Art, Social Sciences and History. Monographs, conference proceedings and journals in Italian Studies (More...)
Jazz Music Library	A streaming audio database of jazz greats. (More...)
JSTOR	An electronic journal collection consisting of the full text of back issues of journals in many different subject areas. It is especially strong in Arts and Sciences. (More...)
Music Index	Contains citations to articles on all genres of music, musicology, and music research from more than 800 music periodicals published in 20 countries. Book reviews, obituaries, and news and articles about musicians and the music industry are also cited. (More...)
Music Online	Music Online is a comprehensive resource that cross searches several music reference and music listening databases. (More...)
Nineteenth Century Collections Online	A multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the long nineteenth century. (More...)
Opera in Video	Contains 250 of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. The collection presents an overview of the most commonly studied operas in music history, opera literature, and performance classes. (More...)
Oxford History of Western Music	Oxford History of Western Music offers a narrative account of the evolution of Western classical music. (More...)
Oxford Music Online	Contains The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford Dictionary of Music and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. (More...)
Paley Center Seminars	The Paley Center Seminars is an online video archive of the acclaimed seminar series held by The Paley Center for Media. (More...)
Project MUSE	Provides full-text to 300+ high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60+ scholarly publishers. Every journal is peer-reviewed, with titles from many of the world’s leading university presses and scholarly societies. (More...)
Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals	Indexes music periodical literature published from the late 18th- to mid-20th- centuries in Europe and the United States. Most citations contain extensive editorial commentary. (More...)
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature	Provides citations and abstracts on international music from over 500 scholarly journals, as well as books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, ethnographic recordings, Festschriften, films, iconographies, concert reviews, recording notes, pedagogical manuals and videos. (More...)
RISM: International Inventory of Musical Sources after 1600	An international, non-profit joint venture which aims to comprehensively document the world's musical sources of manuscripts or printed music, works on music theory and libretti stored in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools and private collections. (More...)
Smithsonian Global Sound	A streaming audio database serving as a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. (More...)
Theatre in Video	Contains more than 250 definitive performances of the world's leading plays and more than 100 film documentaries online in streaming video - more than 500 hours in all. This release represents hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors. (More...)

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Reviewed 8/10/2012 by Stephanie Folse.