Thomas J Watson Library

Thomas J. Watson Library is the central research library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its collection of books and periodicals relating to the history of art is one of the most comprehensive in the world. The primary mission of the library is to support the research activities of the Museum staff; in addition, it is open to all visitors colleg... e age and older upon registration. Housed within the library are the Florence and Herbert Irving Reading Room, the Arthur K. Watson Reference Room, and the Sherman Fairchild Center for Book Conservation. Register online to use the library. Once registered, you may request books for use in the library. Watson Library is a non-circulating collection. Books requested from Watson Library and from most departmental libraries are retrieved for visitors for use in Watson according to the Book Retrieval Schedule. Search for material in Watsonline, the online catalog of the Museum's libraries. Explore the Digital Collections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, a growing repository of digitized material. Find information on works of art in the Museum by consulting the Collection Online, the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, and Museum collection and exhibition catalogs, many of which are available online at MetPublications or in the libraries' Digital Collections. The library contains more than nine hundred thousand volumes of books, periodicals, exhibition catalogs, and auction catalogs; eleven thousand periodical titles; collections of autograph letters; and files relating to individual artists and to the history of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Lita Annenberg Hazen and Joseph H. Hazen Center for Electronic Information Resources, an integral part of Thomas J. Watson Library, provides access to an extensive collection of databases, full-text online journals, and indexed online resources for the history of art. It is the base for the library's extensive program of instruction in the use of art-related electronic resources.Read More