Rotch Library & Collection
Rotch Library
The MIT Libraries comprise five major subject libraries (architecture and planning; engineering; humanities; science; social sciences and management) and several branch libraries in specialized subject areas. Rotch Library, located in buildings 7 and 7A (entrance 7-238), is the library for art, architecture, urban design and planning, and visual and environmental arts. A branch library, the Rotch Visual Collection, is located in building 7-304.
Collections and Special Resources
The library holds extensive collections in architecture and building technology, art history, photography and film, environmental studies and land use, urban design and development, housing and community development, regional planning and development, urban transportation, and real estate. Teaching materials acquired in the earliest days of the Department are housed in the Limited Access Collection, along with other rare, unique, fragile or expensive architecture books and journals.
Other special collections include:
- Videotapes in art and architecture
- Materials on urban design and architecture in Islamic societies
- Masters and Ph.D. theses of recent graduates of the Department of Architecture and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, including real estate theses
Required readings for courses 4 and 11 are available at the services desk. Consult the reserve notebooks for specific items.
All materials, with the exception of slides and photographs, are listed in the MIT Libraries' online catalog, Barton and Vera, a subject list of electronic databases and journals.
Use of Other Libraries
By reciprocal agreement, graduate students are eligible for borrowing privileges at the Harvard College Libraries, including the Fine Arts Library, and at the Loeb Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. (Cross-registration for a course at Harvard also entitles MIT students to borrowing privileges in the library of the graduate school in which the course is offered.)
For more information, visit the School of Architecture + Planning's Libraries page.
In addition, MIT is a member of the Boston Library Consortium (BLC), a group of Boston-area research libraries. MIT students may apply for BLC privileges at the Rotch Library services desk.
Inter-Library Borrowing (ILB) is a service, international in scope, that locates and borrows books and, periodical articles, from other institutions. You may request to borrow materials via the web form on the MIT Libraries' website.
Rotch Visual Collections
Slides, photographs, and media in the fields of art, architecture, building technology, city planning, environmental design, anthropology, and archaeology are available in the Rotch Visual Collections (RVC) in 7-304.
A large light table, slide projectors, slide digitzation equipment, and a photographic copystand are available for use in the RVC.
For more information, visit the RVC website.
Quick Links
Barton
MIT Libraries
Rotch Visual Collections
SA+P Libraries
Vera
