Sibley Music Library

09/04/2026

Sibley Library will be open on Saturday, September 5 from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m., and on Sunday, September 6th, from 1 p.m. - 9 p.m., but we will be CLOSED for the Labor Day Holiday on Monday, September 7th, reopening for regular hours on Tuesday the 8th!

08/31/2026

On behalf of everyone at Sibley, welcome to a new academic year! Sibley’s librarians are available to answer questions, whether at the reference desk, by phone (585-274-1300), email ([email protected]), or live chat on the website (https://http://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/), where you'll also notice a newly updated search experience.

You may browse our research guides (https://libguides.esm.rochester.edu/c.php?g=909289) to find repertoire for your instrument.

For more formal instruction or tours contact Gerry Szymanski ([email protected]). Purchase suggestions may be sent to [email protected]. Room reservations for group study in NSL 404 and 309 may also be made on the Registrar's website (https://www.esm.rochester.edu/registrar/rooms/).

During the semester, our hours are typically 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday through Thursday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Friday, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, and 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Sunday (https://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/calendar/details/).

We look forward to seeing you at Sibley!

06/17/2026

Please note that Sibley Library will be closed this Friday, as well as Friday July 3rd.

03/06/2026

We recently re-discovered the SML Suggestion Book that was used to allow people to comment on various library issues (often anonymously). The earliest pages are from 1987 (before we even moved in to our present building). The commentary runs the gamut from the predictable ("why can't people be quiet," "why is it so cold," "about those copiers...") to the interesting, such as this question from 1990:

Why are the majority of volumes in the library brown? Brown, brown, brown! Rochester's winters are bad enough!

Our former Conservator and Head of Special Collections, Ted Honea, wrote a response:

Believe it or not...the dreadful color you allude to was once the "official" color of SML, chosen back in the age of Barbara Duncan [SML's first professional librarian] because it didn't show dirt. (I'm not making this up.) Under Ruth Watanabe [the second director of SML] the color was abandoned because of its lugubrious affect, but not until the 70's, I believe.

12/12/2025

Good luck to everyone during finals. Just a reminder: Sibley will close at noon on December 18, and will not reopen until Monday, January 5. Enjoy the break!

12/02/2025

You never know what you'll find reading the print copies in Sibley's stacks. Thanks to our friends at RIPM for finding this one.

A former reader having a dialogue with the musical news column.

From The Concordia (Chicago, 1867), original copy held by the Sibley Library at the Eastman School of Music.

10/21/2025

We are happy to announce that we now have an online subscription to all of the Oxford Handbooks in music. Each Oxford Handbook offers an authoritative and state-of-the-art survey of current thinking and research. Specially commissioned essays from leading international figures in the discipline give critical examination of the progress and direction of debates, providing scholars and students with compelling new perspectives. With new topics added, current essays updated, and chapters published online before print publication, you can be certain that you are accessing the most current information you need for your research.

Each handbook can be accessed by searching in DiscoverSML.

10/06/2025

Hands on demos of VR, courtesy of our colleagues in Studio X, Thursday October 16, 2:30-3:30.

04/29/2025

Did you notice that we've extended our hours during the Reading Days:
Saturday 1-9
Sunday 1-11
Monday 8-11

Good luck to everyone during finals!

04/17/2025

Sibley Music Library is pleased to announce the first of the Sibley Sessions series, to be held Friday, April 25 from 3-4 PM in the library’s Alec Wilder Reading Room. Titled “Modal Madness,” it will feature works written and performed by members of Christine Jenkins’ Jazz Composition class, composed in modal-jazz style. The musicians are: Wyatt Pepper (trumpet), Juan Suis Ruiz (alto saxophone) Garnet Müller (trombone), Sam Chandler (piano), Brendan Nie ( bass), and Sam Schaeffer (drums). Refreshments will be available.

Sibley encourages all to attend and enjoy this performance, and to explore the library’s rich collections!