Donate to the WWU Music Library to help us celebrate over 50 years of excellence!

Built from nothing

From its origins as a collection of LP recordings and a few scores and books located in a small room in the basement of the music building, the WWU Music Library has grown into a beautiful light-filled space designed by prominent North West architect, Henry Klein. 

Today the Music Library provides a wonderful place for students to pursue their studies and realize their potential as scholars and performers in music.  Western’s music librarian, Marian Ritter, built the library from the ground up: “It has been a great honor for me to serve the university, its students, and faculty and the Bellingham musical community for the past 50 years. Building Western’s Music Library into a center of excellence truly has been a highlight of my life.”

Students call it “the brain and heart of the Performing Arts Center”

Cate Gerhart, one of several students who worked in the Music Library and went on to become a professional music librarian, recalls:  “As a first generation college student, I arrived on campus not knowing anything about what to expect, I remember wondering what a BA was!  Getting a work study job in the Music Library made a huge difference to my success and later to my career.  The Music Library gave me a safe place to learn and helped me gain confidence as I helped classmates and faculty use the library.  Ultimately, that first work study job provided me with the career I still love more than 40 years later as a music librarian at the University of Washington.” - Cate Gerhart, Librarian, Interim Head, Monographic Cataloging, University of Washington Libraries.

A large, and very special collection

The Music Library is the pride of the Music Department with a growing collection that boasts more than 126,000 items including books, bound periodicals, musical scores, records, DVD's and compact discs. Materials available include a rare scores collection, manuscripts from the British library (one of only two copies), and online subscriptions to digitized scores, workshops, and music from top world performers.

Donate to the library

 Your gift will help the Music Library continue to provide our students and faculty the most up-to-date print and digital materials and build our collection of composer’s complete works.