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Helen Topping Architecture & Fine Arts Library

Location
Watt Hall
850 Bloom Walk, B-4
University Park Campus
Los Angeles CA 90089-0294

AFA Circulation Desk Phone: (213) 740 1956
AFA Research Help Phone: (213) 740-8759

Email: afa@usc.edu
Campus map code: WAH

Library hours during Academic Year, roughly 3rd week of August to 2nd week in May (Holiday hours vary):

Library hours during Academic Year, roughly 3rd week of August to 2nd week in May (Holiday hours vary):

Watt Hall building access hours during the Academic Year:

Monday-Friday 7am-7pm unrestricted access. At all other hours Watt Hall is locked and accessible through USC card swipe.

Library hours during the summer, roughly 3rd week in May to 2nd week in August (Holiday hours vary):

Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm, including Special Collections/Cage

Watt Hall Hours during the Summer: Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm unrestricted access.

For information on hours for all of the USC Libraries, including holiday and school break hours, click on the "Hours" button in the column to the right.

Overview and Collection Use Policies

The Architecture & Fine Arts Library (AFA) is located in a modernist setting designed by Graeme Morland, a faculty member at the School of Architecture, on the ground floor of Watt Hall. It houses more than 75,000 volumes of books and journals dedicated to the studies of art history, fine arts, and architecture, as well as a notable collection of rare titles and artists' books. In addition, the AFA Library has a growing collection of videos and dvds in the arts and design fields. The AFA Library's collection can be searched through the USC Libraries catalog, HOMER. The library also has several architectural and public-art archival collections. It is part of the USC Libraries system, and adheres to the USC Libraries policies on access and borrowing privileges.

Basic collection use policies are listed below. For a complete set of usage policies go to the AFA Library's Policies page.

Type of Material

USC Undergraduate students;

USC Staff

USC Graduate students;

USC Faculty

Alumni with valid USC Library card

Visitors with valid USC Library card [fee borrowers]

Visitors without a USC Library card

Books from regular stacks

Circulate for 4 weeks;

Can renew 10 times

Circulate for Semester;

Can renew indefinitely

Circulate for 4 weeks;

Can renew 10 times

Circulate for 4 weeks;

Can renew 10 times

In-library use

Books from oversized stacks

In-library use

Semester

Can renew indefinitely

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

Journals

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

DVDs

Circulate for 3 days;

Can renew once

Circulate for 3 days;

Can renew once

Circulate for 3 days;

Can renew once

Circulate for 3 days;

Can renew once

Materials not available

Circulation Desk materials

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

Materials not available

High Shelves materials

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

In-library use

M-F 9am-5pm

Cage, Rare, and Archival materials

Use in Rare Books reading room, M-F 9-5

Use in Rare Books reading room, M-F 9-5

Use in Rare Books reading room, M-F 9-5

Use in Rare Books reading room, M-F 9-5

Use in Rare Books reading room, M-F 9-5

Standish K. Penton Slide Collection

The Standish K. Penton Family Slide Library is an instruction resource primarily for USC faculty teaching in the Department of Art History, the School of Architecture and the School of Fine Arts. The slide library collection is composed of approximately 250,000 35 mm slides of architecture, the fine arts and material culture as well as 8,000 lantern slides from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The slide library is also involved in an ongoing project to create a database of digital images for the purpose of instruction on the USC campus.

The slide library is housed on the mezzanine of the Architecture & Fine Arts Library (WAH, B4, M16). Hours of operation are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Slide Library Web site