Millard Sheets Library

Mission & Goals

The Library is a nexus for information and imagination.

Information Literacy ILO:

• Otis College graduates will be able to assemble, evaluate, and ethically use information from diverse sources to accomplish a specific purpose.

Our Goals:

• To provide a learning environment designed to inspire creative students and faculty at Otis College of Art and Design.
• To provide collections of traditional library materials as well as emerging digital resources which foster creativity, critical thinking, and diversity of thought, with an emphasis on supporting the Otis curriculum
• To provide anytime/anywhere access to library databases and information resources
• To empower students and faculty in their ability to locate, evaluate, and ethically use print and electronic resources
• To collaborate with the faculty to design information literacy instruction that supports critical thinking
• To support the faculty in learning and using appropriate instructional technologies
• To promote this library and other libraries as a source of inspiration for creative work, intellectual pursuits, recreation, and independent lifelong learning
• To play an active role in supporting more effective organization and presentation of information for the diverse audiences of the College
• To actively contribute to the intellectual life of the College

Our Collections

Main Stacks: We have over 36,000 print books cataloged using the Library of Congress classification system and around 332,000 eBooks available electronically. Search for these items through our online catalog, OwlCat.

Databases: Discover and access millions of articles, eBooks, and more through our subscriptions.

Special Collections: These include rare, fragile, and otherwise unique materials, like artists' books, zines, rare books, and institutional archives. They are housed in a closed space separate from our circulating collections. Viewable by appointment only.

Media Collection: We offer physical, circulating DVDs in our Stacks, as well as streaming video available online through our databases.

Materials Collection: These items circulate and are located near the Circulation Desk.

Print Periodicals: We have active subscriptions to over 90 print journals and magazines. These items circulate and are available to browse in the center of the library. We also maintain bound periodicals dating back to the 1940s. Older issues and bound periodicals are held in storage and can be viewed upon request.

Image Collections: Images can be accessed via the OtisDID (Digital Image Database; an art history image bank to support teaching) and Otis Collections Online (an online database of digital images by, for, and about the Otis Community, which includes digitized versions of items from our special collections).

Games and Puzzles: These are available to check out or use within the library.

Find Otis-affiliated items in our catalog, including books and other materials created by or about faculty, staff, and alumnx.

Visual Resources

Library Support Services (formerly the Visual Resources Center, or VRC) is where you can find still and moving images to support the curriculum at Otis College of Art and Design. We manage the OtisDID (our digital image database), Otis Collections Online, and Video section. We are located in the Millard Sheets Library on the first floor of the Residence Hall.

Visit our research guide, Finding Images and Videos.

Staff:
Heather Cleary, Director of Library Services
Derek McMullen, Photographic Imaging Technician

Imaging Projects

Artists' Books Image Database: In June 2003, the Getty Grant Program provided funds to the Millard Sheets Library to catalog and digitize our entire collection of 2,500 artists' books. As of January 2006, most of the project has been completed. The collection is now available to the public through our Collections Online website (the original homegrown experimental database is no longer available).

Otis Digital Image Database (OtisDID): Since 2002, the Library's major project has been to assist art historians in replacing slides with digital images in the classroom. We adopted the James Madison Digital Image Database software, known as the OtisDID, which allows professors to create lectures, digitally project images in the classroom, and then easily make them available to students as online study guides. There are over 29,000 images available, and it continues to be updated. Although the collection focuses on Modernism, images of art, architecture, and design from many cultures and time periods are included. In accordance with fair use guidelines, the images are purchased from vendors, harvested from subscription databases, web databases, CD-ROMS, scanned from slides, and occasionally scanned from books and magazines. This database is only available to current students, faculty, and staff.

Faculty Art Database: This project began in the summer of 2002. It provides information and access to select images of artwork produced by Otis faculty. Currently, 33 faculty members are participating, and 451 images are available. Faculty are encouraged to contact the VRC if they want to add their images.

Otis History: Past and Present: The Otis Archives are now online with over 1,000 images, including the 1975 document, The Otis Story.

Woman's Building Image Archive: In 1997, as part of the Getty Information Institute's "Faces of L.A." Project, more than 1500 images documenting the history of this unique L.A. Arts institution were selected and digitized. In 2017, the collection was gifted to the Getty.