Visual & Performing Arts Library (VPAL)

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Hours and Location

2nd Floor, Cravens Library 

Phone: (270) 745-2889

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About the VPAL

The University Libraries' newest division is the Visual and Performing Arts Library (VPAL), which opened in August 2007. Located on the second floor of Cravens Library, the VPAL includes collections on art, dance, fashion, interior design, music, photography, and theatre. The VPAL also includes the Lila Greene Listening & Viewing Library, along with our film and music collections. Materials available in the VPAL include books, DVDs, CDs, and LP records. There is a walk-up scanner available in the VPAL which can scan books and artwork up to 17" x 24" at up to 600 dots/inch. The VPAL also includes a computer classroom for hands-on library instruction and library faculty and staff training.

Reserve Items

The VPAL is the main location for copies of articles or books placed on reserve by professors. Some reserve items are online via BlackBoard. Reserve materials are also available in the Beulah Winchel Education Library.

Professors on the main campus may use this Reserve Request Form to place reserve materials in VPAL for students to use.

Class reserves are listed under the instructor's name in three-ring binders in the VPAL. Most file copy reserve materials are "Room Use" only and may not be removed from the library. Some reserves may be checked out after 6:00 p.m. for overnight use. Instructors may also designate a three-day or seven-day loan period. Fines for overdue reserves are $.25 per hour or $.75 per day per item.

Our Collections

It houses collections in art, music, theater, dance, historic costumes, fashion, and photography. It also houses our reserve collection, some of which can be accessed remotely.

The VPAL contains circulating and reference books with the Library of Congress call numbers:

GT 495 - GT 2350	Fashion & Costume
GV 1580 – GV 1799.4	Dance
All books with the call number M	Music
All books with the call number N	Art
PN 2000 – PN 3307	Theatre
All books with the call number TR	Photography
TT 1 – TT 985	Crafts
Books labeled Hum Ref	Musical Scores

 

Music CDs and Movie DVDs

There are over 5,000 music CDs, and they are kept behind the circulation desk in the VPAL.  The music CDs that you find in one side of a bin where the DVDs are kept in front of the VPAL circulation desk are a special collection called the "Music Genre" CDs. There are also close to 10,000 titles in our DVD movie collection, of which about a quarter are foreign films. The rest include classic and silent films, musicals, operas and ballets. This DVD collection supports the film-studies program at WKU as well as providing students with movies to watch for fun.

Equipment

The VPAL provides the state-of-the-art listening and viewing equipment. It also houses a KIC Bookeye GS400 overhead scanner with an easy-to-use touch screen interface. The scanner can produce color or black-and-white images of materials up to 17" x 24" and is ideal for scanning large or fragile items. Features include auto focus and book mode with auto book fold correction. Images can be saved in a variety of digital formats including TIFF, JPEG, OCR and multipage PDFs and can convert scanned text images to audio files. Users are given the option of emailing the scanned images to themselves or saving them to a USB flash drive. Use of the scanner is free, but printing is not available at this time.

Who's Who in the VPAL

• Michael Franklin, Media & Reserves Specialist
• Morgan Moran, Senior Library Assistant
• Katherine Pennavaria, Professor, Coordinator of the VPAL
• Michael Vincent, Library Assistant (PT)
• Katherine Wilkins, Library Assistant (PT)

How to Find Us

The VPAL is on the second floor of the Raymond Cravens Library (the taller of the two library buildings, the other being Helm Library). 

• If you come from the Fine Arts Building direction, enter the Raymond Cravens Library building and take the elevator to the second floor.
• If you come from the Garrett Conference Center direction, come down towards Cravens and you can find the side door with VPAL's signage.
• If you come into Raymond Cravens Library from Normal Street, just go further and turn right to enter the elevator. Then go to the second floor.