The AFA Library houses over 75,000 volumes in the areas of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, art history, decorative arts, and photography. The architecture collection is the oldest (dating to 1925) in Southern California and contains many original rare books and an extensive collection of architecture periodicals. The Slide Library contains more than 300,000 slides in all areas of architecture and fine arts.
Additional USC libraries of interest are the Von KleinSmide Library, which contains the urban studies collection (213-740-1769); the Science and Engineering Library, which includes materials on engineering (213-740-8507); and the Regional Cultural History Collection, which houses over 2 million photographs with emphasis on Southern California (213-743-2117).
To locate books and journals, check HOMER, the catalog of USC Library holdings. To locate articles, check the specialized print indexes and electronic databases, (examples of useful resources are: Avery Index to Architecture; Art Abstracts; Bibliography on the History of Art; Compendex). The print resources are located in the AFA library; the electronic resources can be accessed through the USC Electronic Resources collection.
