The collections focus on the Western classical music tradition beginning c. 1000 AD, but all types of music are covered, including popular, jazz, musicals, and music from cultures of the entire world. In addition to courses for music majors, many courses are offered each semester to the general student body, attracting a large number of non-major students who also make use of the collection. Ideally, any composition a student might wish to study or perform is represented by a quality score and sound recording. The music library collects books, periodicals, scores, sound recordings, video recordings, and electronic formats. Collected are monographs, monographic series, and reference works such as indexes and abstracts, encyclopedias, bibliographies, handbooks, discographies, research guides, catalogs, and directories.
Single copies are by far the rule.
Successive editions are routinely acquired. Generally excluded are juvenile literature, most popular biographies, non-Tulane dissertations, and reprints when the original is held. Textbooks are also generally excluded, though exceptions are sometimes made in the areas of music history and literature, and music theory and analysis. Collected are monographs, monographic series, and reference works such as indexes and abstracts, encyclopedias, bibliographies, handbooks, discographies, research guides, catalogs, and directories. Single copies are by far the rule.