The library primarily serves the staff and fellows in residence at the National Gallery of Art and welcomes adult researchers, including undergraduate and graduate students. Call (202) 842-6511 to schedule an initial visit. The library is open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.

Reference books are available for browsing on the ground floor, but the general stacks are closed. Books do not circulate; thus almost everything in the catalog is available. Readers may request up to ten books per day by registering and submitting requests in person at the circulation desk. Unfortunately the staff cannot retrieve books in advance.

When you arrive at the library, the officer at the Study Center reception desk will remind you to leave coats, books, and bags at the checkroom near the East Building entrance.

Bags should not exceed the size of a small paperback book. The officer at the Study Center reception desk will ask readers to return to the East Building coat check to store anything larger than a small purse. This restriction includes cases for laptop computers.

Staff and fellows in residence may charge books to their offices in Gallery buildings, but those books are usually still retrievable, and available for consultation by other readers.

The online catalog is accessible on site and on the Gallery's public website. Users can search within three sections—books and journals, auction catalogs, and photographs and digital images—by subject, author, title, and keyword. For a sense of titles in order on the shelves, users can also browse by call number.

Some periodical indexes, covering the literature of art history, full-text compilations, and databases are available for in-library use.

The library offers Wi-Fi service in the reading rooms. The reference librarian can provide information about access and use. Networked desktop computers are also available for searching the online catalog and databases. For personal laptop use, power outlets and comfortable seating can be found throughout the reading room.

The library participates in the OCLC interlibrary loan system for lending to and borrowing from other member libraries. The library can neither lend nor borrow on behalf of individuals.

Any of the library’s over 12,000 titles printed before 1700 can be retrieved and examined, under supervision of the circulation desk staff, in the reading room. Each book is listed and described on the library's online catalog. Call (202) 842-6511 for more information. Click here for information about the library's rare books.

Reproductions of books may be made using a small handheld device such as a smartphone, or the overhead book scanner in the northeast corner of the reading room.

The researcher is responsible for determining and adhering to copyright regulations (TITLE 17, U.S. Code).

One avenue is to visit the library and consult reference books such as biographical dictionaries or studies on the artist’s nationality and time period. Because the library’s stacks are closed, however, it is usually better to begin your research at a local public or university library. The reference desk staff can advise you on helpful books available in the library or on resources in your area.

For reading in more detail, consult the library’s online catalog for holdings of monographs on individual artists. Readers can examine ten books per day.

Library reference staff can answer specific queries about artists and art history over the phone and by email. Since information about artists in the library is organized by name, an accurate spelling, along with period and nationality is usually necessary to proceed. Library staff cannot answer questions about the value or comment on authenticity or artists' work.

The library welcomes students and scholars at the undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels. We suggest that students first explore the online catalog to check holdings and telephone a reference librarian to discuss how to proceed.

Please go to the Artworks page to call up information about individual works, including suggested reading in the bibliography section included in each record.

For an appointment to review files on paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts in the permanent collection, contact the curatorial records office.

Open Access image downloads are now available directly from the object pages located on this website.

Queries in general search engines for specific artists' names and titles of works outside of our collection can be especially fruitful.

Many sites on the internet offer posters and postcards for sale. We recommend you use a search engine, with the name of the artist and title of the work in question.

For reproductions on paper of works in the National Gallery of Art, visit our Custom Prints Shop.

To obtain a photograph of, or the rights to reproduce, an image owned by the National Gallery of Art, contact the Department of Imaging Services. For images or pages of text from books in the library, contact the library.

Information can be found online to help answer questions on copyright for specific artists. Use a search engine on terms such as the artist's name and the word “copyright.”

The library has directories of artists and their representatives in the United States. Call the reference desk for information at (202) 842-6511.

National professional associations such as the American Society of Appraisers, International Society of Appraisers, and Appraisers Association of America can help identify suitable local appraisers and provide information about their members’ level of training as well as definitions of “appraisal” and “authentication.” A researcher can then contact specific appraisers to ascertain expertise, experience, and fees and to request a portfolio containing qualifications. Although an initial discussion may be complimentary, appraisers charge for consultation, travel, photography, and time.

The online Encyclopedia Smithsonian presents information on appraisals, as does the Art Dealers Association of America.

Authentication usually requires first-hand examination. We urge you to consult dealers or appraisers in your area or to contact auction houses for advice appropriate to the object itself.

We recommend contacting the American Institute for Conservation; their website presents guides to solving conservation problems and choosing a local conservator. The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Conservation Institute addresses many types of objects.

The library’s image collections contain more than 14 million images for examination and comparison.

The library welcomes local and visiting students, art historians, and others interested in volunteering to work in a variety of capacities. Past projects have included designing and compiling databases, assisting with interlibrary loan, cataloguing images, digitizing special collections materials, and helping to organize the vertical files. To inquire, please send a letter and résumé to Anne H. Simmons, Reference Librarian, [email protected]. 

Volumes from the rare books collection are occasionally included in the Gallery's exhibitions of paintings and sculpture. The library regularly presents exhibitions in the series "From the Library". Finally, books may be loaned to other institutions or travel as part of exhibitions.

Under the direction of the librarian for rare books, revolving thematic displays of books, journals, and photographs drawn from the library’s collections appear as part of the series "In the Library" in the atrium of the Study Center. To view the current exhibition, stop by the security desk at the entrance to the Study Center in the East Building, Monday through Friday during library hours.

The library welcomes suggestions for additions to its collection. Recommendations and gifts are evaluated in accordance with the library's collection development policies and goals.

The library is grateful for contributions that underwrite the mission of the National Gallery of Art and provide for the collections of the library. For books, the library would welcome a list of offered titles with publication information. Contact the executive librarian by writing to [email protected] or National Gallery of Art, 2000 South Club Drive, Landover, MD 20785. For photographic material or prints that document works of art and architecture, please contact the department of image collections at [email protected] to discuss your archive.

Please feel free to contact us. You may also telephone the reference desk, at (202) 842-6511, or write to National Gallery of Art Library, 2000 South Club Drive, Landover, MD 20785.