The fully catalogued holdings of 202,000 items include:

• 88,000 scores and performance parts
• 40,000 volumes of literature (chiefly books about music)
• 23,000 periodical and serial volumes
• 40,000 sound recordings
•  8,000 microform reels, cards, and fiche, including 800 reels of music manuscripts on microfilm
•     900 videos
•  2,000 slides for the study of music iconography
•  Several photograph collections totaling more than 4,000 images

Despite its relatively short history, the library owns a surprising number of manuscripts and unica and several thousand fine and early editions. In addition, the library has gathered "pockets" of materials and unusual individual items it hopes may generate research, prompt and support a thesis, provide a worthwhile topic for a conference paper or a powerful illustration to use in class:
               

Scores:

• Two fragmentary partbooks in MS, ca. 1520
• Collection of 29 first and early editions of operas by André Grétry
  
• Collection of 166 scores by Fernando Päer in manuscript and early editions, with many variant editions of the same works
• Collection of approximately 240 compositions by Ferdinand Praeger in manuscript
• Collection of British Vocal Music from the late 18th to mid 19th century containing 80 bound volumes and 873 disbound, separate works
• Collection of French Vocal Music, ca. 1780-1862, containing approximately 138 printed scores and 33 manuscript scores.
  
• Collection of more than 100 fake books, with an online index to their contents
• Exceptionally large collection of solo songs, all of whose authors of texts have been analyzed and can be accessed through the online catalog

   Texts and Ephemera:

• More than 5,000 antiquarian music catalogues
• A wide variety of materials documenting the history of American music librarianship
• James B. Coover Collection of dictionaries and bibliographies
• Collection of 75 Italian plot synopses, 1816-1933
• Music Department notebooks of clippings, programs, reviews, and announcements for events offered under the Department's auspices since 1960
• Hundreds of concert and festival programs with an emphasis on new music. The majority of the programs have been fully cataloged and are available in BISON - UB Libraries Catalog.
• Collection of more than 2000 posters.