Other Libraries You Can Use

FIT Students and Employees

If the FIT Library does not have the book, DVD, or magazine/journal/newspaper that you need, you may want to try to find it in another library.  But don't assume that we don't have what you need—it might be available here in a different format (e.g. in  print instead of online, or vice versa).

Visitors

The Library expects to reopen to visitors in a limited capacity in September 2023. Current SUNY students, staff, and faculty may access the Library. Members of the SUNY community must present a current SUNY ID to the Public Safety officer in the Goodman lobby to visit the Library. You can use the information here to determine if the information you want is available to you—for free and on a walk-in-basis—at another library. Please contact these libraries directly to ask about access. 

Examples of resources also available at other NYC area libraries.

Check the catalogs of:

Also check database listings of these libraries for online versions of some materials e.g. NYPL's fashion-related list, including Harper's Bazaar Archive (remote access with NYPL card) and Vogue Archive (onsite at NYPL only]

Costume Institute Library (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
New School Library & Archives

New York City is served by three public library systems:  The New York Public Library (NYPL),  Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), and Queens Library (QL). Each system is separate—you need to get a different card to use each one in person or its online services—but all are free to anyone who lives, works, goes to school, or pays property taxes in New York State. You may apply for and get cards for all three systems.

Each library card/account typically allows you to use online databases from that Library's system, borrow books from any of the three systems (registering your account in advance may be required), and reserve books that are in one location to be sent to another location within that same system. See details on each library's site.

The NYPL has specialized research-only locations, as well as the many neighborhood libraries where most items can be borrowed.  These library locations may be the most suited for FIT students and others looking for commonly-asked questions we get at the FIT Library.

METRO is a consortium of many academic, museum, research, and special (corporate) libraries in the NYC area. Current FIT students and employees can get passes to visit (not borrow from) these libraries if there are items that are not available at FIT or the NYPL. Ask us for details.

Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art "serves an international community of researchers" in addition to museum staff. Its strength is art history. Access to the Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library  is more restricted, but contact each library for details.

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service to help you obtain materials that are not available at the FIT Library. You must be a current FIT student or employee, and have a valid FIT ID card and a current FIT email account. Materials already owned by FIT Library (even if they are checked out, on reserve or non-circulating) cannot be ordered through ILL.  We are also not able to order textbooks through ILL.

As a current FIT student or employee, you have full access, including borrowing privileges, to all other State University of New York (SUNY)  libraries. You must bring your currently valid FIT ID card.  

Note that CUNY (City University of New York) libraries are not affiliated with FIT or SUNY except through METRO.