The New York Public Library (NYPL) offers a wide array of resources to support geographic scholarship and writing in the humanities disciplines. This webinar will present some of the many opportunities for geographers to conduct interpretive studies using the collections of the NYPL for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center. The session will begin with an overview of the library’s research facilities, archives, and fellowship programs available to support short- and long-term projects focusing on the city’s rich musical history and culture.
The webinar will highlight the methods and outcomes of a project recently completed at the Lou Reed Archive that examines the emotional geographies and urban geographic stories contained in the late musician’s body of work. Examples will be shared to illustrate how Reed’s song lyrics, in the words of film director Martin Scorcese, “describe the city as it was but also incarnate it.” The webinar will conclude with a preview of sessions that will be hosted by the NYPL at the 2027 AAG Annual Meeting in New York.
Rebecca Littman is the managing librarian of the Music & Recorded Sound Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She has been an an academic music/performing arts librarian for 25 years, during which time she taught music librarianship courses and trained quite a few of the music librarians working across the country. She is an active advocate for music libraries at the national and international level to support and archive the work of performing artists and scholars. She holds a BA in Music Literature from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master of Librarianship from the University of Washington.
Michael Solem is a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University. He also serves as senior adviser for Geography Education at the American Association of Geographers. As principal investigator on several large-scale, federally funded projects spanning geography at all levels of education, Solem focuses on professional development, internationalization, global education, and teacher preparation. His recent work with the NYPL’s Lou Reed Archive resulted in a geographic humanities project, The Emotional Geographies of Lou Reed.