In 1977, Jacob Greenberg endowed the Fine Arts Department with a trust fund established in memory of his deceased spouse, Lurine Karon Greenberg. This fund supports the collection of nonfiction books on music, art, antiques, architecture, cooking, and travel including the history of any of these subjects and biographies of persons connected with any of these subjects. Through the years the trust has increased substantially, enabling the Library to purchase important books that contribute to the stature of our collections. The Lurine Karon Greenberg Fine Arts Collection consists of numerous publications in the disciplines of architecture, art, antiques and music. With the ongoing support of the established endowment maintained by the Greenberg family, the Library continues to acquire nonfiction books of outstanding quality and merit. In addition, the Greenberg Endowment supports free access for all Houston Public Library cardholders to three significant online databases: Oxford Art Online, Oxford Music Online, Music Online: Listening Plus
Oxford Art Online is the most comprehensive and authoritative online resource for all research in the history of the visual arts.
- 45,000 articles.
- Over 2,500 thumbnail art images and line drawings.
- Extensive image links to over 40,000 art images on museum and gallery Web sites around the world.
Oxford Music Online covers the entire history of music from Bach to the Blues.
- 50,000 articles including more than 28,000 biographies.
- Listen to over 500 examples of different types of music.
- View 3-D interactive images of musical instruments.
- Find links to more than 3,000 music-related Web sites.
Music Online: Listening Plus offers thousands of streaming audio recordings in a wide range of music:
- classical
- jazz
- contemporary world music
- folk, including the Smithsonian Global Sounds Library
- plus scores, music reference encyclopedias, and over 500 hours of video
Click here to view a list of current additions to the Greenberg Collection.