Research Library

The OrigamiUSA Research Library is a non-circulating library based in New York City. It contains over 1700 volumes of origami books and other publications, many of which are rare and/or out-of-print, and so cannot be made generally available through the Lending Library. However, any current member in good standing is welcome to visit and peruse the Research Library when in New York. The Library is housed at the OrigamiUSA Home-Office at the American Museum of Natural History, and is available by appointment only, Monday through Friday, between 10 am and 5 pm.

Visiting

To make an appointment, please fill out the Research Library request form below, indicating your interest and the days(s) of your availability to visit the Research Library. Please submit your form at least one week before your desired date(s). The office is very small, and your visit will have to be coordinated with other activities that may be going on as well as the availability of a member of OrigamiUSA's Library Committee to assist you. (The Research Library Committee is composed of OrigamiUSA members who volunteer their time to maintain the collection and assist OrigamiUSA members interested in visiting the Library.) The Administrator will help schedule your visit with members of the Library Committee.

To make the most out of your visit to the Research Library, it is strongly suggested that you peruse the listing of books at the bottom of this page and list on your form the books of interest to you. The large collection of books is shelved alphabetically by author in a series of locked cabinets. This necessary arrangement is not conducive to browsing.

• You must be a member of OrigamiUSA and logged into your website account to make an appointment. Please log in.

Research Library Policies

During your appointment, please note the following:

• One book at a time may be taken down to read and examine.
• Materials cannot leave the office.
• We cannot provide photocopying services (but see the Library Excerpt Service that is part of our Lending Library).
• You are welcome to make notes from any book.
• You may take photographs with your own camera.
• Of course, you are welcome to fold!

Notes and photographs are for personal usage only and may not be redistributed.

Other notes on usage may be found in the OrigamiUSA Copyright Policy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Got questions about the Research Library? Check out our list of frequently asked questions. If you have other questions about the Research Library, please don't hesitate to contact the Library Committee at library [at] origamiusa.org.

Collection

The contents of the Research Library are in the downloadable list below. We'll update this list periodically as new additions to our collection become available. If you are looking for a particular model, we suggest you start with the Origami Database Model Index to find out which book it's in, then look through the Research Library list to see if we have that book.