Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library

11/13/2025

As The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center marks its 25th anniversary, the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library honors the milestone with a special exhibition, The Clarice at 25: A Retrospective Exhibit. With photos, newspaper clippings, posters, & renderings the exhibit explores the people, vision, & design that brought The Clarice to life. It can be seen during library hours through July 2026.

Curated by librarians: Drew Barker & Steve Henry

11/18/2022

Are you wondering about how or why to use UMD's Archives & Special Collections? Put this workshop on your calendar by clicking on the link below.

Powered by Research Education at University Libraries. Common Quandaries workshop series offers introductions to a variety of skills, tools, and concepts to researchers on campus. Join us to learn all about ...

06/17/2021

Don't miss Episode 2 of our podcast Not a Quiet Place to learn about band culture w/ host & project archivist Dr. Christina Taylor Gibson

https://lib.umd.edu/scpa-podcast/episode-2

Narration: Welcome to “Not a Quiet Place: Exploring Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland. We’re calling our second episode “Lift Every Voice” and we’re focusing our attention on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I’m Christina Taylor Gibson, pro...

06/09/2021

We've got a podcast for you! Episode 1: "Wind band music from Sousa to Holsinger" wherein Christina Taylor Gibson plays clips, digs into the SCPA archive, & interviews historians.
There's a total of 4 episodes!
(intro & outro music by Vin & Jacob Novara)

Hello, welcome to our podcast, “Not a Quiet Place: Exploring Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland” I’m Christina Taylor Gibson. I’m the project archivist for the American Bandmasters Association here at Special Collections in Performing Arts or, more affection...

08/30/2020

Shout out to a couple former student employees!

05/16/2020

How to make puppets with Jim Henson.

In a 1969 video from Iowa Public Television's "Volume See," Jim Henson teaches viewers how to make puppets out of household items.

12/19/2019

We wish you Happy Holidays from MSPAL. Here is a fun card that Jim Henson designed back in 1956. (Our exhibit on Jim Henson's time at UMD runs through May 2020.)

12/04/2019

Vin Novara left us for the Library of Congress, but he left an enduring legacy in SCPA that includes people as much as precedent. Thanks, Vin. "Nice work."

08/26/2019

Work with us! We are looking for a new Library Services Supervisor.

Reporting to the Performing Arts Librarian, this position oversees daytime operations of the Library Services Desk in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library (MSPAL), which includes supervising hourly desk students, billing, reserves, circulation, reference, scan and deliver and ILL services, lib...

08/23/2019

Happy Friday. Here are some puppets.

Those four pals from Miami are back — well, sort of. A live stage version of the ’80s sitcom “The Golden Girls” is headed to Pittsburgh’s Byham Theater — only with puppets. The show, “That Golden Girls Show! A Puppet Parody,” debuted off-Broadway in 2016 with puppeteers (in full view