The collection of the library reflects the Museum's collection.  Main areas of focus include the history and development of the West, the art of the American West, Native American traditional and contemporary art and  Native American culture of North America.  The Woodlands Indians of Indiana is an area of special attention. The collection consists of:

• App. 6000 books and exhibition catalogs ** 
• App. 550 videos and DVDs ** 
• Vertical files on artists represented in the museum's collection 
  and subjects relevant to the museum's collection
  [containing pamphlets, newspaper clippings and articles]
• Periodicals 
• Museum publications
• Auction catalogs

(** - These holdings are in the catalog of the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library and can be searched online.)

Of special interest are the videotaped lectures and interviews with artists, the catalogs of the Museum's unique exhibitions, and the Sidney and Rosalyn Wiener collection of 968 books and other publications, illustrated by twenty important Western illustrators.

Also in the collection are:

• Curtis, Edward S., The North American Indian, Cambridge, MA: U. of Massachusetts Press, 1907-1930. 20vls
• Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (with accompanying papers), 1879-1931. 48 vls