Special permission is not required to use the collections, and the library has several exhibition galleries that are open to the public.
Within the Lilly Library is the Ruth E. Adomeit collection of miniature books, one of the world's largest. Among the collection are rare miniature books such as "From Morn Till Eve", a miniature book that presents biblical quotations in a devotional form, with one phrase for each morning and evening of a month. The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) had listed that, "the only known copy as being in the collection of famed miniature book collector Ruth E. Adomeit", which is now in the Lilly Library.
=== Fine Arts Library ===
IU's first Fine Arts Library was established in the late 1930s as part of the Departmental office on the second floor, east wing of the University Library which was then in Franklin Hall. In 1941, two important events occurred: art historian Henry Radford Hope became chairman of the Fine Arts Department in the Fall and the Fine Arts Center was created …
