Northeast Historic Film collects a wide range of books and periodicals related to films and filmmaking and makes them available as educational tools. These items can all be accessed for reference use by students and researchers in the Study Center.

From stars' biographies to yearly production guides, the Study Center's library can be an invaluable resource for understanding the cultural history of moving images.

The library contains titles dealing with film and television production, film history, theater history, and many other topics. Of particular interest are books relating to home movie making, such as Alan Kattelle's Home Movies: A History of the American Industry 1897-1979, and many of these publications are booklets that were created for amateur filmmakers to aid in the creation of home movies.

While the older titles show how much has changed since the early days of amateur filmmaking, they are still useful guides for filming now.

The extensive periodical holdings help to give a picture of the development of amateur filmmaking over the course of the twentieth century as well, and also cover early Hollywood productions. Periodicals in the collection include Amateur Cine World, American Cinematographer, Better Movie Making, Educational Screen, The Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Moving Picture World, and many more.

There is also a near-complete run of the Amateur Cinema  League publication Movie Makers. The contents of Movie Makers are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of amateur filmmaking, and each issue includes unique cover art, with many featuring the work of Ludwig Bemelmans. NHF is always on the lookout to acquire missing Movie Makers issues.