The Adam and Sophie Gimbel Art and Design Library at Parsons School of Design (hereafter, "Gimbel Library") existed from 1972 to 2014, under varying names. In 2014, the physical library space on the second floor of 2 West 13th Street that had housed the collections and administrative offices since the 1970s closed as a result of building renovation and a reorganization of campus facilities, and the collections and some administrative offices of Gimbel Library were relocated to the newly constructed New School University Center across the street at 63 Fifth Avenue. At the same time, the New School Libraries were realigned into a single, university-wide collection, and the Gimbel name ceased to be associated with the physical library space or Parsons-specific collections. While library leadership remained unchanged, the new library space in the University Center was named the Arnhold Forum Library.

The earliest mention of a Parsons School of Design library appears in the 1922-1923 New York School of Fine and Applied Art (NYSFAA) course catalog (this was the design school's predecessor name, formally renamed Parsons School of Design in 1941). In addition to reference books in English and in French, the library made its collection of photographic plates and lantern slides available for the study of costume and interior design, and included a materials library. Mary E. Herrick, a "trained librarian," appears on the NYSFAA catalog's faculty page as "Librarian and Museum Director." In successive decades, the school promoted the library's growing collections of periodicals, rare books, visual materials, and archival collections in course catalogs and continued to list library administrators in the rank of school faculty.

In 1970, Parsons School of Design became affiliated with the New School for Social Research and in the following years transferred its operations from its East 54th Street location to 66 Fifth Avenue-2 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village. In 1974, the library moved to the second floor of 2 West 13th Street, and the previously unnamed library was dedicated as the Adam L. Gimbel Design Library in honor of a gift from the family of the Saks Fifth Avenue executive. In 1982, following the death of Adam Gimbel's wife Sophie the previous year, the library was rededicated as the Adam and Sophie Gimbel Design Library as the culmination of a fundraising initiative headed by Sophie Gimbel's son and Saks Fifth Avenue executive Jay Rossbach and fellow Saks executive Helen O'Hagan. Sophie Gimbel was a fashion designer, whose Salon Moderne was long a feature of the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store. Two portraits of Sophie Gimbel hung in Gimbel Library, one a formal portrait in oil and the other a reproduction of a Rene Bouché fashion illustration featuring Sophie Gimbel as a model.

As of 2021, the oil portrait of Sophie Gimbel hangs in the Arnhold Forum Library, accompanied by a plaque explaining the association between Parsons School of Design and the Gimbel family. The Bouché portrait will be found in the Kellen Design Archives collections.

Leadership of Gimbel Library:

1958-1972 Jadwiga Pulaska, Librarian

1972-1975 not listed

1975-1983 Christiane Collins, Head Librarian (1975-1981) and Senior Librarian, (1981-1983)

1983-1989 Sharon Chickanzeff, Director od Adam and Sophie Gimbel Library and Associate University Librarian

1989-1991 Janice Woo, Director of Adam and Sophie Gimbel Library and Associate University Librarian 1991-1992 not listed

1992-1995 Hikmet Dogu, Director of Adam and Sophie Gimbel Library and Associate University Librarian

1995-2000 Clayton Kirking, Director of Adam and Sophie Gimbel Library and Associate University Librarian

2001-2003 [According to a document found in Series II in the administrative files of Andrew Gessner, the library director position may have been unfilled during this period]

circa 2003-2005 Andrew Gessner

circa 2008-2010 Joy Kestenbaum

2010-present (2021) Kira Appel, Director, Research and Instructional Services