Silk and Bamboo music

The following is a guest post from Richard L. Jones, Music Librarian, Barbican Music Library: To celebrate East and South East Asian Heritage Month, which takes place every September, Barbican Music Library hosted a workshop entitled Silk and Bamboo Music. It featured Cheng Yu (pipa – 4 stringed lute) and Li Ming (bamboo flutes). Silk…

More thoughts from Stellenbosch: Chris Scobie guest post

IAML (UK & Irl) delegates have continued to share their feedback from IAML Congress 2024 in Stellenbosch. This week, the British Library’s Chris Scobie offers his reflections: It was a privilege to be able to attend the IAML 2024 Congress in Stellenbosch in June. A huge thank you and congratulations to the organising committee for…

More thoughts from Stellenbosch: Katharine Hogg guest post

Following our previous report on IAML Congress 2024 in Stellenbosch, more IAML (UK & Irl) members have been in touch to share their experiences of the week. First is Katharine Hogg, Librarian of the Gerald Coke Handel Collection. Katharine writes: The Congress attracted a smaller number of delegates than usual, due to its distance from…

Malcolm Jones

It is with much sadness that we pass on the news of the very recent death of Malcolm Jones on Tuesday 23rd July after a stroke. Malcolm, a former Branch President (1986-1989) and Honorary Branch member, was a dedicated and most respected music librarian and Branch member; most recently looking after our performance sets catalogue…

“Music for the Terrified” returns post-pandemic

IAML (UK & Irl) is delighted to announce the return of the ever-popular “Music for the Terrified” course, taking place in Chippenham on 24 September 2024. If you have ever felt out of your depth working with music collections, fear not! This one-day course is designed to answer basic queries about working with printed and…

Conservatoire libraries amongst nation’s best for student satisfaction

The 2024 National Student Survey has once again revealed the importance of passionate, subject-specialist librarians, with three UK conservatoire libraries appearing in the top five for student satisfaction. In response to question 20 of the student survey, “How well have the library resources (e.g., books, online services and learning spaces) supported your learning?”, students offered…

Report on IAML Congress 2024, Stellenbosch

Several IAML (UK & Irl) Branch members were fortunate to attend the 2024 Congress of our international organisation – “big IAML” – at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, earlier this month. Taking place in a different country each year, Congress is an exciting opportunity to hear papers from international colleagues and experts in related fields, share…

Performance sets survey

IAML (UK & IRL) is keen to find out which authorities, groups and institutions hold music performance sets and whether they are currently lending them to users or to other libraries. This will help library staff who manage interlibrary loans to know whom they can contact to request sets. It will also enable Encore21 more accurately to…

Brass Bands Archive Update (May 2024)

As you all know from our previous update, in 2018 custodianship of the National Brass Band Archive was transferred to Brass Bands England (BBE). The Archive is now known as the Brass Bands Archive. Over the years we have managed to get ad-hoc funding to employ a number of archive professionals to list, and catalogue…

Borrowing Performance Sets from Kent!

After more than a year of work , the public library team in Kent are happy to inform you that Kent’s Encore listings are now fully up to date – both vocal and orchestral. Their systems are under maintenance, but they are able to take bookings for their sets from next week (June 2024). There…

Annual Study Weekend 2024 – report

…And all too soon the IAML (UK & Irl) ASW 2024 is over… and what a weekend it was! We (re)discovered just what a musical city Leeds is through a new book edited by Lashua, Spracklen, Ross and Thompson: “Popular Music in Leeds” published by Intellect Books; speed dated archival resources; discussed music cataloguing and…

Cross-stitch embroidery of Leeds Town Hall

Annual Study Weekend in Leeds 5-7 April

And it’s upon us again! It’s the IAML (UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend, where you’ll get the best chance this year of finding scores of British and Irish music librarians congregating together. If you use ‘X’ (Twitter) then the hashtag is #IAMLASW. And here’s a request. The Chair of Communications isn’t going to be…

A celebration of 2 Tone Music at Barbican Music Library

Barbican Music Library’s current exhibition – From the Caribbean to Coventry: Plotting the Rise of Two Tone – is a celebration of one of the UK’s most influential musical and cultural movements. The exhibition was conceived by 2 Tone fans David Burke and Mark Baxter; they collaborated with consultants Rhoda Dakar (former lead singer of…

British Library cyber incident review published

Following the October 2023 ransomware attack on the British Library’s systems, the Library has issued a cyber incident review document. It outlines what is known about the origins of the attack. It describes obstacles to restoration of services, and summarises lessons learned that have relevance for other cultural institutions.

IAML Annual Study Weekend (ASW) 5-7 April 2024

Bookings have now closed for the IAML ASW taking place in Leeds on Friday 5th April until Sunday 7th April 2024. You can find details about the draft programme on the IAML UK & Ireland website. The IAML Events & Training Committee look forward to welcoming you to Leeds!

The British Library: Thoughts on how to help our Patrons

One of our colleagues has recently blogged to remind patrons that librarians in other institutions are ready and willing to help where they can. Read ‘The Library’s doing Nothing? Don’t You Believe it!’ Do you have other suggestions you could share?

IAML Congress in Stellenbosch, 23-28 June 2024

Are you one of the lucky individuals contemplating attending next year’s Congress? Can we remind you that the application period is open for Outreach travel awards for the IAML Congress in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The deadline for applications is Friday 23 February 2024. IAML Outreach Fund Funding was set up in 1998 to assist music librarians…

Fortune teller fish

Strange Discoveries

Have you ever found something tucked into a library book that is really just bizarre? Here’s a Friday find from a library which shall remain nameless …

Eric Cooper

We are very sad to pass on the news that Eric Cooper died last night, at the age of 97. Some of you will remember him as he was a tremendous influence from the early days of IAML, both in the UK andinternationally, particularly in the fields of public libraries and sound recordings. You may…

Slide showing picture of the young Samuel Coleridge Taylor

‘After the Show is over’

Well, it happened! Suddenly, after all the planning and the meetings and the tweetings and everything else, Congress is over. Transport problems due to industrial action? All behind us now. It certainly felt like a resounding success – if you would like to share your reflections on the whole week, or part of it, please…

Cambridge Buses, Congress Registration

Over on Facebook, there are questions! (Congress delegates might like to follow the IAML23 Cambridge FB page.) QUESTION:- Is there a recommendation for public transport in Cambridge? Are there special tickets? ANSWER:- Look out for the Universal bus too which runs between the station, West Road (where the Congress site, Gonville and Caius accomodation and…

Message to IAML 2023 Delegates from Henle!

We had an enthusiastic email from our Silver Sponsors Henle Verlag today – and we’re happy to share it! At the Faculty of Music in Cambridge July 30th – August 4th 2023 Dear librarians, There are only 2 weeks to go, and we will have the chance to meet in Cambridge. We are very much…

Less than a month to Congress!

Right now, in four weeks’ time, you could be looking forward to sessions on ‘Daily work, collections and good practices in music performance archives’; or ‘Work catalogues and complete editions’; or ‘Research topics in music copyright’. Or maybe a RISM workshop? It’s not too late, if you haven’t booked yet. Go to IAML2023.org to get…

Congress mascot awaits dinner

Are you Booking Dinner?

If you’re attending Congress, then this is something you need to know! Booking for Congress Farewell dinner at King’s College, & the Full package (which includes Farewell dinner) will close this weekend (1st July). So, if you haven’t already booked for dinner at King’s, please do so before then. Apart from that deadline, full basic…