29 October 2014 saw the implementation of legislation to facilitate the use of orphan works in the UK. An orphan work is defined as a copyright work or performance for which one or more of the rights holders either cannot be identified or cannot be located, thus making it impossible to seek permission for use of…
“Our mandolin ensemble would like to perform at Westminster Music Library” “Fantastic! Err how many of you will there be?” “Oh just sixteen or so…” Well I like a challenge and we’d never hosted a mandolin ensemble before, how could I refuse? So it was that sixteen enthusiastic musicians – not just mandolins but also…
We’re delighted to say that we can now offer a handlist of materials held in the IAML Library. You can find it on our website. The IAML library was set up in 1992 by IAML(UK), in response to a need on the part of music library and information professionals for ready access to information in…
Having recently returned from the IAML conference in Antwerp, my mind is still reeling with new ideas and good intentions to actually do something with them. The conference was, for me at least, a great success. The programme had a lot to offer to anyone interested in music libraries and music librarianship. The wide range…
A new initiative has recently been launched which may be of particular interest to music researchers not affiliated to academic institutions. Access to Research is a two year pilot running to January 2016 which provides free walk-in access to 1.5 million academic articles from a wide range of publications in participating public libraries across the…
A process that had its roots back in 2010 when the Prime Minister announced that IP laws would be reviewed to make them fit for the digital age, has proceeded through an independent review of intellectual property, the Government’s response, and an extensive consultation of key stakeholders, now culminating in a suite of five statutory instruments,…
The Music Libraries Trust was pleased to award nine full and part bursaries to enable winners to attend the recent IAML (UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend held 11-13 April 2014 at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. The aim of the MLT is to support and fund the education and training of music librarians in the UK…
IAML (UK & Irl) celebrated both institutional and individual Excellence in its recent Excellence Awards ceremony held at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge on Saturday April 12th 2014. The Excellence Awards are presented every two years and acknowledge activity in music libraries which demonstrates sustained good work and good practice with the potential to be adopted…
Rare book collections don’t often make the headlines of foreign newspapers, and when they do it is usually for the ‘wrong’ reasons – a spectacular theft, or catastrophic destruction due to fire, flood or earthquake. So it was all the more surprising to find a story in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 19 June last…
If you haven’t yet heard, the registration booking form for the 2014 ASW in Cambridge is now live on the IAML UK & Irl website. Run, don’t walk, and grab a place now for this amazing 48-hour affair! What is the ASW, you say? Why, the Annual Study Weekend, of course– our national conference!
This evening Radio 2 will broadcast a special edition of their flagship live music programme Friday Night is Music Night which celebrates 90 years of the BBC music library. As usual the programme will feature music drawn mostly from the lighter side of our collections, and presenter Ken Bruce will discuss the music and the…
Picture the scene: a gathering of the glitterati of the music library world together with many honoured guests all assembled at the Foundling Museum under the watchful-yet-kindly eye of Handel. A harmonious hubbub, a concerto of chatter, a chorus of celebration…Why? Because on October 22nd 2013, the United Kingdom and Ireland Branch of IAML celebrated…
To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the first performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Yeomen of the Guard the Royal College of Music has digitised the overture and made it available via the library website. The manuscript was bequeathed to the RCM by Arthur Sullivan and the physical copy is also on display in…
Many probably know that the Royal College of Music Library has a huge collection of writings on string instruments from the 16th century onwards, collected and donated by Edward Heron-Allen. It includes 28 bound volumes of Miscellanea on strings, players, instruments etc., containing press cuttings, articles, catalogues, and countless other ephemera from an extraordinary range…
Westminster Music Library is teaming up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for ‘Behind the Lines’, a large-scale programme of musical activities focusing on British composers and music of the First World War. Taking place across the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for 12 months starting in September 2013, a…
This year, the United Kingdom and Ireland Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (to give it its full name) celebrates its Diamond Jubilee
Welcome to the IAML (UK & Irl) blog. We now have yet another way of sharing all our exciting news! In addition to publishing our Newsletter and having news on the webpage IAML (UK & Irl) will be keeping you up to date with Tweets (@IAML_UK_IRL) and our brand new blog.