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…
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…
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.
Barbican Music Library was delighted to host the unveiling of a bronze bust of Sir Simon Rattle on 15th June, the evening of the conductor’s final concert as the London Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director. The event featured a number of speeches, and music was provided by the Fibonacci Quartet. The bust was live-sculpted by Frances…
For music librarians, a live online event from Cambridge, UK. Find out more about music in Cambridge University Library and the Pendlebury Library.
A IAML colleague with their finger on the pulse, has alerted us to this forthcoming event:- Henle Urtext Editions are holding an online Open Day this Thursday, 23 March. It looks to be a very full and interesting programme. If you’re interested, you can register at: Henle Open Day (vfairs.com) The various sessions are being…
Mather Brown – Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges, 1787 Despite having worked in music libraries for quite a few years, it still seems that rarely a week goes by in which I don’t come across a composer I’ve never heard of before. Recently, that composer was Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who caught my eye not…
As you may know, our international organisation (‘big IAML’) is meeting in Prague this week, 24-30 July 2022. Conference Schedule – click here. If you’re curious to know what’s going on, do follow the Twitter hashtag, #IAML2022, and make sure you follow both ‘big’ IAML’s and our own Twitter accounts:- @IAML_AIBM and @IAML_UK_IRL Now is…
We are very pleased to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, and welcome the opportunity to work more closely together. We look forward a fruitful collaboration with CILIP, as we work to preserve and make available the rich musical heritage in our libraries. IAML(UK & Irl)…
The Music Libraries Trust is accepting applications for the Ledsham bursary. The Ian Ledsham Bursary is awarded annually to a member of IAML (UK & Irl) in order to assist attendance at IAML international conferences. This year’s IAML international congress will be held in Prague, 24-28 July 2022. The preliminary programme may be found here and the…
As music librarians, it goes without saying that we are specialists in terms of what goes into music libraries – and that embraces not only music, but books about it as well. The C. B. Oldman Award is a long-standing and prestigious award celebrating the best of today’s writers about music. This year we have…
Barbican Music Library’s current exhibition, True is The Dream, showcases the photography of Derek D’Souza who, over four decades, has taken insightful images of The Jam, The Style Council, and Paul Weller. In 1981 he submitted some photographs which he had taken at The Jam’s gigs to the band’s fan club, as a result of…
After two years of online-only events, it is exciting that the Annual Study Weekend (ASW) 2022 is set to proceed in person this year. The event will take place at St Anne’s College Oxford from Friday afternoon 1st April until lunchtime on Sunday 3rd April 2022. The ASW is a great opportunity to network and…
The Branch’s annual Academic and Public Music Library seminars were again combined into a single event this year, on the afternoon of Wednesday 17 November. As in 2020, COVID made it more practical to organise a Zoom, rather than in-person, event, one silver lining to this continuing pandemic cloud being that attendance at the seminar…
Refreshed service on a new platform IAML(UK & Ireland)’s Documentation Committee Chair, Caroline Shaw, tells us about an exciting new platform to help orchestral and choral organisations locate performing materials via UK libraries. The Encore21 Migration project Working Group is delighted to announce the launch of the refreshed Encore21 service. Encore21 is the UK’s union…
Barbican Music Library’s current exhibition, Tangerine Dream: Zeitraffer, celebrates the music and legacy of the pioneering German electronic band, Tangerine Dream, and showcases the remarkable musical vision of their founder, Edgar Froese. Founded in 1967 in Berlin, Tangerine Dream became one of the most important and successful bands that Germany has produced. Their influence on…
IAML UK & Irl’s annual study weekend was a bit different this year: it wasn’t held on a weekend, rather it was held mid-week from the 13th-15th April, and it all took place over Zoom, which meant it was easier for attendees to dip into the sessions they were interested in without having to commit…
In summer 2020, Dr Michael Bonshor of the University of Sheffield was commissioned by the Music Libraries Trust [MLT] to carry out a survey of music library staff and users. MLT funded the bulk of the research, with additional funds for analysis of the survey data coming from the Postlethwaite Music Foundation. An Executive Summary…
VASE21 (Virtual Annual Study Event 2021) As many of you will probably already know or have guessed, the Annual Study Weekend will be a bit different this year. Firstly, it will be held mid-week (13th-15th April) and will consist of online presentations and activities over Zoom. We are calling the event VASE21 (Virtual Annual Study…
Many IAML (UK & Irl) members recently took part in a nationwide survey of music library staff, which was circulated alongside a widescale survey of music library service users. The survey was commissioned by the Music Libraries Trust, and carried out by Dr Michael Bonshor, a researcher from the University of Sheffield. The survey respondents…
Towards the beginning of 2020, I was invited to assist a joint Royal College of Music-University of Southampton research team in their ongoing AHRC-funded project, “Music, Home and Heritage”. The project’s overarching aim is to explore “how listening to and performing music affected the construction of home and family life in Georgian Britain.” While this…
The Gerald Coke Handel Collection at the Foundling Museum comprises over 12,000 items from the eighteenth century to the present, and is a major research resource for the study of Handel and his contemporaries. Handel was a major benefactor of the Foundling Hospital, a home for children founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram, which counted…
My diary tells me that Friday 17th April should have been the first day of the 2020 Annual Study Weekend in Leeds. Planning for the conference had taken more than a year and at the last Conference Committee meeting held on March 11th most of the final details were in place and the committee was…
Margaret Jones, blog editor for IAML (UK & Irl), asked me some time ago to write a little about the role of IAML Historian, a post to which I was appointed early in 2020. Of course I’m happy to do so. I should point out straightaway, just to avoid any confusion, that this is a…