The winner of the 2019 C.B. Oldman Award is announced!

The C.B. Oldman Prize Committee has pleasure in announcing the winner of the 2019 award:  Lawson, C. and Stowell, R. (eds.). The Cambridge encyclopaedia of historical performance in music. (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018). ISBN 9781107108080. Congratulations to the editors – Colin Lawson and Robin Stowell, the many contributors, and to the publisher, Cambridge University Press.    The C.B….

IAML Annual Study Weekend, April 17-19, 2020

As a result of COVID-19 precautions the IAML (UK & Irl) Conference Committee regrets to announce that the 2020 Annual Study Weekend has had to be postponed. It will now take place from 9th – 11th April 2021, at the same venue: Weetwood Hall, a Grade II listed building, and part of the University of…

Changes to Irish copyright legislation

June 2019 saw the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Provisions Act 2019 being signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins. This Act amended the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, and introduces some of the recommendations made by the 2013 ‘Modernising Copyright’ report made by the Copyright Committee. The majority of this Act came…

News from CILIP

Earlier this year CILIP announced the launch of the “Working Internationally” project. The two year Arts Council funded project aims to promote relevant, accessible and valuable international collaboration for public libraries in England. The programme runs from May 2019 to December 2020 in partnership with the British Library and the British Council, and aims to…

An early accordion method

One of the greatest joys of managing the early printed music at the Royal College of Music Library is getting to do what I like to call ‘treasure hunting.’ We are in a similar position to many other libraries around the country, I imagine, in that a portion of our special collections are so far…

Two last nights! Show business in Georgian London

If you’re down in London this Christmas season, don’t forget to spend some time at the Foundling Museum, where they have a wonderful exhibition – a how-to-guide to going to a show in eighteenth century Britain. Displayed throughout the whole Museum, this interactive exhibition delves into the mechanics of theatre and concert going in eighteenth…

Introducing… the IAML (UK & Irl) Trade and Copyright Committee

We all have our copyright problems. Luckily the IAML (UK & Irl) Trade & Copyright Committee is here to help!  ‘T & C’ works on behalf of IAML (UK & Irl) members and the music library community more generally to provide advice, training and updates on aspects of copyright and intellectual property law and related…

Remembering Malcolm

The UK and Ireland branch of IAML was sorry to hear last month of the death of Malcolm Lewis, Branch President, 1992-1995. Although Malcolm had been ill for some time, his spirit and sense of fun, lasted right to the end. He was much loved by members of the Branch, many of whom have sent memories for inclusion…

The 2019 IAML Congress in Krakow: Brilliant Ideas in a Beautiful Historical Setting

As former capital of Poland and site of many historical buildings and architectural marvels, Krakow has been attracting visitors from around the globe for centuries. This July it drew in music librarians, musicologists and heritage sector professionals in particular. They all had the same destination: the Auditorium Maximum of the second oldest university in Central…

Hunting for dragons, CAM(e)L(s), and musical lions in Krakow

I’ve just returned from a delightful fortnight in Krakow, part business, part holiday. The business part, thanks to Cambridge University Library, and the Music Libraries Trust, was spent at IAML’s annual congress. Having been involved with IAML (UK & Ireland) for some years on various committees, I, along with the rest of the UL and Pendlebury team, have…

‘It’s (Not) Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ at Barbican Music Library

This exhibition showcases the music photography of Mark Allan, who has spent over 30 years in the music and entertainment photography business. David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, and Jay-Z are just some of the leading performers and groups which feature among the 72 images on display. Other highlights in the free…

Excellence Abounds

IAML (UK & Irl) celebrated both institutional and individual excellence at the Excellence Awards ceremony held at College Court, Leicester on Sunday 14th April 2019. The Excellence Awards are presented every three years and acknowledge activity in music libraries which demonstrates sustained good work and good practice with the potential to be adopted and adapted…

Bursary report

In the latest of a series of blogs about the recent ASW. An insight into a maiden ASW from Masters student, Kirsty Morgan… Having received the Music Library Trust bursary, I was very lucky and pleased to be able to attend IAML’s Annual Study Weekend in Leicester this year – and what an amazing and…

IAML ANNUAL STUDY WEEKEND – THOUGHTS FROM LEICESTER

On a sunny Friday afternoon, Kate and I set off from Cambridge for College Court, Leicester for the IAML Annual Study Weekend.  It was a great chance to meet other colleagues working in music libraries and to put some faces to names.  After settling in to our rooms in College Court – a purpose built…

The ASW in a nutshell

I was so sorry not to get to the ASW this year. Luckily we had a team of excellent Twitterati who kept us fully informed of events. If you would like to know more search for #IAMLASW or browse @IAML_UK_IRL on Twitter. Tom Kearns from Kilburn Library has sent in a snapshot of the ASW. More to…

Exam season at Kilburn

Twelve students of the Lucica Trita London Violin Academy came to the Kilburn Library Centre (part of Camden Libraries), to perform their Grade Examination pieces for Library users on Saturday March 9th. As well as solo performances, the concert concluded with a group performance of teacher and students. Proud parents were also in attendance and…

Pathways, Outputs and Impacts: Being a Librarian-Researcher Today

In one sense, the talk I gave at the IAML (UK & Ireland) Annual Study Weekend last year (2018) could be seen as a sequel to the “Ghosts of Borrowers Past” talk, which I gave in 2016.  However, it also offered me the opportunity to talk about something completely different – the tricky task of…

Christmas at Kilburn

We had a visit on December 20th from a local school choir, (Kingsgate Primary School choir, who last delighted a library audience on Making Music Day 2018); and they entertained us to lively Christmas music. They put everyone in Christmas spirit with their marvellous singing led by their wonderful music teacher. There were spirited renditions of…

IL TRITTICO …or missing middles

The RNCM Library easier than ever Christmas Quiz 2018 Supply the missing middle element from each group of three – some musical, some not 1. The Fellowship of the Ring       __________________     The Return of the King 2. Regeneration                                ________________________    The Ghost Road 3. The Fourth of August                 ________________________    For the Fallen 4. Asie                                                  ­­­________________________…

Christmas in Oxford

The Christmas season is the busiest time of the year for the Oxford University Press Music Hire Library – scores, parts, and vocal scores for carol orchestrations and Christmas music literally fly through the door.  We thought we’d celebrate by making a festive film. Season’s greetings to all music library colleagues! Simon Wright Head of…

A song for the season

Corelli’s Christmas Concerto was so called as it bears the inscription ‘Fatto per la notte di Natale’ (‘made for the night of Christmas’). The portrait of Francesco Geminiani by Andrea Soldi, now in the Gerald Coke Handel Collection at the Foundling Museum, was painted in about 1735, depicts the composer holding a copy of the Christmas Concerto, in tribute to…

Violins in Kilburn

Kilburn Library was the venue for the end of term students’ concert by students from Lucica Trita Violin Academy, London. This is a fast growing local violin school run by Lucica Trita, who has amassed a vast amout of performing experience in her career. She currently performs as a violinist with BBC Symphony Orchestra and is former co-principal, Sinfonica…

New Encore21 Training and Support

Encore21 is a searchable online union catalogue of performance sets of vocal and orchestral music in UK libraries and music institutions. It is a project of IAML (UK & Irl); established with support from the British Library Co-operation and Partnership Programme and the Music Libraries Trust; hosted by Bibliotekenes IT senter AS (BIBITS) of Oslo,…

A celebration of women in jazz

A new free exhibition at Barbican Music Library entitled Women in Jazz – a Celebration of the Past, Present and Future, a collaboration with the National Jazz Archive, presents a musical and social survey of the rich contribution women have made to jazz over the last 100 years. It also considers the talented upcoming generation who…