IAML(UK & Irl) Exec needs You!

IAML (UK & Irl) is seeking members to serve on the Executive Committee of the branch for 2023/24. We would welcome nominations from colleagues working in any area of the profession. The Committee holds three meetings during the year and these are normally on a Wednesday afternoon in May (in person in London – travel…

CILIP/IAML (UK & Irl) Memorandum of Understanding

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)…

Music Librarians Shortlist Candidates for C. B. Oldman Award

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…

ASWs Past and Future: a personal reflection

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…

Remembering Malcolm: coda

Following on from our earlier post about Malcolm Lewis, a few words from Katharine Hogg, current President of IAML (UK&Irl). There were three Malcolms in IAML (UK), as it was then, when I joined in the late 1980s; Malcolm Lewis, Malcolm Turner and Malcolm Jones. Was it something in the name that turned them all…

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…

‘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…

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…

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…

Advocacy for music services

The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that to advocate means to support, recommend, or speak in favour of a person or thing. This, I find, is a beautiful, simple and helpful definition. In the English speaking world in particular, the concept of advocacy currently tends to be interpreted as high level pro-active influencing of decision making. IAML’s international Advocacy Committee is aiming to do a bit…

Celebrating Make Music Day 2018

Music librarians across the country took part in Make Music Day 2018, on Thursday June 21st. These were just a few of the celebrations…. Westminster Music Library joined in the world-wide celebrations with a “Learn to play mandolin” workshop; which included a brilliant performance by the London Mandolin Ensemble. Meanwhile…Camden Libraries, supported by Camden Music Service marked the day with a…

IAML(UK & Irl) Diamond Jubilee: founding fathers

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