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Canada, report 2006

Greetings from the President and members of CAML/ACBM, the Canadian branch of IAML. CAML members met at York University in Toronto from May 28-31, 2006 with faculty colleagues from the Canadian University Music Society (CUMS), as part of the annual Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.  Major topics of discussion this past year concerned copyright, advocacy and website content.  Conference sessions also dealt with digitization projects, acquiring and accessing the Avant and the Alt, preserving the past for future researchers, changing perspectives towards gifts, and planning and organization of new music libraries. A highlight for CAML members was honouring Kathleen McMorrow, Head of the University of Toronto Music Library, who became the fourth recipient of the biennial Helmut Kallmann Award for Distinguished Service relating to music libraries and archives.  Her achievements for outstanding contributions in research, documentation and improved access to resources in Canadian music were lauded at our CAML/CUMS conference banquet on 30 May 2006.

As of 1 June 2006, the board consists of seven officers: 4 elected: President (Lucinda Walls, in the second year of a 2-year position), President-Elect (Peter Higham, acclaimed for 1-year position), Secretary (Stacy Allison-Cassin, acclaimed for 2-year position), one Member-at-Large (Richard Belford, in the second year of a 2-year position), and 3 appointed officers: Treasurer (Brian McMillan), Membership Secretary (Marlene Wehrle, continuing until replaced) and Communications Officer, held jointly by CAML Review editor (Desmond Maley) and CAML webmaster (Rob van der Bliek).

Current CAML membership stands at 103, with 39 institutional and 64 individual members, of whom 30 are also members of IAML. This is a slight improvement over the past few years.  In addition, there are 6 who subscribe solely to our publication, CAML Review = Revue de l'ACBM, now in its 34th volume.  Published three times a year, CAML Review is indexed in The Music Index. Issues include articles, reports, conference notes, membership news and book and CD reviews, chiefly of Canadian music, composers and performers. Indexing in RILM is still limited to book and CD reviews.  Cumulative indexes compiled up to volume 33 can be found on the CAML web site at http://www.yorku.ca/caml/en/review.htm.

After undergoing a content review, our website http://www.yorku.ca/caml/ now contains increased coverage of the CAML Review as well as our updated constitution.  A newly formed web committee will soon undertake to make further design and content improvements.

Daniel Paradis, Chair of CAML's Cataloguing Committee, represented the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing on the GMD/SMD (General Material Designation/Special Material Designation) Working Group created by the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR. The mandate of the Working Group was to identify and define terms for content and carriers that would be appropriate for inclusion in RDA: Resource Description and Access. The CAML Cataloguing Committee prepared comments on the draft of Part 1 of RDA and on the GMD/SMD Working Group's proposal. These comments were submitted by Daniel to the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing on March 10, 2006.

Chaired by Lisa Emberson, RILM Canada sent 338 submissions to the RILM Centre in New York for the period 1 June 2005 to 31 May 2006.  This represents an increase of 52 abstracts over the previous year. Thanks go to committee member Hélène Boucher and a small group of volunteers, as well as to Claude Beaudry, now retired after a 10-year commitment to the RILM Committee, for their dedicated efforts to abstract scholarly Canadian music materials. 

Under the auspices of CAML, the first Quebec music libraries meeting took place on 21 October 2005 in Montreal.  Participants met primarily to tour two new music library spaces: the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec, in particular its Music and Film Collection, and the Marvin Duchow Music Library of McGill University.  As well, there were sessions to discuss common work-related issues and the possible creation of a Quebec chapter of CAML.  Owing to the success of this first “rencontre”, a second meeting is planned at the Université de Sherbrooke, 20 October 2006.  Information on both meetings can be found at the following website: http://www.mcgill.ca/rbmq-qmlm.

CAML will meet again with music faculty colleagues from CUMS at lUniversité de Montréal in 2007.  In the meantime, our association will continue to expand its role in the organization and collection, preservation and study of Canadian music both through professional and scholarly activities and through our channels of communication: CAML Review = Revue de l'ACBM, CAML/ACBM website and CANMUS-L listserv.

Lucinda Walls