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Homepage > List of Annual Reports > Annual Report 2009 IAML(UK & Irl) Annual Report 2009Contents
President's Report — Liz HartOpening my inbox prior to writing this report, I see from the new messages piling up there that I'm by no means the only one engaged in IAML(UK & Irl) business on a cold weekend in early February, and I marvel for the umpteenth time at the commitment and energy of our members, all of whose work is voluntary and unpaid. We're a small organisation, but comprised of a membership totally passionate about music and its capacity to change lives for the better, unafraid of challenges, adept at seizing opportunities, and generous in devoting time and expertise to support and develop music library services and their staff in every conceivable way. So despite the gloom prevailing in world affairs, we can once more point to real achievements this year, and many are described in the following reports. Additionally a long–maturing project became reality with the launch in April of the IAML(UK & Irl) Excellence Award for Music Libraries, created to highlight and celebrate activity in music libraries showing sustained good work and good practice which has the potential to be adopted and adapted by others. There has been a most encouraging response, and the first awards will be announced at the 2010 AGM. Thanks are particularly due to the Awards Panel Chair Professor John Tyrrell and Awards Administrator Susi Woodhouse for so expertly steering this venture through its first year. Another exciting prospect is the IAML International Conference which this Branch is hosting in Dublin in July 2011 — preparations for this are increasing in intensity and it promises to be a splendid event. Two officers retired during the year: Christopher Cipkin has been a most energetic and effective Education Officer, inspiring and reshaping the Courses and Education Committee to support its expanding activities, while Ann Keith has managed the work of Publications Officer with great efficiency and total unflappability despite the many frustrations of dealing with recalcitrant subscription agencies! We thank them both and wish them well. In this my last report as President I can only echo the sentiments of all my predecessors in wondering where the last three years have gone. It has been an unlooked–for honour to serve the Branch in this capacity, and I couldn't have done it without the unstinting help and backing of colleagues — too many to name but your collective knowledge and experience have buoyed me up on innumerable occasions, and I have immensely enjoyed working with you all. I'm indebted to our Past Presidents for their support and wise counsel, and particularly to Kathy Adamson whose knack of getting instantly to the nub of a matter and pointing the way forward has never failed me. My special thanks also to past and present Treasurers Peter Linnitt and Claire Kidwell whose financial acumen has mightily impressed an innumerate President, and to those unsung heroes of our Executive Committee, Minutes Secretaries Morag Greig, Debbie Fether and Graeme Lockheart. And last but not least to Geoff Thomason whose impeccable secretarial skills I have always known I could rely on utterly. Glutton for punishment, Geoff continues in office to ease the transition to our incoming President Richard Chesser, to whom I wish every success in the role — I know he will bring great distinction to it. Brio — Rupert RidgewellTime really does seem to fly when you're having fun and it hardly seems possible that nearly five years have passed since I took over from Geoff Thomason as Brio editor. Nine editorials, thirty–nine articles, eight exhibition reports, three conference or project reports, and twenty–seven book reviews later, I can honestly still say that this has to be one of the more enjoyable IAML jobs around. In 2009, as always, the journal was printed by BH Typesetters and distributed from the British Library Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa, with valuable assistance from Sue Clayton. The two issues offered the now customary mix of research, commentary, review and reporting, with articles covering such diverse topics as song collecting in late eighteenth and early nineteenth–century Scotland, the documentation of film music archives in the UK and Ireland, an insider's guide to the BBC Proms, and online projects to catalogue Benjamin Britten's juvenilia, concert life in Prague and the British Library's lending collection of music. My thanks to all nineteen contributors for making this another bumper Brio year. My job would certainly have been a lot more difficult without the tireless work of Marian Hogg and (since 2008) Robert Balchin as Book Reviews editors, and Giuseppina Mazzella as Advertising Editor. I was also fortunate to be supported by two excellent Publications Officers in Ann Keith and Almut Boehme. Preparations are now underway for the first issue of 2010, my last as editor, before Katharine Hogg takes over in May. Katharine will no doubt wish to put her own stamp on the journal, but I'm very pleased to be able to hand Brio over to her with such a good editorial team in place. Cecilia — Susi WoodhouseCecilia is IAML(UK & Irl)'s online searchable database of Music Collections in libraries, archives and museums throughout the UK and Ireland. At present there are descriptions of over 1800 collections from about 600 institutions available. Use continues to be steady at around 25,000 visits per month and, to judge from the enquiries received, is a source of information for all manner of purposes from academic research to family history and greatly appreciated by those who use it. Editing facilities are available to collection managers which means that collection descriptions can be kept up to date, and new information added. If you are interested in this, please email the Cecilia Service Manager to ask for a username and password. A guidance manual for editing and creating records is also available. During autumn 2009, development work was begun by the Collections Trust on the technical architecture which supports the main database holding location details for cultural sector institutions. This has meant that, because Cecilia uses this information, it has not been possible to add new institutions or to edit existing institutional contact details. We expect that work will be completed by the spring of 2010. IAML is also working with Collections Trust to investigate the potential for adding Cecilia collection descriptions to their Culture Grid which would give users the opportunity of cross–searching both Cecilia and a wider range of other materials. Concert Programmes Project — Rupert RidgewellLast year I reported on the beginnings of a project to catalogue programme collections held by Cambridge University Library, adding to the rich corpus of collection–level records available here. Work has continued apace during 2009 so that we have now covered many of the larger named collections, including the archives of the music critic Hans Keller, the composers Roberto Gerhard and Robin Orr, and the singing spouses Edith Coates and Harold Powell Lloyd. We are indebted to Susi Woodhouse for her sustained hard work in making this possible and to Richard Andrewes for his support and advice. Our usage statistics continued to be healthy during 2009. In total there were over 35,000 visitors to the site over the course of the year, with 25,300 users located in the UK and 2,200 in Ireland. The remaining 7,500 visitors were scattered throughout the world, with users in 139 countries and territories altogether. Indeed it's hard to find a country that doesn't have at least one CPP user, reflecting both the unique nature of the site itself and the international breadth of collections held by libraries and archives in the UK and Ireland. Despite the success of the project so far, there remains a huge gulf between the expectations and needs of researchers on the one hand and the level to which concert programmes and related ephemera have been documented in the UK and Ireland on the other. Efforts are therefore continuing to advocate the project to a wider audience: in addition to reports at the Annual Study Weekend in Edinburgh and the IAML conference in Amsterdam, an article about the project is also forthcoming in Fontes Artis Musicae in early 2010. Day–to–day management of the project continues to be undertaken by a small team consisting of John Tyrrell, Paul Banks, Susi Woodhouse and Rupert Ridgewell. Conference Committee — Graham MuncyAs a venue for the 2009 Annual Study Weekend, it would have been difficult indeed to find a finer city — Edinburgh is crammed full of museums, galleries, historic & cultural buildings — not to mention the shopping! Even with the public transport system in chaos mode due to the re–introduction of trams, delegates were still able to find their way around the city & the location of Pollock Halls proved convenient and scenic, with the wonderful backdrop of Arthur's Seat. Our newcomers' reception opened the formal ASW programme, with first–time attendees being greeted by our President and Executive with an overview of Branch activities. Additionally, first–timers were formally partnered by an established member whom they could approach for information, help or support during the weekend — a scheme that seemed to work out well. Our opening address on Friday evening was delivered by the Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Professor John Wallace — "The Scots: A musical people?" . We are happy to answer "yes." His presentation focused on the "Sistema Scotland" Project — inspired by the earlier Venezuelan initiative to give deprived children the gift of music with results that we are all aware of. Translated to the Raploch Estate in Stirling, this project seems to be a success in fighting various social problems by presenting the opportunity of personal esteem and development through live and hands–on musical activity. Vital to the ASW are of course the Report and Information sessions with news and updates on projects, libraries and organisations. Of particular significance in the Saturday morning session, were the reports on the proposals to refurbish Manchester Central Library (the first of several positive projects to be revealed during the ASW) and a fascinating presentation on the Jazz Hub (based on Leeds College of Music). The morning ended with a short return to the thread of Scottish Music with an enlightening overview of amateur music in Scotland by Linda Young, a board member of Making Music. With suggested venues for visits on Saturday afternoon, such as the National Library of Scotland, the Scottish Poetry Library, and a couple of musical instrument museums, Edinburgh's other tourist attractions and retail outlets must have been denied a slice of custom from ASW delegates. The Evening session — "From Firth to Fjord" — given by singer & musicologist Dr. Sally Garden, not only entertained and inspired but ventured into original fields of research looking at the influence of Scotland in the musical and indeed the political and cultural life of Scandinavia in the nineteenth century. Sunday morning was mainly devoted to the useful workshop sessions (with presentations covering the Easaier Project, the Scottish Music Centre and the Britten Thematic Catalogue Project) but also saw the launch of the IAML Excellence Award for Music Libraries. Post AGM, delegates were delighted and informed by Dr. David Wyn Jones whose intriguingly titled session, "On 21 May Giardini's concert took place in Renalag — He played a pig", really covered Haydn's impressions on his second London visit! For the Annual Dinner, delegates enjoyed a short coach ride to the harbour side Malmaison restaurant in Leith, where gastronomic delights were rounded off with the verbal equivalent of port and cigars by our distinguished visitor, Richard Turbet. Monday morning's main sessions, under the generic title "New Build, Rebuild", proved to be positive and uplifting, particularly as they were both delivered by members of our branch, Chris Banks (Aberdeen University) and Richard Buxton (Huddersfield University). Chris's presentation covered the design, planning and vision that are going into the new University Library in Aberdeen — a project based on a marriage of innovation, imagination and inspiration. Richard's covered the translation of the music library to a new venue — more in the tradition of the "Black & Decker" school of practical music librarianship! Both sessions were fuelled with enthusiasm and delight and provided an upbeat conclusion to this successful weekend. . Conference facilities in the suitably Scots Baronial St. Leonard's Hall were particularly splendid with superb buffet catering provided by the in–house staff, balancing out the slightly challenging canteen facilities in the John McIntyre Centre which was suffering a bout of building works at the time of our event. Our thanks to all the college staff who looked after us so well. Again, another memorable ASW with the formal and official elements of the programme balancing out the huge amount of networking and informal contact between delegates from all sectors. Our thanks must go to the superb group of presenters whose contributions cannot be praised too highly. An unfortunate calendar clash prevented the attendance of our usual and valued music trade exhibitors, an element of the ASW conspicuous by its absence — hopefully a situation righted for our next event. My personal and very special thanks, as always, must go to our splendid Conference Committee: Linda Anthony (Secretary); Jay Glasby (Booking Secretary); Steven Dowd (Exhibitions & Receptions); Alison Hall (Speaker Bookings) and our retiring local rep., Almut Boehme. All of these have given 200% to the task of making each ASW outstandingly successful and my thanks and admiration can know no bounds. Naturally, the work of the Committee continues and by the time this is printed, planning for the Nottingham ASW should be nearing completion. We all look forward to meeting up with you there. Courses and Education Committee — Amelie RoperIn my first year as Chair of the Courses and Education Committee, it gives me very great pleasure to report on a remarkably productive twelve months, full of energy, enthusiasm, commitment and an increasing range of initiatives. Boosted by the input of new committee members Ros Edwards and Graeme Lockheart, together with the continuing support of longstanding members Jane Henshaw, Frances Metcalfe, Rebecca Read and Geoff Thomason, our work has gone from strength to strength. Our established activities continued as planned in 2009. These included presentations on music librarianship to library schools, seminars for public and academic librarians at the British Library/Barbican Music Library and Birmingham Conservatoire respectively, and running the day courses Music for the Terrified (North West Libraries Interlending Partnership, Preston and British Library Boston Spa) and Success with Music Interlibrary Loans (Royal College of Music, London). Visits included a very successful trip to the Britten–Pears Foundation, Aldeburgh, in September. Alongside our regular activities, a particular feature of our work in 2009 has been collaboration at both national and international levels, which has enabled us to deliver training to an even wider audience. At a national level, we have been pleased to give presentations on music cataloguing to students at the Department of Information Studies, University College London, and hope to continue working with them in 2010. In November, we also provided training on music cataloguing in a joint event with the Historic Libraries Forum, held at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. We are very aware of the need to extend our training provision in this area, and have firm plans to build on this foundation in 2010. International collaboration has also been a recurring theme of our work in 2009. Earlier in the year, we were pleased to contribute to a professional visit of two music librarians from Hungary, sharing with them details of the Branch's educational provision. November also saw a highly successful excursion of our day course Virtuoso Skills for Music Enquiries to Gothenburg. Such was the demand for the course that it ran on two consecutive days, allowing us to deliver training to around 30 Swedish music librarians. Particular thanks are due to Rupert Ridgewell for assistance with the training and to Pia Shekhter from IAML Sweden, for making this exciting venture possible. Finally, in addition to the tireless work of the committee, I would like to pay tribute to the wider IAML(UK & Irl) community, without whose support and advice our work simply would not be possible. Thank you to all those who have hosted courses, and to Pam Thompson and Graham Muncy for their assistance with presentations at library schools. This year also saw the departure of three valued committee members: Christine Hill, Ann Keith and Rebecca Read. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contribution to our work, and to wish them every success in the future. Documentation Committee — Malcolm JonesIt cannot be said that this has been a very productive year. We began with a newly drafted terms of reference, to stimulate, encourage and facilitate pieces of work which colleagues, especially the younger ones, wished to pursue, and to hold a watching brief on standards, especially bibliographic standards, being created or amended and which might impact on our work. Worthy aims, certainly, but a little difficult to pursue proactively. We are certainly ready to give that help to anyone we know of, either directly or through our (collectively) wide range of contacts; but no such project has come to notice this year. Perhaps someone reading this will be able to stir us into action on their behalf. It has also been a quiet year on the standards front; in particular RDA, which has occupied us greatly in past years and was to be implemented by national libraries in the past year, has gone very — one might almost say suspiciously — quiet. As these words are written, we await an announcement from these bodies, and as for the profession as a whole, well we shall see. Our antennae are well placed to pick up even small movements, and we shall do so, and try to react accordingly, not least by sharing information and seeking comment. Dublin 2011 Planning Committee — Antony GordonThe first planning meeting for the conference took place at the Edinburgh ASW and that has been followed by a further two meetings. There are two dates of note that will require certain work to be completed. The earlier date is 27th June 2010 which is the start of the Moscow conference. On the last day the Branch will present its formal invitation to conference attendees with a video presentation and small individual gifts (bookmarks). The planning meeting for the Dublin conference takes place during the week so the Branch will need to have a set of paper proposals ready by that date. The second date of significance is 24th July 2011, the start of the conference itself, at Trinity College Dublin. Points of note so far: accommodation and conference facilities have been booked at Trinity College in the centre of Dublin;
Discussions continue on venues for concerts and receptions; one of two concert programmes is already more or less agreed. Sponsorship remains a major issue with little having been done so far to obtain any. It is unfortunate that the point at which the sponsorship trawl should ideally have started coincided almost perfectly with the start of the current financial downturn. Encore! — Malcolm JonesThe sailor in me can only report "steady as she goes". Editing and tidying continues, but no major collections have been added to cause the excitement of past years. Amendments come in from a band of contributors to whom I should like to express thanks, along with the hope that the silence from many others means that their stock is static, not that they overlook to report changes. May I repeat that it much easier and more efficient for me to deal with amendments little and often, rather than wait for a larger quantity. E–mails with a single amendment come regularly, and are very acceptable, and generally dealt with promptly as a result. The software used to allow searching Encore! is about to undergo a major upgrade. I am considering hard the implications, the major one being the need to convert the data to MARC21 (it's still in UKMARC). I guess this bullet will have to be bitten one day; I'd rather hoped for faster progress with XML to come to the rescue, but this now seems unlikely. At various times possibilities of co–operation with other bodies/projects have been explored, but so far nothing has come of these. We continue to try. Music Libraries Trust — Edith SpellerThe Trust's principal objective is to provide support for the education and training of music librarians. It also encourages and supports research into music librarianship, music bibliography and related disciplines. The Trust works in conjunction with IAML(UK & Irl) to provide a focus for the inception of ideas and for the skills of music librarians to be re–evaluated in the context of changing user needs and new technologies. During the year we were sorry to see Roger Taylor and Philip Shields stand down as trustees. We were grateful for both trustees' work for the Trust, including Philip's efforts in improving and updating the Trust's website. The Trust is delighted that Christopher Hogwood and David Bedford have agreed to become patrons of the charity, and mourns the loss of Steve Race and Ian Wallace. After an increased number of applications, six bursaries were awarded to enable individuals to attend the IAML(UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend (an increase on the four awarded last year), held at the University of Edinburgh, 3–6 April 2009. The Trust would like to record its thanks to the individual bursary sponsors: Cramer Music, Oxford University Press, Stainer & Bell, Music Sales and the Staypar Trust. The MLT itself sponsored the sixth bursary, which was split between two attendees. Dr. Miguel Mera and Dr. Ben Winters have completed a scoping study investigating the extent and availability of film music collections held in the UK, with their final report and recommendations awaiting publication in Brio. MLT has recently awarded funding for a new scoping study aimed at identifying and cataloguing collections of musicians' letters held in the UK, focusing on material from c. 1900 to the present day. Given the scale of the project, the Trust has appointed a team of researchers to work together on the scoping study, with funding of up to £5000 awarded. The project is anticipated to run until late 2010 and is being carried out by Katharine Hogg, Rupert Ridgewell, Susi Woodhouse, Rachel Milestone and Alexis Paterson. Outreach — Tom KearnsThe Branch's Outreach work concentrates on three main areas Donations of material and matching up donated material with institutions in need of materials Advice on professional matters to individuals or institutions Help in attending Annual Study Weekend For more information on this aspect of the Branch's activities please visit the Branch Website outreach page This year we sent two consignments of printed music to the Ballanta Academy of Music, Sierra Leone. These were to help with the School fundraising efforts and comprised of popular works in vocal score format. We also sent some Classical Music CDs to Serbia. We now have a large selection of Vocal Scores and Study Scores across the entire classical repertoire to donate to any institution considered eligible under our guidelines. We received generous gifts of Study Scores from three sources over the past year and at the moment we are looking to find homes for these as a matter of urgency. Although up to now we have concentrated on assisting institutions abroad, efforts are being made in the first instance to find homes for these Study Scores in educational institutions in the UK. The growing importance of the voluntary sector in the provision of services may mean that in future local music resource centres — sometimes managed by Registered Educational Charities — may be considered worthy of assistance under the Branch Outreach programme. As a start a number of contacts have been made with local Music Education Services. Some have responded fairly quickly asking for more details of what we have to offer and I am hopeful we will soon be in a position to find homes for some of the material individuals and institutions have generously given to us over the past year. We have also a quantity of opera in vocal score format, material for piano and a range of classical CD recordings awaiting linking up with institutions seeking such material. Looking ahead to the coming year I would like to look at involving more people in the Outreach Working Group's activities. Ideas, suggestions and volunteers are welcome. If you have worked abroad you may know of services in need of materials or help in the form of professional advice which we may be able to offer. If you have an interest in helping library services perhaps less fortunate, resources–wise, than ourselves then please get in touch with the Outreach Officer. On a more general note members of the Outreach Group contributed to what it is hoped will be an important work of Advocacy for Music Libraries in the years to come. The leaflet Make sure there is music in your Library is the combined work of the IAML Executive and here is a good place to put on record my thanks for those contributions. The Leaflet itself attempts to summarise what borrowers might expect from a public music library. It also suggests ways by which members of the public may seek to improve and protect as necessary music in the public library sphere. It draws attention to the IAML(UK & Irl) publication Access to Music — also an important piece of Advocacy work for music in Libraries, and is available to download. Publications — Almut BoehmeAccess to music, First stop for music, Working with music in libraries. These publications are all free to download from the Branch's website, although hard copies of Access to Music also continue to be available. Concert programmes in the UK & Ireland. A few copies are still available on request. Brio. As of 31 December 2009 there were one hundred and ten overseas Brio subscriptions with several subscriptions still outstanding. Eighteen copies continue to be donated, chiefly to libraries in Eastern Europe. IAML(UK & Irl) Newsletter. Complimentary copies of the Branch Newsletter continue to be sent to IAML branches and other organisations in Europe and Canada. Trade & Copyright Committee — Kathryn AdamsonThe discussions described in last year's report regarding licensing arrangements between the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and public libraries are still ongoing, with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council taking the lead, using consultation with IAML(UK & Irl) and CILIP. Voting at the European Parliament on the extension of the copyright term of protection for sound recordings from 50 years to 95 years was postponed, and the bill was amended to introduce a 70 year period of protection. You will remember that the Gowers Review of intellectual property suggested that little would be gained by performing artists from this extension, and there has been widespread disagreement with the provisions of the bill. At the time of writing there is no known date for its ratification. Meanwhile, the IPO have published some proposals to revise copyright legislation to take into account the outcome of the Gowers Review. Most of these are very sympathetic to the library community. The major area of concern to us is the proposal to restrict the exception of fair dealing for private study to a narrow educational purpose. This point is still being debated. This year activity of committee members has concentrated on licensing arrangements between public libraries and the Performing Right Society. The MLA and the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance have provided valuable advice and support and we look forward to working with the PRS on helping protect the rights of their members whilst enabling legitimate access to their material within libraries, all within the framework of the law. Website and listserv — Antony GordonThis has been a fairly static year in which updates have been made as necessary to the website but no major changes have taken place other than the acquisition of dedicated email addresses for the President, General Secretary, Membership Secretary and Publications Officer. The website is starting to look a little dated so there are plans to update it when time allows. A higher priority though is the website for Dublin 2011 which needs to be in operation early in 2010 with, we hope, the addition of secure booking facilities. The listserv iaml–uk–irl has continued busy, carrying as usual mostly ILL traffic. Early in the year the Branch Executive examined usage and considered options to restrict ability to post to members of the Branch since it was clear that some authorities were relying on its use while contributing nothing to the Branch. Prizes and AwardsThe E.T. Bryant Prize is awarded jointly with the Music Libraries Trust, to a student of Library and Information Science, or to a librarian in their first five years in music librarianship, for a significant contribution to the literature of music librarianship. The 2008 prize was awarded to Deborah Lee for her study Classifying musical performance : the application of classification theories to concert programmes. The C.B. Oldman Prize is an annual award of £200 for an outstanding work of music bibliography, music reference or music librarianship by an author resident in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland. The 2008 & 2009 prizes will both be awarded next year. The Ian Ledsham Bursary Fund exists to honour the memory of Ian Ledsham, a long–standing and much respected member of the UK & Ireland Branch of IAML. This year it was awarded to Bridget Palmer to support her attendance at the IAML–IMS Annual Conference in Amsterdam. IAML(UK & Irl) Executive Committee 2009Officers
Elected Committee Members
Non–Voting Officers
CommitteesConference Committee Courses and Education Committee Documentation Committee Finance & Administration Committee Trade & Copyright Committee Dublin 2011 planning Working GroupsAccess to Music Resources C.B. Oldman Prize Encore! E.T. Bryant Memorial Prize IAML(UK & Irl) Award Outreach Project Group Webmaster, and Listserv joint owner
Affiliations to Other Organisations Forum for Interlending National Music Council IAML(UK & Irl) is an Organisation in Liaison with CILIP IAML(UK & Irl) is a Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres |
In liaison with CILIP
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