What is music librarianship/archival studies?
Music librarianship/archival studies is the professional field of work in music libraries and archives. It is a subfield of information science and combines training in librarianship/archival practice with musical and musicological knowledge. The coexistence of these two areas of expertise is essential, enabling professionals to manage music materials according to their specific characteristics and to organise them appropriately so that they are accessible to end users.
As an officially recognised field, music librarianship/archival studies traces its origins back to the establishment of the first music library organisation in 1931 at Yale University, under the name Music Library Association (MLA), now also known as the US Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML-US). Today, the MLA works in ongoing collaboration with the Library of Congress and participates, through its representatives, in coordinating committees concerned with digital developments and policies on cataloguing and the management of music metadata (e.g. models of bibliographic description, authorised terms, thesauri of performance media and form, etc.).
Axes and Activities of Music Librarianship/Archival Studies
Music librarianship/archival studies encompasses a wide range of activities related to the core operational areas of institutions responsible for music information and knowledge:
A. Acquisition
- Development of acquisition policies and acceptance of donations aimed at enriching existing collections or fostering new areas of research or musical interest
- Integration of newly acquired materials into existing collections and corresponding expansion of classification systems
- Acquisition of digital materials/databases and adaptation to the growing market of digital music resources (born-digital material)
B. Organisation and Documentation
- Classification of music materials according to their type and content, as well as ensuring appropriate conditions for their use and description
- Preservation of the original order of archival collections, where applicable, in order to highlight their provenance, historical development, and cultural identity
- Documentation, description, and cataloguing of various types of music materials (manuscript, printed, audiovisual, digital) based on international descriptive and interoperability standards: LRM, RDA, ISAD(G), DACS, IASA Cataloging Rules, DCRM(M), etc.
- Creation of authority records for local music creators and organisations, with the aim of making this information available to the international community
- Integration of local music history and production terminology into international controlled vocabularies
- Adoption of new information structuring models (linked data, RDF-based models)
C. Access and Information Services
- Provision of music materials to library/archive users for research, reading, or listening. Depending on the type of material and institution, development of loan or in-house use policies
- Development of an electronic catalogue/index for searching materials by both internal users and external researchers
- Provision of appropriate research, reading, or listening equipment
- Assistance to users in locating materials; information and research support
- Development of reference collections for consultation of specialised manuals and sources
- Development of music information literacy policies and establishment of training seminars (where applicable)
- Ongoing evaluation of user information services
- Participation in the electronic exchange of information within the international music community through the provision of catalogued and other data
- Organisation of events or exhibitions aimed at promoting collections/archives to the wider public (where appropriate infrastructure exists)
D. Digitisation, Digital Processing and Analysis
- Digitisation of manuscript, printed, or audiovisual material for public access and research purposes (in compliance with technical standards and copyright regulations)
- Encoding of musical texts (e.g. MEI, MusicXML) for advanced search functions and automated comparison of musical sources
- Provision of encoded materials to specialised researchers for music analysis and annotation
- Integration of digitised items and related data to enable comprehensive presentation of collections (combining image, sound, score, and text, e.g. in a digital exhibition)
E. Conservation
- Conservation of music materials according to their physical carrier (e.g. paper, magnetic tape, vinyl records, etc.), using international standards for specialised materials (e.g. IASA Technical Publications)
- Development of preservation policies and prioritisation plans based on the physical condition and significance of items
- Restoration of damaged materials and cooperation with national or international bodies for their repair
- Maintenance of equipment used for the reproduction of music materials
- Development of digital preservation policies and adoption of relevant metadata schemas to ensure long-term preservation of digital resources
Relationship of Music Librarianship/Archival Studies with Other Disciplines
Within the framework of interdisciplinarity and research aimed at developing new tools for knowledge acquisition, the field establishes relationships and synergies with other disciplines such as Digital Humanities and Music Information Retrieval. In addition, collaboration with representatives of historical/systematic musicology and ethnomusicology remains constant, with the aim of advancing musical knowledge and research.
Education in Music Librarianship/Archival Studies
In general, the contemporary music librarian/archivist, as well as any professional responsible for a music library or archive, is trained in the fundamental principles of information science, in order to create appropriate conditions for information organisation and research support. Library and information science programmes prepare future managers of musical knowledge by offering a comprehensive and modern curriculum that reflects the multifaceted role of libraries and archives:
“The curriculum is concerned with information resources and the services and technologies to facilitate their management and use. Within this overarching concept, the curriculum of library and information studies encompasses information and knowledge creation, communication, identification, selection, acquisition, organization and description, storage and retrieval, preservation and curation, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, synthesis, dissemination, use and users, and management of human and information resources.”
(ALA Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies (2015; revised 28/1/2019): 5)
Musical collections are utilised and promoted through these new services of information organisation, analysis, and dissemination. The Greek Branch of International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres promotes the role and contribution of Greek music libraries and archives in contemporary research and musical information services, ensuring recognition of the profession of the music librarian/archivist as essential to their proper functioning. At the same time, it fosters engagement with international practices and developments in the fields of information science, humanities, and social sciences.
Selected Bibliography
- Cleveland, Susannah, and Joe C Clark. Careers in Music Librarianship III: Reality and Reinvention, Middleton, Wis.: A-R Editions, 2014.
- Hunter, David. Core Competencies and Music Librarians, 2002.
- Marley, Judith L. “Education for Music Librarianship within the United States: Needs and Opinions of Recent Graduate/Practitioners.” Fontes Artis Musicae 49, no. 3 (2002): 139-72.
- “MLA Basic Manual Series.” Music Library Association. Accessed January 5, 2020. https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/page/Basicmanualseries.
- “MLA Online Publications.” Music Library Association. Accessed January 5, 2020. https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/page/mlapublications.
- “MLA Technical Reports.” Music Library Association. Accessed January 5, 2020. https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/page/techreports.
- Morrow, Jean. “Education for Music Librarianship.” Notes 56, no. 3 (2000): 655-61.
- Music Librarianship at the Turn of the Century. Edited by Richard Griscom and Amanda Maple, Canton, Mass.: MLA, 2000.
- Walker, Diane Parr. “Music in the Academic Library of Tomorrow.” Notes 59, no. 4 (2003
Text edited by:
Ilia Kyriazis, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Arsinoi Ioannidou, Greek Office RISM
Aris Bazmadelis, Library of the Department of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
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