I love attending library conferences. There is a beautiful kinship felt when a group of librarians are all in the same room. This quality was heavy in the atmosphere at the newly opened Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in the Ian Potter Southbank Centre for the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) 3 day conference held last week [3 October 2019]. The venue was perfect and walking through was a thrill all of its own. The Conservatorium feels much like a library – or at least, one of those special library type places where you whisper for fear of disturbing the magic encapsulating you. Due to work commitments I was unfortunately unable to attend the full 3 days and only attended the session Knowing the Score.
I came upon IAML and the conference in serendipitous fashion. I am a librarian new to working with music collections – or indeed any collections, having recently finished my Information Management degree – and was researching which Library Management System might be best for our small music institution as our current one desperately needs replacing. I was researching the LMS used by one of our competitors when I stumbled upon a review by their librarian who just so happens to be an Australian state representative of IAML. One click led to another and I found myself on the IAML website. Splendidly, this was just before the conference in Melbourne and I was able to attend.
Knowing the score is a session aimed very much at those in a position similar to me; those who may be new to working with music collections and need a little music theory background and back-to-basics guidance. For a couple of hours attendees heard from four speakers who spoke across a range of subjects including basic music theory, music specific search techniques, music copyright and online music resources. The session primarily focussed on classical music, and although the collection I work with centres around contemporary pop and rock music, I still learnt a lot and my mind buzzed with new knowledge as I returned to work. Some of the key lessons I took from the day surrounded search and copyright considerations that are specific to music resources. I now know how to better search for specific scores, and better understand the great number of versions a piece can have dependent upon instrument, style, and other factors. I was also reminded that when working with music resources we must constantly consider that there is often more than one owner of any piece of musical work. A small yet significant thing I learnt was that libraries should have copyright warning notices next to printing and computer areas which we didn’t have – but now do!
The resource sharing by Jackie [Waylen] in the last part of the session was fantastic also. I have sent many of the resources around to colleagues and am working at making them available to students. It was a lovely reminder of the sharing, non-competitive nature of the library world that I love.
Being a new librarian working solo with a small collection of music resources I look forward to attending more IAML sessions and spending more time with the lovely brains trust leading the Australian branch.
You can view the slides of Knowing the score and other selected presentations from the IAML Australia 2019 Melbourne conference on our presentation page.
