IAML 2011

Belfast

'Whittaker' had a busy weekend. 

Last Saturday, after chairing a session on nineteenth century music in Belfast, I reached my Trinity College Dublin room at 11.35 pm, in readiness for the IAML (International Association of Music Librarians) Dublin Conference starting on Sunday. An unearthly time to arrive, but there were still people there in the Accomodation Office!  Impressive, eh?

Delegates were surprised to find a handwritten note on their residence door one day requesting them NOT to slam their doors.  A shushing librarian?  On the contrary - our self-closing doors were disturbing a foreign summer-school student!

But what do music librarians do at conferences?

Civic Reception, Dublin

Sunday: 'Whittaker' observed a IAML Council Meeting and attended a civic reception in Dublin City Hall, also finding time to visit the vaults below for an exhibition of Dublin's history; and walking back to Trinity College via the historic statues of Daniel O'Connell and Thomas Moore.

Lecture theatre

Monday: Heard papers on Geminiani and Handel in Dublin (Christopher Hogwood) and Handel's 'Messiah' in Dublin (Katherine Hogg).  Then papers on the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland's Digitisation Project (Jonathan Grimes) and the National Archive of Irish Composers (by pianist Una Hunt).  After lunch, I gave the first paper of a session on Celtic music:- 'Minstrels and Metaphors' (Karen McAulay - see my pages relating to Minstrels and Metaphors, and a Bibliography); this was followed by Pirate editions of Scottish music (Almut Boehme, of the National Library of Scotland); and Joyce, Wilde and Yeats [as used in popular music] (Eleni Mitsiaki).  After tea, we heard reports from the national Branches.  Dinner with assorted UK and European colleagues.

IAML strategic forward planning

Tuesday: Dived into the University Library to post my bibliography on this blog, then attended a session by the Bibliographic Commission about how we can promote our service, and further discussion about using social media.  Next, we had a session on RILM (see the Bibliolore blog feed to the right of this posting); this was followed by a paper on musicology in Ireland (Maria McHale).  After lunch with colleagues, there was a plenary session on the future of IAML. (Now we've reached our 60th anniversary, it's time for reflection and strategic planning for the future.)  Very interesting talk by Harry White on the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Music in Ireland (Whittaker Library will be ordering this!); followed by an evening concert of cello and piano music by Ferenc Szucs and Una Hunt.  Dinner with UK and Australian colleagues, and our President, Roger Flury (New Zealand).

Una and Ferenc



Wednesday.  Rise and shine at 4 a.m., and regretfully head for the Airport.  I'm very grateful to the Music Libraries Trust for their kind bursary enabling me to attend this conference.  I shall follow delegates' tweets to find out what happens during the rest of the week.