Group Presentations and Solitary Composers?

Remember, remember, in early December ...

Here in the Whittaker Library, we have a huge spreadsheet to help us remember when different classes have assignment deadlines.  For example, there will soon be group presentations about music history and music in society, whilst the electroacoustic composition elective students will be submitting their work with accompanying documentation.

The library has shelves full of conventional books, web-pages full of e-resources, and well-qualified music librarians to help our students find suitable materials for their assignments.  Admittedly, we can't do the compositions, or give the presentations! But we have plenty of literature on compositional techniques, oodles of materials on music history or music in society - and can probably also source resources on how to give presentations!  We can also advise on referencing or compiling a bibliography.

So what are you waiting for?  Just ask!

Manic Monday Assignment Crisis?

When you're up against deadlines, it's easy to panic.  But don't forget, the Whittaker Library has loads of materials to help you.  As well as the books on the shelves (ask for help if you can't find what you need), we have lots of online materials too.  If you're off-campus, it's good to know there's material you can still access. 
Find them on our Electronic Resources pages on the Library website or via Moodle.  Off-campus, you'll need to login, generally by picking RCS from a list of institutions then using your usual RCS login.

• JSTOR has literally thousands of articles about every aspect of music under the sun.
• RILM is another music resource - it has abstracts (summaries) of articles, books and more.
• Oxford Music Online is the world's best music encyclopedia.
• Naxos, one of our streaming services, is a bit like Spotify.  An added extra is the ability to access cover notes, giving programme notes for any piece of music on the website.  RCS students should ask us if they need the off-campus login - it's not the general RCS one.

We also have a page for Electronic Journals, which might be helpful to you.

Last but not least, some textbooks are available as e-books as well as paper copies.  They're just in the catalogue like any book, but there's a hyperlink for e-book access.

Now You Can Discover Belgian Music from World War I - Digital Access

The Royal Library of Belgium holds an interesting collection of music from the First World War, and the Europeana Collections 1914-1918 project is widening access to it with its digitization project.

Frederic Lemmers, Head of Digitization programs at the Royal Library, gave a presentation about this project to music librarians at the IAML conference in Antwerp earlier this summer. 

• Read Frédéric Lemmers' presentation:  "Music & First World War within the collections of the Royal Library of Belgium"

The Royal Library's selection of documents concerning music during the Great War is available on both the www.europeana.eu and www.europeana1914-1918.eu websites, the main European digital library and its specific thematic portal dedicated to the Great War.

Additionally, there are several collections of songbooks and music sheets from all parts of Europe, on the Europeana Collections 1914-1918 project website, where they've been listed by ten European national libraries. (See also : www.europeana-collections-1914-1918.eu).
Restricted access to the music corpus of the Royal Library of Belgium is also available HERE.
  

Frédéric Lemmers

Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België)

4, Bd de l'Empereur - Keizerslaan

B-1000 Bruxelles - Brussel

tel.: +32.2.519.56.64

Website:- http://belgica.kbr.be

Music Librarians Go Abroad

We're members of IAML - the International Association of Music Libraries.  Karen posted a 'conference diary' entry on the IAML website, after attending and speaking at the 2014 conference in Antwerp earlier this month.  You can read it HERE.

World War 1 Sheet Music Online (Thank you, Library of Congress!)

American Music Librarians - We Salute You!

The Library of Congress has made available a wonderful collection of World War I sheet music, online.  Click on the images - a treat in themselves - and download pdf files of individual songs.  

This is a really invaluable resource - we're often asked for sheet music from the First World War, by music, musical theatre, and drama students.  Everyone should note this very useful link in a safe place.  (Karen's adding it to her Diigo account straight away.)

• World War I Sheet Music 
• Library of Congress homepage

Readers may be interested to note that the compiler, Paul Fraunfelter - Digital Conversion Specialist at the Library of Congress - will be giving a paper at a forthcoming conference on The Music of War: 1914-18, at the British Library in London:-

"The Music of War: 1914–1918
29–31 August 2014
British Library, London
"An international conference to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Held as part of the British Library's Centenary events programme, supported by the Royal Musical Association, Music & Letters, and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities."  Click HERE for further details.

Paul advises us that, "Among the many panels and presentations from international scholars, will be my ‘WWI Sheet Music at the Library of Congress: America’s War as Viewed by Publishers and the Public’, which is the associated essay on the LC site."

Reblogged: Guest post by Katy Hamilton: "Music librarians, we salute you"

Our international professional association, IAML, has just posted a wonderful endorsement of music librarians.  Katie Hamilton highlights the benefits on both sides when music librarians collaborate with musicologists.

Read Katie's inspirational guest blogpost HERE.

• International Association of Music Libraries homepage

Looking after Musicians - IAML (International Association of Music Libraries)

IAML is an international organisation uniting music libraries and music librarians globally, and there are also many national branches.

The IAML international website combines serious professional discussion and general music library news.

To brighten your day, we share the 'entertainment' section at the end of today's IAML News, Friday Edition:-

Friday Fun

• Amateur musicians join a pro orchestra for a day
  Side by Side with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSP6ZMxpE6w&feature=share&list=UU9kWhteV7V69hjHvfhWIung&index=1
• Kids React to Sony Walkman
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_vV-JRZ6E
• Which archivist are you?
  http://www.playbuzz.com/rebeckas10/which-archivist-are-you

The Music Librarian's Favourites

FAVOURITES?  Did you hear us say that the supposedly impartial music librarian has favourites? 

Relax!  These are favourite websites, not favourite borrowers, because of course we love you all equally.

Karen saves her favourite websites to Diigo, so she can share them with you later.  However, when there's a lot of cataloguing and not as much time, it seems more sensible to share them all at once.  So as a special treat, you're being granted a peek into the music librarian's recently favourited finds.

Click here for a whole batch of useful links on:-

• The E T Bryant Memorial Prize for early career music librarians
• An extinct stringed instrument - a mini cello played under your chin!
• The British Library Mechanical Curator - quality free historical images
• MAPCO historical maps
• Glasgow University Library's Incunabula project (very rare books)
• The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Teaching Artist course
• Life beyond the PhD
• and much, much more!

The Helpfulness of a Music Librarian

Of course, you already know how helpful music librarians can be! Our professional association is celebrating 60 years of helpfulness, as you see on this mailing from Cambridge ...

"This week a new exhibition was launched at Cambridge University Library celebrating 60 years of IAML (UK & IRL); more information at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/deptserv/music/exhibitions.html

"The exhibition is now launched with a blog post titled "The most helpful people on earth: 60 years of IAML(UK and Ireland)" by Susi Woodhouse: 

"So wrote Imogen Holst of music librarians in her article Gustav Holst's manuscripts in Brio vol. 4 no. 1. As true now as it was back in 1967. This year, the United Kingdom and Ireland Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (to give it its full name) celebrates its […]" Read more of this post here.

Award for Early Career Music Librarians - the E T Bryant Memorial Prize

E.T. Bryant Memorial Prize

From the IAML(UK & Irl) website:-

'The E.T. Bryant Memorial Prize is awarded 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. Publication does not preclude entry. The prize is £250, awarded jointly by IAML(UK & Irl) and the Music Libraries Trust ...'

Music Team at the Whittaker Library

Introducing Catherine Small, our new Assistant Librarian, who is working Tuesdays and Wednesdays while Music and Academic Services Librarian Karen McAulay is seconded as part-time postdoc research assistant on an AHRC-funded project.

Catherine Small and Karen McAulay