music libraries in australian tertiary music teaching institutions

MUSIC LIBRARIES IN AUSTRALIAN TERTIARY MUSIC TEACHING INSTITUTIONSAuthor(s): Georgina BinnsSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 46, No. 3/4 (July-December 1999), pp. 279-285Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23509271 .

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MUSIC LIBRARIES IN AUSTRALIAN TERTIARY MUSIC TEACHING INSTITUTIONS

Georgina Binns (Melbourne, Australia)*

The author surveys the status of music libraries in Australian colleges, universities,

and conservatories since the appearance of major reports on the subject in 1970.

There is great variety in the some twenty-five such libraries in the country. Growth has been offset by mergers, affiliations, and projected closures in many areas of

higher education. Many formerly independent music schools are now part of larger

universities. Automation and cooperative cataloguing have aided interdisciplinary re search and brought far distant libraries closer together. Union catalogues of orches

tral scores, performing parts, and music serials like similar initiatives play a leading role. Nevertheless, funding is currently diminishing, leading to budget cuts for collec tions and staff, and making it difficult for young music librarians to enter the profes sion.

Little has been written on music libraries in tertiary teaching institutions in

Australia1 and our profession in general. Articles in Continuo: Journal oflAML

(Australian Branch) provide an insight into the Australian situation, and a

scattering of articles in other librarianship journals highlight collections

and specialized knowledge including cataloguing. Major works, both pub lished in 1970, include a report prepared for the Australian Advisory Council

on Bibliographical Services by Roger Covell and Patricia Brown on music re

sources in Australian libraries, and a report of the "Music librarianship and

documentation" seminar held in Adelaide under the direction of Werner

Gallusser and Andrew McCredie.2 The recommendations in the Covell/Brown

report included several issues which are still important thirty years later and

which are yet to be fully realized. These include the rationalization of collec

tions (including serials, manuscripts, rare printed editions and composers'

*Georgina Binns is Music and Multimedia Librarian at Monash University in Melbourne.

1. Tertiary education institutions in Australia include post-secondary colleges and universities.

Students are able to complete degree programs at an undergraduate and postgraduate level, i.e.,

Bachelor and Master degrees, and Doctorates.

2. Roger Covell and Patricia Brown, Music Resources in Australian Libraries: A Report Prepared

for the Australia Advisory Council on Bibliographical Services (Canberra: AACOBS, 1970); Werner

Gallusser and Andrew McCredie (dir.), Music Librarianship and Documentation: Report of the

Adelaide Seminar May 1970 (Adelaide: Department of Adult Education, University of Adelaide,

1970).

279



280 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 46/3-4

archives), and the cataloguing and coordination of performing sets for use by our instrumental and choral ensembles.

Positive developments have included the formation in 1974 of a Music

Section at the National Library of Australia, and a decade later the formation of

a National Film and Sound Archive (renamed ScreenSound Australia in 1999). The development of arts institutions in the early 1970s under the patronage of an arts-friendly Labor government also saw the establishment of several

performing arts teaching institutions with accompanying libraries (including the Victorian College of the Arts Library and the Canberra School of Music

Library). Music libraries supporting the older conservatoriums (particularly in Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney) have been active since the late nine teenth and early twentieth centuries.

The main contribution to the literature since the influential reports of 1970 has been the updated survey of music collections in Australian libraries carried out by the Distributed National Collection Office at the National library of Australia in 1994.3 This report covers the areas of collection development, bib

liographic control, and access to music library materials. The main contributors were teaching institutions, along with contributions from state libraries and national collecting institutions. One result of this report was the formation of a Music Reference Group, with membership comprising IAML, library, acade

mic, and National Library of Australia representation. Its role was to

"facilitate change nationally and collaboratively... [and it aimed amongst a number of issues] to define key issues relevant to users and providers and to develop a co

herent vision for future development of music collections ... to increase national

awareness of the significance of music materials to the nation ... [and] to foster co

operation among participating libraries and users."4

There were great hopes for this group. Although the Music Reference

Group met a number of times in and after 1995, it unfortunately has not met for some years and has lost its impetus. The failure of the group to accomplish its

goals was due to a number of factors. One significant factor was the timing of its formation which occurred when many universities and libraries were un

dergoing restructuring. Many members were unable to contribute as much as

they would have liked, due to the instability of their institutions: often their own positions and staff positions were in jeopardy. The focus is now back on the individual institutions and cooperation both within the states and nation

ally. IAML (Australia) uses its network of members and institutions, its Intermezzo newsletter, its journal Continuo, and biennial conferences to foster this sense of cooperation.

There are many types of music libraries in tertiary teaching institutions in Australia. In 1994, the survey from the Distributed National Collection Office recorded seventeen teaching institutions with significant music holdings in their library collections (including scores, sound recordings, manuscripts and works on music). Considering this 1994 report, current IAML membership,

3. Results of the Survey of Music Collections in Australian Libraries. August 1994 (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1995).

4. Kaye Hill, "Report from the Music Reference Group," Continuo 24 (1995): 57.



MUSIC LIBRARIES IN AUSTRALIAN TERTIARY MUSIC TEACHING INSTITUTIONS 281

and additional literature, I believe there are now over twenty-five libraries in

tertiary teaching institutions with a variety of music collections. Each has a dif ferent background of history, funding, rationalization, amalgamation, and in stitutional strengths. For example, there are libraries in conservatoriums and

performing arts colleges focusing on performance; in universities there are small departmental libraries with modest collections and larger branch li braries that are decentralized from the main or general university libraries. There are music libraries which are sections within a larger library, for exam

ple within a humanities library, and there are music libraries that exist along side audiovisual/multimedia collections in larger libraries. The collections consist of books, journals, music scores, sound recordings, videos, CD-ROM and other audiovisual formats. They support the teaching and research activi ties of their institutions which include performance, musicology, history and

analysis, composition and theory, ethnomusicology, popular music, music ed

ucation, music therapy, and music technology. Despite the growth in music libraries over the past three decades, there

have been a number of affiliations, mergers and projected closures affecting our music libraries. In the late 1980s a government report (known as the Dawkins report, after the then Minister for Employment, Education and

Training) recommended that the large number of tertiary institutions includ

ing colleges of advanced education (which included many specialist music

colleges), conservatoriums, and universities would have to combine if they were to receive adequate funding.5 As a result, many of our specialist music in

stitutions were forced to merge with other institutions. The Conservatorium of New South Wales became affiliated with the University of Sydney, the

Victorian College of the Arts joined the University of Melbourne, and the Conservatorium of Queensland merged with Griffith University, amongst others. There is still movement a decade later as the Western Australian Conservatorium is currently merging with the University of Western Australia.

Along with this rationalization, many of the music departments in the univer sities have been under review. Recently the Music Department at Latrobe

University in Melbourne, renowned for its leadership in education in music

technology, announced its impending closure. In 2000 no students will be en

rolled. The future of the extensive collections of twentieth-century music in

cluding jazz and popular music in the library is unknown. The rationale behind

many of these mergers and closures is, of course, funding. Music attracts a

small number of students as it is not regarded by young people as an employ ment-focused course. So in an age of high unemployment rates amongst young

people and economic rationalism influencing the decisions of university

administrators, music courses are often the first to suffer. As a result, service

areas, including music libraries, are often struggling to maintain funding and

status within the teaching institutions. What seems to be occurring is a shift to

courses focused on media and information technology where students believe

they have better opportunities for employment.

5. National Board of Employment, Education and Training. Report of the Task Force on

Amalgamations in Higher Education (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1989).




Significant changes in libraries in the last decades of this century have oc

curred in library automation and the development of online services, including databases and the Internet. Australian libraries have taken on the challenge and the majority of music libraries are now automated. Most libraries con

tribute their cataloguing records to the Australian National Bibliographical Database (previously the Australian Bibliographic Network—ABN) which is accessed through the Kinetica Internet interface. This acts as an online union

catalogue and a national document delivery service operates so that we are able to share resources around the country.

Along with these developments music libraries have focused their re

sources into providing electronic information. Music Index on CD-ROM and RILM on CD-ROM and also online through the Firstsearch gateway have been

adopted by many libraries. The International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP) and its Fulltext version are slowly being adopted and placed on trial to assess

usage and impact. The fulltext version of IIMP, if taken as an ongoing sub

scription, will have major impact on serial subscriptions. Already a number of

libraries including the University of Melbourne and Monash University are

considering this and plan to cooperate if cancellations are to be made. The li

braries that are within the university systems are also able to take advantage of other related subscription databases. The increasing amount of inter

disciplinary research amongst our students and academics means that these databases are becoming essential tools alongside traditional music indexes. Databases including Humanities Index/Abstracts, Modern Language Associ ation International Bibliography, Art Index, Film Index International, Philoso

phers Index and Historical Abstracts are becoming mainstream indexing tools for many of our students. The demand for Australian resources is focused on the Australian Public Affairs and Information Service database, which gives ac cess to performing arts-related citations. Students have access to these on

campus and increasingly can access them off campus from their institution's World Wide Web homepage by using a valid password. Most music libraries in Australia have a presence on the Internet and increasingly are using their

homepages to promote services to their students and staff. This is often taking the place of the traditional library education/information literacy classes that we have given to our students in the past.

In addition to this changing focus from traditional reference tools to data bases and the Internet, many libraries are starting to investigate how they can deliver additional services in an innovative manner. The University of Adelaide

Performing Arts Library has developed a successful service where recordings made within the university—for example examination recitals and concerts— are delivered on and off campus, on request through a phone delivery system. The Music and Multimedia Section at Monash University in Melbourne has

developed a service for the delivery of audio lectures over the Internet and has

successfully completed tests on the delivery of music through this system. It is hoped that the high use recordings (i.e., those recordings set for the 200

first-year music history students) will be made available through this service.

Currently the project is being hampered by copyright considerations. This

highly innovative service was made possible through the funding available




within a large university. Many of our music libraries have gained from merg ers and affiliations that occurred in the 1980s and have gained greater expo sure to funding opportunities and technological developments than might have happened if they had stayed small and relatively independent. Of course there have been some changes that many music librarians have had to battle as they are confronted with managers who do not necessarily understand the

unique needs of music libraries. Other cooperative ventures in which music libraries are participating in

clude cooperative catalogues. Apart from the National Bibliographic Database

(which is only available to subscribers), most states have a cooperative cata

logue of major libraries. In Victoria, a catalogue called "Coolcat" provides ac cess to all the university libraries and the State Library of Victoria. Users are able to look up items and find a location somewhere in the state. A cooperative borrowing system also exists where university students can borrow from other universities. A number of IAML initiatives completed under the direction of

Mary O'Mara include the Union Catalogue of Orchestral Scores and Perform

ing Parts and the Union Catalogue of Music Serials in Australian Libraries. These catalogues incorporate locations of collections from many institutions and are consulted daily in our libraries. These types of publications promote cooperation amongst our libraries, assist us with collection management, and

also aid our musical directors in planning budget expenditure and program ming for ensemble performance programs.6 Other programs which are used

constantly include the Canberra Choral Society Music Lending Scheme and the newly-begun Union Catalogue of Choral Sets, based at the State Library of

Queensland. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation libraries in each state

also play an important role and are drawn on by many music libraries for as

sistance with performing sets, recordings, and transcripts. Another cooperative venture is the National Networked Facility for

Research in Australian Music, which is accessed on the Internet.7 With coop eration and funding from six institutions including universities, the National

Library of Australia, and ScreenSound Australia, "this network aims to provide modes of access to Australia's scattered and often hidden documentary sources, and to build structures that will provide access to, and knowledge about, all our music-related resources." A number of music libraries in the uni

versities are contributing to this venture.8

6. Mary O'Mara, ed. Union Catalogue of Orchestral Scores and Performing Parts in Australian

Music Libraries and Collections. 2nd ed. (Sydney: International Association of Music Libraries,

Archives and Documentation Centres (Australian Branch), 1998). Mary O'Mara, Union Catalogue

of Music Serials in Australian Libraries. (Brisbane: International Association of Music Libraries,

Archives and Documentation Centres (Australian Branch), 1992).

7. Cliff Law, "Development of a National Networked Facility for Research in Australian Music,"

Continuo 24 (1995): 59.

8. Further information on music in Australian teaching institutions may be found in: Warren

Bebbington, College Library Service for Music Courses: A Report Prepared for the Library of South

Australian College of Advanced Education (Adelaide: South Australian College of Advanced Educa

tion, 1985); The Oxford Companion to Australian Music. Ed. by Warren Bebbington. (Melbourne:

Oxford University Press, 1998); and Georgina Binns (comp.), "Australian Music Resources in

Selected Australian Music Libraries, Archives and Museums," Continuo 24 (1995): 37-54.




Further advantages are being sought from the strength of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) which represents a meeting of all Australian University Librarians. Recent gains have been the funding to con tribute to retrospective conversion of card catalogues for a number of music collections and the ability to organize consortium agreements with major data base suppliers enabling us to access subscriptions at cheaper rates.

In the face of diminishing funding there is a growing sense of the impor tance of and need for cooperation. The additional complication of falling ex

change rates has also had a great impact in the past few years. Australian buy ing power has lessened, and last year many institutions had to make cancellations of up to twenty percent of their serial titles to meet budgets. In

Melbourne, cooperation took place between many of the universities—sharing lists of proposed cancellations and checking that not all the same titles were cancelled. Consultation is also occurring in the establishment of new sub

scriptions to journals and collected editions, especially within the same state. In addition to diminishing funds for the purchase of collections, the staffing

of our libraries is also an ongoing issue. When (or if) there are vacancies for

staff, it is often difficult to find adequately trained and experienced personnel. The professional library courses undertaken at universities offer little or no op portunity for any specialization. Students can choose project work and appro priate field work or professional experience in music libraries, but this is often all they are offered. General library positions are hard to find for

first-year graduates, let alone finding a position in a music library. The usual re

quirements for a professional position in a music library in a university would be a first degree with some music specialization, for example a Bachelor of Arts or Music degree, followed by postgraduate library qualifications—one year for a Graduate Diploma and two years for a Masters degree. These de

grees allow professional admission to the Australian Library and Information Association. Support staff are usually qualified library technicians who have

completed a two to three year course at a TAFE college.9 Our position/job de

scriptions for support staff aim to include at least a requirement for the candidate to have a "knowledge of music." A test of music recognition may be

required. Professional staff in addition to their music and library-related de

grees are usually required to have some knowledge of European languages. Many young professionals interested in working in this area often start work

ing casually as part-time shelvers or assisting in preparing orchestral and choral music for performance. Eventually a position may arise and they have then suitable experience for more permanent appointment. Ongoing training once in a position is important and all libraries are required to provide a bud

get for staff development. This budget can include support for internal or ex ternal training courses for software packages, attendance at conferences, sem inars or workshops. Some institutions offer study leave of a nominated number of hours a week for staff to complete formal study.

9. Training and Further Education colleges (TAFE) are technical training colleges. Students are able to complete certificates and diplomas.




In closing it may seem that there are many problems experienced by music libraries in Australian universities and colleges, but I believe that we are not alone. There are also exciting times ahead as we enter cooperative agreements and arrangements to ensure our collections continue to grow and support our institutional teaching and research needs. We need to continue to develop pro ductive relationships with our faculty to ensure that the music library services are relevant and accessible; develop further innovative services utilizing the Internet and the accompanying technologies for digitization of our sound and

paper-based collections; develop training programs to enable staff to carry out the specialized needs of the music students and faculty; interact more with our

neighbors (in the global sense) as communication becomes easier and share and learn from their experience. These things may appear to be a lot to

achieve. But building on the existing resources including collections and staff, the technological developments of the last decade and the strong network

amongst Australian music libraries, they are within our grasp.



music libraries in australian tertiary music teaching institutions

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