Memorandum submitted by the International
Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres
(United Kingdom and Ireland Branch)
IAML(UK & Irl), the UK and Ireland Branch
of the international organization (IAML), exists to represent
and promote the interests of music librarians and libraries, music-related
archives and music information providers throughout the United
Kingdom and Ireland. IAML membership, both individual and corporate,
covers a wide range of institutions including public, academic
and national libraries, professional orchestras, opera companies,
broadcasting authorities and the music trade.
Although the current inquiry is focused on museum
collections, we feel that library collections should be included
in any relevant policies, particularly with regard to the many
archival collections held by public libraries throughout the UK.
We feel particularly able to comment on the acquisition and disposal
policies aspect of the inquiry. Music materials are held in a
wide variety of formats, all of which need specialist preservation.
Many music collections in public libraries and archives are cared
for by staff without specialist knowledge of the subject. The
due diligence process, in terms of knowing the true value to heritage
and research of items in such collections is therefore difficult,
if not impossible. Disposal policies of public library collections
are often determined by how much use an item has had in the last
5-10 years, this requires no specialist knowledge to carry out,
and so is easy and efficient to administer, but crucially ignores
any intrinsic value contained in the item in question.
There have been many reports in the media in
recent years of public libraries disposing of parts of their music
collections, built up over many years, simply because they were
not aware of the value of the materials in their possession. A
national retention strategy would go some way towards addressing
this problem, as would the employment of specialist staff to care
for the nation's publicly available music collections.
Even with knowledgeable staff, institutions
can often find that preserving their materials can be a complex
problem. The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust advises on
the availability of specialist companies to carry out conservation
and preservation work, but it would be fair to say that the list
is quite short. Training in conservation/preservation methods
would help to bridge the gap between the need for in-house remedial
work and professional preservation.
27 September 2006
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