special topic: public libraries || music at your fingertips: music resources seminars for secondary...

MUSIC AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: MUSIC RESOURCES SEMINARS FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLTEACHERS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIESAuthor(s): Phillippa McKeown-Green and Marilyn PortmanSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 57, No. 3, Special Topic: Public Libraries (July-September2010), pp. 285-290Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23512149 .

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MUSIC AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: MUSIC RESOURCES SEMINARS FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Phillippa McKeown-Green and Marilyn Portman1

English Abstract Public libraries in NZ are publically lunded and the larger city libraries have acquired substantial,

historically well-supported music collections, as have the university libraries. Very few of the

smaller public libraries and school libraries have any music collections to speak of. There are very few music retailers either. IAML (NZ) began organizing training seminars targeted at school music teachers and public librarians to show them how to access available but under-utilised and little

known resources such as the National Library's Music Services and School Library Services as well

as the online resources available to all schools and public libraries. The seminar, given all over the

country, has been very successful.

French Abstract

Les bibliothèques publiques en Nouvelle Zélande bénéficient d'un soutien public, et les

bibliothèques publiques plus importantes ont le privilège de pouvoir acquérir des collections musicales plus étoffées, tout comme les bibliothèques universitaires. Un très petit nombre de

bibliothèques publiques et de bibliothèques scolaires à taille réduite possèdent des collections musicales à proprement parler. Il existe d'ailleurs peu de revendeurs de musique dans ce pays. Le

groupe néo-zélandais de IAML a donc commencé à organiser des séminaires à l'intention des

professeurs de musique et des bibliothécaires musicaux exerçant en bibliothèques publiques afin

de leur montrer comment accéder à des ressources comme aux services de la Bibliothèque

nationale, ainsi qu'aux ressources disponibles pour les écoles et les bibliothèques publiques. Cette

formation a été proposée dans tout le pays et a connu un vif succès.

German Abstract

In Neuseeland werden Öffentliche Bibliotheken aus Steuermitteln finanziert, und die Bibliotheken

der größeren Städte haben, genauso wie die Universitätsbibliotheken, bedeutende Bestände

angesammelt. Nur sehr wenige der kleineren Öffentlichen oder Schulbibliotheken haben Musik

sammlungen, die der Rede wert sind. Es gibt auch nur sehr wenige Musikalienhändler. Die

neuseeländische Ländergruppe von IAML hat Seminare für Lehrer an Musikschulen und

Bibliothekare an Öffentlichen Bibliotheken entwickelt, die diesen den Wert von verfugbaren, aber

zu wenig bekannten und genutzten Angeboten, wie zum Beispiel der Dienstleistungen der National

bibliothek für Musik und Schulbibliotheken und anderer Onlineangebote, vermitteln. Das

erfolgreiche Seminar wurde im ganzen Land abgehalten.

1. Phillippa McKeown-Green is Music and Dance Librarian at the University of Aukland and Marilyn

Portman is Music Librarian at Auckland City Libraries, New Zealand.

285



286 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 57/3

Public libraries in New Zealand are funded by local government - that is, our city, town and county councils. Our larger city libraries, in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, and

Christchurch, have acquired substantial, historically well-supported music collections, as have the university libraries, and these collections are very well used by the music com

munity. Some of the secondary schools, especially in the higher decile areas, have very generous funding to support their music courses.

In contrast, very few of the smaller public libraries and school libraries in poorer areas have any music collections to speak of. Moreover, in a country like New Zealand, with 4 million people spread across two islands, 11,000 km away from the major European music publishers, there are very few music retailers to call on either.

So where do students, teachers and amateur and professional musicians go to access the resources they need? Some buy material from overseas at great expense, if they can afford to wait the 6-8 weeks for it to arrive here. Many try to borrow directly from the larger public library and university collections - collections that are already stretched to cope with their own user groups. But unfortunately, many more patrons have to do without.

However, the good news is that there are many resources available - if the patrons only knew where to look. IAML (NZ) felt it could play a role in pointing people in the right di rection and helping to open up avenues that they may not have known were there.

In 2007, IAML (NZ) came up with the idea of organising a training seminar that was

targeted at school music teachers and public librarians (and whoever else wanted to come

along) with the aim of directing attention towards under-utilised, little known resources. This half-day seminar, Music at Your Fingertips: A Music Resources Seminar, was a col

laboration between the University of Auckland Music Library, Auckland City Libraries, and the National Library School Services. Presenters at our first session in May 2007 were Marilyn Portman and Siong Ng from Auckland City Libraries; Phillippa McKeown-Green from the Music Library at the University of Auckland; and Lisa Allcott, Suzanne Hardy and Philip Hawkins from the Auckland base of the National Library's School Services division.

Content to be covered included electronic resources for music studies (designed to be a hands-on session), where to get school curriculum support materials (including scores, books, recordings, and journal articles); resources supplied through the NZ SOUNZ cen tre,2 and a physical tour of the music collections at Auckland City Libraries, including the fabled basement storage areas.

Our first attempt to give this course at the end of 2006 got some response from schools, but not enough to make the session worthwhile to run. We tried again in May 2007, hav ing given schools 3 months notice of the course and we had a better response.

We advertised through the National Library's School Services mail-outs and e-mail lists, which reach all secondary schools in the Auckland/Northland/Waikato region. We also directly e-mailed as many school music teachers and school librarians as we could find addresses for. After receiving about six enrolments, we opened up the session to pub lic and tertiary librarians and added another 8 enrolments.

As registrations came in, we received some direct questions about material the partic ipants wanted covered and, in response to these questions, we added in a short segment on the current situation in music copyright in New Zealand.

2. The NZ SOUNZ center is the New Zealand Music Information Centre.



MUSIC RESOURCES FOR SCHOOL TEACHERS AND LIBRARIES 287

The content covered in the Music at Your Fingertips seminar was very practical and

very interactive with facilities to demonstrate online resources and catalogues as well as

opportunities for people to explore various databases. The main areas covered were:

Sound recordings

Among the most sought after items in New Zealand libraries and schools are sound

recordings. This is a challenge as, at present, there is no policy to interloan CDs in New Zealand between libraries, except for one significant exception: a free or very cheap op tion offered to libraries, or users without resources to buy their own sound recordings, is to borrow directly from the collections of the National Library Music Room. The Music Room has a large sound recording collection of New Zealand and overseas music available for loan. All the CDs are listed on Te Puna, the national catalogue. Schools can also access this material easily through the School Library Service.

Another low-cost option was to borrow sound recordings directly from SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music. They lend from their 6,000 item library to both individu

als and organisations. Small libraries could join the Centre for $75 per year and have an

amazing rich resource of New Zealand music in all formats available to them. On-line streaming services such as Naxos Music Library may also be available already

to schools, teachers and students through their own public library service. Some useful

access to music recordings is also often available on YouTube these days. More expensive options include paying an annual subscription to on-line recording

streaming services such as Naxos Music Library, Naxos Music library Jazz, Classical

Music Library (Alexander Street) or Jazz Music Library. These services bring hundreds

of thousands of tracks of classical, jazz, and world music to the subscriber.

Music Scores

While public libraries have a rich and diverse resource of sheet music available to the music community, their collections will vary in depth and coverage - mainly due to ex

pense and the resources available. The National Library, having the most substantial gen eral lending collection in the country, should be the first port of call for schools and pub lic libraries that need to borrow scores on behalf of their customers. However, public and

tertiary libraries will also interloan their scores out to other libraries throughout New

Zealand, including complete works sets. Auckland City Libraries also lends from its collection of orchestral and choral sets

through normal interloan. The cost is the normal interloan fee plus, for orchestral sets, an

additional $20 fee. This system is used frequently and Auckland City libraries has noticed

a great jump in the number of interloans since their scores were fully catalogued and

accessible. Another access point is through the online catalogue called Cadence that includes most

of the orchestral and choral sets held in libraries or by musical organisations around the

country. This database also includes an extensive hire collection formerly held by Radio

New Zealand and now managed by the National Library's Music Room. This material can

be borrowed directly by individuals or groups. Public photocopy facilities are also available in most large collections. In New Zealand,

copyright law extends for 50 years after the death of the composer and only for 25 years for arrangements and editions. Customers are referred to AMCOS (Australasian




Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) for any issues to do with gaining copyright clearance.

Free on-line sources such as the International Music Scores Project (www.IMSLRorg) and Choral Wiki (www.cpdl.org) were demonstrated. We are finding that these are in

creasingly useful to all users, schools or otherwise, and is proving very good for finding classic scores and older editions. The problem is that these scores often pre-date the cur rent critical editions. Of note, however, are the large critical edition collections that are

coming online, such as the New Mozart Edition (dme.mozarteum.at/) and other series.

Research materials

One of the major resources available to school is EPIC. (Electronic Purchasing in

Collaboration) (http://www.natlib.govt.nz/services/national-collaborative-services/ epic). This is the national e-licensing initiative that makes a package of electronic re sources available to all New Zealanders through libraries that are consortium members.

Currently over 170 libraries, drawn from all sectors, are members. EPIC's vision is to pro vide access to high quality electronic information for all New Zealanders. The Ministry of Education has continued to fund access to EPIC for all New Zealand schools.

The music resources on EPIC are based around the Oxford Music Online resources such as The New Grove Dictionary of Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The

Oxford Companion to Music. The New Grove, of course, is more scholarly in style and con tent than the other two works, but contains invaluable resources for upper level secondary study, especially in providing resources for teacher preparation. The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music are more useful for school-level studies and basic research questions in public libraries.

In conjunction with the Oxford offerings, EPIC also enables access to EBSCO's data

bases, which provides a rich resource of research material for students and teachers

through access to many full text journals and online indexes. The School Library Service is of course available to help with any requests for any

information. And finally in this new technological age, there are also the basics - Google Scholar,

Google Books, and Project Gutenberg, providing easy full-text access to many music re sources. Another exceptional free resource, which is made available through the Auck land City Libraries Digital Library, is Index Auckland (http://www.aucklandcitylibraries .com/DigitalLibrary/resourcepages/indexauckland.aspx?RD=~/DigitalLibrary). This is an online database that indexes a set of unique New Zealand music scrapbooks from 1890 to 1997, which contain newspaper and magazine articles. Compiled by the Music team at Auckland City Libraries, it contains a host of information about New Zealand music, organisations, and musicians and provides valuable research material which cannot be found anywhere else.

Access to material and resources

Finally, we discuss the options for joining a library with larger music resources. All of the city libraries, for example, have membership options available for out-of-area borrow ers that schools might like to take up on behalf of a music teacher. And it is also possible to enrol as an associate member at a university library (this is only an option for univer

sity graduates), which would give some borrowing and online access privileges. Finally,



MUSIC RESOURCES FOR SCHOOL TEACHERS AND LIBRARIES 289

School Services at the National Library also emphasised that although they did not have extensive music resources available locally, they were able to source any materials needed

by schools, both for teachers and students, with the aid of the National Library Music Room collections and staff.

Similarly, the National Library Music Room was able to provide backup resources di

rectly to public libraries - both through lending materials and by providing a specialist music reference service.

Having deemed the initial Music at Your Fingertips seminar a great success, we were keen to take up another opportunity that presented itself in October 2008. The organizers of the 2008 LIANZA Conference (Library Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa) to be held in Auckland, wrote to smaller library associations in New Zealand such as IAML(NZ)

asking if we would be able to participate in the conference, perhaps by running a spe cialised training session. We thought this might be a good opportunity to reach small libraries from distant parts of the country. Unfortunately, LIANZA were only offering 1-hour time slots for online sessions. We focused in on what we thought were the two main

segments to compress the material into a one-hour session: EPIC resources, and help with music interloans. We advertised it as being particularly useful for small public libraries.

In our EPIC section, we focused on answering questions and providing resources needed for the New Zealand Secondary School music exams (NCEA and Cambridge) and

private music exams such as the ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of

Music) and the Trinity Guildhall examinations. We gave the participants some typical

questions to look at and guided them through using the online resources themselves. For second part of the presentation, we prepared handouts about how to handle

interloans - librarians from smaller public libraries had expressed concerns many times about how to identify the materials wanted correctly. The first handout covered termi

nology which mystifies interloans librarians -including terms such as SATB, vocal score,

"miniature", "fake book", BWV. etc. The 2nd handout tried to explain some of the deeper mysteries of finding scores,

though guidance such as. "If you are after a particular piano sonata by a major composer such as Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven, don't bother to search for the individual work. Libraries mostly hold the complete sonatas of these composers in multi-volume sets."

Finally, we gave out a quiz matching questions commonly asked by borrowers, which the librarians had to match with appropriate scores - such as, "I need a score of a Flute

Quartet by Mozart, K.285. To study, not to play from" or "I would like a vocal score of Berlioz's Requiem, please."

About 20 librarians from Waikato to Invercargill (from one end of the country to the

other) registered for the session, and we had to turn almost as many away, since the sem

inar rooms were small with only enough seating and computer access for 20. We received

very good feedback from this session.

It seems we have tapped into a strong demand from schools and small town libraries

for information and training about music resources. We also feel that the seminars have

helped to raise the profile of IAML(NZ) and of music librarianship among other libraries

and librarians in New Zealand. It is clear that we serve a larger constituency than just our

own libraries and our own users.

In 2010 we hope to run two more such sessions - one was successfully conducted in

May in the Western Bay of Plenty at the LIANZA Weekend School. It focussed mainly on

free online sources.




Then we hope to finally repeat the full two-and-a-half-hour version of the seminar in

Wellington later in 2010, with the help of Wellington-based staff from School Services and

SOUNZ, as well as the Music Room staff themselves from the National Library. In conclusion, the seminars have been a real success with 17 attendees turning out at

the initial one, 20 at the LIANZA Conference in 2008 and then 62 at the recent LIANZA weekend school in May 2010 - the growing numbers and positive feedback indicating that there is a real demand for this. We have discovered that the initial framework that we cre ated has worked well as a template for further workshops and is proving to be an excel lent tool and method of promoting the music collections and services available around New Zealand. The whole process has brought a good opportunity for greater cooperation between IAML(NZ), Auckland City Libraries and the School Library Service, helping to raise the profile of each organisation in addition to making our customers aware of how much wonderful music is at their fingertips.



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