Music in the Academic Library of Tomorrow

The University of Virginia (UVa) libraries have been engaged over the past couple of years in conversations and planning exercises focused around the theme "The Library of Tomorrow." This sounds more than a little futuristic, and indeed, we often feel that we are looking into a very murky crystal ball, trying to determine if we are seeing fingerposts pointing in the direction we should go or merely swirls of mist enticing us down the wrong path. When undertaking a similar exercise in the late 1960s, Robert S. Taylor, who was charged with the task of developing a prototype for what he called "the academic library in transition" at the then newly established Hampshire College in Massachusetts, wrote:

There are moments ... when we wish we did not have to use the word 'library.' The word carries too many connotations, which, partially truth and partially myth, may not let the library get to tomorrow, may inhibit its adaptability. The term exaggerates the differences between print and other media. It emphasizes the warehouse rather than the dynamic process. It focuses on the physical objects rather than on people. ¹

Over thirty years later, Taylor's frustrations still echo in the current issues facing music scholars, teachers, and librarians. How will libraries adapt for the future? Specifically, will music libraries need to adapt, and how? Music libraries have long encompassed multiple media, but will the focus in tomorrow's library still be on physical objects (or their digital replacements), or will its appropriate focus be on people? The March 2000 issue of Notes offers several excellent essays by visionary and esteemed music librarians on the challenges and concerns facing music librarians at the dawn of the twenty-first century. The musings offered here are an attempt to examine some of those issues in the broader context of planning for the future of academic libraries.

Introduction

Because the word "music" carries different meanings for different audiences, before exploring these questions it might be useful to clarify what I mean by "music" and by "music in libraries." Twenty years ago, when a student came to the library asking for "the music for Beethoven's Razumovsky Quartet," the first question the music librarian was likely to need to ask was whether the student wanted the score or the parts. Today, the more pertinent question is whether the student wants a recording or the printed notes. These days, a "music store" sells compact discs. Retail stores that sell music notation on paper for any other than commercially popular music are becoming increasingly scarce except in cities that also happen to house a music performance school. Furthermore, while a student studying performance in a music department or school understands music to imply common-practice or "classical" music, to a political science major music is popular culture.

For the purpose of discussing music in the academic library of tomorrow, this article will refer to two aspects of music as it is reflected in academic libraries. The first is music as an art form, and as represented in both recordings of performances and in printed transcriptions that those who are literate in musical notation and proficient in playing or singing from that notation can use to re-create that art form. The second is music as a discipline in the humanities, for which recordings as well as writings on the subject are important, but for which musical notation usually is not. This latter context includes all types of music from any culture or genre.

The Changing Nature of Academic Music Collections and Their Audience

Deanna Marcum has mused, "whereas information technology and computing professionals tend to think of digital resource development as technological innovation in support of electronic access, the question that arises more naturally from librarians is, access to what? " She points out that, unlike the books, journals, and other physical items that have historically been collected and cared for by libraries, "the Web is not under the care of librarians." ² How will...