Music Librarianship at the Turn of the Century (review)

This slim volume of thirteen essays uses the millennium as an opportunity to explore the recent past, present, and future of music librarianship. The book covers an impressive range of topics, with essays focusing on public and technical services, publishing trends, collection development, reference service, and preservation, among others.

Most of the authors work in large academic libraries in the United States, and this perspective is evident in their essays. There is little discussion of issues pertaining to nonacademic or international institutions. Although the volume would have benefited if more voices had been included, the focus on academic libraries does have its advantages. The value in a volume such as this is the way in which the essays reinforce each other, reflecting the common concerns and issues of librarians working in similar environments. Collectively, the essays provide a picture of how (mostly academic) music librarians see themselves and their profession at the turn of the century. This snapshot will be of tremendous value to historical researchers tracing the evolution of music librarianship. Most of the essays remain firmly implanted in the present time, with few venturing into the past or making bold predictions for the future. In this sense the volume is the equivalent of a monographic time capsule, capturing and recording the state of the profession for future generations to observe.

In a work that attempts to convey the essence of the field, the overarching themes are more important than any specific details. A striking feature of the book is the surprisingly pessimistic view about the state of music librarianship it reveals. There are repeated laments for what has been lost and only occasional enthusiasm for what has been gained. An example of this is the essay on technology. The author is critical of online catalogs (they were adopted too early and are not as user-friendly or as standardized as card catalogs were), e-journals (they are not as complete as their paper counterparts), and commercial digital audio packages (they place too much collection development responsibility in the hands of self-interested corporations). While this essay is especially pessimistic, the attitude pervades almost the entire collection. This is not intended as a criticism (the authors may well be correct in their assessments), but it is striking how little optimism is expressed. The emphasis seems to be on the challenges to be overcome—declining budgets, inadequate reference works, decaying paper collections—rather than on the possibilities of the future.

Another major theme in the volume is a general anxiety over the state of music education. Several contributors note the limited number of music librarianship programs and ponder the effect this will have on the next generation of music librarians. Some warn that librarianship itself is in danger of being replaced by information science and technology, referred to by one as "Webology" (6, 27). The authors who discuss this issue seem to oppose this trend. They argue for retaining a focus on the traditional skills of librarianship.

Other authors are more concerned about the general public and decry decreases in funding for the arts in public schools and the effects this has had on society, the music industry, and music librarianship. The overall anxiety level and sense of loss are perhaps best expressed in the editor's afterword: "As the perception of classical music changes in society, the vitality of departments and schools of music— and therefore the vitality of our own profession—feels threatened" (102). It is noteworthy that this quote appears on the last page of the volume and presumably reflects the lasting sentiment the editor wished to convey.

Ultimately, this volume achieves its aim of providing a sense of how music librarians feel about their profession. Although there is little explicitly historical in most of the essays, the contents will be of value to future historians seeking to...