Music librarians on the national stage: music librarians and archivists had the opportunity to give voice to their ideas, issues and concerns on the national stage during some key events held in late 2008.

Holmes, Robyn

A National Music Summit Australian Musical Futures: TOWARDS 2020 was held on 5 September 2008 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, organised by the Music Council of Australia. This was the first national event that brought together the myriad of ideas and interests of music organisations and musicians across all parts of the music landscape. One hundred leaders and thinkers from across the music sector considered futures related to music in education, music in the community, music infrastructure, the interventions of government through legislation and regulation including copyright and funding, and the possible shape of the new music industry.

As the National Library's Curator of Music, I was an invited participant and articulated the library/archive perspective on a range of ideas. In particular, participants in our infrastructure think-tank articulated the need for more open access to resources, cooperative digital initiatives, greater exposure of Australian music and musicians, and better national-state coordination and alignment across sectors. The Summit briefing papers and full summaries are available at www.mca.org.au/web/content/view/268/50

Music Council of Australia National Assembly

As the National Library'S Curator, I am the representative of the music library and archive sector on the Music Council of Australia (MCA), the national peak music organisation, which held its annual Assembly in Adelaide on 27-29 September 2008. The MCA comprises 50 member organisations from across the breadth of the music sector and acts on their behalf to advance all aspects of music and musical life in Australia. During 2008 the MCA commissioned a Strengths/Weakness/Opportunities/Threats (SWOT) analysis from each part of the music sector. I was commissioned to analyse and evaluate the findings overall. This provided fascinating insight into how the music sector understands itself, envisions and interconnects, as well as providing key data to integrate with the ideas emerging from the National Music Summit. The 'SWOTS' and the overview analysis are available online in the MCA's 'Music in Australia Knowledge Base' www.mca.org.au/

In the SWOT process, the music library community was notable for the collaborative manner in which we gathered comments and evidence across Australia: reflecting that spirit of cooperation and networking for which librarians are well renowned! Key discussion points revolved around issues relating to specialisation and generalisation in music librarianship; quality of service and changing user needs; the need for systematic training and professional development; the limited growth of music collections in Australia despite an explosion of new electronic and audio-visual resources; rapidly changing music technologies and technical obsolescence as well as the need to support a myriad of complex multiple file formats (often proprietary); rights management and licensing issues combined with the increasing demands for more open access and for digital content.

Perhaps the most enlightening and heartening aspect of both the Summit and the SWOT process has been the enthusiasm with which the community and industry is embracing the need to drive change, without dependency on government or centralised organisations. A whole raft of new cooperative initiatives are emerging, working towards a new musical future in Australia characterised by new alliances and networks, more fact-finding, expanded participation in music, re-injection of music into the national education agenda, and a significantly improved alignment of industry, training, employment, professional development and infrastructure.

Music Count Us In

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

An exciting start was the Music Count Us In campaign held on 8 October 2008 when more than 350 000 school students from over 1600 schools around Australia sang the same song at the same time (live and streamed online) to highlight the importance of music education in our schools. You can experience some of the joy of this mass performance event at www.musiccountusin.org.au/content/view/41/6 As part of the project, music resource kits were provided to every school library that participated in the event. The website and materials have been collected and archived by the National Library and the event documented by National Library photographers.

National Conference: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (Australia)

The International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML Australian branch) also held its national conference 25-26 September in Hobart. Both the University of Tasmania Library and the State Library of Tasmania warmly welcomed us and unveiled a rich narrative of Tasmanian music and music-making, documented in both historical and contemporary collections. Additionally, the roundtables we shared on digital initiatives and Web 2.0 developments in music addressed in practical ways the themes set out by the keynote speaker, Lloyd Sokovitne from the State Library of Tasmania, who reflected on the importance of understanding the way our young 'native digital users' operate online.

IAML's Annual General Meeting also agreed to offer two-year free membership to all young professionals working in music librarianship in Australia as a way of invigorating our thinking and professional development. So, if you know of any young staff employed or in training, please inform the new President, Jonathan Wood, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Library Jonathan.Wood@usyd.edu.au Thanks to all our Tasmanian colleagues for organising such a rich and rewarding experience.

Robyn Holmes

Curator of Music