Conference Agenda

Armenian musical identity has been shaped by centuries of cultural continuity, displacement, and global diasporic exchange. Yet the ways in which this identity is represented—and sometimes obscured—within library and archival collections have received limited scholarly attention. This paper investigates how cataloguing practices, metadata structures, and archival decisions influence the construction, visibility, and interpretation of Armenian musical identity in global information systems.

Through an examination of library records across national, academic, and community collections, the study highlights several layers of complexity: variations in transliteration from Armenian to Latin scripts and inconsistent use of subject headings for genres, instruments, and cultural concepts. These metadata choices can fragment Armenian materials across catalogues, obscure diasporic contributions, and reinforce reductive narratives about Armenian music. At the same time, diaspora archives—often community-driven and digitally emergent—preserve rich materials that broaden and challenge traditional understandings of Armenian musical heritage.

The paper argues that library and archival infrastructures play an active role in mediating cultural identity. By bringing together examples from Armenian communities, it demonstrates how metadata can either support or undermine equitable representation. To address these issues, the paper proposes strategies for creating more culturally responsive cataloguing practices.

Ultimately, this presentation invites dialogue on how music libraries can move beyond neutral description to foster more accurate, inclusive, and globally connected representations of Armenian musical identity—enhancing discovery, supporting research, and honouring the diversity of Armenian cultural expression.

Collection development is a vital stage in establishing any library, as it must support the library’s mission, objectives, and users’ needs. It is an evolving journey that unfolds through multiple stages and requires continuous adaptation. Establishing the first dedicated music library in the region introduced unique challenges.
This paper highlights the key phases of developing the music library’s collections—starting from exploring global publishing sources, seeking local institutions publications related to the music field and evaluate personal and government donations. Finally, purchasing from local and regional bookfairs.
It also presents the challenges encountered during the early acquisition stages, including limited Arabic music resources, varying publisher awareness of music-related content, and the need to guide vendors participating in book fairs to bring more music-focused materials.
Moreover, the paper explores how visitors’ interests, feedback, and usage patterns have significantly shaped the direction of the library’s collection. Their engagement has influenced decisions on expanding genres and enriching the collection through greater diversity between books and digital resources, including the collection of all Royal Opera House Muscat productions. This aligns with the third principle of library science, as articulated by Sir S. R. Ranganathan: “every book its reader.”
Ultimately, this work showcases how the library’s collection-building strategy continues to evolve through a dynamic dialogue between publishers, visitors, and the library’s vision to promote music awareness and appreciation in the region.

Die Sammlungsentwicklung ist eine entscheidende Phase beim Aufbau jeder Bibliothek, da sie die Mission, die Ziele und die Bedürfnisse der Nutzer unterstützen muss. Sie ist eine sich entwickelnde Reise, die sich über mehrere Stufen entfaltet und kontinuierliche Anpassungen erfordert. Die Einrichtung der ersten spezialisierten Musikbibliothek in der Region brachte einzigartige Herausforderungen mit sich.

Dieses Papier hebt die wichtigsten Phasen der Entwicklung der Sammlungen der Musikbibliothek hervor – beginnend mit der Erschließung globaler Publikationsquellen, der Suche nach Veröffentlichungen lokaler Institutionen im Bereich Musik und der Bewertung von persönlichen und staatlichen Spenden. Schließlich wurden Käufe auf lokalen und regionalen Buchmessen getätigt.

Es werden auch die Herausforderungen beschrieben, die in den frühen Erwerbsphasen auftraten, einschließlich begrenzter arabischer Musikressourcen, unterschiedlicher Bekanntheit der Verlage über musikbezogene Inhalte und der Notwendigkeit, Anbieter auf Buchmessen anzuleiten, mehr musikfokussierte Materialien bereitzustellen.

Darüber hinaus untersucht das Papier, wie die Interessen, das Feedback und die Nutzungsmuster der Besucher die Ausrichtung der Bibliothekssammlung maßgeblich geprägt haben. Ihr Engagement beeinflusste Entscheidungen zur Erweiterung der Genres und zur Bereicherung der Sammlung durch größere Vielfalt zwischen gedruckten und digitalen Ressourcen, einschließlich der Sammlung aller Produktionen des Royal Opera House Muscat. Dies steht im Einklang mit dem dritten Prinzip der Bibliothekswissenschaft, wie von Sir S. R. Ranganathan formuliert: „Jedes Buch seinen Leser.“

Letztlich zeigt diese Arbeit, wie sich die Strategie zum Aufbau der Bibliothekssammlung weiterhin durch einen dynamischen Dialog zwischen Verlagen, Besuchern und der Vision der Bibliothek entwickelt, um das Bewusstsein und die Wertschätzung für Musik in der Region zu fördern.

The Literary Archive of the Slovak National Library is a department that preserves, protects and makes accessible archival documents of Slovak culture, especially in the fields of literature and music. This paper provides an overview of the institution's more than 70-year history and its place in the context of other Slovak institutions. The creation of music collections and archives focuses primarily on the lives and works of prominent personalities in Slovak musical culture – particularly composers, musicians and musicologists – and on the activities of cultural associations, organisations and societies. Given the historical context of today's Slovakia, the archive also preserves musical artefacts of broader provenance, especially in collections held mainly by monasteries and other historical buildings. The music collection of the Literary Archive contains more than two hundred personal and institutional archives, song and historical collections, and the Collection of Individual Musical Pieces. Overall, these represent artefacts from the 11th century to the present, particularly manuscript sheet music, liturgical books and hymnals, collections of folk songs, historical music prints, and also musicological works, period correspondence, photographs, sound media from phonograph cylinders, shellac records and MG tapes, through to contemporary audiovisual recordings. The aim of this paper is to present the most significant artefacts, and the current status of their accessibility in the RISM database and the Slovak DIKDA database.