Conference Agenda

The impact of World War II was profound on all aspects of American life, and its effect on music libraries deserves renewed exploration. Drawing from archival and primary source documents and building on the foundational work of historians, this presentation explores several themes that emerged during the 1930s and 40s, connecting them to issues in cataloguing, classification, copyright, diversity and inclusion, reference, musicological research, and others that still impact the discipline today. The migration of European scholars fleeing Nazism was accompanied by the influx of rare research items into US institutions. Librarians and musicologists pushed to internationalize their work through activities such as indexing archives and periodicals, as well as microfilming.

To help achieve these goals, in 1937, Otto Kinkeldey, first president of both the Music Library Association and the American Musicological Society, published a list of qualifications for music librarians that diverged from a previous description he authored in 1916, which favored competency in historical musicology over librarianship. The revision embraced both fields, elevating skills like the description and acquisition of materials, while also focusing the discipline on the Western canon, yet major questions were left to be addressed after the war. Were only collections of “musicological significance” worthy of focus? Should public, conservatory, and radio libraries be invited into an association with strong academic library predilections? Nearly a century later, the field continues to reckon with the conflicting decisions made in those pivotal decades. I will leave plenty time for audience interaction, which is especially encouraged.

Librarians adopt technologies in their own distinctive ways, often finding themselves in roles for which they received no formal training. While courses in programming, web development, and database management are abundant, one crucial skill set remains overlooked: project management. Drawing on experience from the development process of the new IAML website, this presentation explores how core competencies from music librarianship can be adapted to project leadership—parts that worked well, parts that did not!

Music librarians already possess the essentials: cooperative cataloguing and metadata management prepares us for technical coordination; multilingual facility enables international communication; maintaining library services for a mix of specialists, researchers, and general users is akin to stakeholder management.

This presentation will address practical dimensions of leading a web development initiative: assembling and coordinating a volunteer-based, geographically dispersed team; engaging stakeholders from diverse perspectives; consensus building and managing expectations; collaborating with external developers; planning data migration with attention to privacy regulations across jurisdictions; and developing sustainable long-term maintenance and security strategies. Attendees will leave with a framework for recognizing and articulating their own transferable competencies, along with concrete strategies for approaching technology projects with confidence as accidental tech librarians.

This presentation will focus on the findings of a study undertaken in 2026 by officers of the Libraries in Music Teaching Institutions Section (LIMTI). Working in cooperation with the Chairs of the National Branches, the study aims to identify and report on the state of music librarianship training offered by, or associated with, IAML institutions. LIMTI researchers want to know where and how librarians in IAML institutions receive their certification in music librarianship; which types of training are offered by IAML institutions and which come from outside; and whether training currently being offered represents an increase or decrease of music librarianship programs and of new librarians graduating from those programs.

Beyond the report on the methodology and the survey questions, there are further implications to be considered from the study. First, what might be the level of influence of IAML institutions on the profession of music librarianship through the training being offered? To attempt to answer this question, the survey will ask about the locations and types of programs offered (for example, in-person or online); the types of degrees offered (whether comprehensive or in conjunction with other librarianship programs); and the number of students enrolled. Additionally, it will be helpful to know whether music librarianship training is on the rise or declining, to better forecast the potential effect on future IAML membership and the impact on IAML institutions.