Conference Agenda

Italian Conservatory libraries preserve an extraordinary and unique musical heritage, estimated at
around three million bibliographic items.​
These collections include manuscripts and printed music from the sixteenth to the twentieth
century, most of which have been cataloged and described in recent decades in the databases of
the National Library Service (SBN).​
In recent years, attention has finally turned to the importance of undertaking the full digitization of
these documents.​
Until very recently, Italy had shown a certain delay in this field, with only a few systematic projects
and limited financial resources, visible above all through the “Internet Culturale” web portal.​
The situation is now changing in a positive way, with many new digitization projects being
launched.​
Starting in 2022, the Italian Ministry of Culture, supported by European funding, has begun
establishing the large-scale “Digital Library” within the ambitious and wide-ranging “National Plan
for the Digitalisation of Cultural Heritage (PND)”.​
Thanks to the initiative of IAML-Italia, a coordinated action was launched in 2025 to promote the
gradual digitization of numerous musical collections held by Italian Conservatories, with the aim of
providing open-access availability to the international community of librarians, musicians, and
scholars.​
This paper, prepared by the President of IAML-Italia, presents and discusses for the first time an
up-to-date overview of digitization projects already completed and currently in progress.

Marcoemilio Camera
President IAML-Italia
Librarian at Conservatorio di Musica di Como (Italy)

Les bibliothèques des conservatoires italiens conservent un patrimoine musical extraordinaire et unique, estimé à environ trois millions de documents bibliographiques.

Ces collections comprennent des manuscrits et des éditions imprimées de musique allant du XVIe au XXe siècle, dont la plupart ont été catalogués et décrits au cours des dernières décennies dans les bases de données du Service bibliothécaire national (SBN).

Ces dernières années, l’attention s’est enfin portée sur l’importance d’entreprendre la numérisation complète de ces documents.

Jusqu’à très récemment, l’Italie avait montré un certain retard dans ce domaine, avec seulement quelques projets systématiques et des ressources financières limitées, visibles surtout à travers le portail web « Internet Culturale ».

La situation est désormais en train de changer positivement, avec le lancement de nombreux nouveaux projets de numérisation.

À partir de 2022, le ministère italien de la Culture, soutenu par des financements européens, a commencé à mettre en place la « Bibliothèque numérique » à grande échelle dans le cadre du vaste et ambitieux « Plan national pour la numérisation du patrimoine culturel (PND) ».

Grâce à l’initiative de l’IAML-Italie, une action coordonnée a été lancée en 2025 afin de promouvoir la numérisation progressive de nombreuses collections musicales conservées dans les conservatoires italiens, dans le but d’en garantir l’accès en libre consultation à la communauté internationale des bibliothécaires, musiciens et chercheurs.

Cet article, préparé par le président de l’IAML-Italie, présente et analyse pour la première fois une vue d’ensemble actualisée des projets de numérisation déjà réalisés et actuellement en cours.

Marcoemilio Camera
Président de l’IAML-Italie
Bibliothécaire au Conservatorio di Musica de Côme

The project to digitize Yannis Constantinidis' personal archive was launched in accordance with the wishes of his family, who entrusted the materials to Professor Lambros Liavas and the Department of Music Studies at the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens: to preserve, document, and scientifically utilize a multi-layered collection of documents that encapsulate the composer's creative, intellectual, and professional routes.
The archive possesses composite informative value, comprising handwritten and printed scores, vinyl records and reel-to-reel tapes, concert programs, reviews, letters, articles, personal correspondence, photographs, and radio broadcast scripts, resources that highlight Constantinidis's diverse production.
The documentation process adheres to worldwide standards of description and semantic modeling, including CIDOC CRM, guaranteeing high precision in representing conceptual linkages and facilitating interchange with other cultural collections. At the same time Linked Open Data principles are implemented to facilitate the connection of information to international reference catalogs, so augmenting the potential for comparative study and analysis.
The archive is converted into a dynamic research instrument as a result of this effort, offering new chances for students and the general public to comprehend Constantinidis' work, while also contributing to the preservation and promotion of modern Greek musical heritage.

The project ‘Forgotten Voices‘ is developing a digital infrastructure for the curation and dissemination of forgotten Norwegian composers, with a focus on the rich musical heritage of Western Norway. Bridging the fields of musicology and digital humanities together with archival and library work, the major goal is building a curated digital music archive.

Recently, the Norwegian development of digital thematic work catalogues has been led by the Grieg Research centre at University of Bergen and the University Library, in collaboration with the Centre for Digital Music Documentation at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz and Zentrum Musik – Edition – Medien at Universität Paderborn. This digital catalogue project has been based on MerMEId (Metadata Editor and Repository for MEI Data), an advanced and unique tool developed to organize and present digital work catalogues. In our project, it is applied on Norwegian composers associated with the national musical heritage initiative, ranging from the most well-known icons such as Edvard Grieg to ‘forgotten’ female composers, such as Bergen composer Anne-Marie Ørbeck. In our presentation, Ørbeck will be a showcase for the process from the discovery of her archive of letters and manuscripts (donated to Bergen Public Library and on loan to the University Library in Bergen) to the public re-staging of her music after more than 70 years at Bergen Festival in 2023, and the ongoing work on documenting her work for further digital dissemination by means of cataloguing, editing, biographical lexicon articles etc.