Music Librarianship

July 17, 2010 at 1:45 AM

It has been a few weeks now since my friend and stand-partner moved in. Our first major order of business was to somehow find space for both of our sheet music libraries. The bookshelf that I had been using was already near capacity and couldn't house our combined music. Luckily, the store that I bought it at years ago, in a different state none-the-less, still carried the style. This time, I purchased the taller model which happens to have the perfect shelf height for sheet music.

While we were re-arranging the music, I noticed that some of my music from decades ago were showing signs of wear and tear. The edges were starting to curl and in some cases tear and staples were beginning to rust and stain the music.

This led me down the path to looking into sheet music restoration and archival methods. In my search on how to preserve the music, I ran across the website to the Music Library Association. There I found a treasure trove of information from conservation methods, repair techniques, to deacidification.

One of the resources listed was Gaylord Brothers library supplies. Here you can find everything you need to repair and conserve sheet music. Though my own collection is small and gets relatively light use in comparison to larger music library collections, I want to protect what I have so I can enjoy it for another 3 (or more) decades.

From James Patterson
Posted on July 17, 2010 at 9:22 PM

Slightly off your topic: the Dallas Symphony's head librarian, Karen Schnackenberg, has a blog to which she posts from time to time. If you have ever wondered what these librarians do in a major orchestra, this is good reading.

http://kschnack.wordpress.com/

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