Conference summary: 16th National Conference of Music Librarians and 7th National Conference of Sound Libraries in Poland

Conference summary: 16th National Conference of Music Librarians "Musical treasures of libraries - provenance, problems, promotion" and the 7th National Conference of Sound Libraries "Archiving - Rescue for Phonographic Monuments"

Wrocław, Poland, November 20-22, 2017

A three-day programme at the conference titled 16^th National Conference of Music Librarians "Musical treasures of libraries - provenance, problems, promotion" and the 7^th National Conference of Sound Libraries "Archiving - Rescue for Sound Monuments" was rich in presentations, discussions and interactive dialogues. The conference was held at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław on November 20-22, 2017. It was organized by the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music Library in Wrocław, Section of Music Libraries of the Polish Librarians Association - Polish National Group of IAML and Sound Libraries Section of the Polish Librarians' Association.

The conference was attended by 56 participants from 36 institutions - the National Library of Poland, music academy and university libraries, music departments of university and public libraries, musicological libraries, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Institute of Music and Dance, National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute, Polish Radio Archive, Polish Television Archive, Polish Academy of Sciences - Library in Gdańsk, the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Leon Wyczółkowski Regional Museum in Bydgoszcz. Among the participants there were music librarians, musicologists, researchers of music and phonographic sources, as well as specialists in the field of archive recordings.

Conference participants (Photographer Wiktor Rzeżuchowski)

The conference program included thematic sessions devoted to specific issues by each Section. The sessions of the Music Library Section, entitled "Musical treasures of libraries - provenance, problems, promotion", contained 11 papers and 2 reports. The provenance issue was presented in papers commentating selected music archives and composer legacies. The issue of the elaboration of the collections was based on a collection of theater and film music held in the University of Warsaw Library, in the Archives of Polish Composers and a collection of photographs from the Archives of Silesian Music Culture of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music Library in Katowice. Another issue discussed was connected with promoting the music collections by presenting them in an attractive and modern way. One of the papers introduced was about library practices for musicology students and the importance of these activities promoting a positive image of a music librarian and acquiring young adults to our profession. It is worth mentioning that the conference was attended by daughters of Polish composers, Włodzimierz Ormicki and Feliks Rybicki, whose legacies were presented.

First session of Section of Music Libraries (Photographer Wiktor Rzeżuchowski)

The motto of the Sound Libraries Section titled "Archiving - Rescue for Phonographic Monuments" referred to the primary goal of the Section, which was to launch a program for the preservation of historical recordings. Speakers representing 11 institutions presented 6 papers and 7 reports.

A choir made of the conference participants performed a song composed especially for this occasion by Wrocław composer Tomasz Kulikowski to a text by Anna Kata, a colleague from the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music Library in Wrocław. The conference was also accompanied by the exhibition "Karol Lipiński - violin composer and virtuoso, patron of the Music Academy in Wrocław".

The Wrocław conference was an opportunity to summarize the work of both Sections (2013-2017). During the meeting, Sections reported on their activities and presented their plans for the future. New board members for 2017-2021 were elected.

New board members of Section of Music Libraries (Photographer Agnieszka Gołębiowska)

The joint conferences of both Sections are organized every four years. It has become a tradition and an important platform for exchanging ideas and experiences between music librarians. It is a response to our need to integrate and to maintain direct contacts across the whole environment associated with musical collections.

The detailed conference programme and a photo gallery can be found on the website of the Polish National Branch of IAML. 

The report from the conference is available IAML Poland's Facebook page.

New board members of IAML Polska are listed on the IAML website.