IAML Reflections from an Australian’s perspective
Georgina Binns, June 2024
Introduction
When Pia Shekter, current President International asked me to reflect and share my connections with IAML, I was hesitant. I’m introverted (like many of us!) and it’s not comfortable. Perhaps my experience as an Australian music librarian, and how IAML has had an impact on my career and my personal outlook, is worth sharing. There might be other like librarians or musicians starting out. Perhaps thinking about becoming a librarian, perhaps isolated in the workplace, with small numbers of similar minded colleagues in their town, city, country. There are many ways IAML can help support, nurture and enrich individuals, our libraries, collections, and the people that use them – some obvious, and some subtle in their manifestation. I have been fortunate to experienced many of these benefits.
My first contact with IAML came in 1986 when I commenced working as a library assistant at the National Library of Australia (NLA). I was a part-time postgraduate musicology research student with a hankering for some “real” work and this opportunity arose after I had met the Music Librarian, Prue Neidorf, while researching at the NLA. She thought I might be interested in this career path. She was right! I worked here for 2-½ years and in that time became a member of IAML. Prue encouraged me to present a paper based on my research based on the NLA collection at the Musicology Society of Australia Conference (which many music librarians participated in) held in Canberra in 1987. It was my first conference presentation and my first published paper (see Continuo 16/2 1987). I attended my first national IAML Conference in Sydney the following year. With generous professional encouragement by my fellow IAML members, I was welcomed into the fold and started to meet wonderful colleagues from around Australia working in state, university, public, orchestral, and broadcast libraries. The possibilities for career pathways started to become apparent and I committed to formalise my library studies (after I had finished my Masters in Music (Musicology) at the University of Melbourne). I completed a graduate information studies program at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, which provided accreditation with the Australian Library and Information Association. I was fortunate to have sympathetic academic support during my library training as I undertook projects relating to music and the creative arts, although music cataloguing was not on the curriculum!
Pathways
Despite this, my first job as a qualified librarian was as a cataloguer at an arts college. Subsequent positions were in university library acquisitions, collection management and as a campus library manager. These were quite general positions - and on reflection, they were terrific opportunities to build skills and prepare me for the Music and Creative Arts Manager roles I undertook at Monash University and University of Melbourne. In the midst of these jobs, I continued to attend IAML Australia conferences which were held every two years in a different state. I also participated in Art Library conferences, but the IAML gatherings were always more fun. There were great opportunities to visit other libraries and collections, and to meet other young librarians and to learn from the elders. I also started to take on roles within IAML (Australia) including convenor of the Victorian section (1993-2000 / 2010-2017); editor of the national newsletter Intermezzo (2000-2004); editor of the national journal Continuo (1994-2002) and President (2000-2004, 2017-2021). These were great opportunities for professional and personal development, building networks, and ongoing learning about this amazing profession, libraries, and collections.
Introduction to IAML International
My first foray into the IAML international community was made easy by the IAML New Zealand Branch who in 1999 hosted the conference in Wellington. I was fortunate to attend this memorable meeting led by the inspiring Roger Flury. I presented a paper at this conference (published in Fontes Artis Musicae, 46/3-4 1999). For me it was a brave thing to do, but I look back now and realise the wonderful connections I made here were sustained over many years at following conferences. I was also approached to be a contributing editor to Fontes Artis Musicae at this conference which I accepted. I undertook to keep up to date with content from the Southern Hemisphere and assist with editing and proofreading, and did this role for almost 20 years. At this time I was receiving encouragement from Don Roberts, (President IAML 1992-1996, from Northwestern University, USA) to become more involved in IAML. He had generously attended a IAML Australia conference in 1996 in Melbourne, providing an international connection for many who might not get to overseas conferences. And I know he was very encouraging to other young colleagues to participate in IAML at an international level.
After the New Zealand conference, I seem to have caught the IAML bug, and started to attend the international conferences where I could. I was fortunate to attend conferences in Dublin (Ireland), Gothenburg (Sweden), Warsaw and Krakow (Poland), Tallin (Estonia), Berkeley (USA), and Vienna (Austria). The tyranny of distance (with at least 24 hours flying time to Europe) and the expense of travel to the conferences (often not supported fully, or at all, by our institutions), makes it a BIG thing to attend a conference. Many of us managed to tack on a holiday which could justify the expense. I think I was only every fully funded for one conference in my career. I don’t regret the investment when I reflect on the experiences and knowledge I was able to bring back to my workplace and share with colleagues. Bursaries for travel for young members are essential for connection and support, and we hope that funds from IAML Australia will continue to be used to encourage participation.
Sydney 2007
In 2001 It was decided that IAML Australia would field a bid for an international conference in Sydney in 2007. At the Perigueux (France) Conference, I was the only Australia delegate, and nervously made a presentation to outline our bid to the Council. It was unanimously accepted which was very exciting and everyone was so supportive and pleased that Australia would be hosting a IAML International Conference for the first time. New Zealand had presented a fine conference in 1999, why not Australia! So, for the next few years the IAML Australia executive and local planning group were very busy booking venues, activities, dinners, performances and programming. Caroline Symes and Laurel Dingle were the key leaders. Robyn Holmes and I organised the programming. At the 2006 Gothenburg conference, Laurel and I made a presentation to entice people to the other side of the world, with a barrage of cute fluffy koalas and a blow-up kangaroo! Delegates must have listened because over 400 delegates registered for the Sydney meet. Held in July 2007 - winter in Australia - we hoped for the weather gods to be kind and they were! It was a sunny week and we gathered from around the world at the Sydney Conservatorium in the shadow of the Sydney Opera House. A post-conference tour was made to Canberra to experience the wonderful collections held at the National Library of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Australia may not have the depth of collections over the centuries that are held in other libraries in Europe, United Kingdom, South and North Americas and Asia, but we do have precious publications and manuscripts carefully curated by collectors and librarians, with top-ranking musicologists working on them. There are increasing collections of choral, music theatre, orchestral, and sheet music which reflect the colonial past of a community that was emulating the cultural life of Empire. Increasing awareness of Indigenous heritage both tangible and intangible is assisting in archives collecting and preserving musical life. People still mention the Sydney conference to me as one to remember! But aren’t all IAML conferences memorable?! I have special memories of all the conferences I have attended—the interesting papers and presentations, library tours, the concerts, the conversations, the knowledge sharing, and ongoing connections we were able to make once we got back to our offices.
Collections and COVID
The increasing use of email and digital file sharing in the past decades have made the need for travel and patience with extended wait times almost obsolete, saving time and money for our researchers. Perhaps those living in Europe and the USA did not experience this aspect of sourcing collections in quite the same way, but researchers and librarians in Australia, prior to digitisation, had to plan months, even years ahead, to order microfilms of manuscripts and music for their research. Or undertake expensive overseas travel. The vagaries of the summer shutdowns of libraries in the Northern Hemisphere was factored in as well! Travel to the source was expensive and often not feasible. Colleagues who I met in my international forays were invaluable in sourcing and expediting many a researcher’s requirements from their libraries and collections. Thank you to you all. I don’t think you realise the value of this generosity to Australian and New Zealand librarians and researchers.
Reflecting on this impact on libraries and our researchers, it is also relevant to consider the rate of change in the past forty or so years since I first started working in libraries. Catalogue cards, sometimes handwritten, sometimes typed, and eventually printed were de rigueur. Then came microfiche which saved space. Personal computers revolutionised libraries with their ability to store large data sets via hard disks or CD-ROMS. The increase in storage capabilities and digitisation technology progressed rapidly and complemented many of the needs of music libraries, facilitating the ability to digitise manuscripts, scores, theses, audio and images (within copyright rulings of course). Many of us have felt the effects of economic rationalism and the downgrading and recognition of specialist skills in our libraries. Many of us have had to fight for the need for specialist information services, with mergers of music libraries into humanities collections or indeed closures. Their generic reference and cataloguing services struggle to support the needs of our library users, and the effect of these changes are perhaps yet to be felt down the generations. The IAML community has helped to support many members through these changes. We face the challenges of AI that are confronting us at the moment. The proliferation of fake information and data is only reinforcing the need for specialist librarians and educators to guide students, teachers, researchers and members of the public in choosing the correct path.
During the COVID pandemic we all experienced the requirement to communicate 100% online using video meeting technology, and it is now the norm that flexible arrangements around communication and delivery of information are a given. Living in Melbourne during the pandemic (in one of the most locked-down cities in the world!), I was only too aware of the need for keeping in touch and ensuring the connections between IAML members continued. As IAML (Australia) President I convened two very successful online conferences which were free to attend – one jointly with our New Zealand colleagues, and the other a IAML Australia conference with over 100 people attending via Zoom. (Papers and sessions are available online.) Despite these successes it was unfortunately not enough to keep our membership healthy and the legalities and inflexibility of incorporation of organisations (largely for insurance purposes) in Australia meant we were unable to maintain an executive. Sadly, we had to close the branch after over 50 years of activity. Many small not-for-profit volunteer-run organisations are experiencing similar consequences in the post-Covid era, as people reassess their priorities and commitments. There is hope that we will be able to resurrect the branch in the future.
What’s next?
I retired recently from paid work, but can’t help myself and have taken on volunteer work – of course where else, but in a music library! At the local community radio station 3MBS which broadcasts classical and jazz music. It celebrates its 50th birthday this year and is a much-loved subscription-based (but freely available to all) radio station in Melbourne. You are able to listen to it online 24/7 anywhere in the world at https://3mbs.org.au/how-to-listen/. It has been a learning curve absorbing the intricacies of a radio sound recording library. I am now confident in downloading digital files, applying metadata specific for radio programming needs, and library database management. I lead on a project to increase First Nations music content in the library and on air, as well contribute to a working group on Woman Composers to increase content. It’s very satisfying and fun to work with passionate volunteers. I have plans to continue my musicology research as well, along with performance opportunities within communities beyond the university.
I continue my membership of IAML and connections with many friends. I thank IAML as an institution and its many members for their generous sharing of knowledge, and branches for the amazing learning opportunities offered via the conferences as well as listening to superb music, visiting libraries and collections, taking pre- or post-conference tours, and partaking of delicious food and wine. It has been almost four decades of participation in a truly remarkable organisation and an extremely interesting and satisfying career. May it continue to inspire and connect people, libraries, archives and museums across the globe for many decades to come. I hope to see many of you again in the future and I also have hope and trust that the Australian branch will rise again.
Thank you to Pia Shekter for prompting me to record my IAML experiences.
