Report from the IAML Greek Branch Annual Conference

We have received the following from Arsinoi Ioannidou:

In less than a year after the formation of the Greek Branch of IAML, its annual conference was successfully carried out on April 21-22, 2017 in Athens at the Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri”.

It was an historical moment for the field of music librarianship in Greece. For the first time library professionals, musicologists, institutional members, faculty from educational music departments, musicians, information technology specialists and music archivists interested in the field of music librarianship gathered for a two-day event to share ideas, experiences and expertise, as well as to affirm their desire to join forces for the development of the field in the country, solemnly recognizing its impact in music education, performance and research.

A grand total of two hundred participants from Greece and Cyprus were there, a number further analyzed in: forty-five speakers organized in ten parallel sessions, two keynote speakers in plenary sessions, two round tables, seven sponsors in the exhibition area and fifteen volunteers, mainly students from different library departments.

The thematic units of the conference were focused on Music Librarianship - Competencies and Skills, Music Pedagogy and Libraries, Art Music and Research, Music Collections, Music Archives, Standardization of Music Archives, Digital Libraries and Repositories, Presentations of Music Libraries and Ethnomusicology in the Digital Age. The highlights of the event were communications from the two keynote speakers, Filippos Tsimpoglou, Director of The National Library of Greece and Nikos Tsouchlos, Associate Professor of Ionian University of Greece. Mr. Tsimpoglou talked about the re-definition of the role of the National Library, its regulatory support of librarianship and the new services that are about to launch in its brand new building. Mr. Tsouchlos presented the piano rolls preserved at the Athens Conservatory Archives and traveled with us to a past where mechanical music reproduction was a customary entertainment and an aid to music education.

At the General Assembly of the twenty-three active members of the IAML Greek Branch, a call for the creation of a Working Group for a Music Archival Register was proposed and received with enthusiasm. Another Working Group for the Management of Issues in Music Librarianship was also formed. This team is composed of professionals from four institutions, two members each, a partnership with an aim of creating policy in music cataloging, establishing best practices and offering recommendations.

At the end of the meeting, the temporary Administrative Board of the Branch renewed its service for two more years as was agreed unanimously by the assembly.

We are committed to remaining active in national and international conferences and we are already excited about thinking of our next annual meeting.

Arsinoi Ioannidou
Librarian – Musicologist Ph.D

All photographs courtesy of Arsinoi Ioannidou.