So wrote Imogen Holst of music librarians in her article Gustav Holst’s manuscripts in Brio vol. 4 no. 1. As true now as it was back in 1967.
This year, the United Kingdom and Ireland Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (to give it its full name) celebrates its Diamond Jubilee and here at the University Library we have assembled an exhibition exploring the people who founded the Branch and its work supporting music librarians. In this first post, we’ll concentrate on its founding fathers.
An inaugural meeting to establish the Branch was held on March 23rd 1953 at Chaucer House in London, then the headquarters of the Library Association (now CILIP). Following the necessary formal business, and a cup of tea to celebrate, Eric Blom gave a talk, chaired by Cecil Oldman Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, on the editing of the new (i.e. fifth) Grove’s Dictionary.
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