IAML(UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend: Cambridge 2014

They (whoever they are) say "A change is as good as a rest", so I hope that's the case and I shall emerge from this weekend fully charged and ready to finish writing up and submitting my thesis and finishing off the wedding preparations! (TWO WEEKS. EEK.)

Fitzwilliam College (from artq55)

This weekend was the IAML UK & Ireland Annual Study Weekend, in which music librarians and others (more on this later) descend upon a venue somewhere in the country for a long weekend of reports, presentations, awards and dinners. And a little bit of music. This year it was held in the delightful surroundings of Fitzwilliam College, so a bit of a blast from the past for me. It was my first, since I've only just joined IAML, and because I wouldn't require accommodation, I was able to convince my line manager to convince my work's HR that they could support my attendance! Thanks HR!

This is the sort of thing I have to negotiate when
responding to microfilm orders (from basschez)

It was a little bit lucky, since my job only involves music tangentially. There is a lot of music at the museum, but the really interesting stuff is all held by a different department. However, when requests for microfilms of manuscripts come in, it's muggins here who has to decode the request, and find the right pages of music to reproduce! "So, that's classmark 32.F.5, that's now MU.MS 177, 45 recto to 51 verso, an aria beginning with some illegible smudging at the front which might be the first line...no problem!"
Also we get in a lot of the published editions of the books which have used manuscripts at the museum in their research source material, and those materials come into my library and therefore my remit.

One of the nice things about music being such a small part of my job (actually, I guess the only thing, since I would far rather be doing much more music!), is that I didn't feel a terrible sense of urgency to learn all the things when I attended, and I could pick and choose to only make notes where I thought things had very practical applications in my work. I started taking notes in the first session. I stopped in the last. But I was very relaxed about doing it!

I didn't take this as a souvenir,
even though I really wanted to.

A number of presentations had particular resonance for me (didya get it? Resonance? Music? Pff, you're no fun), so hopefully I'll find the time to go into a little more detail about them in a separate post (or two). In the meantime, there were lots and lots of reports, engaging presentations, a lively round-table about the different roles of conservatoire and university libraries, plenty of coffee, and delicious food (ah, to be a student again!). I successfully restrained myself from the student tradition of pinching the college's crested cup and saucer, but failed miserably at not taking photos of the excellent meals!

We were also fortunate emough to enjoy two concerts over the weekend, Francis Knights performing some great stuff from the Fitzwilliam Virginals Book on harpsichord and organ, and then the next night, Erasmus Chamber Choir performed some works by composers who were linked (no matter how tenuously!) to Cambridge. A couple of my friends sing in it, so I've been to most of their concerts, but I'd missed the last one, "500 Years of Cambridge Music". Fortunately, this one was a slightly reduced programme from that, so I hadn't missed too much!

Postprandial entertainment being enthusiastically applauded by some IAML members

Queens' College Old Library. Considered
to be quite large back in the day!

There were several visits available to those who attended. I was one of the lucky ones to get in on the visit to Queens' College Old Library, which, as it turns out, doesn't have that much music in. Does have a spiffy skeleton looking very dapper with his pipe though, and a couple of little exhibitions geared towards both adults and children, which included a choice selection of rare books. And manuscripts, in the form of end papers!

I say, do you mind awfully giving
me a light? Been waiting ages to
smoke this...

 There were some great bits and pieces which Tim Eggington, the librarian, had found in just two years of working there. He also showed us the original catalogue from 1475, with the details of the 200 books the library had started with. That was thought to be a suitably substantial and impressive collection (I wonder which 200 books I would keep from our collection if that was the maximum? Just our series of Hollsteins runs into that many!).

A doodle of Henry VIII.
Just coz. 

There was an exhibition covering the history of Queens' College and its library in context, so the fact that it was founded about the same time as the invention of the printing press was pointed out. The royal connection was highlighted, and there was a rather brilliant annotation of Henry VIII in the marginalia of one of the books! Given the author's close association with the court, it's quite likely that this isn't a bad likeness of King Hal (mind you, I could draw a picture of someone I know well, and it would still look nothing like them, but never mind).

Underneath the bookplate is the
answer to life, the universe and
everything. Maybe.

We were shown what happened to some of the manuscripts - waste not, want not, and the "outdated, irrelevant, space-occupying" manuscripts were cut up and used as end papers for the shiny new books. Some escaped this ignominious fate and ended up in other colleges around the town (actually, I'm not sure which is worse ;) ). I liked the casual pasting in of the college's bookplate over the top(!), so even though the photo's pretty lousy, you get to see it anyway.

So there was some music, it turns out ;)

So, as I said before, I'll go into a bit more detail on the talks in another post. For now, I think I'll just wrap up by saying what a brilliant opportunity this was. I've learnt so much, both musically and librarially. There are archives and libraries and other places of interest I need to visit as soon as I have time (I can't wait to see the digitized Soho Jazz Festival posters - I know I played there one year, and have a t-shirt to prove it! I wonder if the archive wants it...?).

The other thing was how friendly everyone was. In a way it reminded me of the archery circuit - everyone sort of knows everyone else, at least in passing, so you get to put faces and names together really quickly, and there's always someone around to take you under their wing and talk to you. The buddy system is a lovely idea, and the reception for first-time attenders - they do everything to make you feel welcome. Of course, it helped that I knew a few of the Cambridge library team quite well already!

The IAML International (or "Big IAML", as it appears to be known) is having their conference soon, in Antwerp. I'm definitely going to try and get to it if I can, otherwise, roll on Birmingham 2015!