Thank you for your interest, but this questionnaire is now closed. Please see our news item to learn about the results and download the Executive Summary.
Dear music library staff member,
The Music Libraries Trust exists to support education and research into music libraries in the UK and Ireland. We know there is an urgent need to bring the future of our music libraries to greater public attention and ensure that their invaluable role in music making all over the UK is better recognised and protected. This is even more true right now when lockdown poses so many questions over our future performing life.
We have commissioned Dr Michael Bonshor to run two surveys to collect the most up-to-date data on the work music library staff do and how it supports music-making by music library users. We would be very grateful to all library staff who can take the time to answer this questionnaire in as much detail as possible.
To take part in the survey, you can complete an online questionnaire, which is designed to:
Obtain information about current use of music libraries
Explore areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction amongst music library service providers and service users
Identify any requirements for practical changes in resources and service provision
Extrapolate potential strategies for ‘future proofing’ music library services
Complete the library staff questionnaire [now closed]
Learn about the music library user questionnaire [now closed]
The Trustees are very aware that library staff are probably working from home and may not have all the data to hand. But we hope you agree that the next few weeks give us a window of opportunity before the summer break and it would be so helpful if you could answer what you can: every question here has been weighed and assessed for its usefulness and your feedback will mean we can be armed with accurate data for promoting the future of our music libraries.
If you need to answer the questions in instalments, you will be able to keep saving your responses and return to the questionnaire later, rather than having to finish it all in one sitting. However, we have conducted a pilot study to ensure that the questionnaire is user-friendly and not excessively time consuming. We hope that you will enjoy it!
Please also publicise the music library user questionnaire to your community.
The questionnaires close at 9am on Monday 3 August. We will keep you informed on the results and on our next steps.
Finally we would like to express our gratitude to the Postlethwaite Music Foundation who have awarded the Music Libraries Trust a grant of £1000 towards the cost of this research.
With many thanks in advance,
Sally Groves MBE
Chair, Music Libraries Trust