Ian Ledsham bursary for IAML Poland 2019 now open for applications

The Ledsham Bursary is awarded annually to a member of IAML (UK & Irl) in order to assist attendance at IAML international conferences. This year's conference will be held 14-19 July 2019 in Krakow, Poland. For further information see the preliminary programme and the conference website.

The bursary funding is £350.00. The application deadline is 15th April 2019. To apply please fill in the application form found on the Music Libraries Trust website and return it to Megan Dyson by email to bursaries@musiclibrariestrust.org. 

 Further information and application requirements below:

The Ian Ledsham Bursary Fund exists to honour the memory of Ian Ledsham, a long-standing and much respected member of the UK & Ireland Branch of IAML, who died in September 2005. It offers financial support to IAML UK & Ireland Branch members who wish to attend IAML's international conferences. Ian very much appreciated the opportunities provided by attendance at these conferences.

Please note:

Applicants must be paid-up personal or institutional members of the IAML UK & Ireland Branch (as defined in the UK & Irl Branch Constitution Art. XVI) at the point at which the application is made. Preference will be given to applicants who are active within the Branch.

• Applicants must be international IAML members if they wish to qualify for members' rates.

• People already in receipt of Branch funding for a specific project will normally be ineligible.

• The award is meant to contribute to the cost of attending the conference, not to cover all expenses. Subsistence costs will not be contributed to. The award is £350.00.

• Candidates should be able to demonstrate the potential benefits to themselves and their institution by attending the conference.

• It would normally be expected that the applicant's institution will grant leave to attend the conference. Any letters of institutional support would be welcomed as part of the application.

• Bursary recipients are advised to take out suitable insurance to cover their costs in the event of their non-attendance, as the bursary will normally be paid after attendance.

• Successful candidates must write a 1000-word report of attending the conference, to be sent to the Bursaries Administrator. The Executive Committee of IAML (UK & Irl) reserves the right to publish all or part of the report in the Branch blog.

Ian Ledsham bursary for IAML Riga open for applications

The Music Libraries Trust is now accepting applications for the Ledsham bursary. The Ian Ledsham Bursary is awarded annually to a member of IAML (UK & Irl) in order to assist attendance at IAML international conferences. This year's IAML conference will be held between 18 and 22 June 2017 in Riga, Latvia. For further information see the preliminary programme and conference website.

The application deadline is 10th April 2017. The award amount will be confirmed shortly. To apply please read the requirements and fill in the application form from our website, then return it to our bursaries administrator Megan Dyson by email to bursaries@musiclibrariestrust.org.

ASW 2017 Bursaries now open for applications

The International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) UK & Irl branch will be holding their 2017 Annual Study Weekend on 7-9 April 2017 at the University of Exeter. This is a great opportunity to network with other music librarians and those who work with music, attend sessions on topics relating to library practice, advocacy and musicology, and discover the latest happenings in the field. 

The Music Libraries Trust is pleased to award a limited number of bursaries to students and library staff who would like to attend the ASW. Priority is given to those who would otherwise be unable to attend and who have no other sources of funding. The application deadline is 10th January 2017. Both full and part bursaries are available, which include up to £70 for travel expenses.

To apply please read the requirements and fill in the application form from our website, then return it to our bursaries administrator Megan Dyson by email to bursaries@musiclibrariestrust.org. 

Applicants are advised not to make travel arrangements until the outcome of their application is decided.

N.B. Please be aware that ASW bookings do not open until 5 December 2016.

Music Libraries Trust Annual Report 2015

Objectives of the Trust

The Trust provides support for the education and training of music librarians. It also encourages and supports research into music librarianship, music bibliography and related disciplines. Since 1982, the Trust has worked in conjunction with the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) UK Branch (from 2002 UK & Ireland Branch) to provide a focus for the inception of new ideas and for the skills of music librarians to be re-evaluated in the context of new technologies and changing bibliographical techniques.             

Activities during the period (1 Oct 2014 to 30 Sep 2015)

Trustees and Officers

Ann Wrigley stood down as a trustee in March 2015.

Patrons

Sadly Oliver ‘Tim’ Neighbour, former Music Librarian at the British Library and a noted scholar particularly of Byrd and Schoenberg, passed away in 2015. Composer and MLT patron John McCabe also sadly passed away in 2015.

Bursaries for the professional development of individual music librarians

Ten part and full bursaries were awarded to enable individuals to attend the IAML (UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend, held at Aston University, Birmingham from 10 to 12 April 2015. The sponsors were Oxford University Press, Staypar Trust, Cramer Music and a new sponsor, Alexander Street Press. 

In addition, the Ian Ledsham Bursary Fund, a joint initiative between the Trust and IAML (UK & Irl) and now administered by MLT, awards a bursary to support an individual’s attendance at the annual IAML international conference. 

E.T. Bryant Prize

The 2014 E.T. Bryant Prize (£250), awarded jointly by the Music Libraries Trust and IAML (UK & Irl), was awarded jointly to Julija Paskova for her study RDA Implementation in music libraries in the UK: reality or future? and Diana Wood for her study The Music Collections of Cambridge University: An Investigation into Perceptions of the Value of User-Generated Content in a Special Collections Catalogue. It was agreed that the prize will be increased to £300 from 2015.

Website redevelopment

The Trust has launched a new website which is available at the same web address as before, www.musiclibrariestrust.org. The new site has a modern design which works both on computers and mobile devices, and the navigation on the site has been revised to be clearer and easier for people seeking information about bursaries and research grants on offer. In addition, the website can now be more easily updated by officers and trustees of MLT as it is now hosted on the Squarespace platform. The Trust will keep the website updated with news about research projects and bursaries. We are also keen to add more photos of music libraries and our patrons, along with quotes promoting the value of music libraries.

Projects

Cecilia and Concert Programmes website redevelopment

£3000 had previously been awarded to Rupert Ridgewell, Susi Woodhouse and Orangeleaf Systems Ltd for a project to redevelop the Cecilia and Concert Programmes databases. The project was completed in Spring 2015 and launched at the IAML(UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend. The project has improved the databases’ user interface, introduced more sophisticated search functionality, mobile device compatibility, greater scalability and improved visibility of their contents, by making the data exportable to other services such as Culture Grid and Europeana and interoperable with linked data.

Encore

A further £450 of funding has been agreed (matched by IAML (UK & Irl)) towards updating the Encore union catalogue of performance sets available for loan in the UK. The Trust is helping IAML (UK & Irl) to explore the future of the catalogue, as MLT funding cannot be awarded for ongoing running costs.

Survey of music library users

The Trust is considering commissioning a survey of music library users in the UK and Ireland. Work is underway to agree the scope of the project and advertise it to researchers.

Projects list

The Trust maintains a list of suggestions for potential research projects, and appreciates the input and suggestions made by the IAML (UK & Irl) Documentation Committee in this process. The list can be accessed on the Trust’s website (http://musiclibrariestrust.squarespace.com/projectideas/).

Financial summary

In its financial year ending 30 September 2015, the Trust's gross receipts were £2,669.59 and its gross expenditure was £6,411.60.