Summer 2001 - George A. Smathers Libraries - University of Florida

Music Library gives sound support
Robena Eng Cornwell
Head, Music Library
O
ver the last half-century, the
Music Library has grown
from a “backroom” listening
and score facility within the
Department of Music to its current
collection of over 27,000 mono -
graphs and periodicals, 12,500
scores, and 17,000 recordings (laser
and compact discs, 33 1/3rpm
records, cassettes, videos, and
DVDs). The Music Library is a
branch library within the
Humanities and Social Sciences
Services Department. It supports the
educational and research needs of
the faculty, students, and staff of the
School of Music, as well as those in
related areas such as musical theatre,
the humanities, anthropology,
English, speech, and journalism. The
library is housed on the second floor
of the School of Music building.
The School of Music offers
degrees at the undergraduate, master’s,
and doctoral levels, and during
academic year 2000-2001, there were
161 undergraduate music majors,
80 graduate music majors, and 42
teaching faculty. Programs offered
by the school include music educa -
tion, music history/musicology, eth -
nomusicology, theory, composition,
performance, conducting, and
church music. Working in close
harmony with members of the
Music faculty, the Library strives to
support each of these programs as
well as scholarship at the research
level. Although every effort is made
to anticipate users needs, due to
limited funding and severe space
restraints, it is not possible to
purchase and house every source
dealing with music within the Music
Library. Fortunately, the Music
Library is able to utilize shelving
areas in other parts of the library
system. For example, there is an
excellent storage and retrieval
program in place, and most items
are available for patron use within
24 hours of their request. UF patrons
also make use of the Interlibrary
Loan Services provided through
Library West, the Health Sciences
Center Library, and the Legal
Information Center Library to
acquire material not owned by
the
Library.
Above: Senior library technical assistant
Michele Wilbanks-Fox checks the
stacks in the Music Library.
Left: A student listens to compact discs.
Page 4
Chapter One