The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Library

I have yet to blog on #GLTU4 which was a visit to The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Library and the Library of the Scottish Piping Centre.  So consider this part one on RCS, part two to follow over the weekend hopefully!

I am reminded of this somewhat by the fact that next week is #GLTU5 (as in Glasgow Librarians Tweet Up 5) whereby we descend on long-suffering members of the profession en masse and wander enthusiastically about their libraries and hear about their services before heading off to the pub to muse some more! Theme of #GLTU5 is health information.

I suspect there are still places going, so if you fancy joining the amusement the booking information is here

 But for the moment I'll concentrate on catching up on blogging the last one!



Image from the current exhibition from the Archives





the new logo



The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Library

The Royal Conservatoire is the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance as was which re-named itself recently to move to a title that better described the range and subject-matter of courses and training it offers to its students.

Collection Scope

We were given a tour round the Whittaker Library.

That it is the library to a performance arts institution (music, dance, drama) is immediately clear, not just from the stock types and content, but also the study spaces and the uses made of them. As we passed it the ‘quiet study’ room had a student in it with earphones in and his conductors baton out as he rehearsed his conducting to whatever piece of music he was listening to. Whereas passing the comfy seating area prompted discussion of it being in practical terms the only place in the building a student could have a quiet nap on a sofa as long as they didn’t disturb everyone else.

Layout

 

In actual library layout terms broadly music is shelved down one side of the room and drama on the other side.  Music involves anything from sheet music, to collections based on different themes or composers, to orchestral scores for specific instruments.  As such there are items of all different sizes and shapes from very small pamphlets to very large consolidated works in many volumes.

Down the centre of the room are a host of open study desks, at the bottom the comfy seating area and access to the quiet study room.

On the other side of the room is ‘drama’, but this is a very broad definition, it includes dramatic works, but also a host of literature on related subjects from everything from set design to geography. Anything that could be relevant and helpful in informing the performance of a specific piece.  The drama side has been reclassified recently to DDC as a major summer project, the music is on Library of Congress if I recall correctly.

The drama side also includes the dvd collection to help students studying production techniques, acting type skills, look at things like narration… Lots of cd’s of audio versions of plays and a very small audio tape collection thereof too still…  As such has a wide selection of different genres and styles.  There is also a vast collection of cd’s and LPs reflecting all musical styles and periods and the section of musical theatre scores.. A student studying a particular piece of music doesn’t want one version of it if they can flick between and compare ten different interpretations and performances instead. 

To the left of the musical theatre section is the computer bank giving access to a range of electronic products and all the normal IT functions and just inside the main library door the issue desk and staff area.

Staffing

In terms of staffing there is the head librarian, librarians each with specific remits to music, performance, drama, and library assistants. The library serves the staff and students of the institution but is open to the public more generally for reference purposes only if they first sign in at Reception.

Revisiting times past...

I was interested to go in because I’ve used the library for reference purposes myself back in my students days when it was still RSAMD, so that’s going back fifteen years!  So really I wanted to see if any of it was as I remembered it and how much had changed. As expected, an awful lot!  I naturally remember the days of an absolutely gigantic card catalogue long before the days of banks of student pc’s and an electronic library catalogue available over the internet. Though library stacks don't change much, has to be said!

Music section stack



Karen with Whittaker library bag



So many thanks to Karen, the extremely knowledgeable music and academic services librarian.

Karen showed us around and talked us through and also showed us various other parts of the building from the opera centre to a walk past rehearsal rooms full of practicing musicians. Huge interesting experience.