Music librarianship

A Master’s degree in both Library Science and Musicology makes a special interest in music librarianship a very natural thing. My first position after graduating brought me to the Middle East where I started working as a Music Information Services Librarian at Qatar National Library in early 2014. Even after becoming Senior Information Services Librarian for Humanities two years later, music remains a special focus of my work. This includes building the music collection of the Library, establishing a music studio, organizing public concerts, music movie screenings, music workshops and trainings as well as developing other innovative services. In 2020, I moved back to Germany to join Frankfurt Public Library in my current position as Head of its Central Music Library.

I joined the German Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) in 2008 as a personal member and have been attending several of their annual conferences. Since 2014, I am getting increasingly involved in the annual international conferences of IAML. In 2016, I became an officer of the Advocacy Committee. In 2019, I was elected Secretary of the Public Libraries Section. During my studies, I completed several internships in music libraries both in my hometown Berlin and abroad in the US. Below, you find more info about each internship:

Library of Congress

April 2009 | Acquisitions and Processing Section of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.; major field of work: Processing and completing a finding aid for the “Worker’s Music League Collection”.

Blog posts about my stay in D.C.: Background und Praktikum | Library of Congress – Der Gebäudekomplex | Sightseeing und Kulinarisches | Book sale und bake-off in der Bowie Library.

New York Public Library

February-April 2009 | Music division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City; major fields of work: Introduction to the organizational structure, processing of rare books and several small collections, reference services.

Blog posts about my stay in NYC: Praktikum und Umbruchsituation an der NYPL | Weitere Bibliotheken. You might also want to check the posts I wrote on-site starting here.

Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin

August-September 2007 | Music division of the Central and Regional Library Berlin; major fields of work: Reference services, maintenance of a compilation of web resources related to music and cultural life in Berlin, cataloging.

Deutsches Musikarchiv

February-March 2006 | Deutsches Musikarchiv, Berlin (now located in Leipzig), the central collection of sheet music and sound recordings in Germany; major fields of work: Introduction to all fields of work such as cataloging, reference services, maintenance of authority files, long-term preservation and conservation.

Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung

September 2005 | Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung, Berlin, a national research center in the field of musicology; major fields of work: RILM, cataloging of recordings, working at the institute’s special library.