Recording of IFLA NPSIG / IAML webinar “Five Perspectives On Music Librarianship” available now

I recently had the big pleasure to co-organize and present on the webinar “Five Perspectives on Music Librarianship” which was hosted by IFLA’s New Professionals Special Interest Group (NPSIG) in collaboration with IAML, the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, Documentation Centres. Having strong ties to both groups made this a truly special occasion for me.

Geared towards non-music librarians, the webinar offers five different angles on music librarianship that might serve as a starting-point for anybody interested to learn more about this field of our profession. At the same time, it serves as an introduction to IAML and its international community. Here is the full recording along with the list of speakers and direct links to each of their presentations:

• An Introduction to IAML, the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (Anders Cato, IAML Secretary General, Pia Shekhter, IAML President-Elect)
• Local music collections in libraries (public, community, and academic): the Canadian context (Carolyn Doi, University of Saskatchewan, Sean Luyk, University of Alberta, Canada)
• Can I listen to that online? Providing access to AV collections (Jonathan Manton, Music Librarian for Digital and Access Services,  Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University, USA)
• Innovative music services in a public library setting: Three examples from Qatar National Library (Sebastian Wilke, Head of Central Music Library, Frankfurt Public Library, Germany)
• The 4 R-projects of international music research (Barbara Dobbs Mackenzie, Executive Director, Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM)

As mentioned in the recording, this webinar is only the first of several music related activities that NPSIG is undertaking. The group is also calling for contributions to the NPSIG Music Context 2021 that will be included in a session about music in libraries at the World Library And Information Congress in Rotterdam next year.

New Librarians and new ways of professional exchange – presentation at the 58th Congress of the Italian Library Association

On 28 November, I will have the pleasure to represent IFLA’s New Professionals Special Interest Group by giving a presentation at the 58th Congress of the Italian Library Association in Rome. This year, the conference focuses on how to improve the professional recognition of the library sector. My presentation “New Librarians and new ways of professional exchange: Inspiration from the international context” (see the abstract below) will be part of a session devoted to new librarians. You find more info on the talk on the website of the Goethe Institute Rome who is kindly supporting my trip.

A strong library community is based on effective networking and professional exchange between each other and with the public. It is worth taking an international point of view and considering the activities of library associations in other countries, as they can act as a source of inspiration for your own work. Especially the work done with and by LIS students and new librarians often includes innovative approaches that can be achieved easily and with low cost but, at the same time, provide plenty of space for networking and exchange. The presentation will start with an overview on innovative event formats such as speed networking, barcamps, and cycling tours organized by librarians. The second part will focus on the virtual exchange and give practical advice on how to facilitate webinars and different mentoring models. It will become apparent that these approaches not only help New Professionals at the start of their career, but the whole library sector can greatly benefit from them, for they change the way we do networking and professional exchange across educational degrees and library types.

UPDATE: The slides of my presentation are now available on slideshare: