2024 IAML Germany Annual Meeting in Frankfurt am Main

Martina Falletta

Thursday, October 10, 2024

From 17 to 20 September 2024 the annual meeting of the German branch of IAML (International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres) took place in Frankfurt am Main. The German National Library was the main venue, and they along with the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Oper Frankfurt, RISM-Zentralredaktion, Stadtbücherei/Musikbibliothek, and the Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg were involved in preparing and organizing the conference.

Since I was a member of the Local Organizing Committee, I learned a lot about the work of IAML. The effort of more than a year of preparation in a very motivated and quite large organizing committee, together with a committed Board, was well worth it. The result was an informative and wide-ranging event that offered many opportunities to connect in a relaxed atmosphere. I was happy to see so many participants.

The usual training sessions were offered before the start of the conference, this time for creating standardized titles for musical works in the National Library’s Integrated Authority File (GND) and cataloging printed music in RDA. On Wednesday afternoon, training was offered for music subject librarians, held in cooperation with the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VDB). The session included an introduction to RISM, presentations from NFDI4Culture and musiconn, and an overview of the music edition projects and their digital approaches from the Akademie der Wissenschaft und Literatur Mainz.

The plenary sessions offered participants comprehensive information about topics including Frankfurt’s musical history and various Frankfurt music institutions, new databases from music conservatories, and issues related to cataloging historical sources for dance.

In the session devoted to music departments in academic libraries, presentations were heard from the Archiv Frau und Musik, the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Gesamtausgabe, and the Erich Wolfgang Korngold Werkausgabe. After a break, we heard about challenges and strategies that arise while processing music archival collections, and once again there was a focus on local history as we heard from the university library’s Music and Theater Department, with many objects from its collection to look at.

The accompanying cultural program included tours of the hosting libraries, a performance of Hercules by Georg Friedrich Händel at the Oper Frankfurt, and tours through the old town, the Alte Nikolaikirche (with an organ demonstration), the city skyline, and a musical tour of the city’s main cemetery.

Next year’s meeting will take place in Dresden from 16 – 19 September. The conference will be hosted by the Central Library of the Städtische Bibliotheken Dresden and the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB Dresden).

Photograph with kind permission of Ann Kersting-Meuleman.

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