The Music, Monograph and Online Collections at the College-Conservatory of Music Library, University of Cincinnati Libraries
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Feature Stories Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library at the University of Cincinnati Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University Capital University Law School Library Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron Lillian F. & Milford J. Harris Library at Case Western Reserve Marantz Picturebook Collection at Kent State University Mulford Health Science Library at University of Toledo Packard Library at the Columbus College of Art & Design |
By David Sandor, Circulation Supervisor
The Library’s information commons delivers recorded music online, on compact discs and on long-playing records. Twenty computer stations connect listeners to streaming audio and video from Naxos, as well as audio from Classical Music Library and DRAM. The sound recordings include 18,000 vinyl LPs that preserve many works and performances not released on CD. Subscriptions to the Naxos and Library Music Source online services supply tens of thousands of scores that are in the public domain and available for printing on demand. The audiovisual collections include nearly 3,000 videos and DVDs, many of which are videos of opera performances. The monograph collection consists mostly of books about music history, theory and instruction, biographies of musicians, and books about dance. The Library holds nearly 700 serial titles and has approximately 150 current periodical subscriptions. Although most music periodicals are still in print form, more of them are moving online. The library operates with two librarians and two support staff, all in full-time positions. Due to the special characteristics of many music materials, acquisition and cataloging are done on-site. One librarian and one staff person spend much of their time creating bibliographic records for scores and audiovisual materials, in addition to their other duties. Mark Palkovic has been Head Librarian since 2001. Previous Head Librarians were Theresa Noak (1949-1966), Samuel Douglas (1967-1968), and Robert Johnson (1968-2000). In January 2010, the Library moved to a new location on the sixth floor of the historic Blegen Library building, adjacent to the CCM complex. The sixth floor space was renovated to highlight the lofty ceilings, oak shelves, and Art Deco architectural details of the structure, built in 1930. The floor plan of the new facility allows for a more convenient organization of the stacks and information commons and more economical service delivery. |
The collections of the 
Among the valuable materials in the Library’s music collections are composer collected works, monuments of music, and critical editions published in multi-volume sets. Another highlight consists of performing editions for ensemble players and singers. Typical examples of these include scores with separate parts for each player (such as the four instruments of a string quartet) and piano-vocal scores of art songs, operas and Broadway musicals, which enable a singer to rehearse with a piano accompanist. There are thousands of full scores of operas, musicals and choral works.