Happy new (academic) year - news from the MFL.

A very warm welcome to those of you who are new to Oxford and welcome back to those who are returning for the new academic year. It has been a busy summer for the Music librarians. Newcomers will not notice the difference but, for returning students and staff, the more observant among you will see that a lot of things in the Music Faculty Library have moved around.  Now that the majority of the books have been reclassified, we have combined the reference and lending books into a single sequence upstairs on the first floor. Reference books are still identifiable by the presence of a red stripe on the spine and the system will complain if you try to check them out but we hope that their presence on the shelves next to lending books with similar classmarks (rather than in a separate sequence) will be a useful development. The Short-Loan books remain on the ground floor, now concentrated in the bay by the window opposite the library desk. The shelves by the library entrance are in the process of being filled with oversize books, many of which were formerly kept in closed access behind the library desk, and DVDs.

The other big difference is that the sheet music collections, formerly kept in boxes on the top floor and hence divorced from the main sections of printed music on the ground floor, have been united with their main sections so, for example, the boxes of unbound keyboard music from the top floor have been moved downstairs and are now kept with the more substantial bound volumes of keyboard music on the ground floor. The top floor now contains the remnants of the print periodical (journal) collection. 

While the ground floor now contains all the instrumental music, along with the full and miniature score sequences, all the vocal music is concentrated on the first floor (opera/oratorio vocal scores, songs, part songs, etc.) in the bays to the left of the door from the staircase. The lending sets of collected editions have been moved from the first floor to the ground floor and are shelved in alphabetical sequences before the reference set sequences begin.

We apologise for the fact that it may take a while for you to get your bearings but we hope you’ll eventually come to agree that the resulting arrangement, in which we have sought to reduce the number of sequences, is an improvement on the previous system. We have done our best to complete as much of this work as possible before the beginning of term, including the relabelling of the shelves and updating of the floor plans, but please be patient while we continue to fine-tune the arrangements. If you are struggling to find what you need please don't hesitate to ask at the library desk and we will point you in the right direction.

Another development to have taken place in the last few months has been the inclusion of data from the card catalogues for the Bodleian Library’s music collections in SOLO so practically all the Bodleian’s printed music scores can now be located through SOLO rather than through the card catalogues which were latterly searchable through the separate online ‘flipbook’ viewer. We hope that this will be a welcome improvement.

Weston Library - Music Update

The Weston Library is now very near completion so here is some more information about what Musicians can expect to find when the new building opens and a warning of a certain amount of disruption in the next few weeks as the reading room is transferred from Duke Humfrey.

As already advertised elsewhere, Duke Humfrey’s Library will close to readers at 7.00pm on Friday 19^th September and there will be no access to the Music open shelf collections nor any fetching of music scores until service is resumed in the Weston Library on Monday 29^th September. The intervening week will be spent in moving the books, equipment and staff currently located in Duke Humfrey and preparing the new reading room for use the following week. All material still on reserve in Duke Humfrey and the Special Collections Reading Room will be returned to the stacks on 19^th. A small number of music scores which are moving to the Weston Library open shelves are being moved in advance of the closure of Duke Humfrey so will, regrettably, be unavailable until service resumes on 29^th. Although the building is opening to readers at the end of September, it will only gradually be filled and the programme of collection moves will continue all the way through to next summer. However, disruption will be kept to a minimum and it is expected that material being moved will be unavailable for only very short periods.

As most of you will know, Music will be accommodated in the Sir Charles Mackerras Reading Room which is located on the first floor of the Weston Library, in more-or-less the same position that it was latterly before the closure of the New Library (i.e. the old ‘PPE Gallery’). The room will also accommodate the reserve desk, serving not only the Mackerras Reading Room but also the adjoining reading room for western manuscripts, maps and rare books. You should be aware that, since the whole building is devoted to Special Collections (which includes all Music items), security in the building will be tight and the same restrictions (regarding food and drink, no bags, pencils only, etc.) which are currently in place in Duke Humfrey and the Special Collections Reading Room at the RSL will still apply.

Architect's impression of the Mackerras Reading Room

However, we are fortunate to have a great deal more space for Music than ever before so it will be possible for much more material to be on open access. When the reading room opens on 29^th September, you should find there the collection of open shelf books moved from Duke Humfrey (with a few additions), along with a selection of composer collected editions, with a few other music series and periodicals overflowing into other open access areas adjacent to the reading room itself. With one specific exception, this will be the first time that the Bodleian has had music scores on open shelves in living memory. While this material is being moved, during the next couple of weeks, it may not be available for ordering but other copies of much of it will also be found in the Music Faculty Library.

Architect's impression of the Weston Library as viewed from Broad Street

Over the course of the next few months, before the public opening of the building in March, more music materials will be moved from the Book Storage Facility in Swindon to other open access areas adjacent to the Mackerras Reading Room. This will include more collected editions and series but the final extent and make-up of the open access collection is yet to be determined. When this material arrives, it may cause the initial distribution of books and scores on the open shelves in the reading room to be revised so there will be a period of readjustment while we settle into our new home and work out how to make best use of the space.

Initially, closed access scores and other material will still need to be requested from its remote storage in Swindon but, during the course of the next few months, a large proportion of the remaining printed music collections will be moved back from Swindon into the Weston Library stacks so that fetching times for most items will be greatly reduced. The state-of-the-art bookstacks will at last provide appropriate conditions for the storage of our wealth of rare books and manuscripts.

Long-standing users of the Bodleian’s Music collections will remember the days when the old Music Reading Room was adjacent to the Music staff office, with an inter-connecting door which was always open, so that specialist Music staff were always on hand. While it is not possible for us to return to that position, it is intended that a member of the Music team will be on duty in the new reading room for most of the time during core hours.

Finally, I should like to thank everyone for their forbearance during several years of disruption while we have existed in conditions which have been far from ideal. We ask for your continued patience as we now settle in to our new surroundings. Although it will be several months before all the collections reach their final homes, we hope that the increased quantity of material on open access and improved facilities in the new building, coupled with the fact that records for all the printed music collections (generated from the old card catalogues) will shortly be loaded into SOLO, will provide greatly improved access to the Bodleian’s rich and varied music holdings.

For more information on the Weston Library and collection moves, please see http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/our-work/estates-projects/weston. If you have any questions about any of this, please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.

MH

150 Years Ago

Today marks the 150^th anniversary of the birth of the music hall entertainer Vesta Tilley (1864-1952). Born Matilda Alice Powles, in Worcester, on 13^th May 1864, she became a child star who earned enough by the age of 11 to support both her parents and her twelve siblings. Her father was Harry Ball, a comedy performer himself and theatre manager, who promoted his daughter’s career and wrote songs for her to sing. She first appeared in public at the age of three and a half, at her father’s theatre in Gloucester, and toured the provinces as ‘The Great Little Tilley’ from the age of six until she adopted the name of Vesta Tilley 1878.

As a child, she was initially billed as “The Pocket Sims Reeves”, for her impersonation of the famous singer, John Sims Reeves (1821-1900), and she went on to become the country’s most popular male impersonator. She dressed as fashionable young men in top hats and tail coats and, singing in her very feminine soprano voice, she entertained her working-class audiences by mildly satirizing the foppish manners of the rich in songs such as ‘Berlington Bertie’, ‘The latest chap on earth’ and ‘I’m a bachelor’.

In 1894, she made the first of several tours of the United States where she also enjoyed great popularity. She was at the height of her powers during the First World War and worked tirelessly for the war effort by singing patriotic recruitment songs. She retired from the stage in 1920 at the age of 56, drawing to a close a career which had lasted for over 50 years but thereafter making occasional charity appearances until her death more than 30 years later, in 1952.

The present anniversary is conveniently encapsulated in the title of the song illustrated here, one of dozens of Vesta Tilley song sheets in the Bodleian Library’s vast collections of music hall songs.

Easter vacation opening hours

Vacation borrowing begins on Monday 10th March. Please note that the MFL will be closed for one week of the Easter break. Full details of our vacation opening hours are here:

JMcP

Vacation borrowing

Books and scores needed for the Christmas break?

Week-loan books and music may be borrowed for the vacation from next Monday, 2nd December, and will be due back on Tuesday 21st January.

Do you need something from the Short Loan Collection?

We need to keep one copy of all Short Loan Collection books here for the vacation so that people who stay in Oxford have access to the whole collection.  However, you CAN take Short Loan items if there are two copies of the item that you need on the shelf.  From next Friday morning, 6th December, duplicated Short Loan books will be available for loan until Friday 17^th January (Week 0).  You will need to bring two copies of the book you want to the library counter to prove that there’s a spare to leave on the shelf.  There’s usually a bit of a rush, so come early if you want to take one of the “doubles” available. 

You will need to be here in person if you want to do this; you may not just renew online a Short Loan that you have already borrowed. Don’t despair if there is only a single copy left on Friday morning.  By Saturday (we’re open 10am till 1pm), all two day Short Loans will have to have been returned and often you can harvest a "double” on the Saturday.

Are you going to be around for some or all of the vacation?

Here are details of the MFL's vacation opening hours:

JM

Business as usual at the MFL

We are delighted to report that the essential maintenance work in the library has now been completed. Access to the CD collection and the Multimedia Resource Centre has been fully restored and we expect both PCAS printers to be returned to their homes in the photocopying room early next week.

We'd like to thank our readers for their patience while the works were being carried out and hope that they didn't cause too much inconvenience.

JM

Essential building works in the Music Faculty

Last week a small flood in the Music Faculty led to the discovery of major plumbing and heating problems affecting the whole building. This has necessitated some fairly major building work throughout the Music Faculty for the next 4-5 weeks, affecting the library in the following ways:

1. The lower ground floor will be inaccessible until the work has been completed. There will therefore be no access to the MRC including the iMacs and listening facilities and no access to the CD collections. There are PCs with Sibelius software on them in the main library, please ask staff if you can't find them.

2. One of the photocopy machines/printers/scanners has been relocated to the ground floor of the main library, near to the composer collected works. There will only be access to this one machine in the MFL so please plan ahead in case of high demand.

3. There will be some degree of noise in the library while the work is being carried out.

4. There will be no heating in the MFL for at least the next 2 weeks. The temperature is fine at the moment but please bear in mind if the weather takes a turn for the worse that it may get a little chilly in the library.

We will keep our readers updated as and when we find out any more details about the works but we apologise in advance for the disruption they will cause. If you have any questions about the works and how they might affect you, please email the library and we'll do our best to answer them.

JM