Local and Regional Music Collections: Issues and Strategies

Presentation at 2013 Music Library Association (MLA) conference, San Jose, CA, March 2, 2013. Part of Local and Regional Music Collections: Issues and Strategies panel.Many libraries are developing local or regional music collections. Why librarians choose to create such collections and how they approach issues of development, selection, access, and marketing vary from institution to institution depending upon mission, budget, staffing, and other local circumstances. Librarians from five different libraries, representing small, medium, and large academic and public libraries, examine these concerns as they discuss the opportunities and constraints they have encountered in creating these collections. Decisions about what to collect, time constraints, and strategies for engaging with the community, cataloging, access issues, formats, and significance are addressed as they manifest themselves in the unique situations of individual libraries