Collections of musicians’ letters in the UK and Ireland: a scoping study Katharine Hogg, Rachel Milestone, Alexis Paterson, Rupert Ridgewell, Susi Woodhouse London December 2011 1 Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank all those who gave their time and expertise to make this scoping study possible. They include: the staff of organisations and individuals responding to the survey, staff at the BBC Written Archives, Oxford University Press, the London Symphony Orchestra, Cheltenham Festivals, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Society of Musicians, and those who kindly agreed to be interviewed on their use and perception of archives of letters. © Music Libraries Trust 2012 2 Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Rationale ........................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1. The resource................................................................................................................................................ 5 2.2. Repositories ................................................................................................................................................ 5 2.3. Resource discovery...................................................................................................................................... 6 2.4. Data integration........................................................................................................................................... 6 2.5. Metadata issues ........................................................................................................................................... 7 2.6. Advocacy.................................................................................................................................................... 7 3. Methodology...................................................................................................................................... 8 3.1. Definitions .................................................................................................................................................. 8 3.2. Scoping collections...................................................................................................................................... 8 3.3. Institutional contexts.................................................................................................................................... 9 3.4. Project management .................................................................................................................................... 9 3.5. Survey of holding institutions .....................................................................................................................10 3.6. Inventory of Musicians...............................................................................................................................11 3.7. Final report.................................................................................................................................................12 3.7 Project timeframe........................................................................................................................................12 4. Holding institutions..........................................................................................................................12 4.1. Inventory of collections ..............................................................................................................................12 4.2. National libraries........................................................................................................................................13 4.3. University libraries.....................................................................................................................................14 4.4. Public libraries ...........................................................................................................................................14 4.5. Public archives and museums .....................................................................................................................15 4.6. Composer museums and trusts....................................................................................................................16 4.7. Music Conservatoires .................................................................................................................................17 4.8. Broadcasting institutions.............................................................................................................................19 4.9. Music publishers ........................................................................................................................................22 4.10. Music festivals .........................................................................................................................................24 4.11. Charitable foundations..............................................................................................................................26 4.12. Orchestras and ensembles .........................................................................................................................27 4.13. Concert venues.........................................................................................................................................28 4.14. Recording companies................................................................................................................................29 4.15. Other holding institutions..........................................................................................................................30 5. Survey of researchers.......................................................................................................................30 6. Structured interviews with musicians .............................................................................................34 6.1. Participants ................................................................................................................................................34 6.2. Roles..........................................................................................................................................................35 6.3. Content and format.....................................................................................................................................35 6.4. Access, retention and legacy.......................................................................................................................37 6.5. General Observations .................................................................................................................................39 6.6. Preservation ...............................................................................................................................................40 7. Existing finding aids ........................................................................................................................41 7.1. Online portals and catalogues .....................................................................................................................41 7.1.1. National Register of Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp...................................41 7.1.2. Access to Archives (A2A) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/default.aspx........................................42 7.1.3. Archives Hub Http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk ...........................................................................................44 7.1.4. AIM25 http://www.aim25.ac.uk/ ..............................................................................................................44 7.1.5. Scottish Archives Network (SCAN) http://www.scan.org.uk/index.html.....................................................46 7.1.6. Archives Wales http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/....................................................................................47 7.1.7. National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ ...................................................................47 7.1.8. National Library of Ireland: Sources http://sources.nli.ie/Browse/Archive................................................48 7.1.9. Cecilia http://www.cecilia­uk.org.............................................................................................................49 7.2. Specialist online resources..........................................................................................................................49 3 7.3. Published collections..................................................................................................................................51 8. Synthesis...........................................................................................................................................51 8.1. Privacy issues.............................................................................................................................................51 8.2. Acquiring and preserving collections ..........................................................................................................52 8.3. Resource discovery.....................................................................................................................................53