International Association of Music Libraries
United States Branch / IAML-US

Association Internationale des Bibliothèques, Archives et Centres de Documentation Musicaux
International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres
Internationale Vereinigung der Musikbibliotheken, Musikarchive und Musikdokumentationszentren

IAML, IAML-US and MLA

IAML, the International Association of Music Libraries, encourages and promotes the activities of music libraries, archives and documentation centers in supporting and facilitating the realization of projects in music bibliography, music documentation and music library and information science at national and international levels. Official languages for communications are English, French, and German.

Music librarians from the United States have been involved in IAML from its inception in 1951, though the actual date of the organization of a IAML-US branch is apparently not documented. IAML's first Bulletin d'Information 1, 1 (October 1952): 7, observed that numerically the US had by far the largest of the national groups. Indeed, the first published list of IAML members, found in the subsequent Bulletin d'Information 1, 2 (March 1953): 8-9, lists 11 institutional members and 39 individual members from the United States, including IAML President Richard S. Hill. The first Bulletin 1, 1 (October 1952): 7, also expected that the US group, as an official national branch, "devra certainement se constituer au sein de la M.L.A. et peut être même se fondre avec elle." Unlike other national branches of IAML, which were only then starting to develop in order to serve as the sole organization for music librarians, the United States already had one such professional organization in the 1950s—the Music Library Association (MLA).

Founded in 1931 and already a vigorous association at the founding of IAML, MLA has coexisted with and played a mixed role in the development of the US Branch of IAML. The course of the relationship between IAML-US and MLA appears already in the brief announcement in MLA Notes 12, 1 (December 1954): 59, of an organizing meeting for a "tighter, better articulated" US branch of IAML: "In the United States, the overlapping interests of MLA and IAML make the development of a branch awkward, particularly since the proper moment has not yet come for suggesting that MLA as a whole become (organizationally speaking, of course) a branch of IAML." For IAML-US, counting 137 institutional and 88 individual members in 2006, that moment is still coming. (See, for example, the discussion of the MLA/IAML-US ad hoc Committee Report in the MLA Board Minutes of October, 2004, p. 12.) "Despite this non-integration," James Cassaro observed in a recent MLA President's Report, MLA Newsletter , No. 130 (September-October, 2002), p. 2, "a powerful symbiotic relationship has emerged between these two organizations for American music librarianship."

What does membership in IAML-US offer?

Technical, financial, and political developments make music libarians increasingly dependent on each other. Decisions made at an international level affect the daily life of every music librarian. International collaboration is necessary, both to ensure that the special needs of music are not overlooked by the general library community, and to achieve better sharing of resources and information within the music library community itself.

• Participation in IAML helps you become a more effective member of the profession by establishing valuable contacts for your clients' research and yours, keeping up with new developments, and gaining experience and ideas. It also presents a wonderful opportunity to make new friends.
• A subscription to IAML's quarterly journal, Fontes artis musicae, is included in the membership dues, helping to keep you informed of developments in the field and within IAML itself.
• IAML holds annual conferences open to all members of the general assembly. The most recent conference took place in Sydney, Australia, July 1-6, 2007; the upcoming conference venue is Naples, Italy, July 20-25, 2008.
  
• Together with IMS (International Musicological Society) IAML supports the work of four important international bibliographic publication projects, helping create research opportunities for music specialists. These indispensable reference tools are very familiar to US music libraries and librarians:
  
  

  RISM Répertoire international des sources musicales

  RILM Répertoire international de littérature musicale

  RIdIM Répertoire international d'iconographie musicale

  RIPM Répertoire international de la presse musicale

  
  

How do I become a member?

Membership IAML-US is open to all interested individuals and institutions. Simply mail a completed Membership Form with payment to the IAML-US Treasurer.