Concert programmes are a primary source of information for historical and musicological research, but it is difficult to find out what programmes exist, where they are held and what their contents are.

In 2002 the Music Libraries Trust provided £1,500 to finance a scoping study for a database of concert programmes held in the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland.

Building on the scoping study, a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board Resource Enhancement Scheme has built a database of collection level descriptions which will be contributed to the national collections portal, Cornucopia.

The Concert Programmes Database is now available at www.concertprogrammes.org.uk where users can locate collections of programmes held by libraries, archives, museums, concerts societies and venues in one search.

The scoping study, published as, Concert Programmes in the UK and Ireland: A Preliminary Report, by Dr Rupert Ridgewell, is available for £12 from the IAML(UK & Irl) Publications Officer.