Update Jan 2022: Kathy Adamson (formerly Royal Academy of Music) is our new treasurer from Feb 2022. Thank you to everyone who shared the vacancy or got in touch about it.

The Music Libraries Trust is seeking a new treasurer to assist our work supporting the education and training of music library staff in the UK and Ireland, as well as funding research projects relating to music libraries, librarianship and bibliography. Most recently we organised and funded a survey of music library users with research recently published on the findings.

The role is not time-consuming and Chris our current treasurer has outlined the responsibilities below.

Music Libraries Trust | Treasurer | Job Spec

Run and maintain the current account (currently a cheque account with NatWest) and the deposit account (Saffron Building Society).
Administer payments from the current account (around 10-15 payments annually).
Attend Trustee meetings three times a year. Meetings are currently online via Zoom – we anticipate moving to two online and one in person meeting annually, usually at the British Library in London. Reasonable travel expenses are paid for the in person meeting.
Give a brief report at Trustee meetings outlining the balances on both accounts and listing any expenses / deposits during the previous quarter.
Claim Gift Aid from HMRC on any donations.
Keep a simple excel spreadsheet of deposits in and payments out.
Preparation and presentation of Annual Accounts.

We would like someone with experience of working in or with music libraries to take on this role.

You will need good attention to detail but no previous experience as a treasurer is required. Support will be given as necessary for you to become comfortable with carrying out the role.

If you’d like to express an interest or have any questions about the role please contact our secretary Edith Speller at secretary@musiclibrariestrust.org / e.speller@trinitylaban.ac.uk by Fri 17 December.

MLT’s trustees would like to express our sincere gratitude to our outgoing treasurer Chris Jackson for his work to keep the charity operating.

Objectives of the Trust

The Trust provides support for the education and training of music librarians. It also encourages and supports research into music librarianship, music bibliography and related disciplines. Since 1982, the Trust has worked in conjunction with the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) UK Branch (from 2002 UK & Ireland Branch) to provide a focus for the inception of new ideas and for the skills of music librarians to be re-evaluated in the context of new technologies and changing bibliographical techniques.

Activities during the period (1 Oct 2014 to 30 Sep 2015)

Trustees and Officers

Ann Wrigley stood down as a trustee in March 2015.

Patrons

Sadly Oliver ‘Tim’ Neighbour, former Music Librarian at the British Library and a noted scholar particularly of Byrd and Schoenberg, passed away in 2015. Composer and MLT patron John McCabe also sadly passed away in 2015.

Bursaries for the professional development of individual music librarians

Ten part and full bursaries were awarded to enable individuals to attend the IAML (UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend, held at Aston University, Birmingham from 10 to 12 April 2015. The sponsors were Oxford University Press, Staypar Trust, Cramer Music and a new sponsor, Alexander Street Press.

In addition, the Ian Ledsham Bursary Fund, a joint initiative between the Trust and IAML (UK & Irl) and now administered by MLT, awards a bursary to support an individual’s attendance at the annual IAML international conference.

E.T. Bryant Prize

The 2014 E.T. Bryant Prize (£250), awarded jointly by the Music Libraries Trust and IAML (UK & Irl), was awarded jointly to Julija Paskova for her study RDA Implementation in music libraries in the UK: reality or future? and Diana Wood for her study The Music Collections of Cambridge University: An Investigation into Perceptions of the Value of User-Generated Content in a Special Collections Catalogue. It was agreed that the prize will be increased to £300 from 2015.

Website redevelopment

The Trust has launched a new website which is available at the same web address as before, www.musiclibrariestrust.org. The new site has a modern design which works both on computers and mobile devices, and the navigation on the site has been revised to be clearer and easier for people seeking information about bursaries and research grants on offer. In addition, the website can now be more easily updated by officers and trustees of MLT as it is now hosted on the Squarespace platform. The Trust will keep the website updated with news about research projects and bursaries. We are also keen to add more photos of music libraries and our patrons, along with quotes promoting the value of music libraries.

Projects

Cecilia and Concert Programmes website redevelopment

£3000 had previously been awarded to Rupert Ridgewell, Susi Woodhouse and Orangeleaf Systems Ltd for a project to redevelop the Cecilia and Concert Programmes databases. The project was completed in Spring 2015 and launched at the IAML(UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend. The project has improved the databases’ user interface, introduced more sophisticated search functionality, mobile device compatibility, greater scalability and improved visibility of their contents, by making the data exportable to other services such as Culture Grid and Europeana and interoperable with linked data.

Encore

A further £450 of funding has been agreed (matched by IAML (UK & Irl)) towards updating the Encore union catalogue of performance sets available for loan in the UK. The Trust is helping IAML (UK & Irl) to explore the future of the catalogue, as MLT funding cannot be awarded for ongoing running costs.

Survey of music library users

The Trust is considering commissioning a survey of music library users in the UK and Ireland. Work is underway to agree the scope of the project and advertise it to researchers.

Projects list

The Trust maintains a list of suggestions for potential research projects, and appreciates the input and suggestions made by the IAML (UK & Irl) Documentation Committee in this process. The list can be accessed on the Trust’s website (http://musiclibrariestrust.squarespace.com/projectideas/).

Financial summary

In its financial year ending 30 September 2015, the Trust's gross receipts were £2,669.59 and its gross expenditure was £6,411.60.

Voluntary opportunity: Music Libraries Trust treasurer [now filled]

Music Libraries Trust Annual Report 2015