Music Library News

New Shelving for Oversize Scores

With the recent installation of additional shelving in the Music Library reading room, our collection of oversize scores is no longer housed on tables, allowing these materials to be much better organized. Though the Music Library's major moving project in the summer of 2006 improved the shelving of books and regular-size scores in our collection, oversize scores remained a challenge, and most were stored on tables in the reading room. The additional shelving that has been installed accommodates all the oversize scores that were previously on tables and provides enough room for approximately ten years of collection growth.

While oversize scores present challenges in all libraries, the Music Library has an unusually great amount of oversize scores due to the library's particular emphasis on twentieth-century and contemporary music, which often is published in large formats to allow for the very large orchestras and unorthodox notation used by many composers since World War II.

To make room for the new shelving, the reading room has been slightly reconfigured. The new layout provides a large open area with tables and seating as well as wireless internet service and study carrels that can be reserved.

The Music Library thanks students, faculty, and all its patrons for their patience while we made this improvement, and we hope that everyone finds it easier to access oversize scores and that the reading room is a more welcoming and comfortable area for studying.