Music Library and IT
Library
Students in the music library
Good library facilities are, of course, essential for study and research. The Music Library, which is housed on the ground floor of the main building, is one of over a dozen libraries run by the university's Information Services. The Music Librarian will be happy to answer enquiries (see contact below).
The Music Library has been recently refurbished with new shelving, study desks and computing facilities. It has over 30,000 volumes, scores and books, together with an ever-expanding collection of CDs, LPs, cassettes, journals, DVDs and videos, all of which are available for student loan or study within the library. The Music Library also maintains subscriptions to all the leading international musicological journals; it also houses the specialist Aylward and Mackworth collections of manuscript and printed music from the 18th and 19th centuries as well as the archive of printed and recorded material from Central Europe. Many of the holdings are related to the past and present research activities of the staff and there are particular strengths in publication series and in the music of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The Music Library and its specialist librarians welcome suggestions for new acquisitions from students as well as staff, and every effort is made to obtain research materials, either by purchase or inter-library loan, whether it is for an undergraduate dissertation, postgraduate thesis or staff publication.
Students are also encouraged to join the City Library whose stock admirably supplements that held by the School.
IT Room
There is also an IT room on the 'penthouse' floor of the main building. It has a dozen Macintosh computer work-stations which are replaced on a five-year cycle.
Computers are linked to a laser printer. Some of the computers have MIDI keyboards attached while others are linked to scanners. All are connected to the University network and all students are registered for a University email address at enrolment. Introductory classes to the IT facilities are held within the first three weeks of the first year. In common with other University Schools, we run Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Internet Explorer). Music software includes Sibelius, Finale and Mosaic notation processing packages.
In addition to the Mac work-stations we also have an RM PC running Office and Sibelius, and an Acorn PC, also running Sibelius, won by the School in the final of a BBC Radio 3 university quiz!