About the Conservatory Library

Collection & Organization | Gifts & Recommendations | Conservatory Library Bibliography

History

Soon after the inauguration of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1865, the Conservatory Library was established. Approximately 10,000 scores formed its core collection, but the Conservatory Library continued to collect portions of its early holdings from various sectors of campus, as well. With the additional scores, reserve-shelf books (for history and theory courses), public school materials, and reference resources, the Library's collection numbered approximately 35,000 by 1940.

In 1958, the Conservatory Library became an administrative unit of the Oberlin College Library system, and by 1964, it had moved to quarters housed within the Conservatory's new facility designed by Minoru Yamasaki. In 1988, the Conservatory Library opened a new addition designed by Gunnar Birkerts and Associates that stands to the south of Warner Concert Hall. This addition nearly tripled the Library's space, although only one of the addition's two floors was fully complete at the time. The Conservatory Library was renovated and expanded in 2000; an elevator was installed to provide public access to the newly-completed West Wing's second floor. High density shelving was added for extensive collection growth.

Ten staff members along with many student assistants provide for the full-service operation of the Conservatory Library. Service to users includes reference assistance, circulation service, reserve collection assistance, and a complete range of technical services involving the acquisition, cataloging, and preparations of our scores, sound recordings, books, and journals.

In addition to supporting the needs of staff and housing the Library's sizable collection, the Conservatory Library provides access to:

43 listening stations equipped to play CDs, DVDs, LPs, digital audio tapes (DAT), and other audio cassettes;
6 listening/viewing rooms accommodating up to 4 people each and equipped to play video cassettes, laser discs, reel-to-reel tapes, LPs;
an Electronic Resource Center enabling access to the library's catalog OBIS, subscription products such as Grove Music Online, and all Internet resources available via the World Wide Web;
an Electronic Classroom equipped for viewing and listening to all current media formats;
study carrels; and
a conference room.

The Collection

Today, the Conservatory Library's collection exceeds 235,000 items making it comparable to the largest music libraries in academic settings both public and private. The collections include approximately 68,000 sound recordings; 109,00 musical scores; 58,000 books about music; and 210 periodical titles. New acquisitions number at approximately 2,000 recordings, 3,300 scores, and 1,400 books each year. The Library's collection includes a substantial foundation of Western art music from all historical periods, complete editions of the works of major composers, as well as an ever-growing collection in the areas of women musicians and American, ethnic, contemporary, jazz, folk, and popular music.

Additionally, Conservatory Library materials reside in the Department of Special Collections, Mudd Center. The Violin Society of America/H. K. Goodkind Collection, for example, contains extensive monographic and journal literature on the construction, performance, teaching, collecting, and playing of stringed instruments. The Conservatory Library's Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Best Collection of Autographs given by Cyrus W. Best, an 1890 alumnus of the Conservatory, also resides in Special Collections. Letters and photographs of composers such as Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, and Hector Berlioz can be found in this collection.

Collection Organization

Scores and books in the Conservatory Library are split between two classification systems. Older materials are shelved according to the Dewey Decimal Classification system, while newer materials are shelved according to the Library of Congress Classification system.

Most periodical titles are shelved alphabetically by title, and recordings are shelved in closed stack areas.

Gifts

Given the Conservatory Library's space constraints, we must be highly discriminating in adding gift materials to our collections. If we cannot accept a gift, we would be happy to help donors explore other venues for depositing materials.

It is desirable to receive from a potential donor a list of materials available. Staff will search the list against our catalog to identify items that we do not hold, and then select those that complement the collections and further serve our curricula. Those items not added to the Conservatory Library's collections are sold at Library sales that benefit the collection. According to Internal Revenue Service regulations, the Library cannot appraise any gifts; the donor is responsible for any appraisal for tax purposes.

See the Oberlin College Library's Collection Development Gifts Policy for further information.

Purchase Recommendations

The Conservatory Library welcomes recommendations for additions to our collections, particularly from Conservatory faculty and staff. We will try to honor suggestions made as far as possible. Please contact Deborah Campana, Conservatory Librarian, with any thoughts you might have.

Conservatory Library Bibliography

For more historical information about the Oberlin Conservatory Library, consult the resources below.

Abromeit, Kathleen. "Reference Assistants on the Front Line in the Music Library." In Music Library Instruction. Music Library Association Basic Manual Series, 3. Scarecrow Press, 2004.

Abromeit, Kathleen, and Victoria Vaughan. "Info Lit and the Diva: Integrating Information Literacy into the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Opera Theater Department.? Music Library Association Notes 60, 3 (March 2004).

Bradley, Carol June. Music Collections in American Libraries; a chronology. Detroit Studies in Music Bibliography, 46. Detroit, Michigan: Information Coordinators, 1981.

Chamberlin, Ernest Barrett. The Music of Oberlin and Some Who Made It; in tribute to the centennial of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, 1867-1967. Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization, 1968.

Cowles, Mary E. "Oberlin's Departmental Libraries, January 1989." Oberlin College Archives.

Keyes, Catherine Ann. "Music in Ohio Libraries: Oberlin Conservatory of Music." Notes 8 (August 1940): 30.

Skyrm, Richard Dean. "Oberlin Conservatory: a century of musical growth and influence." DMA Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1962.

Warch, Willard. Our First 100 Years; a brief history of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. [Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, 1967].

Wilder, Daniel. "The Conservatory Library Addition." Oberlin College Archives [1998].

Zager, Daniel. "A Look at the Conservatory Library: Then and Now." Library Perspectives, a Newsletter of the Oberlin College Library 2 (March 1992): 3-4.