Ensemble and Extension to Ensemble

Ensemble
Ensemble constitutes a strategic alliance between a sub-set of members of CURL, with the most substantial university music research holdings, and a sub-set of members of British conservatoires represented in the Music Libraries Online grouping. Together, these CURL and conservatoire libraries are committed to the development of a long-term partnership to enhance and sustain the research library base for music, initially within higher education but ultimately cross-sectorally. This vision is premised upon the sharing of resources and expertise, and consortial action to promote resource description and discovery, collaborative collection management, and reciprocity of access to collections and information resources. The consortium has identified as its largest early priority a  targeted programme of retrospective conversion of 110,000 items of printed music published between 1850 and 1975 (retrospective conversion meaning the computerisation of manual records so they can be available on online catalogues) . This programme will be undertaken in ways which will add significant value for researchers over and above the creation of records and which will test out a methodology for the distributed of bibliographically complex material through the use of multiple databases and a national flat-rate cataloguing unit cost.

Click here to view the proposal document for Ensemble.

Click here to view the Letter of Understanding for Ensemble, which all primary partner institutions have been asked to sign.

Extension to Ensemble
The purpose of the extension is to create bibliographic records for an additional 70,300 items of printed music, whilst realising economies of scale through exploitation of the existing project management and database infrastructure. It also represents a broadening of the scope of the project in terms of both new material (notably in the area of popular music, an identified priority for RSLP) and new conservatoire partners (The Birmingham Conservatoire of the University of Central England and Trinity College of Music). The project is already well established, to universal acclaim in the music community (as demonstrated at its formal launch, through a reception and a concert, at the Royal College of Music on 18 January 2000), and the proposed extension will provide the consortium with an opportunity to take its vision of a national research library base for music one step further.

Click here to view the proposal document for the Extension to Ensemble.

Click here to view the Letter of Understanding for the Extension to Ensemble, which all primary partner institutions have been asked to sign.

DISSEMINATION

• Launch, Royal College of Music, 18 January 2000
  
• Ensemble starts playing, The Library Association Record, 102(4), April 2000, p.187
  
• RSLP Dissemination Day, Business Design Centre, London, 14 June 01