Relationships with Libraries

[eschiss1]

I volunteer at a local public library, have had largely good interactions with librarians generally, agree with the principles of the American Library Association (if I understand correctly) (I realize that's a rather nationally parochial statement - apologies) - but do wonder generally how various large libraries with large music collections, public and private, differ in their approach to (reasonably reasonable) requests for copying, scanning, etc. (A request for a copy of locked stack fragile music material is going to be considered differently from material that isn't so fragile, much of the time, e.g.!)

There are libraries with some fairly huge collections even of one composer, I think, e.g. Hans Huber (1852-1921)'s manuscripts can, many of them, be found in two or three libraries in Switzerland (CH-Bu - Basel University Library, with 864 items- some multiple versions of the same work, of course- showing up in the RISM Online Catalog under Hans Huber, CH-SO ("Zentralbibliothek, Historische Musiksammlung", Solothurn, 341) and CH-E (Kloster Einsiedeln) (206) ) accounting for over 700 manuscripts (and about 800 early editions, some hard to find).)

The Danish Royal Library has, at least, digitized a fair and increasing percentage of its own collection, as have some of these other libraries (and some, like BSB Munich, seem(?) to, in addition to their own scanning queue, make available publicly the scans that people have requested using the links on the site?... not sure...), over time, and some not so much or at all?

Anyhow, since it seems to me that the thread under this one is on the verge of diverging, maybe this would be a good place to take this?

My specific question has to do with Basel (out of curiosity) but I'm really just opening the topic wide within reason

[thalbergmad]

I had a friend in Basel who scanned loads of stuff from the University Library, but i think she had some kind of pass.

I have obtained 600 piano concerto scores from libraries all over the world and generally the vibe is very positive. I have had only a couple of outright refusals and at the other end of the scale a couple that have refused to charge me. Prices do vary from nothing up to the mind boggling. I recall being charged about £500 for the two Sherwoods but they were faint manuscripts that were scanned very well.

The French libraries seem to be a little more obsctructive than most and it was the one in Monaco that all but told me to bog off.

All said, it is a generally pleasant but wallet emptying experience.

Thal

[Mark Thomas]

My experience mirrors Thal's.  I've ordered almost 200 scans of both published and manuscript scores from libraries all over western Europe and North America in the last three years, and with just one exception found librarians and copying staff very helpful and enthusiastic. My one exception spent six months promising to scan items without doing so, and after I contacted the head librarian only managed to produce almost unusable smartphone photos of the pieces. Most seem to take between two and six weeks to come up with the goods as digital downloads, a few will only supply paper copies. Prices do vary hugely but, like Thal, I've also had libraries waive a fee for just a few pages.

[Gareth Vaughan]

With the sole exception of the British Library (whose absurd system I have described in the other thread) I have found every other library in the UK extremely helpful. The German libraries are very good too, and all the North American ones I have had dealings with. Italian, as I said, likewise. French - hmm, so-so. My one encounter with the municipal library in Prague was, as explained, very disappointing.

[adriano]

The Musikabteilung of Zurich Zentralbibliothek is very cooperative, and you have to pay CHF 0.20 for a scan. Of course I have good connection there, but they would never dare to tell to bog off. It geneally makes a difference whether you ask material from special collections or not. As far as the tone is concerned, French Libraries are the worse. But one must understand, often they have not enough personnel to spend hours just scanning. With the Bibliothèque Nationale de France I always was lucky, but I suppose this only because my orders were very clear as far as the location and numbers was concerned, so they did not have to make additional research. It's not cheap there. Netherland Libnraries are not very cooperative if you ask something from special collections, some of their booses there are posh and moody.