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#7 Musical Chairs – The Music Library’s Sojourns in the Berkeley

Our Music Librarian, Roy Stanley, gives a brief account of the award-winning Music Library

Almost from the moment it opened in 1967 the New Library was being adapted for new uses as the needs of the College changed.

The Music Library was first set up as a distinct unit within the Library in 1971, using two rooms in the ‘Library Annexe’ – an area of the basement in the Berkeley Library with a separate side entrance opposite the Museum Building. It shared this area with the Lecky Library, which at that time (before the Arts Building existed) housed the lending collections for the Arts and Humanities. The main image shows this entrance.

In 1978 the Music Library moved to the 1937 Reading Room, sharing the building with the Science collections. Here it stayed until 1992, when the collections and services moved back to the Berkeley – this time to the first floor. A disused counter facing the Morrison Room (the reading area surrounded by the Law collections) was used, with the music collections shelved in what was then the Official Publications area on the other side of the main stairwell. A rather cramped Listening Room was created by partitioning off a small area with a window overlooking College Park, and an office was inserted at the centre with glass partitions on three sides – reminiscent of a fish-tank! (This is now the photocopy/print room.)

The Music Library moved once again when the Ussher Library opened in 2002 – for the first time to a purpose-built area with a more spacious Listening Room and Office. However, traces of its previous existence remain in the Berkeley: for example, a bespoke shelving unit originally designed to accommodate large series of music scores can still be found in what is now the Nursing & Midwifery collection.

Main Image: Tony Cains for the Library of Trinity College Dublin