Music Collection Policy
Collection location:
Penn State University Libraries
Arts and Humanities Library, University Park campus
Administrator of collection funds: music librarian
Funds:
MUSIC, MUREC, MUSCO
Primary Users and Collection Emphases
Primary users groups of the collection are faculty and students in the School of Music
and School of Theatre at University Park campus; faculty and students in music courses at other
Penn State campuses; faculty and students in other colleges who incorporate music into their
teaching and learning (e.g., American Studies, history, integrative arts, physics). The collection
therefore emphasizes the curricula of these departments and research needs of these faculty and
students, with these priorities: music education; Western art music and its history; jazz; world
musics; and the history of popular musics in America. Relevant degree programs are Bachelor of
Music in performance or composition, Bachelor of Science in music education, Bachelor of Fine
Arts in musical theatre, Master of Arts in musicology or music theory, Master of Music
Education, Master of Music in theory and composition, conducting, performance, piano
pedagogy and performance, voice pedagogy and performance, Master of Fine Arts in theatre,
Ph.D. in music education. The Penn State University Libraries also serve the local community,
residents of the state of Pennsylvania, and other users who travel to use the library facilities or
use remote services from a distance. The music librarian communicates frequently with other
selectors, including education librarians in the Education and Behavioral Sciences Library
regarding music curriculum materials, the Paterno Librarian for Literature regarding musical
theatre, and librarians in several subject libraries regarding video materials in their disciplines
requested for course reserve.
Collection Description
The music collection includes printed music (study scores, critical editions, performance
parts); print and licensed electronic reference resources, including encyclopedias and indexes;
books (including dissertations); print and licensed electronic periodicals; computer files; sound
and video recordings; and licensed streaming audio databases. No languages, geographical areas,
or historical eras are excluded; English and European languages are emphasized. Contemporary
popular music is not emphasized. The music librarian collaborates with the Serials and
Acquisitions Department to acquire materials through a combination of approval plans (YBP for
books, Theodore Front for scores/parts) and firm ordering from a variety of music and AV
vendors.
Levels of Collecting
 Music education: research level
Research
level: includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research,
including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other
information useful to researchers. Study level: supports undergraduate or graduate course work, or sustained
independent study; that is, which is adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized
purposes, of less than research intensity. Basic level: serves to introduce and define the subject and to indicate the
varieties of information available elsewhere.
revised 2005, A. Maple
Music Collection Policy
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Penn State University Libraries
Western art music: study level
Jazz: study level
World music: study level
American popular music: basic level
Related Collections
Music in the Special Collections Department, including Fred Waring’s America; sheet
music in the Alice Marshall Women’s History Collection at Penn State Harrisburg; music in the
libraries at other Penn State campuses.
History of the music collection in the University Libraries, University Park campus
The first Arts Librarian was appointed by the University Libraries in 1964. As the
University Libraries’ first dedicated subject liaison to the College of Arts and Architecture, the
Arts Librarian developed collections and services related to all the fine and performing arts as
well as architecture and landscape architecture. Penn State’s Department of Music maintained its
own departmental collection of sound recordings and scores at that time, while the University
Libraries collected journals and books related to music. A distinct Arts Library was created in the
University Libraries and allocated its own physical space inside the general library building at
the University Park campus, to bring together in one place the fine arts and music books and
journals that had previously been located throughout the general collection. The Arts Librarian
began to develop a small collection of sound recordings and study scores in the Arts Library,
including critical editions of scores, and advocated for the creation of a music librarian position.
Penn State’s first music librarian was appointed in 1969. Over time, the music librarian
collaborated with the head of the Department of Music to transfer the department’s collection of
sound recordings and scores to the Arts Library in 1982. A Music Listening Room within the
Arts Library was created to house and provide playback equipment for the sound recordings.
Since 1982, the University Libraries’ music librarian has developed and maintained
music collections in all music-related formats: audio (and later, video) recordings, scores and
performance parts, journals, books, and computer files. Printed performance parts for large
ensembles such as orchestras and bands have not been collected by the University Libraries; the
Department (later, School) of Music has maintained its own collection of orchestra, band, and
choral parts for the use of its large performing ensembles. In 2000, the Arts Library was
reorganized and expanded into an Arts and Humanities Library, still in the general library
building (a short walk from the School of Music buildings) and now including all the fine and
performing arts, languages and literatures, history, area studies, and religious studies. The Music
Listening Room was expanded into a Music and Media Center within the Arts and Humanities
Library, to house and maintain the unit’s collection of sound and video recordings adjacent to the
collection of scores and performance parts, provide playback equipment, and provide circulation
and course reserves services.
revised 2005, A. Maple