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A Manual for the Performance Library.

Article Excerpt
A Manual for the Performance Library. By Russ Girsberger. (Music Library Association Basic Manual Series, 6.) Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006. [ix, 171 p. ISBN-10: 0810858711; ISBN-13: 9780810858718. $45.] Illustrations, music examples, appendix, bibliographical references, index.

Performance librarianship is one of few vocations without any formalized academic program of study. Historically, professionals in this field are either self-taught or have apprenticed with others. While some parts of the job really do require little more than a bit of common sense and the ability to read music, others are far from intuitive. Few music schools teach that material by John Adams, for example, must be rented, and that some titles are controlled by G. Schirmer, while others are with Boosey & Hawkes. Masters degree programs in library science are no better in this regard. A true novice may not even know which questions to ask. Coming into it cold, what a performance librarian needs more than anything else is step-by-step instruction.

Russ Girsberger's A Manual for the Performance Library provides exactly...

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