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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
Owing to a complete overhaul of the archive spaces in Cecil Sharp House, original archive materials will only be available to researchers by appointment. This arrangement will be in place for the next six months and we shall require at least a week's notice of a proposed visit with a listing of the materials of interest. Most collections are available in microforms in the library and some are online at http://library.efdss.org/archives
Please also note that the library and archive will be closed on Saturday 2 January 2010.
Introduction
Mission Statement
Multimedia
Coverage
Arrangement
Access
Policies and Guidelines
Staff
Opening Hours
How to Reach the Library
Funding
Institutional Subscriptions
Library Study Guides
Vaughan
Williams Memorial Library ONLINE
http://library.efdss.org/archives
'... by
a gradual process of professionalization the VWML has become the most
important concentration of material on traditional song, dance, and
music in the country'
- from an entry in A Dictionary of English Folklore
by Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud (Oxford OUP, 2000)
Today the library is known
as the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) in honour of the eminent
composer, song collector and President of the EFDSS, Ralph Vaughan
Williams, who died in 1958. Up until that point it was called
the Cecil Sharp Library as it chiefly comprised Sharp’s personal library,
which he bequeathed to the EFDS in 1924. Its first permanent
home was established with the opening of Cecil Sharp House in 1930,
and Sharp’s daughter Joan was the first librarian.
With the amalgamation of
EFDS and the Folk Song Society and subsequent bequests, donations
and purchases, the library has developed considerably over the years,
most notably with the addition of the literature, sound and manuscript
collections of other eminent folklorists and collectors of the twentieth
century. These include the original papers of Lucy Broadwood,
Janet Blunt, Anne Gilchrist, Maud Karpeles, George Butterworth, George
Gardiner, the Hammond Brothers and Francis Collinson; copies of the
papers and notebooks of Sabine Baring-Gould, Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Frank Kidson, Gavin Greig and James Madison Carpenter; and the field
recordings of Percy Grainger, Mike Yates and the BBC Folk Music Archive.
VWML is England’s national
folk music and dance archive - a one stop shop for anybody interested
in the folk arts.
Mission
Statement
The Mission of the VWML
is to:
• Continuously expand access to the library, by always being
outward looking and developing partnerships which celebrate the many
and various cultural traditions of England
• Build its membership and encourage a larger and more diverse
range of people to discover, use and develop the library
• Make a full contribution to national, regional and local educational
and social programmes which develop citizenship and help to build
communities
• Maintain and enhance its unique heritage asset in innovative
ways to achieve the highest standards of care for the collection and
the building it lives in
• Employ the best staff and volunteers possible, and continuously
support their professional development to the benefit of its users."
Multi-Media
VWML is a multi-media library.
The collections include: books, manuscripts, off-prints, pamphlets,
periodicals, serials, press cuttings, broadsides, prints, paintings,
line drawings, photographs, slides, artefacts, ephemera, records,
reel-to-reel tapes, phonograph cylinders, videos, cine films, compact
discs, and audio cassettes.
While some of the materials
date back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - for example
the dance collections of Playford, Thompson and Walsh - all relevant
contemporary information is added where possible, such as the photographs
and video recordings of calendar customs made by Brian Shuel and Cyril
Cox. VWML is, above all, a living collection.
Coverage
The bulk of the VWML’s
collections relate to British folk culture and elements of British
based cultures in other lands, particularly North America and Ireland.
Song and dance are only two facets of a rich and fascinating tapestry
of traditional and customary practices which attracts wide interest,
from media and arts organisations to educational and state institutions,
and from private researchers to professional performers. These practices
can only be understood in their social context and through comparison
with other cultures. Hence, there is also a wealth of information
from and about other world cultures, as well as important works on
social history and folklore.
Subjects covered include:
Folk/traditional/popular song, Child Ballads, Broadside ballads, Industrial/occupational
songs, sea songs/shanties, Singing games, Nursery rhymes, Street cries,
Carols/hymns, Rounds/glees/part songs, Music hall, Display/ceremonial
dance, Morris/sword dance, Maypole dancing, Social/country dance,
Square/barn/Playford dance, Step/solo dance, Historical dance, International
dance, Customs/festivals, Tales/myths/legends, Social history, Oral
history, Dialects, Folklore, Mummers' plays & traditional drama,
Animal disguise, May Day, Collecting/fieldwork, Musical instruments,
Instrumental music, Street literature, EFDSS, Folk revival, Music
history, and Biographies.
Arrangement
Classification is derived
from the Library of Congress scheme. Author and subject catalogues
are complemented by specific catalogues and indexes, covering:
Songs, Dances, Tunes,
Folk plays, Photographs, Periodicals, Films and videos, Microforms,
Manuscript collections, and Press cuttings.
The sound library indexes
cover:
Performers, Vocal title,
Tune/dance title, Geographical area, Instruments, and Subject.
Indexes for material added
since 1995 are computerised. Pre-1995 material is accessed through
card catalogues, which are in the process of retroconversion.
CDs, audio-cassettes and
subject study guides based on the collections are available for purchase.
For details see Publications.
Access
Access to VWML is free
to Members of the EFDSS who, if living within the UK, may also borrow
some of the materials. Non-members are charged a daily fee and
do not have borrowing privileges. Postal and telephone and e-mail
enquiries are welcomed, a service charge applicable to non-members.
The Sound Library operates
an appointment system to ensure fair access to all visitors. Please
call in advance to arrange a convenient appointment.
Copying of materials held
by VWML is regulated by the copyright laws, which are strictly observed.
No unique or unpublished material is copied without the copyright
holder’s consent.
Policies
and Guidelines
Click on the links below
to go to a .pdf file detailing individual policies:
Staff:
A specialist staff of
long standing and experience are on hand to help and advise:
Librarian: Malcolm Taylor - library@efdss.org
Assistant Librarian: Elaine Bradtke - elaine.bradtke@efdss.org
Assistant Librarian: Peta Webb - peta.webb@efdss.org
Opening
Hours:
Tuesday to Friday 09.30
to 17.30 (sometimes closed for lunch) and first and third Saturdays
each month (except August), 10:00 to 16:00. The Sound Library is closed
12.00 to 14.00 every day.
How
to reach the Library:
Check Location
for travel and parking details.
Nearest bus routes
- nos. 274 and C2
Nearest underground - Camden Town (Northern Line)
Post: VWML, Cecil
Sharp House,
2, Regent's Park Road, London NW1 7AY, UK
Telephone: 020 7485 2206
Fax: 020 7284 0523
E-mail: library@efdss.org
Web: www.efdss.org/library.htm
Funding
VWML is funded and maintained
by the English Folk Dance and Song Society, with additional support
from the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, the National Folk Music Fund
and many individual members and clubs. If you would like to
help develop and promote the work of the Library you could:
join the EFDSS, finance
a project, publication or event*, buy a book or sound recording, donate
or bequeath funds or material to the Library*, donate or bequeath
funds to the National Folk Music Fund*.
* Contact
the Librarian for details.
Institutional
Subscriptions
For educational institutions,
business and media organisations, VWML runs an institutional subscription
scheme whereby their students/employees have free access. Contact
the Librarian for details.
Library
Study Guides
A growing number of Study
Guides and Bibliographies are now available via the Internet.
Please go to the Resources Index to find
them.
Vaughan
Williams Memorial Library ONLINE
Site designed
by Bryan Ledgard
Site maintained by EFDSS
Webmaster
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