Libraries Offer Thousands of Recordings On Line

"From today, visitors to libraries in Westminster, London will have free on-line access to thousands of works of classical music.

The pilot scheme, if successful, could be rolled out across libraries throughout the UK later in the year.

Aside from the vast catalogue of recordings, Music On Line allows library users to access themed play-lists and editor’s recommendations, to create and save their own selections of music, and to explore constantly updated reference material, including thousands of biographies and anecdotes....

The service is made available through the People's Network, a lottery-funded project that aims to connect all public libraries to the Internet.

Deputy Lord Mayor of Westminster, Louise Hyams, who will launch the service this evening, said 'Music On Line will give the public free access to a vast cultural asset at the click of a mouse.' " [Gramophone, via LibraryPlanet.com]

What a great idea! I l-o-v-e it because this is very much the intermediary role I would like to see libraries play in The Heavenly Jukebox. Not everyone can afford access, some folks will always want to borrow rather than purchase content, and libraries provide a legal way to sample material before purchasing it.

There's an ever bigger role libraries can play - cataloging and organizing the content of The Heavenly Jukebox. Think about it - you get 200 channels on TV and you have trouble finding, organizing, and maintaining it. What do you think will happen when you suddenly have access to 70,000 songs and all of the movies ever made? Content chaos is just as bad as there being only a few channels with nothing to watch. I'd love to see the content companies start planning ahead and working with information architects and librarians on how all of this material is going to be made available to consumers.

Back to the Westminster Libraries service, though. Here are some further details from their site:

"It allows you to listen to the complete range of music available from Classical.com through computers in Westminster libraries. The music is mostly classical, featuring at least one recording of all the popular classical works, and includes great artists like Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Charles Mackerras, Dame Felicity Lott and Michael Collins (Young Musician of the Year). Classical.com currently offer almost 10,000 tracks, including film soundtracks and some jazz, and more music is added on a regular basis.

The music is arranged in ‘playlists’ so that you can listen to music by composer, by mood, or select music for different occasions such as weddings. You can also search for and play individual works, and compile them into your own playlists....

There are many ways in: Click on the 'Music Online' icon on the desktop of any Westminster Libraries Internet computer, click on the banner above, or on this link: Connect to Music Online. There are also links elsewhere on the Westminster Libraries web pages, eg: the Music page of the Gateway. Any playlists you create while in the library will be accessible wherever you log in (and vice versa).

For the length of the pilot period (until Autumn 2002) you will be able to listen to full length pieces of music wherever you are by accessing the service via these Westminster Libraries web pages. After the pilot period is finished you will still be able to access your playlists anywhere, but will only be able to listen to the first minute of each piece unless you are in a library."

So it appears you need to be in a Westminster Library to access this service, which is a shame because it means that patrons have to adjust their busy schedules to go to the Library, rather than the Library shifting to where the patrons are. I'm sure this isn't the Libraries' fault but rather is due to the licensing requirements of Classical.com and the record labels. It illustrates perfectly how beholden libraries are to publishers and content owners, and why we need to proactively fight further restrictions (such as the CBDTPA in the U.S.).