The essential role of music interlending: how it supports music making in the UK.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the development and current state of music interlending in UK libraries, examining the materials themselves, their management challenges, range of users, cultural value, and scope for impact. It choses to highlight the interlending of performance materials (vocal scores and orchestral sets) as having particular cultural significance, being at the heart of music making in schools and the wider community and providing an element of value in people's lives through performance-related activity. Design/methodology/approach - From modest beginnings and tentative steps in library cooperation, the paper considers the development of regional and national catalogues culminating in the launch of the "Encore!" database, together with a brief discussion of other relevant topics such as copyright, the role of publishers and the physical constraints of the materials themselves. Findings - In an attempt to quantify the growth and current level of music interlending traffic, the paper concludes that there has been considerable increase and that, if standard calculations are applied, music sets now account for perhaps the largest "volume" element of interlending for UK (public) libraries, contributing the sole area of growth in a largely declining field. Originality/value - Music set interlending has a direct outcome in cultural fulfilment for thousands, perhaps millions, throughout the UK and is a rare area of growth, encouraging library use. Library managers would be wise to acknowledge this high level of activity, provision and value and give further financial and political support to music services as a vital weapon in the struggle to maintain quality library services in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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