Young Musicians Research Workshop

On the 30th and 31st May a Young Musicians Research Workshop was held at the State Library of Queensland and Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (The Con). The workshop was sponsored by the State Library and Queensland Conservatorium. Ten year 12 students from around Queensland attended the workshop including six students from outside of Brisbane hailing from Cairns, Rockhampton, Babinda, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast.

Participants learned about the music collections held at the State Library, including historical material relating to Queensland held in the John Oxley Library. With the large percentage of students coming from outside of Brisbane they were extremely pleased to learn about the resources they could access from offsite, in particular digitised scores, databases and borrowing music through their public library as an interlibrary loan. Students spent a morning at The Con learning about what it takes to be an effective music researcher from Professor Peter Roennfeldt and Dr Brydie-Leigh Bartleet as well as spending some time viewing the many different spaces there.

A trip by young musicians to the State Library would not be complete without going to The Edge. Students were given an overview of a music project that occurred as part of Library Hack and had a go at using some music software programs on the Macs in the Lab.

Comments from students included the following:

·         The variety of resources I can use for researching and finding information is great

·         I enjoyed meeting knowledgeable staff

·         The amount of resources available at the State Library is unbelievable and extremely handy for any school research

·         I can’t wait to tell all my fellow students to come here because the library is huge and amazing.

·         I had no idea how much vast musical information I could access.

·         I will come here when I come to university!

It was a pleasure to welcome our workshop participants to the State Library. Their passion for music was obvious and we hope their experience here was enriching and rewarding.

Special thanks to Linda Barron, the State Library's Client Learning Coordinator, and to music librarians Robyn Hamilton and Laurel Dingle for working together with the students to ensure they were able to learn as much as possible about the State Library's music collections and services.

Simon Farley - John Oxley Library