Arts & Entertainment
Free Library Of Philadelphia Celebrating Five Years Of The Musical Instrument Collection
It was an ominous trek leading up to this milestone. That goes for other instrument lending collections in libraries around the world, too.
November 26, 2021
The Free Library’s Musical Instrument Collection is now as old as the number of lines on a musical staff—on September 25, 2021, the MIC turned 5!
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It was an ominous trek leading up to this milestone. That goes for other instrument lending collections in libraries around the world, too. The pandemic paused all our unique lending for about 17 months, from March 2019 to September 2021. In the lockdown’s height, we adhered to CDC recommendations to refrain from lending tools like instruments. We used this time to update our behind-the-scenes cataloging and processing.
We also spent time researching other libraries. We wanted to find out how the other libraries which we’ve helped in their instrument lending programs were surviving. We contacted Brooklyn Public Library, Ann Arbor District Library, Pittsburgh Public Library, Lafayette Public Library, and The Musary. In Canada, we talked to the Fort Eerie Library, Carleton Library, and Joe's Instrument Lending Library. You can read these 8 short interviews at the end of this blog post.
Find out what's happening in Philadelphiafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
We also used the CDC’s recommended hiatus to revamp our Collection. We adopted a new cataloging system to improve our catalog records. Call numbers now show you the specific instrument you are borrowing. A 12 string right-handed guitar used to be just MIC 89. Now it’s MIC 12 Guitar 1002. This new system accounts for an instrument's size, handedness, voicing, and more. We owe huge thanks to library workers Leanne, Jessica, Radiyah, Denise, and many others! They helped brainstorm and execute this program. You can view all these new entries in our catalog.
If you’d like to help build the MIC, we’re still accepting instruments. Donations must follow these two criteria:
If you want to take an even deeper dive into the Music Instrument Collection or are you a library worker who’d like to start an instrument program, read our past blog posts on the topic.
This press release was produced by the Free Library of Philadelphia. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
