The wheel still turns: Music librarianship training at aberystwyth university, 15 Years on

No library school in the United Kingdom offered a course in music librarianship between 1981 and 1998, with a lack of interest on the part of students, or over-specialization, often being cited as the reasons. In the mid-1990s, in an attempt to change this situation, the UK Music libraries Trust examined the possibility of funding a lectureship in music librarianship, and its initiative eventually led the Department of Information Studies at Aberystwyth University, Wales, to commission two new undergraduate modules in music librarianship, authored by Ian Ledsham. These modules first became available to students in 1998. During the intervening fifteen years the course has developed significantly, so that today Aberystwyth also offers a Master's level course in music librarianship, and in autumn 2011 launched a new "stand-alone" (independent study) module which could be taken by those who did not wish to register for a full degree. Detailed information is provided about Aberystwyth's current music librarianship modules, and there is also some discussion of the question of the desirable balance between training and education in librarianship courses in general, and of the relative importance of musical knowledge and library knowledge in the skill set of today's music librarians.