Teaching Music Bibliography and Information Literacy: A New Challenge for Italian Music Librarians

Abstract

In this report, I consider the impact of a new way of musical research in the small world of Italian Conservatories. Until a few years ago, not many Conservatories activated a course in music bibliography. The dissemination of courses led to a new series of reflections on how the discipline could be taught. In practice, even if not consciously, the introduction to musical research, implied in the bibliography of music objectives, has been transformed in ‘music information literacy’. Indeed, the aim of Italian bibliography of music courses is to provide a first basic knowledge on Internet or paper music resources, and furthermore how to recognize and choose Urtext and critical music editions etc.

Today more than ever, bibliography of music, as a global musicological discipline, makes use of free or commercial digital or digitalized resources on the Web. These resources improve and broaden means for those looking for music and writings on music. Undoubtedly, music knowledge benefited in this context, even though today few scholars critically explored the teaching methods in music bibliography.