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Booth Library's Music Collection Is Growing

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Booth Library’s Music Collection Is Growing

By Jan Howard

The Cyrenius H. Booth Library’s Music Department continues to be enhanced through the purchase of new compact discs (CDs) and other music-related materials through a grant from the Praxair Foundation of Danbury.

The $14,500 grant was received in August 1998.

While most of the new CDs have been purchased with grant funds, the Friends of the Library also donated funds for CDs of show tunes, according to Jae Douglas, technical services librarian.

The library has also added to its books on music, Ms Douglas said. While the collection contains no sheet music, there are some books with basic music in them to learn to play.

Ms Douglas said that she has solicited input from the public before making purchases for the music collection. “I know a lot of people interested in certain types of music, and have received ideas for basic jazz and country music,” she said.

Ms Douglas also makes purchase decisions based on what people are asking about, and uses a resource guide that offers recommendations for a basic music library.

She said the collection contains music that is of interest to the general population. “People looking for obscure music won’t come to the C.H. Booth Library,” she said.

The CD collection includes rock, basic blues, pop, country, jazz, New Age, and holiday music, Ms Douglas said. “There is a little bit of everything.

“Right now I’m working on classical. That was slim pickings,” she said.

Two new cabinets have been installed to house the approximately 700 to 800 CDs in the collection, and two more have been ordered.

“They make people more aware we have CDs,” Ms Douglas said. “Just since we’ve had the new cabinets, circulation has increased.”

CDs can be borrowed from the library for three weeks, the same as books, she noted.

Ms Douglas said the music collection gets a lot of use. A CD player located near the CDs is used occasionally, she said. Headphones are available at the circulation desk for those who would like to listen to music in the library.

Ms Douglas said about half of the original grant has been used for purchases for the music collection. An endowment fund of $2,500 is included in the grant, to be used for ongoing maintenance and updating of the collection.

The original idea of the endowment fund, Ms Douglas said, was that other people and corporations would donate money to it. “There has not been much effort along those lines,” she noted.

Donations are always welcome for the endowment fund or for additions to the music collection.

“We’re always willing to take donations,” Ms Douglas said. “I’m always happy to have people make suggestions for music we don’t have. I welcome that. There are a lot of categories where I haven’t actively purchased anything.”

In addition to CDs of classical music, “We have virtually no folk music and not much opera,” she said. “Also, we have very little easy listening music or popular religious music.”

Also needed are movie soundtracks, she said.

Residents wishing to make a cash or material donation to the music collection should call the library at 426-4533 or stop by the library’s main circulation desk.

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