Music Library Home Page
About the Music Library
A department of J.Y. Joyner Library and its only branch, the Music Library is located on the first floor of the A.J. Fletcher Music Center. This gem in the musical crown of eastern North Carolina is the largest music collection east of Raleigh. As such, it has grown from its original purpose of serving the educational mission of East Carolina University’s School of Music to serving the needs of music lovers, performers, and educators from all parts of the eastern North Carolina region.
The Music Library has grown from its humble beginnings as a small departmental collection in 1958. In the early 1960s a retired music professor, Dan Vornholt, became the first music librarian. During that same time period the first dean of the School of Music, Earl Beach, established space for a music library in the school’s new facility which opened its doors in 1967. During their 1973 site visit, the National Association of Schools of Music accreditation team recommended putting the administration of the collection in the hands of library professionals, and on July 1, 1974 responsibility was transferred to Joyner Library. Since that time, the staff has expanded to include two faculty music librarians and three library assistants, and the collection has grown from just 20,000 volumes to nearly 80,000.
The Music Library is home to Joyner’s entire audio recording collection as well as the music-related portion of its video recording collection. In addition to these media collections the library owns collections of music scores, books, journals, microforms, and computer software dealing with every musical style and genre from classical to rock to reggae. The library also provides a computer/listening lab, study space, audio dubbing service and music reference assistance (including regularly scheduled reference desk service and on-demand service during hours the reference desk is unstaffed.) See the links on the Music Library Home Page under the Library Services category, including the link to Computing and Audiovisual Services, for more detail on service offerings.
Collection Statistics (rounded to the nearest hundred):
- CDs - 11,000
- Audio Cassettes - 1,800
- LPs - 6,500
- DVDs - 400
- Video Cassettes - 900
- Scores - 33,000
- Books and Journals - 23,000
- Microforms - 1,300
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