The William and Gayle Cook Music Library, recognized as one of the largest academic music libraries in the world, serves the

Jacobs School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

and the Bloomington Campus of

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

. It occupies a four-floor, 55,000 square-foot facility in a wing of the Simon Music Center. The collection comprises over 700,000 cataloged items, in addition to thousands more items that have yet to be cataloged. The library holds many special collections, including audio and print collections. One notable collection contains items from

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

's composition studio, including items such as clothing, furniture, recordings, books, and awards. Many such collections are housed within the library's climate-controlled vault and are accessible upon request. The origins of the

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Gayle Cook Music Library began in 1918 and was cultivated by Charles Campbell, the head of Indiana University's Music Department. The collection grew from a few scores and books in Campbell's office into one of the largest music libraries in the world, holding hundreds of thousands of physical books, scores and recordings, in addition to providing access to numerous online databases. In 1939, the university hired its first full-time music librarian, Ethel Louise Lyman. Under Lyman's purview, the library grew immensely. By the time she retired in 1960, the collection included 35,000 books, 12,000 recordings, and over 137,000 pieces of printed music. The library has its own individualized system of organizing audiovisual materials. This classification system, the De Lerma system, was created in the 1960s by the head of the music library at the time, Dominique-René de Lerma. The system is still in use today and keeps music together by composer, subdivided by musical genre.

References

{{coord, 39.1649, -86.5174, type:landmark_region:US-IN, display=title Music libraries Academic libraries Libraries established in 1918 1918 establishments in Indiana Music libraries in the United States