Cataloging and subject indexing the Bialik Collection

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In 2017 the library of Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (HMTMH) was able to acquire a large private collection of mostly Russian-language media related to music. With reference to its former proprietor, the musicologist Prof. Michail Bialik, it is called the ‚Bialik Collection‘. While some parts of the collection date back to the interwar period and even to czarist times, it mainly comprises Soviet and post-Soviet prints (books, journals, sheet music) and recordings published after 1945, as well as a minor number of items from other countries. Such a collection is unique among German special libraries. On the national level it is probably only surpassed by the resources of the Berlin and Munich State Libraries, where Russian Literature on Music has been acquired in abundance as part of special collections.A fine feature of the Bialik Collection not rivalled by any German Library is a voluminous convolute of printed programme notes pertaining to Russian and Soviet concerts and opera performances from 1910 to 2015. Most of these rare items come from the central institutions in Moscow‘s and Leningrad’s musical life, but there are many items that go beyond that scope, such as programme notes from smaller institutions of the capitals and other soviet cities. Periodic music festivals such as the Leningrad Musical Spring are well documented, as are individual concerts organised by the Soviet Union of Composers.To be made fully accessible within the Library of the HMTMH by 2021, all resources must be catalogued formally and with regard to their contents. After that process is finished, it will be possible to place orders for all the collection’s items via the library’s OPAC. The bibliographic description of books, sheet music and periodicals is done within the freely accessible union catalogue K10plus. Bibliographic descriptions of the items in the programme note collection will be published on the internet platform musiconn.performance. This is a cooperatively used, freely accessible Union catalogue currently being developed by the State Library of Saxony (SLUB) and the Specialised Information Service Musicology (FID Musikwissenschaft); its launch is expected for August, 2019.Within the HMTMH and its library, the Bialik collection creates excellent conditions for research on Russian and Soviet music history. In the near future it may serve to bring international researchers together in an annual summer school or a similar format. Within such a framework, the collection’s resources will form an additional point of attraction for musicologists specialising in that field: For them, the summer school will not only provide the space for listening to and discussing each other’s papers, but in addition give ample possibility for source reading and the study of rare materials like the aforementioned programme note collection. To realize this idea, we hope to finish the process of cataloging the collection as soon as possible.