Ask a Librarian: The Role of Librarians in the Music Information Retrieval Community

Participation from music librarians has been sparse in the first six ISMIR conferences, despite many potential areas of common interest. This paper makes an argument for the benefit to both the library and Music IR communities of increased representation of librarians at ISMIR. An analysis of conference programs and primary publications of two music library organizations to determine topics from the library literature relevant to Music IR research is presented. A discussion follows of expertise music librarians could potentially contribute to Music IR research and the ways in which Music IR research could further the work of music librarians, in each of the topics represented in the library literature.