The Library of the Department of Musicology is the central Slovenian specialist library of musicology. Formed in 1961 concurrently with the establishment of the Department of Musicology, it opened a year later, in the Faculty of Arts’ first academic year. Today, it is organisationally linked with the University of Ljubljana Central Humanities Library, which incorporates individual departmental libraries of the Faculty.
The academic library is responsible for regularly building up its collection of scholarly musicological reference works that are required for pedagogical and scientific research. Its holdings comprise 23,000 units, of which 12,100 are non-book materials and 10,900 book materials. The library’s reading room gives free access to particularly relevant research materials and online catalogues, and provides the use of digital resources and an audio corner.
The Library gives access to world literature on music, German- and English-language dictionaries, MGG and Grove, respectively, specialist literature, mainly on classical music and ethnomusicology, as well as dance, folk and pop music. The library holdings also comprise classical music CDs, international and Slovenian classical music LP records, as well as cassette tapes.
The serial publications regularly deposited at the departmental library include Slovenian music magazines Cerkveni glasbenik, Glasna, Naši zbori (Church Musician, Noisy, Our Choirs) and several foreign specialist publications.
The collection of sheet music items that may be borrowed comprises primarily classical music works by Slovenian and international composers. These materials include folk songbooks and copious sheet music for youth and children’s choirs.
The collection of books by Dragotin Cvetko, an academician and professor emeritus who founded the Department of Musicology and served as its long-standing head, constitutes a special part of the departmental library’s holdings. This collection contains several rare and monumental works on musicology, many of which include inscriptions dedicated to the father of Slovenian musicology by leading world-known researchers. The collection was acquired from Cvetko’s heirs in 2004.
In addition to Cvetko’s, one of the library’s fundamental holdings is the collection of offprints by Bruno Nettl, a foremost international ethnomusicologist. In 2006, Nettl donated a substantial collection of specialist publications on ethnomusicology, compiled during his long professional career, to the Library of the Department of Musicology.
Books classified according to subject matter are available in an online card catalogue.
