The MIT community is passionate about music, so it’s no surprise that MIT’s music library holds a special place in the hearts and minds of students, faculty, and alumni alike. This fall marks the 20th anniversary of the renovation and dedication of the Rosalind Denny Lewis Music Library. Bibliotech takes a look back at the evolution of its technologies and collections, the unique ways it supports the community both intellectually and creatively, and the enduring passion of its supporters and friends.
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- 1950: The Charles Hayden Memorial Library opens, and a music lounge with a small library collection is created as a branch of the Humanities Library in the present location.
- 1996: A total renovation, supported by Cherry (’41) and Mary Emerson and other dedicated donors, expands the space by 2,500 sq. feet.
- 1997: The “Inventions of Note” collection includes works that portray technologies of the day.
- 1999: The Music at MIT Oral History Project, supported by Lionel Kinney (’53) since 2006, begins. It includes nearly 50 interviews with individuals involved in music at MIT presented in audio and video recordings.
- 2001: Each year students perform violin music which belonged to the late Stephen Prokopoff, donated to the library by his wife, Lois Craig.
- 2004: The library digitizes 72 reel-to-reel tape recordings of the MIT Symphony Orchestra.
- 2007: In “Library Music: Silence Into Sound,” 10 sound installations by MIT Media Lab grad students, curated by Tod Machover, fill the library.
- 2009: The Class of 1982 Music Library Fund enables the library to provide custom study tables and music audio software.
- 2010: The library hosts several lectures and concerts by groups such as Oori, MIT’s student pungmul group.
- 2011: Constance Kantar donates the Glaser Codex, 15th- or 16th-century chant leaves, giving new dimension to MIT’s Early Music class.
- 2011: The collections of Herb Pomeroy are donated to the Libraries.
- 2013: Excerpt from Urban Sounds, 1991, Klas Torstensson (b.1951), purchased by the Class of 1982 Music Library Fund.
- 2014: “DJing at a Glance: The History of Beatmatching with Mmmmaven’s General Motor,” is presented in conjunction with classes in Music and STS.
- 2016: Collections reach 88,000+ physical items, with e-resources in the millions.