The International Congress starts on Monday and runs until Friday. I am only going to be in Cambridge on Thursday, but I’ve been handling comms for the event, so I look forward to actually meeting all the people I’ve been reaching out to for the past couple of months! (Above, you see Don, the Congress mascot, hoping that the drive down won’t be as wet as it is tonight!!)
After concentrating with all that’s left of heart and soul on my monograph, it will be strange to be there with my ‘music librarian’ hat on, my research into Scottish music publishers largely irrelevant to anyone but myself! It’ll also be a bit strange, to hear everyone talking about the future of music librarianship, when my music librarianship will be a thing of the past by this time next year.
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We were watching an old programme of Heartbeat last night – the one where Alf is told he’s retiring, and he comments that he feels as though he’s almost ‘not there’ already. I understand that feeling. I’ll hopefully still have my research existence. Maybe I’ll find another part-time existence somewhere else, too. But where? I have no secret plans – I’m just trusting that an irresistible opportunity will arise when I have time to pursue it!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 