Description:
Statens musikbibliotek - The Music Library of Sweden
is the national resource library for music in the country. It is not part of the university system, but belongs to an independent government body, The Swedish National Collections of Music (Statens musiksamlingar). With the exception of legal deposit, it fulfils most of the functions that in other countries are the responsibility of the national library's music division.
The library (Kungl. Musikaliska akademiens bibliotek) was founded in 1771 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and opened to the public in 1849. It was split off from the Academy in 1981 and took its present name in 1996.
The Music Library of Sweden is both a research library, with major collections of rare source materials and specialized scholarly literature and editions, and a general music library, with a circulating collection of printed music in all forms and genres (including orchestral sets and wind band music), books and periodicals. It serves scholars, students, professional and amateur musicians as well as the general public. The only library of its kind in Sweden, interlibrary loan is an important part of its operations.
The post-1850 holdings comprise some 54,000 books on music, 394,000 printed music editions, 6,000 orchestral sets and a wind band music collection.
The Library includes an Archives, Special Collections and Documentation Department (formerly an independent institute, Svenskt musikhistoriskt arkiv). The department keeps track of sources in other public and private collections, indexes current literature on music in Sweden, and makes systematic inventories of archival material.
The Library's own extensive holdings of rare materials from the 16th to the 19th centuries consist of printed and MS music (the publications of the firm of Hummel are particularly well represented), books and periodicals; letters of composers and musicians (about 15,000 items); personal archives and special collections (primarily autograph MSS) of Swedish composers from the 18th century to the present; the archives of the Kungl. Musikaliska akademien (minutes, correspondence, and membership, financial and other records); and the music library of the Stockholm Royal Opera (Kungl. Teatern) to the end of the 19th century.
Selected rare materials are now being digitized
RISM, RILM, RIdIM and RIPM activities in Sweden are centralized to the Library.
Swedish abbreviation: SMB
RISM siglum: S-Skma
LIBRIS library code: X