ABSTRACT
By the end of the twentieth century, there was a highly developed network of libraries of various kinds, offering a service, some still free, others charging, with so much interlibrary loan traffic that it amounted to a national service, delivered through regional outlets. After all, no user cares who actually owns the copy in their hands, and stories abound of conductors driving long distances in the hope of finding a set in a remote library. Music and drama sets have been known to be issued in large quantities for many years, yet direct evidence remained anecdotal until the International Association of Music Libraries (UK) Sets Survey. This survey was conducted to obtain evidence of what was being provided, and listed music and drama sets on loan during the two months of September and October 1997. The situation for music sets is not a political question, but rather one of discrimination against music as a subject and as a pursuit.
