ABSTRACT
The International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) was founded over a period of two years at meetings at Basel and Florence (both in 1949), Luneburg (1950) and Paris (1951), the last named being under the auspices of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. There was growing dissatisfaction in the UK with the excessive dues demanded by the IAML secretariat from branches. A threat to the time-honoured lending of recordings in libraries appeared in the guise of statements by the recording industry that libraries were, in effect, reducing sales of recordings to the public. Home taping was seen as a major cause for concern, although librarians expressed the view that the production and sale of pirate recordings from overseas posed a far greater threat than library users making single copies. British Library staff have always been deeply involved with the work of IAML, both nationally and worldwide.
