ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a stark reminder of a time unlike the present when co-operation, not just between libraries themselves, but between libraries, archives and museums across all public and academic sectors, was far from the norm. In an association like International Association of Music Libraries (IAML), whose very being arose from a need for cooperation and whose single most focused aim was furtherance of it, any consideration of the co-operation achieved constitutes a very broad subject, for there are few activities of the Association which might not to a greater or lesser extent be considered co-operative. Progress towards co-operation within regional systems for libraries not unnaturally produced a concomitant development in the music collections their members held. By 1990, IAML(UK) had become more and more convinced of the need for more co-operation. At its most basic level IAML(UK)’s single most valuable asset in its striving for co-operation has been its membership.
