Keith Brittle has been awarded the E.T. Bryant Memorial Prize for his work on Music PAL. The judges described Brittle's dissertation as"very interesting, well - written and well - presented, and inclusive of pertinent points." His dissertation was supervised by Dr. Norman Su of SILS.
Music PAL is a new ambitious co-operative scheme amongst Irish libraries to provide wider access to music collections throughout the country. Keith Brittle's thesis, supervised by Dr. Norman Makoto Su, poses the question: "Does the Music PAL programme succeed in establishing this wider inter-library cooperation?" Keith traveled around the country in Ireland, interviewing 18 key and peripheral players in the Music PAL scheme. Drawing on the grounded theory technique of analyzing ethnographic data, Keith's thesis critically
unpacks how the real-world implementation of a information sharing mantra unfolds. The thesis shows that while there is widespread support for the rhetoric of "wider inter-library co-operation " amongst library practitioners, the undue emphasis on this co-operative aspect of the schema has lead to several challenges. Namely, it has taken away focus from the intended user (the library patron); through this lack of focus on the intended user, a feeling of irrelevance toward the scheme exists in public libraries while the academic institutions’ outlook has not extended beyond their own students and staff. The thesis reveals striking insights into the practises and thinking of public vs academic librarians. Keith's rich analysis suggests that real inter-library co-operation cannot be achieved without adopting more commercial/management marketing strategies to better bridge the continuing divide between public and academic libraries.
The E.T. Bryant Memorial Prize is awarded jointly by the United Kingdom and Ireland Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) and the Music Libraries trust. It is given to a student of Library and Information Science, or to a librarian in their first five years in music librarianship, for a significant contribution to the literature of music librarianship.
