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The Music Section Goes To Kansas City

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The Music Section was on the move this past week, when I flew across the country to manage an exhibit booth at the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Table1
Photo of exhibit booth table, left side, featuring Musical Mainstream, Popular Music Lead Sheets, music scores catalogs, large print music sample, and other print resources.
Table2
Photo of exhibit booth table, right side, featuring the Music Section brochure and fact sheet, Digital Talking Book Player and cartridge.

I expected the city to be abuzz with baseball themed billboards and memorabilia because, the week before my trip, the Kansas City Royals won the World Series. There were traces of the team’s success on KC Royals themed flags hanging from city lamp posts, and I came very close to buying a t-shirt or hat in the mall gift shop. But in spite of their great win, which I’m sure drew thousands of people to the Kansas City streets, I was pleasantly greeted by a quiet Midwestern town. Because I knew Kansas City had a rich history of jazz, excitement filled me when I spotted a few jazz clubs through the windows of my airport shuttle van. Right away, I wished I had more time to spend here, so I could go out and explore some of the jazz clubs on my own.

The pictures above show the Music Section’s exhibit booth and the informational literature I took with me. The conference provided an opportunity to introduce our beautiful new brochure.

Brochure Justin
Photo of NLS Music Section brochure, front cover, with Justin Kauflin sitting at a grand piano petting his guide dog.

On the front, the brochure features Justin Kauflin and his guide dog at a Library of Congress concert in October 2014. Out of all the Music Section’s informational materials, this brochure gives the most concise description of our service. If you would like a brochure, please contact the Music Section.

I also took the Music Section’s Fact Sheet, which gives a thorough description of the music services available through the National Library Service and describes the materials in the Music Section collection-braille, large print, and music appreciation and instructional recordings. It gives application instructions to prospective patrons who wish to apply for NLS services including music services, and it lists the basic requirements for becoming a patron: 1. A patron must reside within the United States or be a U.S. citizen living abroad; 2. A patron must be unable to read regular print because of a temporary or permanent visual or physical impairment.

Other items I kept on hand included several music scores catalogs, two samples of the Music Section’s six music magazines, an actual sized sample of NLS large print music, and the NLS Digital Talking Book Player. Many people stopped by at the table and were intrigued by the variety of informational resources available, as well as the extent of NLS’s free services.

Now that I’m back in Washington, D.C and continuing my routine as a music librarian, I’m grateful I had the opportunity to teach others about the free music services available through NLS. I look forward to serving new patrons who now may be aware of NLS and the Music Section.

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