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ABSTRACT
The goal of this qualitative study is to explore the views of performance/opera librarians on their daily job responsibilities, as well as to examine their perceptions towards their career motivation and job satisfaction. Thirteen opera librarians with on-the-job work experience ranging from four to forty years answered the same set of open-ended questions as part of semi-structured interviews, conducted via Zoom, Skype, or written emails. The participants are affiliated with prestigious opera houses in eight countries and regions around the world, namely: Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the USA, and the UK (England, Wales, and Scotland). The study aims to shed new light and give new perspectives on the evolving roles of opera librarians, their career motivation, fulfilment, and recognition. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performing arts sector and the challenging transition to virtual performances are also discussed.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Patrick Lo
Dr Patrick Lo is currently serving as the Director of the Liberal and Martial Arts Association (Hong Kong). From 2012 to 2018 he served as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Library, Information and Media Studies at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He earned his Doctor of Education from the University of Bristol (U.K.), and has a Master of Arts in Design Management from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Master of Library & Information Science from McGill University (Canada), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mount Allison University (Canada). He also took part in a one-year academic exchange at the University of Tübingen in Germany from 1990 to 1991. He is efficient in Chinese (both Cantonese and Putonghua), English and German. Dr. Patrick Lo has presented about 100 research papers and project reports focusing on librarianship, humanities, and education at different local and international workgroup meetings, seminars, conferences, etc., including: Mainland China, Hong Kong, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Turkey, United States, and Sweden, and at institutions including the Library of Congress (U.S.), Austrian National Library (Vienna), University of Vienna, National Library of France (Paris), National Institute of Informatics (Japan), Konrad-Zuse-Center for Information Technology (Berlin), etc. His research interests and areas of specialty include: comparative studies in library and information science (LIS); art and design librarianship and information literacy.
Hermina G.B. Anghelescu
Hermina G.B. Anghelescu is a Professor in the School of Information Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, U.S.A. She is the author of numerous research studies and a member of the editorial board of several periodical publications.
Robert Sutherland
Robert Sutherland recently retired as the Chief Librarian at the Metropolitan Opera where he served from 1993 to 2021. Prior to joining the Metropolitan Opera, he served as the Principal Librarian at Canadian Opera Company and Principal Librarian of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. He has served three terms as President of MOLA: An Association of Music Performance Librarians. In April, 2016 he was a featured speaker at the Music Performance Art and Neuroscience in Dialogue symposium in Tübingen, Germany.