At a meeting of the full Yorkshire Libraries and Information (YLI) Council held on Friday 30th September, an in principle decision was taken to close the Yorkshire Libraries and Information Music and Drama collection and service as it currently exists. The service is currently based at Balne Lane Library in Wakefield.

The music collection at Wakefield is one of the most important in the country, and comprises over 500,000 items of music and 90,000 copies of plays, thus making it one of the largest collections of performing sets in the UK. It is available not only to individual users, schools and music and drama groups in the Yorkshire and Humber area but also to organisations and groups outside of the region on a pay per use basis, so this is a decision that could affect amateur performing groups throughout the UK.

The 12 local authorities that subscribe to the service have decided ‘in principle’ to close the service at the end of March 2012, and are considering this decision and its implications at their next meeting on 3 November.

Making Music are spearheading a campaign to keep this important collection available and protect this vital resource. For more information on the campaign and how you can help, see http://www.makingmusic.org.uk/our-work/lobbying/yli-campaign .

(information from the Association of British Choral Directors http://www.abcd.org.uk/)