Message from Director

Director

The director and staff of the International Library of African Music welcome you to our website. It has been designed to give you a sense of ILAM's history, mission, current initiatives, various publications and its sizable selection of CDs produced from ILAM founder, Hugh Tracey's field recordings.

I am pleased to report that we have successfully created on-line access to the Hugh Tracey sound and photo collections.  The Dave Dargie and Andrew Tracey Collections are presently being catalogued and digitized in preparation for on-line access. The ILAM library collection of books is now accessible to the world-at-large through a link from ILAM's website to the Rhodes University library on-line catalogue (OPAC). Clicking on 'ILAM Photo Archive Search' provides a link to ILAM's e-commerce website which offers 1000 images from ILAM's photo collection for sale. Clicking on 'ILAM Audio Archive Search' provides access to over 14,000 items from Hugh Tracey's field recordings.

Funding from the South African National Research Foundation (audio cataloguing and digitizing), National Heritage Council (photo collection cataloguing and digitizing), Rand Merchant Bank Expressions Fund (audio cataloguing and digitizing), Andrew Mellon Foundation (book, ephemera and Hugh Tracey documents cataloguing and archival preservation) has made the cataloguing, digital preservation and on-line access to ILAM's collections possible.

If you are seeking training in ethnomusicology, the ILAM Ethnomusicology Programme offers both undergraduate and post-graduate degree options in affiliation with Rhodes University's Department of Music and Musicology. In addition to the work being done by enrolled students, proposals from independent scholars for research, music education, and exhibition/performance projects utilizing ILAM's collections are welcome.

It is my hope that this website will facilitate our desire to keep Hugh Tracey's legacy for research, publication, and education regarding African music alive. Please contact us at ilamsales@ru.ac.za with any questions you may have. Place your orders for CDs and/or other publications at the same email address or via FAX at 27-046-622-4411. ILAM's doors are always open for visitors. Group presentations and workshops on African Music are available upon request.