Eclectic Library Resources for Musicians

Carson Block, David Puckett and Kevin Wright collaborating at Cohere over a new guitar.
Carson Block, David Puckett and Kevin Wright collaborating at Cohere over a new guitar.

Musicians, take note. You probably spend much of your day thinking about music, listening to music and creating music. As with any creative pursuit, you need a lot of inputs to generate new outputs. That’s why the folks at Cohere Bandwidth in Fort Collins spent an afternoon sorting through the online library resources. Here are just FIVE of the millions of links we could have given you. The next time you’re strolling around town, head into one of the three libraries around town or access them from home with your FREE library card.

1. For musicians that have pedal addictions or tinkering tendencies we recommend:
The art of steampunk : extraordinary devices and ingenious contraptions from the leading artists of the steampunk movement by Art Donovan. At the very least it’ll get your brain juices flowing with creativity.

2. We’re a little partial to this one since Cohere member Beth penned it but it’s chock-full of links and resources to save you money by sharing your car, your blender or your drum kit.
Sharing is good by Beth Buczynski.

3. Written with a little more focus on public safety, we wonder if the concepts would translate to our community’s overarching problem of supporting musicians in real and sustainable ways.
Collaborate or Perish

4. We absolutely know there’s a huge punk contingent in Fort Collins so we found this: The day the country died: a history of Anarcho Punk 1980 to 1984 by Glasper, Ian.

5. All the things about all the music. The Oxford Music Database (library login required). Do not. I repeat, do not go here unless you have at least an hour. I got lost in the Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Have you ever heard of the Bombo? It’s a drum from the Congo.

What other cool music related things have you found at your library? Tell us in the comments.

Angel Kwiatkowski has been anchoring sharing hubs around Fort Collins since 2010. By day she helps 80 Cohere members across two shared office communities and is launching rock solid rehearsal space, Cohere Bandwidth, on Linden Street. By night she reads science fiction while wearing stretchy pants.