Time for summaries
The last days of December are the time for summaries. What goals have we achieved? How many books have we read? How many people have we given our smile?
This is a doubly important time for our team – another year of work ends, but also the second stage of the project. (This does not mean that we intend to rest on our laurels. On the contrary, we still have ambitious goals!). However, before we move on to writing New Year’s resolutions, we would like to share a summary of the effects of our work so far.
PBM in numbers
65 people were involved in the first and second stages of the project “Digitization of resources owned by Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne,” with approximately 1.5 thousand working days behind them, which is over 12 thousand hours of work. (We give you a hint – it’s quite a lot.)
Anyone interested can see the effects of these struggles by visiting the website of the Polish Music Library. As a result of the digitization process, almost 17,000 iconographic records and almost 5,000 works in music collections were made available in both stages of the project.
The third most important segment of the portal, next to Ikonoteka and Sheet Music, is the Music Encyclopaedia. Thanks to the cooperation of the project team with editors and authors, we have published 3,500 entries online, available to everyone. Due to the growing number of users from around the world, the demanding process of translating encyclopaedia entries into English and making them available on the website has started in recent months.
Users
And speaking of users… Over the last twelve months, the website has been visited by 28,000 users from all over the world.
According to the statistics, the most numerous group of users is from Poland, Germany, the United States, France, Ukraine, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and China, but interest in PBM resources is also visible in other countries, which is perfectly illustrated by the map below.
World map showing the country of origin of PBM users.
Popularity ranking
In the ranking of the most frequently visited PBM* subpages in 2023, the Sheet Music search engine and the Encyclopaedia are fighting for the first place. The Ikonoteka search engine is hot on their heels, taking third place on the podium.
The heros of the most popular encyclopaedia entries are Fryderyk Chopin, Zygmunt Noskowski and Franz Liszt.
The most frequently displayed iconographic works include:
- title page of the Viennese edition of “Variations in B-flat major” on “Là ci darem la mano” Op. 2 composed by Fryderyk Chopin,
- a poster for a production of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare with music by Stanisław Moniuszko,
- lithograph showing a view of the Church of Mercy in Palma de Mallorca,
and in sheet music collections, the following titles broke records of popularity:
- The Singers for a cappella mixed choir by Aleksandra Chmielewska,
- Sonata per violino solo by Grażyna Bacewicz
- and Jubilate per organo by Augustyn Bloch.
New Year’s wishes
Finally, we would like to thank the users of the Polish Music Library website – this website has been developed for you and your activity is the greatest reward for the PBM team. We encourage you to visit often and discover more interesting materials.
At the same time, we wish you musical inspiration and discoveries, as well as success in implementing your personal and professional plans in the New Year. May every day bring you satisfaction and reasons to smile.
Thank you for being with us
Polish Music Library Team
* Own ranking based on visit statistics on the website of the Polish Music Library.