The late and renowned Ottawa Citizen music critic Jacob Siskind’s music collection has been inherited by Carleton’s own MacOdrum Library.

MacOdrum was chosen by the Siskind estate to house the large collection of music recordings following his death last year, according to a Carleton press release.

“As stipulated by the Siskind estate… Siskind wanted to see a commitment from the university that the collection would be used,” said Patti Harper, department head of archives and research at MacOdrum.

The library was selected based on both its marked interest in the collection and Carleton’s music program’s strong focus on Canadian music, according to music professor James Deaville.

“What’s important is [Siskind] was also a collector of Canadiana,” Deaville said. “He had scores of Canadian music and recordings of Canadian . . . not just standard European composers.”

The connection is crucial for anything involving music or history of music criticisms, Deaville said.

The collection includes approximately 20,000 LPs, 8,000 CDs and 3,000 records, said the press release.

“When you walk into a room with 20,000 LPs, it’s just breathtaking,” Harper said. “We all think now of our iPods and how many songs we get on it, but can you even fathom how big 80,000 CDs is?”

Siskind’s interview material and writing material, also included, will be an important primary resource, Harper said. “We could support teaching, learning and research here at Carleton.”

The collection is currently in the process of being catalogued and filed, and students should expect the music section of the library to grow, Deaville said.

“I can see our collection of CDs in the library maybe more than doubling once those materials are processed,” he said. “There are kinds of delights to be uncovered.”

The hardware used to listen to Siskind’s collection was also donated, and the library is planning to create “listening stations” in the library, so students can listen to key pieces, Harper said.

“It’s going to take a while for us to make it available, but when we do, we’ll make it immediately available, that’s my promise,” she said.