Prior to his arrival at the University of Illinois in January 2005, John Wagstaff spent 16 years as Head of the Music Faculty Library at the University of Oxford (1988-2004), and four years at the Music Library of King's College, University of London (1984-1988). He also served for a short time as Head of Music Reference at the BBC Music Library in London, and has authored several reports as a music library consultant. In addition to his work as Head of UIUC's Music & Performing Arts Library, he is also active as a music librarianship educator, both at Illinois (where he has taught the course in Music Librarianship and Bibliography for several years), and for the University of Aberystwyth in Wales, UK. He is an active member of both the Music Library Association (MLA) and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML).