Rock & Roll Library cranks up the volumes

"I was about 8, and I'd spent the day at the library with my mom, and at the end of the day I said, 'When are we going to go to the music library?' She said, 'There isn't one,' " recalls Fitzpatrick, now 33. "I couldn't understand why there wasn't a music library. We have all these other libraries to celebrate books, [but] there's no one, single place that both collects and celebrates music."

But now there is: In 1999, Fitzpatrick opened the Rock & Roll Library in her Lower Allston home, having abandoned the idea of an actual library building in favor of a virtual home on the Web. The library remained there for the next three years, then spent a brief exile in Arlington earlier this year before returning to Allston this past summer. Despite the difficulties of moving, and trying to raise funds in a struggling economy, Fitzpatrick says that the mission remains on course.

"Whether you're studying poetry or the Civil War, we have lesson plans that take songs that talk about these issues and actually integrate that into those subjects," explains Fitzpatrick, the library's executive director. "Songs like 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,' which talk about the Civil War and the South -- those songs are prime for our education program, because music is definitely something that most young people are very interested in."

It's a strategy that's already working for Jennifer Westervelt, the music program coordinator at Colonel Daniel Marr Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester as well as the singer in Anti-Love Project, one of the bands on the Harpers Ferry bill.

"I'm going to incorporate two of their lesson plans on their website into my curriculum. Which is very cool, because they support the use of pop music in general education, and that's basically what I do with the Boys & Girls Club," she says. "It's kids that are choosing to come there, and whether I entertain them is what keeps them off the streets, or watching TV after school."

Along with that unique educational mission, Fitzpatrick says the library also wants to become the definitive resource for those who want to research and learn on their own, "where you can search for information on literally any band, find the biography, the biographies of the people who were in the bands, and you can also find the discographies, find out what records they made," she explains, saying that the project has the advantage of not being driven by -- or limited by -- commercial goals.

"What separates us from some other music information sources is that this is unbiased content. So you're not getting a press kit bio that doesn't necessarily have comprehensive information on the artist or the band."

To get closer to those twin goals, Fitzpatrick is issuing a call to action to political and business leaders so that the Rock & Roll Library can solidify its place in both the musical and academic worlds, while staying true to a scene that's going through some hard times.

"Things are tough all over for the live music industry, with the smoking ban [and] numerous clubs closing in the last month because of the economy," says Harpers Ferry co-manager Norman Yee, a 35-year-old who was born, raised, and still lives in Allston. "And also with ClearChannel coming in and taking over, there's not a lot of venues that will cater to the up-and-coming bands."

But Harpers will continue to do just that, donating the space to nonprofits like the library, a generosity that Yee says is quickly repaid by the insight gained into the ever-shifting, ultra-competitive Allston musical landscape.

"That's actually one of the benefits of having these benefits -- you get a chance to see bands that normally would never play this club," says Yee. "We get a chance to listen to 'em up close, and get the name of the band, and maybe somewhere down the line, we can book 'em in here. It helps -- if you don't keep up with the times, you're gonna be behind the times."

For more information on the Rock & Roll Library, go to www.rocklibrary.com.