NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
February 2001
prepared for MOUG and MLA
New York City
All of the news from LC this year furnishes empirical
proof that the old maxim, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,”
is not true. We can testify that, in fact,
“The more things change, the more things change.” Like a young tree, the
bigger it gets, the bigger it gets. The
implementation of the Integrated Library System (ILS) has forced the Library to examine
how it does business from the ground up. The
result will be cleaner and leaner operation with more to offer everyone. (Regarding that “more to offer
everyone,” it should be mentioned that our Web OPAC registers 150,000 searches a
day!) The ILS has been in operation now for
about one-and-a-half years. Most catalogers
and technicians have become comfortable with its operations. Acquisitions and circulation staff are also up and
running. Our goal for this calendar year is
to return production to pre-ILS levels–and so far it appears that we will have no
problem achieving this. We are also looking forward to the Voyager 2000 implementation, due in
July 2001, which will provide us with added functionality.
This report will be organized along the same lines as
past reports. We will take a look at the
major happenings in selected LC organizations and operations with special attention to
areas of interest to Music Librarians.
1. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEM
On August 21, 2000, the Library officially accepted the
LC ILS system after extensive testing and forty consecutive days of acceptable response
times. Adjunct quality control software has
been added to Cataloging Directorate machines: one program, referred to as the
“Preprocessor,” manipulates copy from outside utilities for use by catalogers;
another program, the “Record Validator,” checks for legal MARC 21 values, data
errors, and inconsistencies as records are added to the database.
Another important ILS event, the Pinyin Conversion
Project, began in October 2000. On
October 1st, American libraries joined the international community in using
pinyin to replace Wade-Giles as the standard romanization scheme for Chinese characters. The Library coordinated conversion activities with
RLG and OCLC throughout the year. A year of
intensive planning culminated in the conversion to pinyin of 158,368 name and series
authority records by OCLC this fall. Converted
authority records were loaded into the LC database and distributed to CDS subscribers. By mid-winter, RLG will have converted 142,555 LC
Chinese bibliographic records in vernacular script as well as some 30,000 in roman scripts
to be loaded in the LC database. A moratorium
on creating and changing Chinese authority records was observed during August and
September while OCLC performed its conversion. Similarly,
a moratorium on the updating of Chinese bibliographic records created before August 1st
has been observed during the RLG conversion of LC records.
Since October, six catalogers, along with CPSO specialists, have been manually
reviewing converted authorities and making corrections where necessary. In addition, 14 catlaogers at 11 NACO libraries
are reviewing and updating converted non-unique personal name and authority records. LC pinyin Web site at <http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin>
has made available a coordinated timeline, romanization guidelines, explanations of
various aspects of the conversion project, answers to frequently asked questions, and
links to other related sources of information.
The Library is currently preparing for implementation
of Voyager 2000 in July of this year. Staff
have begun testing the software on a test server. Although
not a lot will change for catalogers, there will be important new features and
capabilities in the acquisitions, serials check-in, and public catalog modules. In addition, Release 2000 will include the
capability to display Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hebrew vernacular characters in the
Web OPAC.
The Library continues with the holdings conversion
of the 12 million-card shelflist and the 900,000-title serials check-in file. Staff concluded a series of pilots and prepared an
RFP for the card shelflist conversion for distribution early in 2001.
For the latest information about ILS activities, see the
ILS Homepage: http://www.loc.gov/ils.
2. SPECIAL MATERIALS CATALOGING DIVISION
Arrearage
Reduction Efforts:
Machine-Derived Authority Records (MDARs): The final load of 7,000 MDAR records was accomplished
in early August 2000. These records have been
combed via machine-processing and error reports for obvious problems. We finished correction of all identified errors
earlier this month. There will be no more
MDARs: with the beginning of the ILS, LC catalogers create headings for all names
and name-title headings used in music records.
Manuscript scores: This small project addresses an arrearage of manuscript
and rare printed scores which have been stored in SMCD for some time now, approximately
150 items. A Music Division specialist, Wilda
Heiss, examined, evaluated, and performed archival packaging of the scores. Manuscript score cataloging guidelines, devised by
cataloger David Sommerfield, are being applied.
OCLC
Claimed Music Records Project: This represents an effort to use OCLC copy to help
manage the LC sound recording arrearage of uncataloged LPs.
The project to load approximately 35,000 bibliographic records purchased from OCLC
was an exercise in coordination and cooperation among SMCD, MBRS, APLO, CDS, CPSO, ITS,
and the ILS office. The process required
analysis of the file of records, the compilation of extensive preprocessing
specifications, bulk import requests and testing, refinements, more testing, more
refinements, and CDS export tests. By the
end of June, the team successfully loaded 28,855 music records. Cleanup projects have been identified which will
cover areas that the preprocessing was unable to manage.
Copyright
Cassettes Collection: Having cleared another 2,411 items in fiscal 2000, this
continuing project has, from its inception in May of 1996, processed almost 56,000
cassettes, creating bibliographic records for almost 48,000 of them in a Cuadra Star
database now searchable through SONIC (more on this Web site later).
National
Public Radio Collection: We cleared approximately 3,200 reel-to-reel NPR tapes (spoken
word and music).
Secrist Collection: The project to catalog these 78 rpm discs and their
preservation tape copies has been completed. This
project, reported on over the last few years, was completed through the efforts of LC
catalogers and sabbatical librarians. This
project presented not only processing difficulties (missing or unreadable photographs of
labels) but cataloging problems such as the identification
of works which proved to be small parts of opera arias.
The number of records created for this project totaled 1,300.
Slonimsky Collection: Nicolas Slonimsky bequeathed his music library and
personal archives to the Library. The
monograph portion of the collection, comprised of approximately 771 Russian-language
titles, has now been cataloged by two of our newer music catalogers, Paul Frank and Irina
Kirchik.
78s Project: In August, SMCD in cooperation with MBRS, began a
project to catalog every 78 rpm album “set” held by the Library (approximately
5,000 titles). The impetus for this project
is not only the need to process our arrearage, but the impending move of the sound
recording collections to Culpeper, Virginia. MBRS
is weeding the collections, and saving two copies of each set, one designated
“playback,” the other “archival.”
SMCD catalogers are furnishing core level records for each of these. The bibliographic records for popular titles
include matrix numbers. The transcription of
these matrix numbers along with the creation of holdings and items records for each disc,
a process new with the ILS for sound recording catalogers, have made for slow going. We are happy to report that we have, since August
2000, finished approximately 1,200 titles. Currently we are deep in the heart of Columbia.
CD Workflow: In an effort to maintain cataloging currency with all
new CD receipts (approximately 30,000 annually), SMCD and MBRS have cooperatively devised
a new CD Workflow. The process begins with
the creation of an Initial Bibliographic
Control record (IBC). Many of these
IBCs are created using data from MUZE, a commercial database. For this reason, our contractual obligations do
not permit distribution or display of these IBC records on our OPAC. (In the future, we intend to suppress only those
IBCs which actually incorporate MUZE data–and regarding even these, we are hoping for
a change in our licensing agreements which will permit us to display these records.) The next step in the workflow is to send these IBCs in a weekly file to OCLC; the file is
searched in OCLC and the matched copy is sent through MARS processing and returned to LC
for merging with the IBCs. IBCs for which no copy is found will be searched again
in six months and then returned to LC for original cataloging. The copied or original completed records will be displayed in the OPAC and distributed. Authority work still outstanding after MARS
processing will be handled by SMCD catalogers. From
April 2000 to date, we have created 15,000 IBC records and processed approximately 10,000
second copies. We are in the process of testing the OCLC component in this workflow and
hope to have OCLC copy flowing into the ILS sometime in the late spring/early summer of
this year.
Other notable arrearage reduction efforts: The following reported sound recording clearances
represent item or inventory-level records created in alternative databases, not Voyager. In FY 2000, processing of the miscellaneous discs
from the post-R&D collection, the Spotswood, Feinstein, and Fairleigh-Dickinson
collections resulted in clearing 4,029 records. The
LP arrearage project (big band music, swing, and jazz) processed 4,942 discs. The MSR3 Team, which handles most of the large
arrearage and processing projects, also created inventory records for 19,302 items from
the 45-rpm arrearage (popular music).
Digital cataloging:
A
separate portion of this report lists some of the Library’s digital initiatives. It should be mentioned here, however, that Music
team MSR1 has two senior catalogers currently in training to provide catalog records for
both direct and remote electronic resources related to the field of music. Thus, we expect that in the future, music
catalogers at LC will, in addition to formats for books, scores, and sound recordings,
need to master the complexities of a fourth format, computer files.
Production- and Brief-Level Cataloging:
Production-level
cataloging of scores and sound recordings was discontinued in favor of core-level
cataloging which is supported by authority work. Guidelines
have also been developed for brief cataloging of printed music. This level of cataloging does not include note
fields, subject headings, or added entries, but does require authority work for the main
entry. The Music Division has begun to
designate the cataloging levels for items it selects and will likely select for brief
cataloging band arrangements, sheet music for popular songs, and ephemeral music of
limited research value.
Personnel News:
It is with the greatest regret that we must report the
passing of Phil DeSellem, the team leader of MSR2.
He died in July of an unexplained infection which caused him to go into a coma from
which he never recovered. Phil’s
presence could not be more sorely missed. He
has been with the Library since 1975. From
1980-1991 he was an editor of Music, Books on Music, and Sound Recordings in the
former Catalog Management and Publication Division. In
1991, he joined the MSR1 team as a music cataloger and was promoted to team leader of MSR2
in April 1999. During his 25 years with the
Library, he received numerous and well-deserved incentive awards and quality step
increases for his sustained outstanding performance.
Phil, even when he was grouchy, was full of good cheer. He was an energetic, witty, vital person. The MSR teams will not recover from such a loss.
We lost to retirement another long time member of the
music teams, Jerry Emanuel. We wish him well
in his retirement years and are grateful for his expert cataloging and cataloger training
over the past 28 years.
We have hired four new catalogers, two each for
MSR1 and MSR2. This has, of course, placed a
heavy training burden on both teams, but we rejoice because, like other cataloging units
at LC, our aging workforce is sorely in need of replenishment.
Also new this year is MSR3 Assistant Team Leader Milada
Gessman. MSR3, as we have seen above, is a very
busy team and welcomes the new management assistance to help with its many and varied
arrearage projects.
And lastly, Joe Bartl was appointed Team Leader of MSR1
in April 2000.
Due to the loss of Phil, MSR2 is currently without a
permanent Team Leader. Interviews are
expected to begin very soon.
3. MOTION PICTURE, BROADCASTING, AND RECORDED SOUND
DIVISION
Digital Audio Prototype System:
The M/B/RS digital preservation effort planned for
Culpeper began in earnest this year with work on a prototype system. At this writing, a contractor is digitizing a
selected sampling of published and unpublished recordings of various formats, conditions
and sound quality. The system will enable
M/B/RS to get hands-on experience with digital content (e.g., file formats and sampling
rates) and the associated metadata needed to manage and describe the content. Metadata for the first groups of recordings is
being created from existing cataloging, though a significant amount of data is being keyed
by M/B/RS processors assigned to the project. Eventually,
all metadata relating to the original analog copies should be ingested into the system
from existing databases.
SONIC:
Mary Bucknum, Recorded Sound Curator, has worked this
year with Cuadra to complete development of SONIC, the Web client for STAR, which is now
available from the Recorded Sound Reference Center homepage http://lcweb.loc.gov//rr/record/rechome.html
. SONIC is a bibliographic database comprised
of 350,000 bibliographic records for a portion of the Library of Congress’ Sound
Recording Collections. It contains
information on nearly all the 45 rpm discs (100,000 records), the portion of the 78 rpm
disc collection NOT represented in Rigler-Deutsch (82,000 records), commercial and
non-commercial cassettes and CD-R’s from copyright (50,000 records), several special
collections on various formats, and many radio broadcast recordings including NBC from
1930s to 1960s (68,000 records). It does not
contain digitized sound. Mary will give a
brief presentation on SONIC at the beginning of the Resource Sharing and Collection
Development Session on Saturday.
Processing Unpublished Musical Sound Recordings:
In 2000 M/B/RS Recorded Sound Processing Unit staff
continued the ongoing processing projects for unpublished material in the Cuadra STAR
database: the National Public Radio tape
collection and the Newport Jazz Festival tapes recorded by Voice of America.
All new processing projects are now being done on the LC
ILS, and this year a number of significant collections have been cataloged there. Highlights include nearly 2,300 electric
transcription recordings (ET’s) of recordings produced for radio broadcast on
16" vinyl discs (this project is ongoing), approximately 800 Berliner discs (the
first disc recordings sold commercially), another season of concerts performed in the
Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, VOA recordings of the Newport Folk
Festival, biographer H.L. Kirk’s recordings of Pablo
Casals speaking and performing, and a collection from UCLA of about 150 radio programs
recorded on 16" lacquer discs has been
preserved to tape and DAT. The cataloging for
the latter is expected to be completed in early 2001.
Published Sound Recordings:
The plan to utilize MUZE data to generate an IBC record
on the ILS for new CD’s, as detailed above in the SMCD report, has had great success
keeping up with most current receipts. The
other published audio project underway involves 78rpm album sets, a format that is poorly
represented in the cataloging utilities, was also mentioned above. With M/B/RS staff weeding duplicates, selecting
best copies, then re-sleeving and numbering
each disc, and SMCD catalogers creating MARC records which include set, issue and (for
jazz and popular) matrix numbers, this has been a successful joint project. It should be
noted that for the first time M/B/RS is separating commercial discs from their original
jackets. Only those jackets that have some
kind of cover illustration are retained. These
are boxed and an item record for the jacket is added to the bibliographic record. This project is a prime example of the sometimes
overwhelming burden of physical handling tasks involved in processing sound recordings
that must be done before a bibliographic record can be created.
MAVIS:
In late October Gene DeAnna, Head of the Recorded Sound
Processing Unit, traveled to Canberra, Australia to visit ScreenSound (the Australian
national film and sound archive) and see first hand their use of the Merged Audio-Visual
Information System (MAVIS). In addition he
met with the system’s developers at Wizard Information Systems, and attended the
MAVIS User’s Conference. MAVIS is a
collection management database designed specifically for a/v collections, and could provide
M/B/RS with the kind of physical inventory control needed to support the work of
the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center at Culpeper, Virginia. The Recorded Sound Section has begun planning for
MAVIS implementation and the massive task of data conversion from current systems. The Recorded Sound Section plans to use MAVIS as
an in-house management system that contains inventory data on all items in the collection,
while continuing to use the LC ILS as the public catalog for all recordings that are
publicly accessible (i.e., there is a copy that can be played for a researcher). Currently the Section is using MAVIS to accession
whole collections not integrated into the main collection, whether newly arrived or in the
backlog.
Digital Futures:
The Division’s participation in Digital Futures
activities was carried out cooperatively with the National Digital Library program, the
Preservation Directorate, and Information Technology Services. Carl Fleischhauer, on loan to MBRS from the
national Digital Library, guided the audio-visual prototyping project in its general
planning, which resulted in the completion of a Requirements Document and Conceptual
design for a digital repository to serve audio-visual collections. In parallel with the general planning, a series of
technical feasibility tests established proof-of-concept procedures for digitizing content
and capturing metadata, carried out in the Division’s Recording Laboratory and by an
off-site contractor. A significant number of
staff members in the Division are assisting Mr. Fleischhauer (Website: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mopic/avprot/avprhome.html ).
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center:
Growth projections for all formats were calculated;
analysis of workflow requirements, staff spaces, equipment, storage, etc., were undertaken
to provide guidance to the architects and engineers contracted to design and build the
NAVCC facility. Much effort also was
expended in working to make the best use of existing space, shelving, and facilities at
Suitland and Landover, to prepare those facilities as support bases for processing and
staging major moving image collections for the expected completion of the NAVCC in 2004.
Personnel:
MBRS announces the retirement of its chief, David J.
Francis. It is nevertheless anticipated that Mr.
Francis will continue to work under contract toward the realization of the National
Audio-Visual Conservation Center at Culpeper, Virginia.
4. MUSIC DIVISION:
As in years past, the Music Division added significantly
to its holdings last year. Major acquisitions
included (this is name-dropping of the best kind...)
·
manuscripts of Frederick Lowe,
including Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Paint Your Wagon, and Day
Before Spring
·
forty years of correspondence between Ira Gershwin and Leonard Saxe
·
a copyist full score manuscript of
Gaetano Donizetti’s Betly
·
the Lukas Foss Collection (manuscripts and papers of the composer)
·
Bronislava Nijinska Collection (archives of the ballet choreographer (532,000
items))[a Gift to the Nation]
·
P.G. Wodehouse Collection (correspondence, printed music, sound recordings,
posters, and playbills relating to Wodehouse’s musical theater works in England and
the U.S.)
·
Broadway ballerina Harriet Hoctor’s Dance Collection
·
and, of course, the Theodore Presser Archives.
Gifts to the Library included the following:
·
the Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Collection
·
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Collection
·
Alexandra Danilova Dance Collection
·
Collections of Antoinette Handy, Louis Kaufman, and Maud Powell
·
Collections from jazz musicians Shelly Manne and Tommy Newsom.
The Music Division’s arrearage reduction, as
always, is connected with its processing of these various purchased and donated
collections. The Division processed
approximately 330,000 items last year, completing the processing of the A.P. Schmidt
Company Archives, and the William J. Huber, Nicolas Slonimsky, and German National Music
Collections–with Finding Aids for each of these.
But it hasn’t been all work and no play for the
Music Division. The Division co-hosted, with
the Smithsonian Institution and the American Bach Society, the Bach in America
conference and provided an exhibit (curated by William Parsons) of LC Bachiana. The Library celebrated Aaron Copeland on his 100th
birthday by launching the Aaron Copeland Website and hosting an international live
broadcast of Music from the Copeland House. The
Division also hosted a concert and symposium in honor of the receipt of the Elinor Remick
Warren Collection. And not least, considering
our meeting here in New York, the Division sponsored a concert to celebrate the 70th
birthday of Stephen Sondheim and presented a panel discussion and symposium in connection
with the concert.
In addition, the Library published Music History from
Primary Sources: A Guide to the Moldenhauer Archives, co-edited by Alfred Mann and
Music Division Chief Jon Newsom.
And one last thing: for the second year in a row, the
Division has received a $1 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for
work in documenting and preserving dance materials–last year, Martha Graham, and this
year, Katherine Dunham.
5. CATALOGING POLICY AND SUPPORT OFFICE:
General Cataloging News:
LCCNs Now Reflect the New Century. On January 2, 2001, LC began the use of a
restructured Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) in 010 fields of both authority and
bibliographic records. The restructured LCCN
contains a four-digit year, and there is no longer a “trailing blank” at the end
of the number. Note that LCCNs in the old
structure (two-digit year with a trailing blank) are not being changed and will exist
simultaneously with numbers reflecting the new structure.
AACR2, 1998 Revision. LC implemented Amendments 1999 to the
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed., 1998 revision on September 15th. As a result, six LCRIs have been cancelled and
nine have been revised to remove provisions that have now been incorporated in the new
amendments. The LCRIs reflecting these
changes will be included in the “LCRI 2000, Update Number 3-4" schedule for
February publication, as well as in Cataloger’s Desktop.
Changes of Particular Interest in Music Cataloging:
Descriptive Cataloging:
Sound Disc Cartridges. The recording lab at the Library has been
recording Library of Congress musical performances on a relatively new format, digital
discs permanently encased in a cartridge. So
that LC’s descriptive cataloging of these archival recordings can correctly describe
them, LC practice now includes the term “sound disc cartridge,” which we are
using in addition to those already listed in AACR2 6.5B1.
Subject Cataloging:
General Changes.
Approximately 600 subject headings that included the terms Afro-Americans or
Afro-American ... were changed to African Americans or African American
.... On December 1st, LC
catalogers began assigning only the new forms. Projects
will be undertaken to update bibliographic records with the old forms during 2001. More than 2,100 subject subdivision authority
records have been created and distributed to control the approximately 3,100 free-floating
subdivisions in the Library of Congress Subject Headings system. The project to recode instances of form
subdivisions in existing subject authority records from subfield code $x to $v
is also about two-thirds complete. Plans are
to resume creating subdivision authority records and recoding existing form subdivisions
in subject authority records from $x to $v after the pinyin project is
completed.
Dance Music Headings. Changes announced last year to revise four
remaining dance headings, Minuets, Polkas, Polonaises, and Waltzes,
were completed by cancellation of containing parenthetical qualifiers for medium of
performance. Practice is now uniform for all
dance music headings: two headings are assigned, one for the name of the dance and a
second for the medium of performance.
Geographic Subdivision of Music Form/Genre Headings. We established as policy a practice previously
observed for only a small number of form/genre headings, authorization to subdivide
geographically. In general, geographic
subdivisions are being added to collections of music by more than one composer when
geographically defined coverage is clearly intended by the collection’s publisher. By extension, geographic subdivisions will now be
added as appropriate to works about the form or genre.
We have had a number of requests over the years to initiate such a policy. New form/genre headings are being authorized for
geographic subdivision and old headings now designated “no decision” are
gradually being changed. Documentation of
this policy will soon be incorporated into the Subject Cataloging Manual.
Inverted Headings Uninverted. Certain music headings previously in inverted form
were uninverted so that they now conform to current policy, which is to establish headings
in direct form whenever possible. Changes made so far include chant headings, as in Gregorian
chant, Carnatic music, Hindustani music, and the heading Mechanical
musical instruments.
Music Theory.
We changed the heading Music–Theory to the standard term Music
theory. At the same time, we revised
previous uses of the heading so that when subdivided it will now conform to the
recommendation from the Airlie House Conference that chronological subdivisions (coded $y)
be used for historical treatments of the subject, and the form subdivision $v Early
works to 1800 be used for the original imprint or time of creation of the item. Adoption of this policy introduced new
formulations incorporating the subdivision –History, as in Music
theory–History–17th century.
Organ/Organs.
We eliminated the exceptional practice for terminology representing the organ,
where both the singular and plural forms were allowable in topical headings. We now use the singular form Organ (Musical
instrument) for the heading, and the plural $x Organs for the subdivision,
which is added mainly to works about organs in individual churches.
Psalms (Music) Subdivided by Number of Psalm. In conjunction with LC’s implementation of
form subdivisions, we revised the coding of the subdivision for number of Psalm from $x
to $v, e.g., $a Psalms (Music) $v 100th Psalm.
Standard References and Scope Notes. We continued retrospective addition of standard
360 references and 680 scope notes to authority records for types of ensembles and music
of individual instruments. Guidelines for when to use these notes and models for their
text are found in instruction sheet H 1917.5 of the Subject Cataloging Manual.
Other. Many
headings for musical instruments, music of those instruments, and styles of music outside
of the Western art music tradition were added to LCSH by LC staff and SACO participants. Capotastos; Cloud chamber bowls (Musical
instrument); Plung orchestras; Soukous (Music); and Underground dance
music are examples. All SACO proposals
are sent to the Cooperative Cataloging Team of the Regional and Cooperative Cataloging
Division; however, a cataloger from one of the Music and Sound Recordings teams in the
Special Materials Cataloging Division, presently Harry Price, serves as the reviewer for
SACO proposals in the field of music.
Pinyin Conversion.
Owing to pinyin requirements for word division, The New Grove Dictionary of
Musical Instruments will no longer be used as the source for the standard English
spelling of the Chinese names for Chinese musical instruments; instead, the standard
pinyin romanization will be used.
Classification:
LC Classification Outline. At the end of the year, changes were made to the
LCC Outline posted to the CPSO Web site at <http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco/html>.
The outline is now in PDF with improved graphics and is more attractive and easier to
print out. At the beginning of the outline
for each schedule, a page has been added giving the breakdown of the subclasses for that
schedule in the form of clickable links that take the user to the more detailed outline of
each subclass. For those who use the Library
of Congress Classification scheme, we revised the 053s of a fair number of authority
records for forms and types of music, updating them to conform to classes that explicitly
distinguish between scores, cadenzas, and solos with piano.
6. AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER:
The American Folklife Center acquired gifts from the
University of Georgia (a copy of its entire Art Rosenbaum/Georgia Folk Music Collection),
anthropologist Joel M. Halpern who added to his collection of ethnographic materials about
Serbia and Laos, and ethnomusicologist Karl Signell, of Silver Spring, MD, who donated a
large collection of documentary material on the traditional music of Greece, Japan, Korea,
Thailand, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, and the United States.
Five new presentations based on American Folklife Center
collections were made available online as part of the Library’s National Digital
Library Program:
·
Omaha Indian Music
·
Fiddle Tunes of the old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection
·
“Now What a Time”: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals,
1938-1943
·
Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942
·
Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia.
In October, the Center held a reception in the Madison
Gallery of the Madison Building to thank Senators Thad Cochran and Ted Stevens and
Representatives William Thomas and David Obey for the support they provided the Center and
in particular for permanent authorization.
7. PRESERVATION:
National Recording Preservation Act of 2000
On Nov. 9, President Clinton signed the National
Recording Preservation Act of 2000, establishing the National Recording Registry of the
Library of Congress (P.L. 106-474). The new
law was introduced and supported by Reps. William Thomas (R-CA) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md) and
Sen. John Breaux (D-La) to encourage the preservation of historic sound recordings. It directs the Librarian of Congress to name sound
recordings of aesthetic, historical or cultural value to the Registry, to establish an
advisory National Recording Preservation Board and to create and implement a national plan
to assure the long-term preservation and accessibility of the nation’s audio
heritage.
The advisory National Recording Preservation Board will
be made up of leaders in the field of music, sound recording, librarianship and audio
engineering. MLA, in fact, will have an
opportunity to submit names for this board. Through
consultation with this board, and studies conducted by the board, the Librarian of
Congress will commission and carry out a national preservation plan for historic audio
recordings. The plan will outline
recommendations on the use of new technologies for preservation, programs to increase
public awareness of audio preservation, and strategies to increase accessibility of sound
recordings for educational purposes.
Several important audio preservation initiatives are now
under way. Leading them is the establishment
of the National Audio Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA, which includes
state-of-the-art archival storage facilities and preservation laboratories for motion
pictures, video and sound recordings. It is
scheduled to open in 2004.
Mary Russell Bucknum, Curator of Sound Recordings at LC,
will address MLA’s Preservation Committee regarding NRPA at their meeting on Thursday
afternoon.
8. COPYRIGHT OFFICE:
A brief note of interest here regarding a rather high
profile news item: In September, the Justice Department, at the urging of the Copyright
Office, filed an amicus brief in the notorious Napster case. The government brief supported the record
companies on a narrow issue regarding their assertion that the Audio Home Recording Act
legalized Napster users’ conduct.
9. DIGITAL PROGRAMS:
To quote the opening paragraph of LC21: A digital
strategy for the Library of Congress:
No stereotype of libraries as quiet, uneventful
places could survive the 1990s. Whatever stability and predictability libraries once had
as ordered storehouses of the treasures of the printed word were shattered by the digital
revolution. The intellectual function of libraries--to acquire, arrange, and make
accessible the creative work of humankind--is being transformed by the explosion in the
production and dissemination of information in digital form, especially over global
networks.
LC21: In 1998, the Library requested the Computer Science
and Telecommunications Board to examine the Library’s status regarding emerging
information technologies. The Board convened
the Committee on an Information Technology Strategy for the Library of Congress. Published
this year, LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress contains the
findings of the Committee. The Library has
taken seriously the varied recommendations contained in the report and is seeking to
implement those which will best help it fulfill its missions. The complete report is available online from the
National Academy Press: http://www.nap.edu .
Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control. At the LC Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic
Control for the New Millennium, which was held November 15-17, more than 135 leaders in
cataloging and library systems called on LC to set the pace in making the library catalogs
of the 21st century viable tools for discovering information in all formats. The primary goals of the conference were to
develop an overall strategy to address the challenges of improved access to Web resources
through library catalogs and applications of metadata, and to identify attainable actions
for achieving the objectives of the overall strategy.
Two of the objectives were to encourage wider use of authorized subject and
classification systems to enhance resource organization and discovery and to foster
development of metadata element sets to support interoperability between systems based on
different metadata. The invited guests
reviewed the current state of bibliographic control, heard about cutting-edge research in
catalog design, and came up with approximately 100 specific recommendations for shaping
cataloging in the digital age. Over two days,
30 invited papers, grouped by theme, were presented in five sessions: The Library Catalog
and the Web; Assessing Current Library Standards for Bibliographic Control and Web Access;
Future directions; Experimentation; and Exploring Partnerships. All papers were posted to the conference Web site
before the conference at < http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/
> with viewers invited to comment. Each
conference participant chose one of eleven topical discussion groups that met in two
breakout sessions to address a major challenge facing catalogers and their allies in the
vendor and publishing communities. The
challenges and discussion topics were: 1) Choosing electronic resources: what is a
valuable Web resource? 2) What are the continuing education needs of professional
catalogers? 3) What near-term cooperative partnerships should libraries explore in the
digital world? 4) What long-term cooperative partnerships should libraries explore in the
digital world? 5) Multiple versions; 6) How can AACR2 become more responsible to
cataloging networked resources on the Web? 7) What can the library community offer in
support of semantic interoperability? 8) What automated tools could assist libraries to
meet the information needs of their users? 9) What steps can the Library take to achieve
integrated access to the catalog and other discovery tools? 10) How can catalogers and
metadata providers ensure that resource descriptions meet reference needs? Each topical discussion group leader presented a
set of recommendations from his/her group at the final plenary session. The recommendations were later circulated for
additional input from all conference participants and have now been posted to the
conference site for all members of the library and information communities to read. The Library welcomes comments on the
recommendations. Library management and staff
are now developing a plan for addressing the many recommendations, in order to determine
which are feasible to adopt in the short and long terms.
Some of the recommendations would require the Library to seek additional funding or
other resources to implement them, and some are in conflict with each other. The Library cannot guarantee that all the
recommendations will be carried out, but it does assure all readers of the conference Web
site that their comments will be considered as plans evolve.
Please
note that Sue Vita will report on this conference as part of the Bibliographic Control
Committee program on Friday morning.
American Memory Project: American Memory
continues to mount collections that are of enduring interest historically and
musicologically. Noted above were some of the
recent additions made in cooperation with the American Folklife Center. To date, the project has mounted twenty-one
collections devoted to individual composers (Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copeland), 19th
century sheet music, folk music, popular entertainment, and collections of regional
interest. Please visit the site for a
complete list of collections: http://memory.loc.gov
.
National Digital Library: The most visible arm of
the NDL is American Memory. The NDL has met
its goal of making available five million items through the American Memory website. We have mentioned some of these collections above. Laura Campbell, current director of NDL has now
been appointed by Dr. Billington to a new position, Associate Librarian for Strategic
Initiatives. NDL will be expected to
contribute guidance as the Library determines its strategies for moving into the digital
future.
NDL will also play a direct role in a new program: Congress has appointed funds for the creation of a
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. This program will be developed by the Library
jointly with the Secretary of Commerce, the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy, the National Archives, and other federal, research, and private libraries and
institutions with expertise in the collection and maintenance of archives of digital
materials, as well as private organizations involved in efforts to preserve, collect, and
disseminate information in digital formats.
Digital Futures Group: At a January 13, 2001
forum, the Library’s Digital Futures Groups shared with the LC community its 5-year
Digital Futures Plan, including plans for development of content, infrastructure, and
outreach services.
Web Preservation Project: The WPP is a new study
group organized to investigate the feasibility of capturing, saving, and preserving
collections from select Websites for use by future generations of researchers. The three sites chosen for the project were
www.whitehouse.gov , www.algore2000.com , and www.georgebush.com
. The project captured these websites
at predetermined intervals and maintains each capture for later viewing. These dated “snapshots” were cataloged
via Dublin Core records available through
the LC Online Catalog–see LCCNs 00530046,
00530047, 00530048.
10. SPECIAL EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
Bicentennial Symposia: The Library sponsored
three symposia as part of its bicentennial celebrations:
·
National Libraries of the World: Interpreting the Past, Shaping the Future–devoted
to the history of libraries and their place in society and culture. It included
presentations on Library of Congress initiatives to archive the open-access World Wide
Web. For details see: http://lcweb.loc.gov/bicentennial/symposia_nationallibraries.html
·
To Preserve and Protect: The Strategic Stewardship of Cultural Resources–devoted
to preservation and security programs in libraries, museums, and archives. Materials from this symposium can be found on the
Library’s Website: http://lcweb.loc.gov/bicentennial/symposia_preserve.html
· Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium–addressed the challenges of bibliographic control in the burgeoning Internet environment. Again, the materials from this conference can be found on the Library’s Website: http://lcweb.loc.gov/bicentennial/symposia_bibliographic.html
Interpretive Programs Office: A selection of
current exhibits of interest to the music library community might be the following:
·
Bob Hope and American Variety–surveys the evolution of twentieth
century forms of American entertainment
·
Al Hirschfeld, Beyond Broadway–despite the title, subjects from
Hirschfeld’s theatrical work are included alongside other less well-known aspects of
the artist’s 80-year career
·
Here to Stay: the Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin–installed in the newly opened Gershwin Room of
the Thomas Jefferson Building
·
The Gerry Mulligan Collection–the inaugural exhibition in a new exhibit
gallery in the Performing Arts Reading Room Foyer.
Among the many programs planned for the future is the
following:
·
Irish Music in the Archive of Folk Culture–planned to open in March
2002, will showcase traditional Irish music and related materials in the American Folklife
Center’s Archive of Folk Culture. Receiving
special attention will be the musical and related traditions of Philadelphia’s Irish
community, one of the most important in the United States.
Report prepared by Joseph Bartl with the assistance of
Susan Vita (SMCD), Eugene DeAnna (MBRS), Mary Bucknum (MBRS), Milada Gessman (SMCD), Ruth
Foss (Music Division), Susan Morris, author of the “ALA Report” (Jan. 2001),
Lynn El-Hoshy (CPSO) and Geraldine Ostrove (CPSO).
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Last updated March 14, 2001