President's Report
Committee Reports
Administration committees
            Facilities subcommittee
            Integrated Library Systems (ILS) subcommittee
            Personnel subcommittee
            Statistics subcommittee
Awards committees
            Epstein
            Freeman
            Gerboth
             MOUG
            Publications  
Bibliographic Control Committee (BCC)
            Authorities subcommittee
            Subcommittee on Descriptive Cataloging (SDC)
            Subcommittee on MARC Formats
            Subcommittee on Subject Access
Reference and Public Service (RAPS)
        Bibliographic Instruction subcommittee
        Electronic Reference Services subcommittee
        Information Sharing subcommittee
        Reference Refresher
Calendar
    Chapter Reports
    Email Digest
    Members' Publications
    MLA and Web session report
    News: Barbara Harbach Collection donated to Wilmington College
    Organizational Liaisons report
    Outreach subcommittee report
    Plenary I: The Music Industry in Las Vegas
    Plenary II:  Perspectives on the Digital Music Library in Your Future
    President's report
    Roundtable Reports
        Archives
        Bibliopgrahy
        Composers and Performers
        Women in Music
    Secretary/Treasurer position description
    Transitions
 
       
 
President's Report
Jim Cassaro, University of Pittsburgh

     After the MLA meeting had ended on Friday, I nonchalantly sat down at a slot machine in the Riviera Hotel. On my last quarter, the machine began to make noise, bells and whistles went off, lights started flashing. The casino attendant ran over and announced that I had won! Soon the casino manager came over, and in a ceremony only slightly less grand than those at the court of Louis XIV, handed over $500 in crisp bills. The following day, a similar scene occurred, this time at the casino in Bellagio, where I won $200. On Sunday, the days of decompression were over, and as I was leaving Las Vegas, I reflected on my good fortune, knowing that I had had the quintessential Las Vegas experience: jaw-dropping, eye-popping, grand. And these qualities were not limited to the casinos either.
 
    Our recent meeting was one of the most successful we have ever had. Under the guidance of our convention managers, Gordon Rowley and Don Roberts, and with the help of the Riviera Hotel staff, our meeting and exhibit spaces were splendid. The view from the Top Of The Riv for our final banquet was breathtaking! The Local Arrangements Committee, ably co-chaired by Cheryl Taranto and Robert Follett, provided us with all the glamour and festivity we could have possibly wanted. Where else but in Las Vegas can you have your photo taken with a Klingon? Balancing this was the very strong program put together by Stephen Davison. Plenary sessions on the music scene in Las Vegas and on issues in digital audio were well-attended, informative, and lively. Our Town Meeting on an aggregated website for music was also well-attended, and offered our members an important forum to discuss the issues surrounding this potential project. We look forward to the recommendations of the Ad-Hoc Task Force on this issue (David Gilbert, chair), as to how to proceed. The session on our handbook, an effort spearheaded by Paula Matthews and effectively chaired by Nancy Nuzzo, was another opportunity for our members to have input into the decision-making process on the issue of an electronic version of this publication. I am happy to say that the Board, on the recommendation of the Publications Committee, approved a secure server for an electronic membership handbook, as well as continuing the print version. Our management services provider, A-R Editions, Inc., is already working on this, all at a reasonable cost for the Association. My thanks to everyone who participated in this forum, especially the unprecedented number of current and past Executive Secretaries (Linda Solow Blotner, Ralph Papakhian, Richard Griscom, Bonna Boettcher, and Laura Gayle Green). All of our committees and roundtables held individual sessions, as well, further underscoring the tightly-woven fabric of our Association. My sincere thanks to all of you who help to make MLA what is today and will be in the future: hard-working, productive, professional.
 
    Several new appointments were made in Las Vegas, chief among them the appointment of Stephen Mantz as our next Newsletter Editor and of Annie Thompson as our new Assistant Convention Manager/Convention Manager. The Board approved a new schedule of the rotation of duties for these positions, and I am grateful to Gordon Rowley for agreeing to serve an additional year as Convention Manager to set this new configuration in motion.
 
    Development efforts at the meeting, deftly managed by Ruthann McTyre, chair of our Development Committee, and ably supported by Leslie Bennett for the MLA Shop and the Blue Girl Group (Sarah Dorsey, Ericka Patillo, Laurie Phillips Gibson and Lynne Jaffe) for our Silent Auction, were incredibly successful. MLA’s membership is among the most generous that I know. A highlight of the meeting was the establishment of the Michael Ochs Endowment Fund for Notes. Through a generous donation of $10,000, Michael provided the seed money for this fund. The MLA Board, touched deeply by this gesture, decided that it was prudent to double this amount over the next year. As such, I issued a challenged to the membership to raise $5,000 by the close of the Las Vegas meeting, and another $5000 by the close of our 2003 meeting in Austin. Substantial contributions to this fund were made by some of our corporate members, Jay Sonin and Gary Thal. However, by the time of our annual business meeting on Thursday, we were somewhat short of this goal. However, through the heroic efforts of Paula Elliott, who went around the meeting room collecting out-of-pocket donations, we more than reached our goal. My heartiest thanks go to Paula for her efforts on behalf of this fund. Once fully endowed, the dividends from this fund will create a discretionary fund for use by the Notes Editor.

    Also on the development front, we unveiled our new corporate patron/corporate member logo at a special reception hosted by the President. This logo will be given to corporate patrons/corporate members in good standing to use on their websites and in advertisements. This is an important aspect of our outreach efforts, and a heartfelt thanks to our corporate sponsors who support the work that we do. A more cordial and collegial association between MLA and this community cannot be found.
 
    Reports found elsewhere in this issue of the Newsletter will reveal the totality of our meeting in Las Vegas. I hope that those members who could not attend will join us in Austin next year for a whoopin’ good time! As always, I am pleased with the strides we are making in management services and financial planning. Do not hesitate to share with me, or others on the Board, your thoughts about what and where the Association should be headed. We value your input!
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Plenary Session 1:  The Music Industry in Las Vegas
Drew Beisswenger, Southwest Missouri State University

    This plenary session, moderated by Vic Cardell, featured three veteran musicians with ties to Las Vegas:  Ken Hanlon, a music professor at UNLV and a producer/annotator for the TNC Jazz label,  Johnny Page, a Chicago-based bass player, composer and arranger, and Joe Delaney, who has been involved in the jazz business for many years.  Each recounted interesting stories of their experiences.

    Ken Hanlon has been playing trombone and euphonium in Las Vegas since 1968.  He spoke about the sometimes-discouraging business of being a musician in the city, but pointed out that in the late 1960s, jobs were plentiful.  He joined the union and played with the Si Zentner Band.  Union musicians were technically not allowed to work regular jobs until they had been union members for six months, but because musicians were needed, the union was fairly relaxed about that requirement.  The life of a musician was not always stable, however, and it was not unusual for bandleaders to be fired after a few weeks on the job.  One fired bandleader even successfully sued a replacement bandleader for “stealing” his band.  From that time on, only a third of the members of a band could be retained after a bandleader was fired.  Hanlon worked at places such as the Tropicana, the Flamingo, the Sands, and the Landmark.  For a while, he was “doubling” or working two jobs, one from 2-8 PM, and the other from 8 PM to 2 AM.  Once he was late to his second job, and it was never forgotten.  Another time he went from working two jobs to working no jobs (and with a second baby on the way) because of an unexpected firing.  Boredom was a common problem for musicians who played the same show year-round, and he remembers seeing colleagues with hash marks on their music, reminiscent of someone in prison.  Union rules resulted in some humorous situations.  Because only fifteen minutes of each live show could be used on an album, all albums required recordings from at least three shows.  At one point, Buck Owens came to town to make a "Live in Las Vegas" album and wanted to use his own band.  Union rules required that the house band play, so to get around the rules, the house band played the final chord to each of Owens’s songs.  Jobs eventually grew for Hanlon, and he began doing more arranging more, some even for Ed Sullivan.  The big advantage to those jobs is that the royalties and residuals never stopped coming.
 
    The second speaker at the plenary session, Johnny Page, composed and arranged for artists such as Ruth Brown, Wes Montgomery, and Peabo Bryson.  He scored Shaft in Africa and the Shaft TV series, and played with the Duke Ellington Band occasionally.  He recalls a time when traveling first class as an African-American brought many stares.  After moving to Las Vegas eighteen years ago to retire and to raise a 7-year old son (now 25 years old), he was pulled out of retirement by singer Joe Williams.  He remained involved in various arranging assignments with Williams, one of which was a band arrangement to accompany William’s singing at the 1991-92 Christmas tree lighting in Washington, D.C.  The band played the introduction to Let It Snow, but Williams began singing Winter Wonderland.  After a few moments of terror, Williams gently wove the songs together, and no one noticed the error.

    Page recalled his childhood, which involved a musical household, playing tuba as a small child, learning piano, joining the service, and teaching himself to play bass and write jazz arrangements.  He went on to play bass with several major artists, to write successful jazz arrangements for R & B artists such as Curtis Mayfield, and to produce records for ABC Paramount.  He has especially fond memories of his association with blues artist B.B. King and recalls a chance association with a very young Barry Manilow.  Most pleasurable to Page has been hearing arrangements he wrote in the 1960s return in the 1990s to become popular.

    The third speaker at the plenary session, Joe Delaney, has been involved in the jazz business for many years.  Early in his career he was a correspondent for Downbeat magazine and a Decca record salesman.  He went on to create his own record labels such as Coral Records, which produced records for artists such as the Mills Brothers.  He now writes for the Las Vegas Sun newspaper.  Through the decades he has learned that hit records are often made by accident.  For example, in a recording session for Decca, Woody Herman thought he and his band had recorded eight selections but discovered to his surprise they had only recorded seven.  Herman decided to add a riff and solo they sometimes added in their concerts to signify a break, and that selection went on to become the classic “Woodchopper’s Ball.”  Erskin Hawkins’ “Tuxedo Junction” and Frankie Lane’s “That’s My Desire” were hits that evolved from similar unexpected situations.  A trumpet player as a boy, Delaney always admired Louis Armstrong, and was pleased that he was able to conduct Armstrong's last interview at the Tropicana.  He recalls a concert he was hosting where an already impatient audience needed to be told that Louis Armstrong popped a button and would be late.  He decided to tell the truth and plead for patience, and the audience applauded him.  A particularly humorous memory was of a session where Armstrong, wearing Bermuda shorts, told his drummer, who was struggling to find the beat, “Watch my buns.”
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Plenary II: "Perspectives on the Digital Music Library in Your Future"
Richard Griscom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    A large crowd assembled Thursday morning to hear three distinct perspectives on the future of digital music libraries.  Moderator Mary Wallace Davidson (Indiana University) set the stage by asking the audience to consider the scope of the term "digital library," which encompasses much more than a collection of digitized files residing on a server.  The definition developed by the Digital Library Federation emphasizes the broad range of activities required to build and maintain a digital library: it is "an organization that provides the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities."  She then reviewed several recent developments in the world of digital libraries, many of which were explored in greater detail later by the speakers.  These included the integration of sound, text, and graphics into a multimedia representation of a work, and the question of how libraries can use and preserve licensed and third-party content.  Indiana University, which continues to break new ground in the development of digital music library technology, has received a Digital Library Initiative II grant that will fund the development and testing of software that delivers integrated sound, text, and graphics over the Internet. (For more information, see http://www.dml.indiana.edu.)

    Mary LeFrance (UNLV School of Law) reviewed some of the legal issues affecting the development of digital music libraries.  Just two days before the session, the U.S. Supreme Court had announced that it would hear Eldred v. Ashcroft, a case that challenges the constitutionality of the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which extended the term of copyright for an additional twenty years. The argument against the term extension is that it defeats one of the purposes of copyright: to encourage creators to create. By extending the term, the law is actually discouraging creation.  This case raises the interesting question of whether there are constitutional limits to Congress's power to protect copyright.

    LeFrance said that case law involving video recordings has determined that streaming sound or video over a network constitutes a public performance of a work.  Because of this, streaming presents some potential legal problems, since the right of performance remains with the copyright holder.  To be legal, the streaming would have to be licensed or covered under an existing statute, but none apply.  The legal issues surrounding streaming are further complicated by the nature of the technology.  Anytime something is streamed, a copy of the work is stored in a buffer. Under current case law, the data in the buffer constitutes a "copy," so by streaming, a library is not only creating a public performance, it is creating a copy.

    There are several bills pending in Congress that concern the future of digital libraries.  One is the TEACH (Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization) Act, which seeks to expand existing public performance rights in the classroom to include class members participating "virtually" from remote locations.  This act would not cover streaming, however, because streamed listening is usually done in isolation rather than as part of a class.

    LeFrance concluded by pointing out that Congress is always responsive to large groups.  She encouraged us to band together with others who share our interests and approach Congress to create legislation that will grant us the rights we need to do our work.

    Sam Brylawski (Library of Congress Motion Picture & Sound Division) reported on developments in digital preservation at the Library of Congress (LC).  This year, Congress charged LC with building the National Preservation Information Program, which means that LC is now responsible for preserving not only the Web but digital materials in general.  It is clear that the future is in bits and bytes, but so far there is little stability in the technology.  Thousands of digital documents are produced daily, but they are in a number different formats and delivered using a variety of methods.  The private sector is still working on finding a good business model for these new technologies.  No one can predict what might happen, but one thing is sure: the music industry is not thinking about librarians, so we will have to look after our own interests.  Are we going to work to build the infrastructure that we need?  Will we try to change the law or to promote new forms of licensing?  Are we going to try to acquire master copies of recordings and preserve them?  Change depends on us.

    We are moving toward new digital models for sound-recording preservation that allow regeneration without loss of content.  The ten-inch reel-to-reel tape--the former preservation standard for sound recordings--is now dead.  Music librarians must become active in establishing standards, particularly standards for preservation. Advances in technology have also provided new means of distribution for older media.  A growing number of radio stations, for example, now stream their content over the Web, and these streams should be preserved.

    In 2000, the National Academy Press published "The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age" (http://books.nap.edu/html/digital_dilemma), which explores the legal, economic, and ethical issues surrounding digital media, particularly digitized music.  Also, LC's plans for assembling and preserving digital collections is defined in "LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress" (http://books.nap.edu/html/lc21). The Library of Congress is creating digital objects as they preserve recordings.  They scan every physical piece of a sound recording as well as encoding the sound as a WAV file. For their metadata work, they are using the Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS) Digital library prototype.
 
    Brylawski concluded by looking to the future.  Present cataloging systems (AACR2 and USMARC) are inadequate for digital preservation.  For example, current cataloging offers very little information on the individual tracks contained on a recording.  The recording industry sees a need for detailed track-level data, and they are building databases of metadata for their recordings.  We should encourage them to share this information.  We also need to work toward changing copyright law to allow us to do our work, but in order to succeed, we must first gain the trust of copyright holders.

    Ichiro Fujinaga (Johns Hopkins University) began by describing the Levy Project at Johns Hopkins, which features a searchable database of metadata, text, images, and sound representing 29,000 pieces of American sheet music (http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu).  He then discussed an Optical Music Recognition system under development that will take a digitized image of printed music, identify and interpret the symbols it contains (noteheads, accidentals, rests, etc.) and translate the interpreted symbols into GUIDO and MIDI formats. (See http://mambo.peabody.jmu.edu/omr/demo for more information.)

    Fujinaga then described his vision of a future model for digital music collections: a "distributed music library" consisting of networked content and application servers. The content servers will deliver scores, sound, metadata, and primary and secondary sources, and the application servers will offer search engines (including a "query by humming"), music-analysis applications, data-format conversion (for example, from audio to score or vice versa), score reformatting (parts to score, transposition), full-text indexing, and a portal to a copyright clearance service.  The data contained in this distributed music library will be scattered across the network and accessed using a "music library portal," which conceivably would identify a piece of music hummed by the user and then deliver the appropriate score, audio, primary and secondary sources, and stylistic analysis from various remote servers.  The technology for the distributed music library exists; the challenge will be constructing the application servers, agreeing on data formats, and developing protocols for library-to-library communication.
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MLA and Web
Rebecca Littman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

On Tuesday afternoon, 19 February, from 4:30-6:00pm, about 65 people gathered in the Grande Ballroom G/H to discuss MLA's potential role in providing coordinated access to music resources on the web. David Gilbert (UCLA) moderated with a panel made up of Constance Mayer (Harvard), John Bewley (Univ. of Buffalo), Mark Germer (Univ. of the Arts), Wayne Shoaf (Univ. of Southern California), and MLA Webmaster Judy Pinnolis (Brandeis).

The session began with the panel members giving brief discussions of the three types of existing gateways, 1) dot.com sites including large indexes/search engines, publisher and vendor sites, and personal websites that do not sell but provide information; 2) collections maintained by university music librarians; 3) "scholars' portals" developed by other professional organizations such as AMS, CMS, ARL, ARLIS, Society for American Music, and MPA.

Before things got started, the audience was asked how many are maintaining collections of websites at their own institutions. About 1/2 of attendees said that they did.

Mr. Gilbert presented several concepts about which the panel hoped to get in-put from audience members.  1) Would a MLA sanctioned gateway relieve members' work or replicate work we're already doing ?  2) Do we include fee-based databases in the lists that not every user will have access to, or only free ones?  3) How will a collection of sites be kept current ?  4) If MLA gets into this business, should it be done on a commercial server where we might have ads, much as we do in NOTES?

The discussion was kicked off by Bill Coscarelli of the University of Georgia who encouraged members to look at this without having to reinvent the wheel, that there are software products out there already that can be used to facilitate the building of a meta site which would then have the imprimature of the professionals in the field. He also suggested that it could become a publication source for librarians who are working towards tenure and permanent status.

Discussion was animated and centered around the idea that no one person can maintain a comprehensive site, with several people, among them John Andries and Yale Fineman, concurring. Several suggestions about ways around this were offered. It was suggested that both individual people developing lists based on the needs of the campus department and institutional attachment based on a specific library's collection strengths could be considered as options.

Several people suggested that MLA's role in this would give a sense of authority and respectability to sites that are listed. That the selecting and abstracting of these sites by professionals would benefit both the content of the site and the organization as a whole. It was also suggested that we, as the professionals in the field, would be providing a service to those campuses that do not have a music professional to select locally.

Some of the discussion got bogged down in the mechanics of how this would be done, which the panel members said was not really their aim for the session.

Webmaster Judy Pinnolis said that the current disc space we have at Mindspring can support a flat list, but not a database. The bandwidth might be another problem, but she didn't think we needed to worry about that at this point.  We need to decide what would be useful, and work on providing that access.  She offered a few statistics on how the MLA site is being used: there were 757,000 page-views in 2001; 100,000 stayed for 10 seconds or less; 19,000 came from a Google search; 15,000 came from Yahoo; the "Useful Sites" page had 8,000 hits; the "Copyright" page had 94,000 hits.

Some discussion followed about who the primary user would be, and most agreed that it would be both music librarians *and* end-users.  Given the fact that completeness, as Yale Fineman and Emma Diderick-Colon pointed out, is unattainable, emphasis should be placed on quality of evaluation.

Additional areas of discussion included how a collection development policy would be developed, whether or not a systematic method of cataloging the sites (e.g. CORC) should be used, or whether that would just be replicating the process of including websites in our OPACs.  Kathy Gearhart from the University of Washington gave a detailed description of how the lists of websites are maintained there.  Several people seemed interested in this process.

David Gilbert began to wrap things up trying to gauge whether or not the attendees thought this was something that MLA should pursue. To the question: "Are you at least 51% sure that MLA should explore this idea?" 80% of the attendees answered yes. He then suggested that it was too early to ask questions about editorial, construct, and content at this point, but all agreed that we should begin with a selective list and move toward more comprehensiveness as the database and funds allow.
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Email Digest
Stephen Mantz, Davidson College

    The winter (Nov.-Feb.) saw a number of topics discussed on MLA-L.  Evolving technologies, always a topic of interest, were a focus again as Tom Moore (College of New Jersey) posed a question that many music librarians are asking as they make plans for their libraries. What is the future of video formats?  When can we expect to see VHS abandoned by commercial producers?

    Most respondents provided anecdotal evidence that the demise of VHS tapes is well on its way.  Video stores seem to be stocking increasing numbers of DVDs and decreasing numbers of VHS tapes.  The price of VHS players has dropped dramatically in the past years.  Ads for CD players are seen less often, while ads for DVD players (which also play CDs) are common.  Joe Boonin (New York Public Library) ventured a guess that within five years DVDs will essentially replace VHS tapes, although "VHS will probably hang around as a home video, handicam medium until someone comes up with a good, inexpensive digital camera."  David Gilbert (UCLA) noted that there are disadvantages to using DVDs:  you cannot exercise legal, fair use copying of a DVD, and soon DVDs may be including advertising that cannot be skipped over.

    Along a similar vein, Dennis Clark asked if laserdisc players are still being manufactured.  The answer from several librarians is that yes, they are still available, although a bit "pricey."  Pioneer and Yamaha were mentioned as having models available.  Some librarians noted that they had purchased their laserdisc players through commercial or "industrial" dealers.

    Where do you find used or out-of-print compact discs?  Leslie Troutman (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) polled MLA-L readers and has placed the results on a web page (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/mux/usedcds.htm).

***
    Subject headings are often the focus of MLA-L discussions.  Jack Hall (University of Houston), wondered what headings he should use for a composition written for two players, each playing a set of orchestral bells.  Charles Herrold (Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh) noted that the broad heading "Percussion ensembles" is indicated, based on the scope note that reads, "Here are entered compositions ... for two or more percussionists, each playing one or more percussion instruments."   To provide better access, some catalogers also advocated using "Tubular bell music (Tubular bells (2)) as a heading ("Tubular bells" being the heading used for "Orchestral bells", according to the LC authority file), even though it may not be an authorized heading.  Marty Jenkins (Wright State University) noted that the authority file seems to be in error, for orchestral bells are not tubular bells.  Tubular bells are what most of us call "chimes." "Glockenspiel" would be the appropriate term.

    What is the subject heading for an etude written for "comb-and-tissue paper?"  Michael Colby (UC, Davis) and others noted that such a composition is a work for "mirliton."  Although there is no LC subject heading for "Mirliton music" at this time, Geraldine Ostrove (CPSO, Library of Congress) reported that one has been proposed.  The Library of Congress has recently changed its policy, so that headings for the music of an instrument are now proposed in tandem with proposals for subject headings for the instrument itself.

***

    An announcement that per-search access to RILM Music Abstracts via OCLC FirstSearch was being discontinued prompted several cries of protest from librarians.  Representatives from RILM explained that over the years, the per-search pricing, set by OCLC, has barely increased at all, while subscriptions have risen in line with the growing costs of the expanding database.  Consequently, increasing numbers of institutions have switched from having annual subscriptions to being per-search users.  Inevitably, RILM simply can no longer afford to offer the per-search option.

    Some librarians disliked the timing of the pricing change, as it comes midway through the fiscal year.  Others at institutions that have a low level of usage worried that they might have to cancel their subscriptions altogether.  Rick Anderson (University of Nevada, Reno) noted that his institution might be in the strange position of having to switch back to the print edition, a compromise that provides affordable access for the school's few music graduate students.  In RILM's defense, Ned Quist (Brown University) reminded readers that RILM is not a large corporation, but "a cause to which our community has contributed significantly."  Many librarians reported that they would be evaluateing access to RILM through vendors SilverPlatter and NISC.

***
    This "Email Digest" column is the last.  Over the years, the column has provided those without email access the opportunity to learn some of the valuable information exchanged over MLA-L.  But, as technology has become more ubiquitous, the number of librarians without email has dwindled dramatically.  Generally, those wishing to participate or eavesdrop on MLA-L are able to do so.  The MLA-L archives, once difficult for novice users to navigate, are now easily searchable through a web interface (http://listserv.indiana.edu/archives/mla-l.html).  In short, the need for the "Email Digest" has passed.  In fact, we currently find ourselves in the ironic position of having a "print" summary of a listserv appearing in a newsletter that is available only online.  That the column has continued until now is a tribute to MLA's commitment to its membership.

    MLA-L, of course, remains as vibrant and informative as ever.  Those wishing to subscribe can find instructions for doing so on the MLA website, under the title "Useful Resources Online."
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Bibliographic Control Committee
Report from the Las Vegas Conference
Authorities subcommittee
Subcommittee on Descriptive Cataloging (SDC)
Subcommittee on MARC formats
Subcommittee on Subject Access

The annual open meeting of the Bibliographic Control Committee was held on Wednesday morning, February 20th.  The Chair began by introducing the current and incoming Committee members, thanking those members who would be rotating off after the Vegas meeting, announcing several vacancies on the subcommittees (with instructions for applying for those positions), and briefly explaining the new compressed format of all of the BCC open meetings.  Mention was made of the former Dublin Core "Relations" Element "Type" Qualifier Working Group, which was dissolved in October following the approval of the NISO Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (Z39.85).  The standard is available for free downloading or hardcopy purchase at http://www.niso.org.

The centerpiece presentation of the meeting was given by Brad Eden (University of Nevada at Las Vegas), Chair of the International Music Metadata Projects Working Group.  He outlined the three recommendations contained in the Working Group's final report to the BCC, namely to 1) form a standing MLA committee on metadata, 2) appoint MLA liaisons to the major metadata standards organizations, and 3) increase efforts toward informing and educating the MLA membership about metadata.  A very lively discussion followed -- and continued even through a brief Nevada "brownout" -- about the need for and the practicality of such activities.  The BCC Chair asked whether such work could be done informally by those already involved with these organizations (i.e. without official MLA appointments and funding).  Although many in the audience expressed an interest in participating, they also felt that their institutions would not be willing to fund such efforts without official appointments and titles.  Also, a need was voiced for a sort of "Metadata Element Requirements for Music Materials" document.  Based upon these responses, the BCC will propose the creation of a fifth subcommittee for metadata.

The Music Thesaurus Project Form/Genre Terminology Working Group, chaired by Harriette Hemmasi (Indiana University), completed their charge and were thanked.  The next phase of the project, to categorize the "leftover" headings and to incorporate additional headings from the RILM, Music Index, and IIMP databases, will be taken up by the MTP Advisory Task Force, chaired by Mark McKnight (University of North Texas).  The Task Force will mostly likely provide a progress report during the BCC open meeting in Austin.

The four BCC liaisons attended ALA meetings in San Francisco and New Orleans, providing the music cataloging community's perspective on various issues to a broader audience.  Written reports of these meetings, including those of ACIG, MRC, CC:DA, MARBI, and SAC, are available on the BCC website at http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/BCC/bcc.html, along with annual reports from the Library of Congress and OCLC representatives.
 

Finally, BCC personnel changes include Kathy Glennan (University of Southern California at Ellicott City) and Michael Colby (University of California-Davis), who finish their terms as the respective chairs of the Subcommittees on MARC Formats and Subject Access, to be replaced by Paul Cauthen (University of Cincinnati) and Mark McKnight (University of North Texas).  Beth Tice (Baylor University) is moving on to bigger and better things as she finishes a year-long term as Recording Secretary/Webmaster.  Stepping into her quite capable shoes will be Kerri Scannell (University of Kentucky).

Submitted by Matthew Wise
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Authorities Subcommittee
Report from the Las Vegas Conference

The business meeting of the Authorities Subcommittee was held on Feb. 19, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nev.  In addition to the committee members, there were three observers present.  The open meeting was held the next day.  There were sixty attendees at this meeting.

Types Document Activity
This past year, the Subcommittee investigated carefully each term and citation in the document, with the exception of terms P-R which were originally assigned to Edie Tibbits.  We submitted our findings to Mickey Koth, who corrected the minor errors we identified and reserved major inconsistencies for further discussion and, if necessary, referral to the Library of Congress.  Mickey also gave a report on terms added to the list in the past year and terms still in the queue.

Types Document Maintenance
We then discussed the future of the Types document.  Specifically, we tried to answer these questions:
· Should Mickey continue to maintain the document?
· Should the document remain on the Yale web site, as opposed to MLA’s website?
· Should we maintain the current process of having the entire Subcommittee work on terms submitted to or by Mickey for consideration?
Action:  After some discussion, we decided that the answers to the first two questions above should be a resounding yes.  There have been no requests to move the document, or to have it maintained by someone else, and the Subcommittee felt that, as long as Mickey was willing, the document should remain under her excellent stewardship.  The Subcommittee did agree to adjust the procedure by which terms are vetted.  We decided to form a small group of 2-3 interested Subcommittee members who would work with Mickey throughout the year via email to discuss individual terms.  Particularly difficult decisions could be forwarded to the entire Subcommittee for discussion, either by email or at our annual meeting.  Ralph Papakhian and Margaret Kaus agreed to serve in this role, with perhaps another member to be named.  It is hoped that this will streamline the decision making process and allow more time at Subcommittee meetings for other projects and discussions.

Task Group on the Function of the Authority File Interim Report
We then turned our discussion to the Interim Report of the PCC SCS Task Group on the Function of the Authority File (now available on the Web at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/tgauthrpt.html).  The report advocates expanding the maintenance role of the national authority file, and suggests ways to do this.  The Subcommittee discussed some of the proposals in the report, and tried to anticipate potential difficulties, particularly with music headings.  Some of the difficulties we identified in the business and open meetings were:
· Additions to name/title headings (e.g., “arr.”, “Selections”, etc.), and their inconsistent treatment in the authority file (some of these headings are established, some are not) will likely cause problems regarding automated authority control;
· The treatment of translations for musical works is essentially the opposite to that for books;
· Collective uniform titles with references from titles proper frequently cause problems when used with automated authority control systems;
· Concern that non-distinctive titles proper of limited usefulness (e.g., “4 duets”) might be added to authority records automatically because it would be easy to do so;
· Local system differences might make it difficult to implement shared maintenance functions.

Two other ways to expand the role of the authority file were also suggested:
· Automatic updating of name/title headings when the name heading is revised would be extremely useful for music headings;
· The informational role of the authority file might be expanded, possibly through the use of public notes similar to subject heading scope notes.  Such notes could give basic biographical information on headings, e.g., a note could be made informing users that a particular composer is deceased even though there is an open date in the heading.

Action:  The Subcommittee will prepare a response to the PCC SCS Task Group and submit it to them in writing.

Title References in Name/Title Headings
On AUTOCAT in Oct., 2001, there was a lengthy and spirited discussion regarding the idea of providing direct title access to name/title headings for works with common nicknames.  The Subcommittee discussed the merits of this suggestion.  It was noted that there is a precedent for this, though not precisely parallel, in the treatment of some series headings.  The main advantage that was identified was the potential for increased access for users.  The main disadvantages identified were:
· There is a need to keep the “work” concept in mind – the work is identified by composer and title together;
· Data for headings would have to be entered twice – once in a name/title heading or reference and again in a direct title reference;
· The problem of direct access from a title in an authority record is viewed as a systems problem rather than a problem with the structure of the authority record.  Some systems already allow authority 400 $t (etc.) to be indexed in the title index; OCLC also provides for this.

Action:  The suggestion was essentially tabled.  We did decide to investigate the ILS Subcommittee’s report on Automation Requirements for Music Materials to see if that document requires this type of indexing, and, if not, to send a proposal to them to consider adding it.

Authority Control for non-MARC data
There was a suggestion that the Subcommittee investigate how authority control is being used (or not) in various metadata schemes, especially the problem of linking names to titles for musical works.  The Subcommittee thought that that might be an appropriate topic for a program at an open meeting.  Possible topics could include how this is done or how various digital sheet music collections currently on the Web handle authority control.

Action:  The Subcommittee will identify and contact various experts in the music metadata field to discuss the possibility of presenting a short program(s) during an upcoming open meeting.  It was also mentioned that Sherry Vellucci had written an article related to this topic that we should read.

Submitted by Terry Simpkins  [back to top] [back to BCC]

Subcommittee on Descriptive Cataloging
Report from the Las Vegas Conference

The Subcommittee on Descriptive Cataloging held a joint open meeting with the Subcommittee on MARC Formats on Wednesday, February 20, during the annual MLA meeting in Las Vegas. This report addresses only the Descriptive Cataloging sections of the joint meeting.

Nancy Lorimer highlighted items of interest to music catalogers from her CC:DA Midwinter meeting report (soon available on the BCC web page). She reported that work on the Appendix of Major Changes has been tabled pending further discussion on where to place the material in AACR2; that revisions to AACR2 to make the Rule of 3 optional have been tabled, and instead, JSC will spearhead an effort to revise Chapter 21 in its entirety; and that CC:DA created a new task force, the Task Force on Consistency across Part I in AACR2. All these documents, including the charge for the new task force, are available on the CC:DA website at http://www.ala.org/alcts/organization/ccs/ccda/ccda.html.

Nancy then introduced the problem of “conventional terminology”, a concept that was brought into AACR2 in the new version of Chapter 9 (Electronic Resources—formerly Computer Files) and for which there is a strong impetus in the cataloging world to extend to other chapters. Brad Young gave a short talk on problems of conventional terminology for sound recordings—the mixed types of terms, which might describe size, rpm, material of manufacture, etc.; the possibility of one format having several names; the possibility of change in the conventional terminology for a format over time; and other difficulties. The general discussion that followed suggested that the music community was not overly enthusiastic to introduce the concept of conventional terminology into Chapter 6. But as Nancy stated, and as was generally accepted by those present, we have little choice in the matter, and that we need to have as much influence as possible in what finally appears in the chapter. Nancy announced that the subcommittee is working on a rule revision to present to CC:DA for discussion.

The next topic for discussion was about possible new provisions for Area 5 (Physical Description) in Chapter 9. A CC:DA task force has suggested that Chapter 9 adopt content/carrier SMDs for direct electronic resources and optionally for remote resources. Thus a cataloger could use SMDs such as “1 score on CD-ROM” or “1 sound file (mp3)”. These SMDs would make use of conventional terminology from the relevant chapters. At the mid-winter meeting, a member of CC:DA asked whether these examples should not in fact be put in the relevant content chapters rather than in Chapter 9. The JSC representative asked for input from the communities involved. Nancy introduced the topic and asked for comments. Discussion centered on the ability of Chapter 6 to cover all formats of sound recordings (clearly some changes would be required), the relationship of Chapter 9 to other chapters, and the lack of direction given in AACR2 about how to combine instructions from multiple chapters when necessary. There was also a suggestion the content/carrier SMDs for electronic resources should in fact be in Chapter 1. A straw poll was taken on the question: Do you think that the electronic content/carrier SMDs, if accepted by JSC, should be given in Chapter 9 or in the chapter relevant to the content (or Chapter 1). The vote was unanimous that it should be in the relevant chapters. Nancy said that she would relay the results of the poll to CC:DA & the JSC representative.

Submitted by Nancy Lorimer [back to top] [back to BCC]

Subcommittee on MARC Formats
Report from the Las Vegas Conference

The Subcommittee on MARC Formats held a joint open meeting with the Subcommittee on Descriptive Cataloging during the Las Vegas conference. This report addresses the MARC-related aspects of that joint meeting.
Kathy Glennan highlighted discussion papers and proposals from the past two MARBI meetings held during the ALA conferences. She reported on the impending change to the recording of languages in field 041. Starting in late April 2002, the practice of “stacking” language codes will become obsolete. Instead, multiple languages belonging in a particular subfield will have a repeated subfield code. For example:
old   041     0  ‡d fre ‡e freeng ‡h fre ‡g freengger ‡h fre
new  041     0  ‡d fre ‡e fre ‡e eng ‡h fre ‡g fre ‡g eng ‡g ger ‡h fre
Additional MARC 21 changes coming in April include making field 508 repeatable, and the addition of a new 007/04 code for DVDs.
Kathy also addressed changes coming to MARC 21 in the next year. In September, expect the ability to encode “integrating resources” separately from “serials” in the Leader/07 (Bibliographic Level) and the option of repeatable 260 fields for resources that change publication information over time. By next spring, anticipate the opportunity to encode a URL in subfield ‡u in Authorities field 670, and the extension of Bibliographic field 600-651 second indicator values to field 655.
The Library of Congress asked for MLA’s comments on the revision of MARBI Proposal 2001-10R, “Definition of Additional Codes in Field 007/10 for Sound Recordings in the MARC 21 Bibliographic and Holdings Formats” which will be considered at the ALA Annual meeting in Atlanta. Kathy presented the suggested redefinition and expansion to the codes available for this byte. Sound recording preservationists desire additional definitions to better encode the physical material used in the manufacture of different types of recordings.
The final highlights of MARBI discussions included longer-term considerations which will continue to evolve:
· Authority records for headings which arise from different cataloging codes (previously referred to as “Multilingual authority records” in MARBI Discussion Paper 2001-DP05)
· The possibility of renaming field 008 for consistency throughout the bibliographic and holdings formats (MARBI Discussion Paper 2002-DP02)
· The use of non-filing control characters in addition to the current non-filing indicator technique (MARBI preferred a more limited approach than suggested in Discussion Paper 2002-DP05)
· Possible changes relating to the fixed fields for music scores arising from format harmonization with UKMARC (MARBI Discussion Paper 2002-DP07, section 2.1)
· Consideration of adding fields 260 and 300 to the MARC 21 Holdings Format (Discussion Paper 2002-DP04). MARBI found this discussion premature and decided to wait for final recommendations from the JSC’s Working Group on Format Variations. Their interim report is available at:  http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/jsc/current.html#ForVarWG
Revised handouts from the Open Meeting will soon be available on the Subcommittee’s website and in the Music Cataloging Bulletin. For more information about the Subcommittee, its activities and the semi-annual MARBI reports, please visit our website available at http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/BCC/MARC/MARC.html.  We welcome comments on MARC format-related issues at any time.

Submitted by Kathy Glennan [back to top] [back to BCC]
 

Subcommittee on Subject Access
Report from the Las Vegas Conference

Members: Michael Colby (Chair), Drew Beisswenger, Ray Heigemier, Reneè McBride, Mark McKnight, Geraldine Ostrove, Patricia Thomson, Wendy Sistrunk

The open meeting of the Subject Access Subcommittee was held on February 20, 2002 at the annual MLA meeting in Las Vegas. It was held in conjunction with Authorities Subcommittee. The following presentation was heard:

· The American Folklife Center Ethnographic Thesaurus Project, Suzanne Flandreau (Columbia College, Chicago)

Summary:  As a joint project of the American Folklore Society and the American Folklife Center, work has begun in the creation of a thesaurus to provide subject access to ethnic and folk materials held in archives. The project is just in the beginning stages. In its initial meetings, the group has determined that there is a need to develop a standard nomenclature for these materials and endorsed the idea that preservation without access is pointless. The next steps in the project will be to survey collections and to develop a prototype for the thesaurus.

In its business meeting, the Subcommittee continued to work on planning a preconference workshop on Library of Congress Subject Headings. The workshop would be part of the series of SACO workshops which LC has been presenting around the country, but would include music-specific sessions. The subcommittee will continue to communicate with the LC Cataloging Policy and Support Office, the MLA Education Committee and MOUG in planning this workshop; the target date for presentation is at the 2004 MLA Meeting.

Topics that the Subcommittee is interested in exploring in the near future include the following: Libraries whose subject access diverges from standard use of LCSH; the history of music subject heading practice at LC; uses of controlled vocabulary for music outside of cataloging; international perspectives on music subject access; and the OCLC FAST project.

Submitted by Michael Colby [back to top]  [back to BCC]

Administration Committee reports
Facilities Subcommittee
Elizabeth Davis, Columbia University

At the program meeting of the Facilities Subcommittee, three speakers presented the expanded and renovated facilities at their institutions: Oberlin College, Oberlin Ohio: Deborah Campana; the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook: Gisele Glover; and Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah: David Day.  In addition, Roberta Chodacki Ford presented the new music library for Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia.

Integrated Library Systems Subcommittee (formerly the Automation Subcommittee)
Jean Harden, University of North Texas

The ILS Subcommittee, chaired by Jean Harden, sponsored two sessions (a business meeting and a joint session with the Technical Services roundtable) and seven system users’ groups meetings during the MLA conference in Las Vegas.

At its business meeting, the Subcommittee continued work on developing sample online-catalog displays that put into practice the Subcommittee’s recommendations published on the MLA website in the document Automation Requirements for Music Materials. We have already found that this endeavor suggests revisions to be incorporated into the next version of the document.

The joint session with the Technical Services Roundtable dealt with authority control in various local online systems. Speakers were Paul Cauthen (Innovative), Richard Le Sueur (DRA), Grace Fitzgerald (Aleph/ExLibris), and Joe Hafner (Horizon).

Seven system users’ groups met on Thursday. As usual, attendance at these ranged widely. The Subcommittee requests that any MLA member who is aware of a commercially available online system in use in music libraries but not yet represented by a users’ group at MLA contact the Subcommittee. We are always happy to add new groups.

During the meeting the Subcommittee began the yearly process of gathering up-to-date information for the list of system users’ groups on the MLA website. At this writing the information is still coming in. Once we have received responses from all of the users’ groups, we will post the updated list.

At the MLA convention in Austin in 2003, we will again join with the Technical Services Roundtable, presenting a second session on authority control in local systems. Those systems not represented this year will give presentations next year. In addition, those who spoke this year will be given a chance to provide updates.

The Las Vegas convention marks the end of the term of the present chair. A current member of the subcommittee has accepted the invitation to become the new chair. The official appointment will be made shortly by the MLA President.  [back to top]

Personnel Subcommittee : Interview Workshop
Linda Blair, Eastman School of Music

On Friday morning in Las Vegas, a group of 30 job seekers, potential employers and interested bystanders gathered for the annual institution known as the Interview Workshop. Moderator Paula Elliot (Washington State University) and panelists Geraldine Laudati (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Michael Rogan (Tufts University) and Renee McBride (UCLA) provided different perspectives on the theme of Moving, Choosing and Waiting Your Turn.

Geraldine Laudati, offering wisdom gained through experience in a number of different positions throughout her twenty-five year career, noted that in all hiring situations there are some universal truths and unspoken things to look for. Every institution has a culture, and part of the applicant's job is to discern this culture and decide if it will be a good fit for her abilities and personality.  Some questions for consideration: How does this institution value ability? Seniority? Political acumen? What other opportunities exist for advancement? Does the institution find jobs for spouses? Geri also noted that salary, once a forbidden subject, is now often discussed as a part of the interview process.. But if the salary is disappointing, keep in mind there may be other benefits that would make the job worthwhile. Finally, Geri offered suggestions for staying vital in one's profession. Forming partnerships outside the library and even outside the school of music can be a way to foster continued growth and vitality.

Michael Rogan shared some experiences from recent hires at his institution to illustrate the kinds of decision-making that can occur in the selection process. Beginning with an apropos gambling analogy, he reminded job hunters that they are not powerless in job interview situations. The institution may have the house advantage, but interviewees do have a chance to affect the outcome in their favor.  Michael described some recent searches in which personal characteristics such as self-direction and desire for growth were the deciding factors in selecting a candidate to fit a position, rather than an exact match of skills and experience. Michael also spoke on aspects of the interview as a learning experience. Much can be gained in even an unsuccessful interview that will help in future situations, especially if there is someone from whom to solicit candid feedback. More often than not, this will be someone other than the personnel officer or search committee chair.

In opening her presentation, Renee McBride (UCLA), MLA Placement Officer, referred to a recent article by Beverly Lynch and Kimberley Robles, entitled "The changing nature of work in academic libraries: content analysis of job ads in College & Research Libraries News"  (College & research libraries v. 62 no 5 (Sept. 2001) p. 407-20). The authors found that while degree requirements had changed little, there were increasing trends toward requiring library instruction as a part of reference jobs, toward posting combined jobs, such as reference/business librarian and toward requiring behavioral traits such as creativity and enthusiasm. Next, Renee provided an analysis of 263 job listings from the MLA Placement Service, breaking the list into categories by institution type. More than half listed were academic library positions, with the remainder in public, conservatory, orchestra, museum, archive and a variety of other special library settings. Finally, she presented a breakdown of the most salient skill and education requirements listed in job announcements by each type of library.

Following the presentations, questions focused on how to "demonstrate" flexibility or adaptability in an interview, and how to interpret the salary ranges published in job announcements. Comments from the audience revealed that interpretation of salary ranges may differ depending on whether the institution is public or private, and whether or not the workplace is unionized. [back to top]

Statistics Subcommittee
David Hursh, East Carolina University and Diane Napert, University of Hartford

The Statistics Subcommittee met for both a business meeting and an open session during the Las Vegas meeting.  The business meeting was held on 2/19 at 5:00 pm and the open session on 2/20 at 1:00 pm.

Twenty people attended the open session.  The session dealt with the importance of statistics to the work of music librarians, and was presented in order to encourage increased participation in the committee’s annual survey.  With the assistance of a transparency presentation, members of the committee discussed three reasons that people do not like to fill out surveys—fear of the inaccuracy of their statistics, fear of the time commitment needed to complete a survey, and fear of dealing with an online system to obtain their statistics.  The committee quelled these fears by sharing the fact that statistics need not be perfect, just representative; that the survey had been streamlined during the last year to decrease the time commitment needed to complete it; and that statistics could be obtained from any system.  Three members of the committee shared how to obtain statistics from the DRA, Epixtech, and Innovative systems.  The session ended with a discussion of the preliminary results of the 2001-2002 survey.

In attendance at the business meeting were: Chair, Brian Doherty (Southwest Missouri State University); Co-Chairs-Elect, David Hursh (East Carolina University) and Diane Napert (Hartt School); Administration Committee Chair, Robert Acker (DePaul University); and committee members, Stephen Luttmann (University of Northern Colorado) and John Brower (Seattle Public Library).  Committee member, Jean Finks (Stetson University) was unable to attend.

The meeting opened with a discussion of the 2001-2002 survey.  Overall reaction to the survey was favorable based on comments received from respondents.  At the time of the Las Vegas meeting, 95 people had responded.  This number increased by 20 from the previous year.  The increase was attributed to the survey’s simplified format.

Other discussion topics included: confusion among survey respondents about the difference between actual counts and FTEs with regard to student employees; how to account for exceptional budgetary occurrences such as “one-time” expenditures; the need for statistical tracking of material leasing and ILL practices; and how to obtain more accurate information from public library respondents (total system vs. branch).  These possibilities will be carefully considered so as not to alter the survey to the point of decreasing its user-friendliness or jeopardizing the consistency necessary to track trends over time.  The committee also considered a suggestion from a survey respondent asking for the survey to include a question regarding exact total materials expenditures.

The committee welcomed new member, John Brower.  John’s public library perspective has already proven beneficial to our discussion of public library issues.  Another new member, Antonio Calvo (University of the Pacific) was enlisted after the business meeting to represent libraries supporting smaller music programs.

The meeting ended with a discussion of the committee’s open session for the 2003 annual meeting.
[back to top]

Reference and Performance Services Committee
Kathleen Abromeit, Oberlin Conservatory, Chair

The Reference and Performance Services (RAPS) sponsored an open forum in Las Vegas to discuss ways in which RAPS committees and activities can better serve the needs of the membership.  The discussion began with concerns around access to electronic serials and the inconsistencies in data and size of serial rusn among vendors like ProQuest and InfoTrack.  One participant pointed out that Serials Solutions, a Seattle-based company, is pulling together the aggregates.  There was also speculation that the next phase of web search engines may deal with this concern.  Generally speaking, the RAPS subcommittees wanted to stay away from solutions that would require web-based solutions such as a shared index to electronic serials, as access to a server is highly problematic.

Other suggestions included the following:
- Contact netLibrary and make a suggestion for a music reference package to be handled by their service.
- Cut the e-mail digest.
- Cut the Directory of Music User Guides for Libraries.  In its place, establish a metadata code to use in guides and distribute instructions on how to get metadata into the record.
- Share information on the training of students who work in our libraries.
- Write a survival guide for basic reference questions or create an online tutorial.
- Share strategies for working with faculty in collaborative setting.
- Host a session on the best practices for BI.
- Host a session on assessment practices in teaching - including pre-testing.

Overall, it was decided that RAPS does not need to be restructured but rather needs to focus on projects that do not require an excessive amount of web server space, as access to such space can be problematic.  In addition, it was decided that subcommittees focus on projects that can be accomplished in a limited time frame, as long-term projects are becoming more problematic with subcommittee member turnover.

The meeting was well attended, and RAPS members wish to thank those who attended the meeting.  It is very helpful to get specific feedback from the membership.

Kathleen Abromeit, RAPS chair; subcommittees include: Bibliographic Instruction, Paul Cary, chair; Electronic Reference Services, Martin Jenkins, chair; Information Sharing, Constance Mayer with John Anderies incoming, chair; Reference Performance, Mary Du Mont, chair.
[back to top] [back to RAPS]

Bibliographic Instruction Subcommittee
Paul Cary, Bibliographic Instruction Subcommittee chair.

About 80 people attended the Bibliographic Instruction Subcommittee’s public program on Wednesday, February 20.  Those who did were treated to an Introduction to Information Literacy by Diane Vanderpol and Cheryl Taranto.  Diane is Head Instructional Services Librarian and Cheryl is Music Librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Diane and Cheryl gave a thorough, dynamic presentation on these topics.  As one might expect from a group of teaching librarians, audience participation was abundant and trenchant.  Through a combination of lecture/presentation and interactive small-group work, we defined information literacy, learned who cares about it and why, and how information literacy is different from bibliographic instruction.

Some of the salient characteristics of information literate people as we defined them are the ability to recognize and define a need for information, to locate sources, and to critically evaluate and use information; flexibility and creativity in using sources; an understanding of scholarly communication and the research process; and an understanding of information formats.

A wide range of people care (some more, some less) about information literacy, from the general public and students to faculty and employers.  At colleges and universities, IL programs are often mandated by the institution.  Increasingly, those mandates are in turn coming from accrediting agencies which recognize the importance of information literacy to education and to society as a whole.

Information literacy can be said to differ from traditional bibliographic instruction in that it is more centered on acquiring the skills needed to locate, evaluate and use information, and less on knowledge of specific sources.  Where BI may start with specific sources and move to general applications, information literacy begins with general concepts and may then move to their use in a particular discipline.  IL is also seen as placing more emphasis on collaboration, independent thinking and creativity.  Of course, many music librarians may be incorporating these skills and concepts into their “traditional” bibliographic instruction.

Diane and Cheryl did not present a blueprint for implementing an information literacy program, stating that each institution needs to develop its own mission, goals and/or competency standards.  A number of strategies were presented, including working with faculty to develop assignments which focus on skills; building related skills through a sequence of related courses; small group or one-on-one sessions related to specific assignments; and setting up a student peer-review system within a course.  Diane and Cheryl also emphasized the need for campus-wide buy-in.

The audience members, whose experience with information literacy varied widely, all seemed to come away with a better understanding or some new strategies.  Thank you to our presenters and the audience.

At the BI Subcommitee’s business meeting, the main development was the decision (taken in light of the RAPS public meeting earlier that day) to retire the “Directory of Music User Guides for Libraries.”  The Directory provided a valuable service some years ago by connecting librarians with exemplars of pathfinders, syllabi, and other materials relating to effective BI.  However, both RAPS and BI felt that the great majority of these materials are now available on the Web, and are indexed by search engines such as Google and Alta Vista.  The large amount of work involved in bringing the Directory up-to-date and maintaining it therefore seemed to offer comparatively little return.  There was some discussion of using metadata on Web pages, including a unique string unlikely to appear in other pages, to facilitate the efficient finding of these materials.

Possible topics for future projects were discussed, and the two most likely candidates were an updated version of library competency standards for undergraduate music students and a public program on best practices for library instruction.
[back to top] [back to RAPS]

Electronic Reference Services Subcommittee
Martin Jenkins, Wright State University

The Electronic Reference Services Subcommittee hosted three presentations during its well-attended open session on Tuesday afternoon.

First, Lisa Philpott (University of Western Ontario) reviewed emusicquest, the online replacement for the now defunct Music-in-Print series. A library subscription to emusicquest provides unlimited user access by IP authentication for $400 per year. The product is divided into eight separate databases, corresponding to the segments of the print series. All of the content of the print volumes is here except the original volume of String Music in Print, which could not be included due to copyright issues. New content is being added constantly, but no effort is made to confirm that older titles in the database are in fact still in print.

Within each database, access points include composer, title/keyword (including publisher), instrumentation or voicing, nationality (in some databases) and historical period. The composer search is a keyword search, meaning that entering “Thomas” will retrieve both first and last names. Experience using the print volumes will be helpful in formulating searches in the online version. There are some data inconsistencies between databases, such as the use of abbreviations for instrument names in “Classical Vocal Music” as opposed to spelled out names in “Woodwind Music.”

The owner and database administrator is Donald Reese, a guitarist and musicologist who was formerly involved in the production of the print series. He is constantly tweaking the functionality of the database, and is extremely responsive to suggestions from users. Philpott recommends the database for large academic libraries, many of which may be able to subscribe using funds formerly devoted to the print series.

In the second presentation, Marty Jenkins (Wright State University) surveyed the many formats in which printed music can be found on the internet. Marty included only sites where music can be had for free, and focused on “music for use” rather than the many “archival” sheet music sites which have been well-covered in other fora. The available formats can be grouped into three broad categories: graphical formats viewable in any browser; graphical formats that require plug-ins or software downloads; and ASCII-based formats. Some of the example sites shown were: Variations at Indiana University, which uses GIF files; the Choral Public Domain Library, which provides music in PDF format; Schubertline, which uses the Scorch plug-in to share Sibelius files; and Mutopia, which uses the LilyPond open source software in a Project Gutenberg-like effort to distribute music on the web. A summary of Marty’s presentation and links to all the examples can be found at http://www.libraries.wright.edu/libnet/subj/mus/printmusic.html.

The session concluded with H. Stephen Wright’s (Northern Illinois University) presentation on CD Sheet Music, a series of CD-ROMs of standard repertoire works in the public domain, distributed by Theodore Presser. Each CD contains 700-3000 pages of music (depending on repertoire), with each work provided as a separate PDF file. Advantages of the series include: price (one third to one tenth the cost of similar print editions), no need to worry about binding, pencil marks, or other wear; savings in shelf space; and freedom from copyright issues. Drawbacks include: slightly fuzzy page images; editorial problems inherent in public domain editions; access and storage issues; printing costs (if patrons are not charged for printing); and cataloging issues. Wright recommends that libraries with an interest, but with doubts about handling the drawbacks, purchase one of the discs and experiment with ways to provide access to its contents. Northern Illinois has bought several of them, and so far the demand for printing has not broken the bank.
[back to top] [back to RAPS]

Information Sharing Subcommittee
Constance Mayer, Harvard University

The Information Sharing Subcommittee of RAPS sponsored the session "Scores on the Web: A Model for Creating and Maintaining a Cooperative Digital Library of Public Domain Musical Scores" at the MLA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.  More than 100 participants listened to Peter Munstedt (MIT) and Connie Mayer (Harvard) present work they have done with Carl Jones (MIT) to initiate a cooperative project to digitize, store, and provide access to images of public domain scores.  A stimulating question-and-answer period followed the presentation.
[back to top] [back to RAPS]

Reference Refresher:  Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls
Mary DuMont, Rice University

The Reference Refresher drew 98 attendees in Las Vegas this year.  Featured speakers for the program, “Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls:  Using Non-Music Resources for Music Research,” were Judy Clarence (California State University-Hayward), Steve Landstreet (Free Library of Philadelphia), and Paula Elliot (Washington State University).  Judy Clarence demonstrated how one might find information about aspects of music in various non-music databases, including ERIC (education, e.g. teaching and musical composition), PsycLit (psychology, e.g. manic depression and creativity), and Ethnic Newswatch, which covers newspapers for many different ethnic groups.  Steve Landstreet talked about coverage of music periodicals in Ebscohost’s Masterfile Premier and MAS Online Plus, and gave us a review of some very useful music reference books that are likely to be found in smaller or less specialized music collections when some of the more expensive sources are not.  Paula Elliot talked about “crossover reference” using general reference sources including Encyclopedia Britannica, America: History and Life/Historical Abstracts, and the MLA Bibliography.  She also touched on the New York Times Index, Encyclopedia Judaica and the New Catholic Encyclopedia, among many other useful sources.  All in all it was a wonderful program and a true reference refresher for all of us.
[back to top]

Outreach Subcommittee
Stephen Mantz, Davidson College

The Outreach Subcommittee held two business meetings at the MLA annual meeting in Las Vegas.  With a change of the subcommittee's leadership since last year's meeting, it was decided to forego a public session this year and instead focus on planning the group's activities for the coming year.

For the upcoming annual meeting in Austin, Texas, the subcommittee proposed that we offer a reception immediately before or after a session attractive to our target audiences.  A reception would be a way to welcome these individuals, and allow MLA members to meet them.

As for a public session sponsored by the Outreach Subcommittee, the group discussed several possible program ideas.  It was decided to wait to see what pre-conference session the Education Committee may be sponsoring; we could work with the Education and Membership Committees in developing and advertising the session, if the program topic was appropriate.  If not, the subcommittee will itself sponsor a program during the annual meeting.

The subcommittee also expressed an interest in developing an MLA program to be done at an ALA meeting.  That interest will be conveyed to the MLA liaison to ALA.

Another activity under consideration is an Outreach webpage.  This page could make more public MLA's desire to reach out to new groups.  It could also serve as a central location where outreach activities of committees and chapters could be listed.  The subcommittee will be researching similar sites and refining its concept for the content of the page in the coming months.

The Outreach Subcommittee is looking for two new members.  Interested members of MLA should contact Steve Mantz (stmantz@davidson.edu)
[back to top]

Awards
Epstein Award Presented in Las Vegas
Alan Karass, MLA Publicity Officer

 At the annual meeting of the Music Library Association, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, the 2002 Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music was granted to Clemens Gresser and Robert Haskins.  The award endowment was established through a generous gift from Morton and Dena Epstein to the Music Library Association in 1995.
 Clemens Gresser is a doctoral student at the University of Southampton, England.  He was granted the Epstein Award to study the New York School composers (Earle Browne, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff) from 1950-1970 and look specifically at the performance of the music.  Mr. Gresser will examine the apparent paradox of these works, the musical chaos and the specific intentions of the composer, to determine the factors that go into performance of indeterminate compositions.  Archival collections of these composers could contain information that suggests subtle or hidden agendas behind the performance of this music.  This research may also help to explain why certain interpreters, such as David Tudor, were repeatedly asked by Brown, Cage, Feldman and Wolff to perform their music.  This research will be incorporated into his Ph.D. dissertation, American Experimental Music (1950-1970): Changing the Relationships between Composers, Performers, and the Audience.
 Robert Haskins is a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music.  Mr. Haskins was granted the Epstein Award to support his research on the compositional processes involved in John Cage’s Number Pieces.  In particular, Mr. Haskins will examine the role that pitch plays in these compositions, a subject that has not been studied thoroughly by Cage scholars.  This study will also include an examination of Cage’s view on anarchism and its influence on the Number Pieces.  It appears that anarchism was important to Cage and the development of his aesthetic.  Mr. Haskins will study Cage’s writings and interviews along with the primary sources on anarchism known by Cage.  Research accomplished through this grant will become part of his Ph.D. dissertation entitled An Anarchic Society of Sounds: The Number Pieces of John Cage.

The Epstein Award Application

The Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music was created through a generous gift from Morton and Dena Epstein to the Music Library Association in 1995.  Requests are currently being accepted for one or more grants to be awarded for the year 2002.  The highest award in 2002 was $1,835.  The decision of the Dena Epstein Award Committee and the Board of Directors of the Music Library Association will be announced at the MLA annual meeting in Austin, TX, in February 2003.

A grant may be awarded to support research in archives or libraries (both nationally and internationally) on any aspect of American music.  There are no restrictions as to applicant's age, nationality, profession, or institutional affiliation.  All proposals will be reviewed entirely on the basis of merit.

Applicants must submit four copies of the following documents:

1. A brief research proposal (under 10 pages) that includes:
 a.  a description of the project
 b.  a detailed budget for the project, indicating:
  1) the amount of funding requested (Capital purchases such as computer equipment and furniture are ineligible.)
  2) justification for the funding
  3) additional sources of funding
 c.  a demonstration of how the applicant's research will contribute to the study and understanding of American music

2.  A curriculum vitae of the applicant.

3.  Three letters of support from librarians and/or scholars knowledgeable about American music.

Mail the required documentation to the chair of the Dena Epstein Award Committee at the address below.  Please note that awards may be presented to an individual applicant or divided among multiple applicants.  At its discretion the committee may choose not to award a grant during any particular year.   An applicant who has not received an Epstein Award for the first year of application may resubmit a proposal in the two following years for any one project.  An applicant may receive only one award for any one project.
 
Submit applications to:
 Vincent Pelote
 Music Librarian
 Institute of Jazz Studies
 Rutgers University
 Dana Library
 185 University Avenue
 Newark, NJ 07102
 pelote@andromeda.rutgers.edu

The deadline for receipt of applications is July 15, 2002.  Applications received after that date will be considered for funding in 2004.
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Freeman Travel Grant Awarded
Alan Karass, Publicity Officer

    Alicia Hansen and Michael Duffy were recipients of the Kevin Freeman Travel Grant Award to attend the Musical Library Association's annual meeting in Las Vegas, NV this year.  This marks the sixth year the Freeman Travel Grant has been awarded.

    Alicia Hansen is currently the Interim Music Library Services Coordinator at Loyola University in New Orleans.  Ms. Hansen has also served as a Reference Assistant at that institution.  Previously, she was an intern at the Historic New Orleans Collection, describing and accessioning a large collection of printed music a cquired from the historic Ursuline Convent.  Ms. Hansen earned a B.F.A. in piano and English from Tulane University, an M.M.E. in piano pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, and recently received the M.L.I.S. from Louisiana State University.

    Michael Duffy is presently an Evening and Weekend Supervisor at the Northwestern University Music Library.  He also serves as a teaching assistant for the university’s School of Music.  Previously, he was an intern at the Archdiocese of Chicago Archives.  At the Archives he processed the papers of a prominent local musical figure and was responsible for the creation of a detailed finding aid for the sound recording collection.  Mr. Duffy received a B.M. degree in music education, magna cum laude, from Western Michigan University.  Through the dual M.L.I.S./M.M. degree program at Northwestern University and Dominican University he earned his M.L.I.S. in January 2002 and expects to complete the M.M. later this year.

    The Freeman Travel Grant is awarded annually to a member of the Music Library Association who has not previously attended a national meeting and who is in the first three years of her or his professional career, a recent library school graduate, or a library school student.
 

The Kevin Freeman Award Application

     Applications are now being accepted for the Kevin Freeman Travel Grant.  The grant, established in 1994 to honor the memory of Kevin Freeman and awarded for the first time in 1997, supports travel and hotel expenses to attend the Music Library Association's annual meeting.  It covers the conference registration fee and a cash award up to $750 for travel and a room (at half of the double?occupancy rate) at the convention hotel.
 
    The applicant must be a member of the Music Library Association and either be in the first three years of his/her professional career, a graduate library school student (by the time of the conference in February 2003) aspiring to become a music librarian, or a recent graduate (within one year of degree) of a graduate program in librarianship seeking a professional position as a music librarian.  The applicant must not have attended an MLA annual meeting prior to applying for the grant
.
 Applicants must submit the following by July 15, 2002:
1. A letter of application with an explanation of the reasons for attending the MLA annual meeting, a justification of financial need, and a budget (the double room rate in Austin, Texas is approximately $150 plus tax)
2. A current vita
3. Two letters of support under separate cover (email is acceptable)

Submit applications and supporting materials to:
 Linda Barnhart, Chair
 Kevin Freeman Travel Grant Committee
 University of California, San Diego
 Catalog Dept. Mail Code 0175K
 Geisel Library
 9500 Gilman Drive
 La Jolla, CA  92093-0175

For more information, contact the chair via email, lbarnhart@ucsd.edu.

Recipients will be notified by October 15, 2002 and announced at the MLA annual meeting in Austin, Texas, February 2003.
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MLA Announces Walter Gerboth Award Winner
Alan Karass, MLA Publicity Officer

     At the annual meeting of the Music Library Association, held in Las Vegas, NV, the 2002 Walter Gerboth Award was granted to John Anderies for his project, “Tri-College Digital Music Initiative: Developing a Core Integrated Collection.”  The award is offered annually to members of MLA who are in the first five years of their professional library careers, to assist research-in-progress in music or music librarianship.  The selection committee was comprised of Margaret Ericson (chair), Marjorie Hassen and Sherry Vellucci.

    Mr. Anderies is Music Librarian at Haverford College.  He has also served as Circulation Supervisor and Acting Head of User Services at the Cook Music Library at Indiana University.  Mr. Anderies earned an M.L.S. from Indiana University, an M.A. in Music from Case Western Reserve University and has completed Ph.D. coursework in Musicology at Indiana University.

    The goal of his project is to bring together music information objects (e.g., audio, score, text) in a digital library environment so that music faculty and students of the three small colleges of the Tri-Co consortium (Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges) would have local and remote access to a core digital music repertoire.  Mr. Anderies proposes a model whereby a core music collection is identified for digitization with input from music librarians and music faculty working in a consortial academic environment.  Additionally, digital production and delivery software might be evaluated for use locally, in combination with utilizing local systems or computer programming staff, in order to digitize the content of various music formats and connect them digitally in an interface which allows for concurrent use of various music objects.

    The project is unique in that it is geared toward small academic libraries.  It will provide a model for academic institutions wishing to expand their resources through cooperative collection building and curriculum sharing, while creating the support services for distance learning.  Copyright issues will also be investigated.  This is important for small academic libraries seeking a model which will address in a practical way the issues of copyright in creating a core digital music collection for pedagogical use.  Mr. Anderies plans to submit a report on the project for publication in MLA’s Notes or a library technology journal.
Walter Gerboth (1925-1984) founded the music library at Brooklyn College, and at the time of his sudden death was assistant director of its Conservatory.  He was a much-loved former president of the Music Library Association, and devoted mentor of new members.

The Walter Gerboth Award Application

 The Gerboth Award was established by the Music Library Association in memory of its Past President and Honorary Member Walter Gerboth. It is made to members of MLA who are in the first five years of their professional library careers, to assist research?in?progress in music or music librarianship. Eligible members are invited to apply by June 15th for next year's award.
Please send the following information to the address below:

1. A description of the project and a statement about its significance.
2. A detailed total budget, specifying the amount of funding requested from MLA (to a
 maximum of $1,000) and its purpose (capital purchases are not eligible.) Indicate any other sources of funding you may have already secured.
3. Two letters of recommendation?? one for the project and one for yourself.
4. A curriculum vitae that also names additional references.

 If you have any questions about the award, particularly about whether you are qualified to apply for it, you are encouraged to contact the Chair of the Gerboth Award Committee, at the address below, or via e?mail to hassen@pobox.upenn.edu. Your inquiries are welcome!

Send applications to:
 Marjorie Hassen
 University of Pennsylvania
 Music Library
 Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
 3420 Walnut Street
 Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
 Hassen@pobox.upenn.edu
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Publications Awards Announced in Las Vegas
Alan Karass, MLA Publicity Officer

    At its 71st Annual Meeting, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Music Library Association announced the following publications awards:  The Vincent H. Duckles Award for the best book-length bibliography or research tool in music published in 2000 was given to Robert Shay and Robert Thompson.  Their book, Purcell Manuscripts: The Principal Musical Sources, was published by Cambridge University Press.  In selecting this book, the Publications Awards Committee commented:  "Shay and Thompson’s painstaking analysis of the Purcell manuscripts stands as a model of musicological and bibliographical research.  Using all the techniques at the disposal of the modern bibliographer (examination of paper characteristics, watermarks, binding, handwriting, in addition to codicology and rastrology), the authors have added immeasurably to our understanding of the manuscripts and to the chronology of Purcell’s works."
 
    The Richard S. Hill Award for the best article on music librarianship or article of a music-bibliographic nature published during 2000 was given to A. Ralph Papakhian for his article "Cataloging” in Music Librarianship at the Turn of the Century, published in Notes, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 581-590.  In nominating Mr. Papakhian for the Hill Award, the Publications Awards Committee commented: "In his article, ‘Cataloging,’ written for the special issue of Notes, ‘Music Librarianship at the Turn of the Century,’ A. Ralph Papakhian elegantly outlines the major developments in music cataloging . . . .  Citing the ‘application of computer and networking technologies and the corresponding organizational efforts to promote cooperative cataloging’  as the predominant influence on this discipline’s recent growth, he traces elements that have transpired in music cataloging history particularly during the past three decades.  The clear and detailed overview that Papakhian provides for the description and organization of the world of musical objects informs the novice as well as the seasoned practitioner.  Through this work, one acquires an excellent perspective of the intellectual achievements that have taken place in this important field at an especially fruitful time."
 
    The Eva Judd O'Meara Award for the best review published in 2000 in the organization's journal, Notes, was given to Richard Kramer for his review of  Skizzen by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, vorgelegt von Ulrich Konrad (Neue Ausgabe sämtliche Werke, Ser. X: Supplement; Werkgruppe 30; Studien, Skizzen, Entwürfe, Fragmente, Varia, Bd. 3); and Concerto for Horn and Orchestra in E?flat Major, K. 370b ? K. 371, by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: A Facsimile Reconstruction of the Autograph Sources.  (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1997).  The review appeared in Notes, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 188-193.  The Publications Awards Committee remarked:  "Richard Kramer’s review-essay . . . reveals the author’s own intimate acquaintance with Mozart’s music and sources as well as his deep and thorough knowledge of Mozart scholarship.  In his review Kramer discusses the place of the sketches in music history and what they tell us about Mozart as a teacher and composer.  He raises the issues of the ‘sketch’ vs. the ‘work’ – of the private, ‘improvisatory impulse’ and the public conventions that are inherent in Enlightenment aesthetics.  Kramer’s essay stands as an exemplar of the type of thoughtful, well-informed review for which Notes has long been known."
 

Publication Awards: Call for Nominations

The MLA Publications Awards Committee seeks nominations for the three awards for published works given annually by the Association: the Vincent H. Duckles Award for the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music; the Richard S. Hill Award for the best article on music librarianship or article of a music-bibliographic nature; and the Eva Judd O'Meara Award for the best review published in the Association's journal, Notes.

Publications nominated for awards to be given in 2002 must have been published during the 2001 calendar year. The deadline for nominations is July 1, 2002. Nominations may be directed to any member of the Committee: Mark McKnight, chair (mmcknigh@library.unt.edu); Deborah Campana (deborah.campana@oberlin.edu); or Leslie Troutman (troutman@uiuc.edu).    [back to top]
 

MOUG Announces its First Distinguished Service Award Recipient, Kathryn E.  Burnett

The Executive Board of the Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG) is honored to name Kathryn E. (Kay) Burnett as the first recipient for MOUG's Distinguished Service Award.

This award has been established to recognize and honor a librarian who has made significant professional contributions to music users of OCLC.  The MOUG Executive Board selects a recipient based on nominations received from the MOUG membership.

Those who presented Kay's name for nomination stated the reasons she is an ideal choice as the first recipient for this award:  "Her work, represented by the OCLC three-letter symbol SNN, has set a high standard in music cataloging for completeness and timeliness. Smith College has been an OCLC contributor since 1974. The thousands of catalog records for sound recordings and analytics for collected works and series that Kay has contributed to OCLC have benefited the music library community beyond measure.  Her exhaustive analysis of sound recording collections with authoritative analytical added entries have not only become a model for all music catalogers, but now also serve as the basis for discographical reference services via the OCLC FirstSearch WorldCat utility. More recently, Kay has also joined the NACO-Music Project. Quiet and unassuming, Kay has served as a role model for all of us interested in advancing the case for high quality music cataloging in a cooperative environment."

Kay Burnett is Associate Librarian and Music Cataloger at the Werner Josten Library of the Performing Arts at Smith College. She received the A.B. degree from Oberlin in 1950 and the M.A. degree from Smith College.

The Executive Board, along with the entire MOUG membership, is proud to call Kay a respected colleague and a recognized leader in the world of music cataloging.
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Pacific Northwest Chapter Report
Monica Fazekas, University of Western Ontario (formerly Chapter Chair of PNMLA)

The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Music Library Association held its annual meeting May 4-5, 2001, at the Pullman campus of Washington State University.  The meeting began with a cello recital in the Atrium of the Holland Library.  We were then welcomed to Pullman and Washington State University by Lynn Chmelir, Assistant Director for Public services, WSU Libraries and by James Schoepflin, Director of the School of Music and Theatre Arts, WSU.

The Friday afternoon sessions included a wonderful presentation by Beverly Stafford about the Northwest Digital Music History Project that she is working on at the Multnomah County Public Library in Portland.  This presentation was later chosen at our business meeting as the PNW-MLA chapter's Best of Chapters submission.  Monica Fazekas provided conference reports on copyright issues from the Musical Intersections conference and the Forum on the Recording Industry from the MLA conference.  There was a visit to Special Collections to view music manuscripts from the WSU Archives and a tour of the music building including the renovated Kimbrough Hall and of the library in the School of Music and Theatre Arts.  We were fortunate to have Paula Matthews, past president of the Music Library Association, in attendance on Friday.  She discussed developments in the national organization, encouraged us to send in a submission for the Best of Chapters session and to consider becoming involved in the diversity committee.

On Friday evening we met at Alice Spitzer's (a colleague of Paula Elliot's) house.  It was an enjoyable evening full of great food, conversation, impromptu music making, juggling and clog dancing.

Saturday saw us reconvene at the Holland Library where we visited the Media Materials Department.  There was an informative session dealing with Digital Audio Delivery for Reserve Listening.  The presenters included music librarians, faculty members and a systems librarian.  Leslie Bennett gave a presentation on "Songs and Song Lyrics: indexing systems, search methods and bibliography."  We concluded with our annual Business Meeting.  Full details of the meeting are given in the minutes.
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Members’ Publications

Please send citations for items published or premiered in the past calendar year to the column editor, Sarah Dorsey, via e-mail or snail mail at the address below.  The deadline for submissions for issue 129 is May 1, 2002.  Please follow the citation style employed below.

Sarah Dorsey
Music Librarian
School of Music UNCG
P.O. Box 26167
Greensboro, NC 27402-6167
Sarah_Dorsey@uncg.edu

Books

Hoek, D. J. (Kent State University).
 Steve Reich: A Bio-Bibliography by D.J. Hoek.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.  [xiv, 171 p. ISBN 0313312079]

Articles

Calvo, Antonio M. (University of the Pacific).
 “Structuring Biographical Data in EAD with the Nomen DTD.”  OCLC Systems and Services 17, no. 4 (2001): 187-99.

Kuyper-Rushing, Lois (Louisiana State University).
 “A Formal Mentoring Program in a University Library: Components of a Successful Experiment.”  Journal of Academic Librarianship 27, no. 6 (2001): 440-46.

Meckna, Michael (Texas Christian University).
 “Al[ois Maxwell] Hirt” in The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Vol. 5, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson, et al.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002.

Moore, Steven Thomson (The College of New Jersey).
 “An Interview with Igor Kipnis.”  Fanfare 25, no. 3 (January 2002): 72-77.

Scholarly Editions

Cassaro, James P. (University of Pittsburgh).
 Lully, Jean Baptiste. Ballet des Saisons  edited. by James P. Cassaro.  Hildesheim: G. Olms Verlag, 2001 (Oeuvres Complètes. Serie I: Ballets et Mascarades; vol. 6.  ISBN:  3-487-11505-9).
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Roundtable Reports
Archives Roundtable
John Bewley, SUNY at Buffalo

The Archives Roundtable session at the 2002 annual meeting of MLA took place on Tuesday, Feb. 19. The first presentation was given by David A. Day of Brigham Young University. David is currently the chair of IAML’s Working Group for the International Registration of Music Archives. One of the goals of this group is to create an online, international directory of music archives. David and his colleagues at Brigham Young have developed a prototype, online database for the entry of collection-level records for archival collections. The working name of the database is RIAM (Répertoire International Archives Musicales). RIAM is available online at http://riam.lib.byu.edu/

David gave a history of the project and reported on the progress of data entry. During his demonstration, David made of point of asking people to try out the system in both search and edit modes. For more information about the project or how to contribute records, please contact David at david_day@byu.edu.

The second presentation at the session was by Mary Black, Head of the Fine Arts Library at Michigan State University. Mary’s talk was titled "Living Composers' Legacies: The Michigan State University Music Manuscript Collection." In it she spoke about the process of acquiring archival collections from composers with connections to Michigan State University, especially H. Owen Reed and James Niblock. Mary talked about the challenges of processing the collections and the pleasures of working with the composers involved.  More information about the music collections at Michigan State is available at: http://www.lib.msu.edu/coll/main/spec_col/music.htm.

David Peter Coppen, Special Collections Librarian at the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, gave the final presentation at the session with a talk titled "A Partnership Continues: The Carl Fischer Archive at the Sibley Music Library."  David’s presentation included a history of the Carl Fischer Archive, what it contains, and how Eastman came to take custody of it.

Together with information on the CF Archive, David offered background on the John F. Sengstack Archive of Music Publishing, an initiative launched at the Sibley Music Library in 1991 with the aim of preserving the documentary legacy of U.S. music publishers.  The Carl Fischer Archive forms the largest component of that initiative to date. For more information, all interested parties can contact David Peter Coppen directly at copn@uhura.cc.rochester.edu.
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Bibliography Roundtable
D.J. Hoek, Kent State University

The Bibliography Roundtable met on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2002, and began with introductory remarks to thank Rick Jones (University of Notre Dame), previous Coordinator of the roundtable, for his contributions to the group.

Brad Eden (University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Editor of the Routledge Music Bibliographies series) and Richard Carlin (Routledge Publishing) together presented “Challenges in Publishing Music Bibliographies.”  This informal discussion about the Routledge Music Bibliography series covered the steps authors should take to propose books for the series and included comments on the types of bibliographies Routledge is particularly interested in publishing.  Questions and discussion following the presentation considered whether or not bibliographies of major composers are most useful, or if there is a greater need for bibliographies of less celebrated figures.

In “Telemann’s Cantatas: Resources and Recent Research,” Alan Karass (College of the Holy Cross) discussed challenges encountered in his research on Telemann’s funeral cantatas and noted that, although Telemann composed an impressive 1,755 cantatas, his works in the genre have been largely overlooked.  Additionally, he shared a lengthy bibliography of publications relating to Telemann and highlighted many titles of particular significance.

Please contact D.J. Hoek (djhoek@kent.edu) with proposals or suggestions for next year’s Bibliography Roundtable session.
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Composers and Performers Roundtable
David Peter Coppen, Eastman School of Music

Formed to provide a forum for MLA members active in composition and/or performance, the Composers and Performers Roundtable is co-chaired by David Peter Coppen and Patrick Hardish. The session of the Composers and Performers Roundtable at the 71st annual meeting — the roundtable’s first meeting since it was officially recognized by the MLA leadership last year — was attended by one dozen MLA members and four non-member guests.

No set program had been announced in advance, given the newness of this RT and the thin response to the call for participation issued prior to the annual meeting. Therefore, in the absence of a formal agenda, Mr. Coppen invited those present to introduce themselves and their backgrounds, and to express their expectations of the RT and their ideas on what it could represent. The result was a wide-ranging dialogue during which numerous issues emerged that will provide material for future discussions and presentations. Although most of those in attendance described themselves as “performers” rather than “composers,” the ideas expressed nevertheless took equal consideration of meeting effectively the needs of both the performance and the composition communities. The discussion touched on issues having to do with the following: (1) finding creative solutions when performers are in need of parts at short notice, and when certain works are difficult to locate; (2) awareness of the needs of performers when the library is used as a performance venue; (3) dissemination of the music of contemporary composers, including self-published or “print-on-demand” scores and parts; (4) job-related factors affecting the librarian who is also a performer, and who therefore must find adequate time for his/her musical life; (5) the different roles that the music librarian who is also a member of a performing ensemble is best positioned to play; (6) ways in which the librarian can serve as liaison to music publishers; and (7) ways in which the RT can serve as a forum for live music within the MLA.

The session ended with David Peter Coppen offering a gift of music, performing the Seconde sonate pour piano (1949-50) of Ned Rorem. He prefaced his performance by explaining the Sonata’s background and performance history.

Special thanks to Wendy Sistrunk, Special Projects Catalog Librarian of the University of Missouri (Kansas City), for keeping minutes of the session.
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Women in Music Roundtable
by Renée McBride, UCLA

Over the years, Women in Music Roundtable (WMRT) attendees have come to expect creative and stimulating programming, and this year's session in Las Vegas, organized by Roundtable co-coordinators Alice Abraham (WGBH Radio, Boston) and Judy Weidow (The University of Texas-Austin), was no exception. Jeannie Pool led a session devoted to saxophonist Peggy Gilbert and all-women jazz bands of the World War II era in Las Vegas and Southern California.

Jeannie described how many woman musicians of the World War II era had never been asked about their lives, and she stressed the importance of documenting the experiences of these women. World War II was a heyday for women jazz musicians. While male musicians were off to war, women became appreciated as never before. When the war ended, however, these same women were almost literally thrown off the stage and told that their patriotic duty, for the recovery of the United States, was to raise children and stand by their men. Jeannie has conducted oral histories documenting the depression and suicides that occurred among these women musicians. Jeannie's materials may be found in the library of California State University at Northridge.

Following her introduction, Jeannie showed a documentary produced in the 1980s, All Women Orchestras, which relates the history of women orchestras and bands, beginning in 1893, and their influence on the California music scene. The focus of the documentary is an interview with Peggy Gilbert, now 97 years old. Peggy was active in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas music scenes and was an activist for Local 47 of the Musicians' Union. She was honored by the Women's Caucus of The International Association for Jazz Education in January 2002 with the Lil Hardin Armstrong Award. In her interview, Peggy discussed many topics: life in Los Angeles in the 1920s; her personal touring, motion picture, studio, and ballroom work; gimmick bands (e.g. The Hollywood Redheads, an all-redhead band); her all-woman staff band at radio station KNPC, Beverly Hills; the effects of World War II and its aftermath on women musicians; and the impact of television, "the greatest thing that ever happened to anyone in show business." This documentary is not commercially available. For more information, contact Jeannie Pool by e-mail at: jeanniegpool@cs.com.

Peggy Gilbert had planned to visit the Women in Music Roundtable, but was unable to for medical reasons. In lieu of her physical presence, she visited the WMRT via video, creating the effect of speaking to us in person. Her warmth, liveliness, and sense of humor came across so vividly that the audience found itself responding verbally to Peggy as she engaged us in her conversation. This attendee had tears in her eyes by the end of Peggy's video visit, which ended with her wish for better news for our world and the observation that, "Music is the best news in the world."

Following Peggy's video, guest Ruth Poirier spoke to us about her friend Doris Pressler, who played trumpet with Peggy's band, The Dixie Belles. Ruth related Doris' story, as well as her own, which includes having hocked her trombone during hungry times in Los Angeles. Doris was clearly an intrepid soul, given that she was the first woman civil engineer in Los Angeles County and took up piano after a stroke left her unable to play the trumpet.

The Dixie Belles produced a 1985 LP recording that is soon to be released in CD format, Peggy Gilbert and The Dixie Belles. The music is primarily Dixieland, and members of the band were between the ages of 67 and 81 at the time of recording. Peggy says, "Of all the things I have done in my entire life, I have had more fun with this group." The group was organized in the 1970s to play a benefit concert for a well-known Dixieland player who was ill. They subsequently appeared on The Johnny Carson Show and on Los Angeles' PM Magazine. For more information about this recording contact: Cambria Master Recordings, Box 374, Lomita, CA 90717.  Phone: (310) 831-1322. Fax: (310) 833-7442. Website: http://cambriamus.com/.
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Are you a Potential Organizational Liaison?
Ruth Henderson, City University of New York

MLA’s network of organizational liaisons was created in 1997 in response to the first initiative of Plan 2001 to increase and enhance the association’s visibility outside the association.  We now have a flourishing program consisting of eighteen liaisons representing twenty sister associations.  (See MLA’s website for a complete listing.)

The liaisons have been resourceful in identifying opportunities for cooperation between MLA and their organizations.  Techniques have included having mutual links added between websites for the two organizations, putting publicity officers in touch, publicizing conference information, forwarding listserv postings, displaying and distributing promotional material at conferences, participating in programs, committees, and activities of their organization that will allow sharing of MLA expertise, raising student awareness of music librarianship as a career option, having links created to themselves from their organization’s website for questions to be asked of a music librarian, investigating possibilities for joint exhibits between the two organizations at conferences of other organizations, and exploring the feasibility of joint conferences.

Now that the liaison program is underway, we would like to expand it. We are particularly interested in establishing liaison connections with the following organizations: American Society for Information Science, Association for Library and Information Science Education, Canadian Association of Music Libraries, College Music Society, Music Educators National Conference, The Society for Music Theory, Special Libraries Association, state library associations, and additional instrument societies.  If you are active in any of these associations and would be interested in serving as a liaison (or knowing more about it) please contact me at Ruhcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu.  We also welcome suggestions for additional organizations.  Act now to help increase MLA’s visibility and to inform your MLA colleagues about a related organization—a win/win opportunity!
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Barbara Harbach Collection Donated to Wilmington College

The Watson Library (www.watsonlibrary.org) at Wilmington College (www.wilmington.edu) in Wilmington, Ohio, is the recipient of the collection of Dr. Barbara Harbach, a noted composer, performer, recording artist, and Professor of Music.  She has been hailed as "one of the most outstanding organists and harpsichordists of her generation" (Fanfare).  Dr. Harbach is also the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-In-Chief of Vivace Press, which promotes underrepresented composers (mainly women) by publishing music scores, producing CD's on the Hester Park label, and issuing the Women of Note Quarterly journal.  The Harbach Collection consists of Dr. Harbach's complete published compositions and recorded works and performances, as well as a substantial portion of the catalog of the Vivace Press and a complete run of Women of Note Quarterly.

Dr. Harbach presented the collection while attending the Festival of Women In Music and Art at Wilmington College in March, which featured world premieres of two of her compositions. The College awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in Music at the conclusion of the festival.  According to Professor Robert J. Haskins, Head of the Music Department at Wilmington College, "Many young women composers stand on the foundation that is still being built by the selfless and tireless work of a few women of courage, genius and unfaltering commitment.  Dr. Harbach’s contribution to that effort has been profoundly significant."

David Gansz, Director of Watson Library, states, "We look forward to sharing the invaluable resources of this collection with the international scholarly community, and invite researchers to visit us or utilize the materials via inter-library loan."
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The Music Library Association is looking for a Treasurer/Executive Secretary.
Description: The Treasurer/Executive Secretary is responsible for working with the Association’s business office with respect to the financial and administrative functions of the association.  These areas include, but are not limited to, reviewing day-to-day accounting, the membership database, and subscription services; signing all association payments; administering the Association’s calendar; and acting as an intermediary with A-R Editions staff, the Board and the membership of the Association on these matters.  The Treasurer/Executive Secretary is a non-voting member of the Board of Directors and an ex-officio voting member of the Development, Finance, Membership, and Publications Committees, and the Marketing Subcommittee, and an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Investments Subcommittee. The Treasurer/Executive Secretary works closely with these committees, the Association's administrative office, the President, and the Board to carry out the mission of the Association.

Qualifications: The position requires a dynamic, well-organized individual with at least five years' experience as a music librarian; administrative experience and knowledge of management principles (including fiscal operations); experience in editing or the production of publications; access to and experience with personal computers and electronic mail; and familiarity with the Music Library Association and other professional organizations. Experience with Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and QuickBooks (or other standard bookkeeping/accounting software) is preferred.  Membership in MLA is required. The Treasurer/Executive Secretary receives an honorarium of $5,000 per year and support for expenses necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the position (travel, telephone, postage, supplies, etc.)

Term: The duration of appointment is one year, with reappointment possible for a total of four years. The Board reviews the performance of the Treasurer/Executive Secretary annually. The President reappoints upon successful review and the desire of the incumbent to continue. The successful candidate will be appointed at the June 2002 Board meeting and will work closely with the current Treasurer/Executive Secretary until the annual meeting in Austin, Texas in February 2003, taking over all responsibilities at that time.

Deadline: The deadline for applications is May 1, 2002.
Application: The Search Committee (Paula Matthews (Princeton University), chair; Bonna Boettcher (Bowling Green State University); Ralph Papakhian (Indiana University); Brad Short (Washington University); James Zychowicz (A-R- Editions, Inc.); Laura Gayle Green (University of Missouri-Kansas City), ex-officio, will hold telephone interviews with the finalists during May 2002.  Final interviews will be held in Madison, Wisconsin in conjunction with the MLA Board meeting, scheduled for 7-10 June 2002.  Please send a letter of application and resume with a list of three professional references by mail or e-mail attachment to: James Zychowicz, MLA, 8551 Research Way, Suite 180, Middleton, WI 53562.  E-mail:  james.zychowicz@areditions.com.  Please contact any member of the search committee or the chair (at pmatthew@princeton.edu or by phone at 609/258-4251) to request additional information or to offer nominations.
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Transitions

Alan Asher, Reference Librarian/Music Coordinator, Sam Houston State University
Andrea Cawelti, Cataloger of Music Scores, Harvard University
Laura Dankner, on leave from Loyola University Music Library (New Orleans), plans early retirement in January 2003
Troy Davis, Media Services Librarian, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Monica Fazekas, Director of the Music Library, University of Western Ontario
Stephen Mantz, Editor, Music Library Association Newsletter
Mark Palkovic, Head, Music Library, University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music
Tracey Rudnick, Music/Performing Arts Librarian, Rutgers University
Matthew Sohn, Audio Preservationist, Louis Armstrong House and Archives
Annie Thompson, Music Library Association Assistant Convention Manager
*  *  *  *  *
Phyllis Danner, archivist of the John Phillip Sousa Archive at the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana, passed away February 25, 2002.
Ronald Freed, prominent figure in music publishing and former president of European American Music, passed away February 20, 2002.
Sylvia Goldstein, long-time member of the Boosey & Hawkes publishing team, passed away January 21, 2002.
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Calendar

 May 2002
Copy due for issue 129 to
MLA Newsletter Editor

8 May 2002
ARSC Pre-conference Workshop on the Management of Archival Sound
Recordings
Santa Barbara, California

8-11 May 2002
Association for Recorded Sound Collections
Santa Barbara, California

17-18 May