President's Report
Calendar
Call for Nominations
Members' Publications
MLA Announces New Board Members
MLA Announces New Newsletter Editor
General News
ARSC
Awards
RILM
Abstracts
Roundtable Reports : Small Academic Libraries
Transitions
President's Report
James P. Cassaro, University of Pittsburgh
By the time you all read this, the MLA Board will have finished its spring meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, 7-10 June. For the past two years the Board has met here at the office of our management services provider, A-R Editions, Inc., our gracious and hospitable hosts, Pat Wall, Jim Zychowicz and Matt Grzybowski, along with other A-R staff, provide us with an atmosphere conducive to working efficiently and effectively. Who could ask for anything more? Our new fiscal year budget completed, reports from special officers, editors and committee chairs discussed, I can confidently state that the Association will have another good year, one based on solid financial ground and informed decisions.
There is, of course, much to tell the membership. Limitations of time and space allow me only to highlight a few. Soon an announcement will be made of a new Treasurer/Executive Secretary (T/Ex) to succeed Laura Gayle Green. The search committee, chaired by Paula Matthews, will conduct their interviews during the Board meeting and make a recommendation for appointment before the close of the meeting. We have several good candidates, any of whom would serve the Association well. It is uplifting to see how committed our members are to the future of our Association, offering their time and effort to ensure its longevity. A new T/Ex of course means we must say goodbye to the present incumbent, Laura Gayle Green, whose tremendous fortitude helped steer us through very turbulent waters over the past several years. I offer my personal thanks, along with that of the Board and the entire membership to Laura Gayle for all her hard work on our behalf, and wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement from service to the Association.
Efforts continue on the Association’s development front as well. In addition to the establishment of the Michael Ochs Endowment Fund for Notes, Carol June Bradley, recently retired from the Music Library of the University of Buffalo, has approached the Board to establish an annual award of $1,000 that supports research in the history of music librarianship. The Board is enthusiastic to add this award to the others offered by MLA, and, pending final arrangements, will give the first award at the 2004 annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
I informed the membership at our business meeting
in Las Vegas concerning the status of recouping monies diverted from MLA
accounts. While this process has taken longer than expected, I hope
to report to you all very soon on what has been accomplished by our legal
counsel on behalf of the Association.
Some new projects have surfaced. These include the establishment
of a long-range strategic plan to ensure the longevity of the US RILM Office.
This plan will address many issues, including fundraising activities, to
keep this important project moving forward. In addition, our Resource
Sharing and Collection Development Committee, along with members of the
Society of American Music, will form a joint committee to compile a new
edition of The Resources of American Music History (RAMH).
At its fall meeting, the Board will finish the planning and budget for our upcoming meeting in Austin, Texas (February 9-16, 2003). Along with the efforts of the Local Arrangements Committee, chaired by “The Hunter,” (David, that is), program chair Ken Calkins, and our convention managers, Gordon Rowley and Annie Thompson, I know the program will be strong, the social activities sumptuous, and the accommodations gracious. A good time will be had by all!
By now, you all should have received your annual renewal forms. If not, please contact our business office to rectify the matter! I entreat you to send them back as soon as possible to ensure inclusion in our Membership Handbook.
In closing, I urge you all to attend the upcoming IAML meeting in Berkeley, CA, August 4-9, 2002. This is a chance to interact with our international colleagues and to demonstrate the accomplishments of American music librarianship. I hope to see many of you there. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions or concerns. Your input is vit
MLA Announces New Board Members
Alan Karass, Publicity Officer
The Music Library Association election results were
announced at its 2002 national meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Laura
Dankner (Loyola University) was elected vice president/president-elect,
Michael Colby (University of California, Davis) was elected recording secretary
and the new members-at-large are Joseph Boonin (New York Public Library
for the Performing Arts), Virginia Danielson (Harvard University) and Alan
Green (Ohio State University).
Laura Dankner was on the library faculty and head of the Loyola University
music library for twenty years. Currently on leave of absence from that
institution, she expects to become Associate Professor Emeritus as of January
2003. Ms. Dankner has taught music appreciation, music bibliography
and American music at Brooklyn College and at Loyola University. She is
currently a lecturer in music at Southeastern Louisiana University. She
received undergraduate and graduate degrees in voice and music education
from Ithaca College, and Brooklyn College of the City University of New
York and an M.L S. degree from the University of Albany, New York.
Ms. Danker has served the Music Library Association
as Placement Officer, Chair of the Education and Development Committees,
and Member-at-Large on the MLA Board of Directors. She is also active in
the International Association of Music Libraries United States branch,
currently serving as a member of that Board. She is the author, with
Grace Lichtenstein, of Musical Gumbo, a History of Louisiana Music published
by W. W. Norton. She is also the author of numerous articles and reviews
for a variety of publications including Notes, ACRL News, and the American
Music special issue of the BBC Music Magazine.
Michael Colby is the Music Librarian at the University of California,
Davis. Mr. Colby has previously served as Head Cataloger and Music
Cataloger at the San Francisco Public Library and Music Cataloger at Bowling
Green State University. He earned a B. Musc. (cum laude) from the University
of Portland, an M.A. in Music History from San Francisco State University
and an M.L.I.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Colby has served as a member of the MLA Bibliographic
Control Committee, Subject Access Subcommittee (1988-; Chair, 1998- ),
Search Committee for Newsletter Editor (2001-), Nominating Committee (Chair,
1999; 1995), Member-at-Large (1997-99), Music Thesaurus Project Task Force
(Chair, 1996-1997), RaPS, Online Reference Services Subcommittee (1995-1997),
Working Group on Terminology in 20th Century Music (Chair, 1993-1997),
Ad Hoc Committee to Study Roundtables of the MLA (1993-94), Local Arrangements
Committee (1993), Working Group on Electronic Music (1990-92). He
has also served as website editor (1997-), Newsletter editor (1992-1996)
and Vice-Chair/Chair (1987-1989) for the MLA/Northern California Chapter.
Mr. Colby is an active member of ALA/ALCTS, MOUG and the American Musicological
Society. He has published articles in Notes and Cataloging and Classification
Quarterly as well as reviews in Notes, Library Journal, the Kurt Weill
Newsletter and 52ndstreet Jazz.com.
Joseph Boonin is Head of the Circulating Recorded
Sound and Image Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing
Arts. He previously served in the music publishing industry as President
of Jerona Music Corporation and Joseph Boonin, Inc., and as Sales Director
and Library Consultant for Alexander Broude, Inc. Mr. Boonin has
also served as Music Cataloger for the New York Public Library. Mr.
Boonin earned a B.A. in Music History from the University of Pennsylvania
and an M.L.S. from the Drexel Institute of Technology (Drexel University).
He also studied with Pierre Monteux at Ecole Monteux in Hancock, Maine.
Mr. Boonin is an active member of the Music Library
Association and IAML, and had been an active member of the Music Publishers’
Association. He has served as a board member for both MPA and MLA.
Mr. Boonin’s publications include The Ordering and Supply of Sheet Music
(Broude, 1968), An Index to the Solo Songs of Robert Franz (Boonin, 1970),
Music Price Indexes in Notes (with George R. Hill, 1979-1987) and numerous
reviews in Library Journal (1962?1969) and Notes (1980?1996).
Virginia Danielson is the Richard F. French Librarian of the Music Library and the Curator of the Archive of World Music at Harvard University. She previously served as Keeper of the Isham Memorial Library at Harvard. Ms. Danielson holds a B.A. from Lawrence University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Illinois.
Ms. Danielson has been active in the Association
for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), International Association of Sound
and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), the Music Library Association, the Society
for Ethnomusicology, and the American Musicological Society. She
is the author of numerous articles on Arabic song, female singers and Muslim
devotional music including “New Nightingales of the Nile: Popular Music
in Egypt Since the 1970s” in Popular Music 15 (October 1996) and “Min al-Mashayikh:
A View of Egyptian Music Tradition” in Asian Music (Autumn 1990-Winter
1991), “The Qur’an and the Qasidah: Aspects of the Popularity of the Repertory
Sung by Umm Kulthum” in Asian Music (Autumn-Winter 1987) and “Cultural
authenticity in Egyptian musical expression: The repertory of the Mashayikh”
Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology (Vol. 5, 1989). Ms. Danielson has
written music and book reviews for Notes, Asian Music and Ethnomusicology.
She is a co-editor of The Middle East, a volume in the Garland Encyclopedia
of World Music. Her 1997 book, The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic
Song and Egyptian Society in the 20th Century, won the Alan Merriam Prize
for the outstanding English monograph in the field of ethnomusicology.
Alan Green is Head, Ohio State University Music
& Dance Library. He has also served as Assistant Head, and as
Music Librarian for the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra (Ontario).
Mr. Green earned a B.Mus. in Music Composition and Music Education from
the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, an M.A. in
Music History and an M.L.S. from the State University of New York (SUNY)
at Buffalo.
Mr. Green has served on the MLA Reference and Public
Service Committee (1996-2001), the Subcommittee on Reference Performance
(Chair, 1996?2001; Member, 1992?1996) and the Statistics Subcommittee (1995?1999).
He is also an active member of the International Association of Music Libraries
and the Music OCLC Users Group. Mr. Green served as Column Editor
of "Members' Publications" and "In the Pipeline: Research in Music Librarianship,"
for the MLA Newsletter (1993?1997). His publications include Allen
Sapp: A Bio?bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1996), American Art Music in
the Twentieth Century: An Assessment of the Basic Information Sources (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service, 1992), "Keeping up with the Times: Evaluating
Currency of Indexing, Language Coverage, and Subject Area Coverage in the
Three Music Periodical Index Databases." Music Reference Services
Quarterly 8, no. 1 (April 2002), "Taking Note: Assessing the Performance
of Reference Service in Academic Music Libraries." Notes 58 (September
2001) (With Beth Christensen and Mary Du Mont), "The RILM Project:
Charting the Seas of Modern Musicological Literature." College Music
Symposium 40 (2000), "Allen Sapp." New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
2nd ed., as well as book reviews in Fontes Artis Musicae and Notes.
New Editor Named for MLA Newsletter
Alan Karass, Publicity Officer
At its annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Music Library Association announced the appointment of Stephen Mantz as editor of its newsletter. He will assume his post on July 1, 2002, succeeding Linda Hartig, Technical Services Librarian at Carroll College.
Stephen Mantz has served as Music Librarian at Davidson College since 1994, coming there as their first full-time professional music librarian. Prior to that, he served as a paraprofessional in the music library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a B.M. in Music Education from Miami University (Miami, Ohio), an M.A. in Musicology and an M.S.L.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mr. Mantz is the current chair of MLA's Outreach
Subcommittee, and serves on the Education Committee. He has also
served on the Information Sharing Subcommittee and was editor of the "Email
Digest" column in the MLA Newsletter from 1997-2002. Mr. Mantz’s
publications include "Music Business and Law" in Music Reference and Research
Materials, 5th ed., by Vincent Duckles and Ida Reed (New York: Schirmer
Books, 1997) and articles in Breve Notes, the newsletter of the Southeast
Chapter of MLA (SEMLA). He is currently serving as the Secretary/Treasurer
of SEMLA.
If you have questions about or submissions for the newsletter, please
contact Mr. Mantz at stmantz@davidson.edu.
Call for Nominations : Publications Awards
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. Nominations may be directed to any member of the Committee: Mark McKnight (mmcknigh@library.unt.edu); Deborah Campana (deborah.campana@oberlin.edu); or Leslie Troutman (troutman@uiuc.edu). Deadline for nominations is July 5, 2002.
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 130 is August 5, 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
Articles
Bayne, Pauline S. (University of Tennessee).
(with Chris Hodge) “Digital Audio Reserves: A Collaborative Project at the University of Tennessee.” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and Information Supply 11, no. 4 (December 2001): 25-36.
Bewley, John (SUNY at Buffalo).
“Online Access to the Cataloging of the American Organ Archives.” The Tracker 46, no. 1 (January 2002): 10-13.
Kuyper-Rushing, Lois (Louisiana State University).
"Music Libraries: Centralization versus Decentralization." College and Research Libraries 63, no. 2 (March 2002): 139-149.
Roundtable Reports
Small Academic Libraries Round Table
Betty Woerner , Reed College
Alan Karass (College of the Holy Cross) presented a discussion on budget issues in the acquisition of non-curricular materials: "Building collections to support the curriculum, or to expand the scope of the collection: making and justifying our choices". In order to have a well-balanced collection, librarians are often in the position of having scanty resources to cover vast areas that are not currently being taught in our institutions. Alan came up with the following method for deciding which non-curricular items to include: 1) Have a suggestion book in the library lobby; 2) Follow mainstream trends and include "hot" topics; 3) When major anniversaries come around, as the Purcell year, buy resources for that area; 4) Look at inter-library loan requests and items borrowed from consortial partners--if an item was borrowed at least twice, the library should buy it; 5) Fringe areas like cognitive psychology, mythology, philosophy, art history, and African-American studies should also be represented in the collection. It is reasonable to seek support from the Music and other departments and the library to fill in these subject areas. 6) Other candidates for purchase might also be award winners from AMS, SMT, etc., if prices are reasonable.
For score purchases, it is advised to work with the music faculty for suggestions for ensemble pieces, etc. It is also a good idea to have recordings of any scores purchased. Approval plans, when used in small colleges, can eat up your budget and may also lead to duplication of pieces. When new faculty are hired, check with them on special interests and buy in those areas. When confronted with aggressive faculty who monopolize funds at the expense of those who are less aggressive, have them rate their lists and take the top 15 or so. A good, inexpensive source for the standard repertoire is CD Sheet Music from Presser. Many faculty teaching general listening courses to non-majors like to use popular music, since the audience is more familiar with it. This requires some buying in the popular area. Also, a good way to see what's being used is to look at LPs which are checked out and buy CDs of those titles.
Dean Corwin (Washburn University) presented a discussion on how to handle a collection which is divided between the music department and the library: "Here, there, and everywhere--managing collections divided between a library and a department." Washburn University is a municipal university in Topeka, Kansas, partially funded by the city and partially by the state. Dean named four scenarios for music collections: a library branch in the music department, a music library in the library, a non-library music collection in the department, or collections in both the library and the department. These four scenarios lead to a great range of hours of operation, location, consolidation of formats, availability of materials for circulation, bibliographic access, availability of a professional librarian, duplication of materials, and access to equipment. At Washburn, the music listening library was open 20 hours per week, while the main library was open 80 hours per week. The library was the most convenient location for most people. There was no coordination of collection development between the library and the department, resulting in duplication of some items and great holes in other areas. There was also a duplication of equipment that ate up unnecessary amounts of money for purchase and upkeep.
When coming into such a situation, the foremost issue is usually institutional history. Faculty and administration will want to keep the status quo unless convinced otherwise. Another issue is space. Where would consolidated collections fit? Another problem is staffing. Is there money available to hire student workers or full-time staff, especially for evenings and weekends? All of these will affect the level of service. Often, the impetus to change comes via a building project, changes in administration, major gift, or some other outside influence. Any of these can offer an opportunity to lobby for change in the music library.
2002 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research
Santa Barbara, California, May 13, 2002 -- The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2002 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research, awarded this year during its annual conference in Santa Barbara, California.
Begun in 1991, the awards are given to authors of books, articles or recording liner notes to recognize those publishing the very best work today in recorded sound research. In giving these awards, ARSC recognizes the contributions of these individuals and aims to encourage others to emulate their high standards and to promote readership of their work. The 2002 ARSC Awards honor books published during 2001.
Best Research in Recorded General Popular Music
Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: the Early Years, 1903-1940, by Gary Giddins (Little, Brown & Company)
Best Research in Recorded Folk or Ethnic Music
Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in Chinese Jazz Age, by Andrew F. Jones (Duke University Press)
Best Research in Recorded Country Music
Discography of Western Swing and Hot String Bands, 1928-1942, by Cary Ginell and Kevin Coffey (Greenwood Press)
Best Research in Recorded Classical Music
Best Discography: Witold Lutoslawski: A Bio-Bibliography, by Stanislaw Bedkowski and Stinislaw Hrabia (Greenwood Press)
Best History: Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations, by Bruno Monsaingeon; translated by Stewart Spencer (Princeton University Press)
Certificate of Merit: Pietro Mascagni: A Bio-Bibliography, by Roger Flury (Greenwood Press)
Best Research in Recorded Rock, Rhythm & Blues, or Soul
Orbison, by Colin Escott; discography by Richard Weize (notes to Bear Family CD set)
Best Research in Recorded Jazz
Best History: The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada: and Canadians in Jazz, by Mark Miller (Mercury Press)
Best Discography: Brilliant Corners: A Bio-Discography of Thelonious Monk, compiled by Chris Sheridan (Greenwood Press)
Certificate of Merit: Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960, by Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert (University of Michigan Press)
Best Research in Recorded Blues
Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton, by David Evans, John Fahey, Edward Komara, and Dick Spottswood (notes to Revenant CD set)
Best General Research in Recorded Sound
Beyond Recall: A Record of Jewish Musical Life in Nazi Berlin, 1933-1938, by Rainer E. Lotz, Horst J. P. Bergmeier, and Ejal Jakob Eisler (notes to Bear Family CD set)
Certificate of Merit: Aural History: Essays on Recorded Sound, ed. by Andy Linehan (British Library, National Sound Archives)
Best Research in Record Labels or Manufacturers
Brunswick Records: A Discography of Recordings, 1916-1931 [in 4 volumes], by Ross Laird (Greenwood Press)
Certificate of Merit: Okeh Race Records: The 8000 "Race" Series, by Laurie Wright (Self-published)
Best Research in the Preservation or Reproduction of Recorded Sound
Broadcast Transcription Discs, by James R. Powell, Jr. (Gramophone Adventures)
Phonographs With Flair: A Century of Style in Sound Reproduction, by Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul (Schiffer Publishing Ltd.)
Lifetime Achievement Award given to Pekka Gronow
Pekka Gronow, the manager of the radio archives of the Finnish Broadcasting Company and an Adjunct Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Helsinki, has been researching records and writing about them for almost 40 years. Dr. Gronow has published several books on music and recordings in Finnish, English, and other languages, including An International History of the Recording Industry (with Ilpo Saunio, 1998); produced numerous reissues of historical Finnish recordings; and has contributed to the ARSC Journal, IASA Journal, Ethnomusicology, JEMF Quarterly, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, among others. One of the founders of Suomen Äänitearkisto, the Finnish Institute of Recorded Sound, he has also supervised the publication of the 25-volume Catalogue of Finnish Recordings. Overall, Dr. Gronow’s publications have been instrumental in documenting the history of Scandinavian recordings.
About ARSC
Founded in 1966, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (http://www.arsc-audio.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to research, study, publication, and information exchange surrounding all aspects of recordings and recorded sound. With members in twenty-three countries, the organization is comprehensive in scope and reflects the interests and concerns of its members, including historians, collectors, dealers, archivists, discographers, and recording engineers. Through its publications and meetings, ARSC provides a forum for the development and dissemination of information in all fields and periods of recording and in all sound media. In addition, ARSC works to encourage the preservation of historical recordings, to promote the exchange of research and information about them, and to foster an increased awareness of the importance of recorded sound as part of any cultural heritage.
ARSC Awards 2003
Nominations are currently open for the 2003 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. Eligible publications include any printed workbook, monograph, article, liner notes first published during 2002. The work may be on any subject related to recorded sound including histories, discographies, technology (such as modern techniques for the preservation or reproduction of older recordings), and recording artist biographies in any field of music or genre (classical, popular, rock, jazz, country, folk, spoken word, labels, phonographs, etc.). The work should deal primarily with historical periods, defined as at least ten years prior to publication (e.g., pre-1991), with the exception of works related to preservation and technology. In addition, a Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to an individual in recognition of his or her life’s work in published recorded sound research. The deadline for nominations is January 31, 2003. The Awards Committee especially welcomes information concerning eligible foreign and small press publications that might otherwise be overlooked. Publishers should submit one copy of each eligible publication; others may forward the author, title, publisher, and publisher’s address for each nominee to:
Vincent Pelote, ARSC Awards Co-Chair
Institute of Jazz Studies
Rutgers State University of NJ
Newark, NJ 07102
pelote@andromeda.rutgers.edu
David Seubert, Curator
Performing Arts Collection
Davidson Library Special Collections
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
(805) 893-5444 Fax (805) 893-5749
mailto:seubert@library.ucsb.edu
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/pa/
[back to top]
RILM Abstracts and the U.S. RILM Office
Lenore Coral, Director, US-RILM Office
The Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale publishes an ongoing database of musicological bibliography, in printed, online, and CD-ROM formats. The database is commonly referred to as RILM Abstracts of Music Literature or RILM. This international bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines, in 202 languages, is classified by topic, and includes original-language titles; title translations in English; full bibliographic information; abstracts in English; author, journal, and subject indexes; and a thesaurus.
Sponsorship
Established in 1966 under the joint sponsorship of the International Musicological Society and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centers, RILM was the pilot project of the interdisciplinary Bibliographic Center planned by the American Council of Learned Societies. Since RILM's foundation, the City University of New York has graciously provided an institutional context for its endeavors; the RILM International Center is currently housed at the CUNY Graduate Center, at 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309. RILM's Commission Internationale Mixte, is a body of distinguished scholars and librarians, representing the two sponsoring societies,
Scope
RILM's broad, international coverage and concise abstracts distinguish it from all other music reference resources. All scholarly works are included (articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, Festschriften, films and videos, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings, conference proceedings, reviews, etc.). Concert reviews, recording notes, pedagogical manuals, etc. are included if they are of scholarly interest.
Areas of coverage encompass historical musicology, ethnomusicology, instruments and voice, librarianship, performance practice and notation, theory and analysis, pedagogy, liturgy, dance, criticism, music therapy, and interdisciplinary studies on music and various other fields, including literature, dramatic arts, visual arts, acoustics, aesthetics, anthropology, sociology, linguistics and semiotics, mathematics, philosophy, physiology, psychology, and physics. The number of records published annually has increased over the years from 2,532 in 1967 to some 20,000 in 2001.
Indexing
An additional feature of RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, particularly valuable to scholars, is its in-depth indexing. All records are thoroughly indexed by the topics and persons covered in each bibliographic entry. A thesaurus is available as a guide to headwords and indexing policies. For users of the printed version, there are cumulative five-year indexes.
National RILM Offices
The publication of RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is made possible by the efforts of some 60 national committees located in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. The committees are composed of musicologists and librarians based at major university or national libraries and research institutes. Among the current host institutions in addition to Cornell University are the British Library, the Russian State Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, the National Library of Canada, and the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung, Preu?ischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin).
The U.S. RILM Office
The U.S. RILM Office was established in 1984 with direct annual grants from the American Musicological Society; the U.S. Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres; and the Music Library Association. Office space, accounting services, postage, and the use of equipment have been donated by Cornell University through the University Library and the Music Department. We rely heavily on the strong collections in the Cornell University Library to help us identify material for inclusion in RILM. We find articles about music in the publications of many different disciplines that we regularly survey. Before 1984 U.S. material was collected at the International RILM Center, but owing to the ever-increasing number of U.S. publications and the workload in publishing RILM the need for a separate office was recognized by the founding organizations.
The U.S. RILM Office today identifies, collects and edits approximately 3,200 abstracts per year, about 1/6 of all the material published in RILM Abstracts annually. The U.S. Office is staffed by a volunteer director, Lenore Coral, but the bulk of the work is done by a halftime assistant and a small amount of student help. Over time Cornell has evaluated the work of the paid halftime assistant and fitted this position into its job classification scheme.
Because we are unable to obtain all the abstracts from the authors of the publications, we utilize a group of dedicated volunteers to write abstracts for items when we fail to get author provided abstracts.
In order to keep track of outstanding abstracts, early on we developed our own database. If an abstract is not received from the author of the document after a reasonable time period we match unwritten abstracts to our volunteers, so that they do not have to burden interlibrary loan with requests.
Financial Support for the U.S. Office
The three enabling organizations were joined over time in supporting the work of the U.S. Office by other scholarly music organizations whose headquarters are in the United States, including the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Society for Music Theory, the Society for American Music (formerly the Sonneck Society), and the College Music Society. Each society making a regular annual contribution is invited to send a representative to the Oversight Committee, currently chaired by Dan Zager, the Music Library Association representative. This committee is charged with hearing a report from the director of the U.S. Office and making certain that the office is doing its job in an appropriate way. These representatives are then asked to communicate with the boards of their respective organizations about donations to keep the office running. The volunteer Director prepares an accounting statement and budget every January projecting the costs of running this operation for the forthcoming fiscal year (July-June).
Conclusion
The US-RILM Office is one of the two heaviest suppliers of abstracts and citations to the international RILM effort. We are able to continue to do this work thanks to the generosity of the scholarly music community in the United States and to the willingness of our hard working staff and volunteers across the country. These efforts combined with those of RILM offices around the globe have provided the information which makes RILM once of the most outstanding tools for musical research available today.
The material on the International Office is adapted from information on their website and is used with their permission.
Leslie Andersen, Arts Librarian (Visual and Performing
Arts), California State University, Long Beach
Bridget Boylan, Music Cataloger, San Francisco Public
Library
Jason Cooper, Technical Services Librarian, The University
of Montevallo
Brian Doherty, Head of the Music Library, Arizona State
University
Nicole Ernst, Catalog Technician, Curtis Institute of
Music
Yale Fineman, Music Librarian and Head of Performing
Arts Library Reference and Circulating Collections, The University of Maryland
Steven Glanzmann, Catalog Technician, Curtis Institute
of Music
David Guion, Music Cataloger, The University of North
Carolina at Greensboro
Kevin Medows, Music Cataloger, Northwestern University
Bob Terrio, Music Librarian, Westminster Choir College
Jennifer Watson, Cataloging Supervisor, Follett Audiovisual
Resources
4-9 August 2002
International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation
Centres
Berkeley, CA
9 August 2002
Deadline for MLA Newsletter issue #130