At our spring 2004 meeting in Middleton, Wisconsin, where our business managers—the folks at A-R Editions—treated us beautifully as always, the Board made some important decisions regarding future programs and the procedures for forming new and renewing existing roundtables. I'd like to share some of these changes with you all in this column.

A bit of background on the program. For the past few years, with the help of former program chairs (especially Michael Rogan), the Board has been discussing ways in which to ensure that members have a positive conference experience while maintaining some degree of order and fiscal control over the ever-burgeoning program. Many of you will recall the town meeting in which aspects of the program were discussed, which was followed by the survey which was sent to all members and which garnered a good statistical response (thanks to Alan Green for his invaluable help with the survey).

The result: beginning with the Memphis meeting in 2006, we will be revamping the membership of the Program Committee. There will be both voting members and ex officio members who will have the authority to propose, screen and vet program proposals. The voting members will consist of the program chair for that year, the program chair for the next year, a representative from the roundtables, a representative from the special committees, and a general member representative. Ex officio members will be the Board's program liaison, the convention manager, the chair of the Education Committee, the chair of the current Local Arrangements Committee, and the immediate past Program Committee chair.

These committee members (which will be chosen by the time that you are reading this column) will have much work to do. How does the Board envision that this revamped committee will undertake their work? And what will be the procedure for getting things on the program?

As Bonna Boettcher (President-Elect and along with Ruthann McTyre and Renée McBride instrumental in helping to formulate these changes) puts it:

“the committees and roundtables may propose programmatic sessions by a set date (usually early- to mid-spring). Proposals should include the topic(s) to be covered, a description of the session, and proposed speakers. No committee or roundtable should feel compelled to propose a program every year. The program committee will review the proposals, look for possible overlap, and decide, based on quality/relevance of program proposed and considering available space for sessions, which sessions will be included in the program. Although some overlap between programmatic sessions and business meetings may be necessary, the reduced number of sessions should alleviate some of the program overcrowding.”

There will be more information to come, but the Board and the program chairs for upcoming meetings are all feeling very positive about these changes.

Roundtables have become an increasingly popular part of our annual meetings, but the procedure for requesting formation of new ones, along with the mechanics of renewal for existing ones, was in need of fine-tuning. To that end, the Board has made some changes. To quote from the draft minutes of our Middleton 2004 Board meeting, the section on roundtables in our administrative handbook now reads:

“The President may authorize the establishment of a roundtable for a period of four years after receiving letters of support from six members of the Association identifying a common area of concern. Renewal of the authorization for another four years also requires six letters of support. The letters are due to the President by February 1st of the year of expiration via U.S. Post, not e-mail. Applications for a new roundtable or reinstatement of a lapsed roundtable can be made at any time of the year. The term of the roundtable shall begin at the end of the MLA Business meeting at the annual meeting. Each roundtable is led by a coordinator appointed by the President in consultation with the Board and other parties as appropriate. The Coordinator may serve no more than four consecutive years, unless an exception is made by the President of the Association. Normally there are no other officers and no specified membership. However, the Coordinator and President may agree to adopt an alternative form of organization.”

To summarize the changes: roundtable renewals will now coincide much better with the annual meetings. While a lapsed roundtable may be renewed at any time during the year, the new four-year term for the roundtable will always begin at the close of the annual meeting. You'll also note that letters should be sent via snail mail, and not by e-mail as has become the practice in past years.

Like the changes in our Program Committee and procedures, we are confident that the changes for roundtables will also be extremely practical and much less confusing to our members. We hope that you all will agree.

Now, back to madly outlining a new textbook and packing up the MLA materials schlepped up from the Southland in May. To all a wonderful autumn. May your leaves be merry and bright!

At present, the web publication of some 133,000 existing index entries is available by subscription through NISC. Visit http://www.nisc.com or send email to sales@nisc.com for further information.

The conference hotel, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, is located in downtown Vancouver. This historic hotel, which opened in 1939 as one of the railroad hotels built across Canada by the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National Railways, underwent a $70 million restoration in the mid 1990s. Directions to the hotel, links to the hotel web site, and room rates are available on the meeting web site. Hotel booking forms will be mailed in November 2004 with the conference packet.

Practical information is available at the site, with links to weather information, travel guides and a currency converter, transportation and shuttle links, and border information. Preliminary information on conference tours is available there now, too. Three different tours, as well as an organ crawl, are among the offerings this year.

The 2003-2004 survey will be posted on the web site soon. Your participation is encouraged: the more responses that are received, the more valuable will be the data.

My membership in the Music Library Association began in 1977. My first national meeting was in Boston in the winter of 1978—the year we tunneled through the snow to walk the sidewalks! Except for the years I took a hiatus from travel when my two children were small, I have been active in MLA at both the chapter and national levels.

As I approach my retirement in a couple of years, I pause to look back over my professional involvement with MLA. The organization has grown and matured so much since my first meetings. It has adapted to the constantly changing needs of music librarians with expanded programming, additional committees, more activities, better organization, and more professionally run meetings.

What has not changed about MLA are the people. The wonderful members of MLA have created the responsive, creative and farsighted organization that we enjoy. My friends (yes, friends!) in MLA have provided me with a network of support whenever I have faced a problem or question in my career. (In fact, the music faculty here at Western Illinois University think I can work magic, since—through an email or phone call—I can come up with the solution to a thorny problem in a short time!)

As the only music librarian at my institution, I have looked to MLA for colleagues with mutual interests and concerns—and have found so many of them! Plenary sessions, committee and roundtable presentations, and just talking with friends at MLA meetings have provided me so much information to take back to WIU and use. The wonderful exhibits at national meetings have helped me keep up with new publications, as well as to build personal relationships with the exhibitors. MLA has significantly contributed to my success as a music librarian.

MLA is, to me, more than just a professional association. It is my professional association, where I meet and make friends, and remain educated about my profession.

Because of what MLA has done for me and what it continues to mean to me, I feel a responsibility to give something back to the organization, to ensure that future music librarians are nourished in their profession the way that I have been. Each year I make an annual gift to MLA, and I am also a sustaining member. As we approach our 75th anniversary, I plan to make a special anniversary gift. These monetary contributions, while not large, do sustain MLA for the future.

For more information on giving to the Music Library Association, please consult the Association’s web site: http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/ .

Ethan Bradley Allen, Wayne State University, Clinton Twp, MI

Richard M. Atkinson, Patchogue, NY

Laurie Anne Bailey, Burbank, CA

Don Francis Baldini, New York Public Library

Katharine Carringten Chandler, Urbana, IL

Jennifer Lynn Colvin, DePauw University

Charles Cronin, Columbia Law School

Michael Elliott Dalby, Bedford, OH

Christianna English, University of North Texas

Maria Nathalie Hristov, University of Tennessee

Jan L. Kennicutt, Indianapolis, IN

James C. Lefager, Dominican University

Kerry Carwile Masteller, Harvard University

R. Peter Mueller, University of California, San Diego

William McDaniel Nelson, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Scott R. Phinney, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

John Michael Powell, Neumann College

Mark A Puente, Tucson, AZ

Carolyn Marie Treybig, Hattiesburg, MS

Elizabeth B. Uzelac, Brookline, MA

Ron V. Wiecki, Madison, WI

Deadline: 15 October 2004

The Education Committee of MLA is calling for applications for Poster Session presentations at its annual meeting in Vancouver, BC 13-20 February 2005.

Presentations will be considered that fit one of these broad categories:

• Recently completed research
• New and innovative library or music library projects
• Imaginative, systematic efforts at resolving library or music library problems

Parameters for Presentation:
Poster sessions will fit on a 4'x 6' poster board and convey the subject using a combination of graphics, narrative text, and handouts (NB: No computer or network applications may be used). Printed copies of the abstract must be made available by the presenter for those viewing the session.

A table for handouts, business cards, and sign-up sheets will be provided.

The presenter(s) must be in attendance throughout the designated time to answer questions and elaborate on the presentation topic.

Guidelines for Submission:
Entries by an individual or group of librarians must be submitted on an official entry form via email or snailmail. Submissions will be evaluated by the MLA Education Committee, sponsor of the event. Criteria for selection will include quality, innovation, and suitability to the Poster Session format.

There are only twelve slots available, so those interested are encouraged to be original, thorough, and early in their applications. Authors of the selected Poster Sessions will receive detailed guidelines concerning effective preparation and presentation.

Direct questions to the Coordinators at the addresses listed on the application at the end of the newsletter.

Thank you and good luck!

Linda Dempf, Music/Media Librarian, The College of New Jersey

D.J. Hoek, Head, Music Library, Northwestern University

Benjamin Knysak, Editor, RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals (1800-1950)

Barbara Longair, Music/Multimedia Librarian, Arkansas Tech University

Brian McMillan, Music Reference Librarian, McGill University

Philip Ponella, Head, Music Library, Indiana University

Alan Ringwood, Head, Music Cataloging Unit, University of Texas

Laura Schwartz, Head, Fine Arts Library, University of Texas

Regina Shapiro, Cataloger, Queens Borough Public Library

John Shepard, Music/Performing Arts Librarian, Rutgers University

Kathleen Wychulis, Orchestra Librarian, Omaha Symphony

On Friday morning our host, Brian Doherty, introduced Dean Sherrie Schmidt, ASU’s University Librarian, who welcomed MPMLA attendees. Three member papers followed. In “The Quest for Teodonno: A Tale of Three Denver Liszt Organizations” Stephen Luttmann took us on a detective trip in Denver to delve into the life of Marta Teodonno, Liszt-School pianist, novelist, teacher, and mystery woman. Laurie Sampsel spoke on “The Carrie Jacobs-Bond Collection at the American Music Research Center.” Bond is probably best remembered for her song “I Love You Truly.” No complete list of her works exists, so the field is ripe for future research. We then moved to issues of the southwest with “Mariachi con amor: Building a Mariachi Collection from Scratch” by Gary Mayhood, where we heard some great mariachi music accompanied by memorable pictures. Before lunch, we toured the Mars Space Flight Facility at ASU and we caught some of their excitement by viewing pictures from the Mars Exploration Rover Mission.

Three more papers followed on Monday afternoon. Myrna Layton treated us to an audio-visual life of Leroy Anderson in “Who Is That Mild-Mannered Musician?” In “Music Circulating Libraries: A View from the Rokahr Family Archive,” Anita Breckbill and Carole Goebes related the history of circulating libraries in general and music ones in particular and started their own list of music circulating libraries in France. Dinner was on our minds with Hiromi Matsushita’s offering: “Serving You a Full Course—with Japanese Music.” We listened to Japanese music in a variety of western-influenced styles with the theme of food—in fact, a whole menu. ASU Libraries sponsored a before-dinner reception, and then the membership walked to the lovely Bamboo Club in downtown Tempe for dinner.

On Saturday, library ethics was the topic of the first paper by Anali Perry in “Uhhh…do you guys have Primus? Selected Applications of the ALA code of ethics.” Suzanne Moulton-Gertig presented “The Harp in 18th century America: The Players and the Music.” She spoke of the common entry on printed programs from the 18th century of the “unnamed harp sonata,” and gave us a list of compositions for harp from the Brown University Collection that preceded 1800. After a break, Cheryl Taranto spoke about Theodore Thomas’s transcontinental United States tour of 1883 in “Establishing Concert Life in 19th Century United States: Theodore Thomas and His Orchestra.”

Lunch and the chapter’s annual business meeting were held in the Music Library. The membership voted to forward the papers by Myrna Layton and Stephen Luttmann to the “Best of Chapters” committee, and then gave out many thanks, most notably to Brian Doherty for hosting the meeting and to Janet Bradford for her term as chapter chair. The conference adjourned to the Phoenix Zoo for an afternoon with fauna.

The first panel, “Composers in the Library/Librarians as Composers,” featured composers Richard Boursy (Yale), David Claman (Holy Cross), Martin Schreiner (Harvard), and Shirish Korde (Holy Cross). Each of the four composers talked about the composition process and libraries, and played an audio and/or video recording of a composition for the attendees. The ensuing discussion included such topics as copyright and distribution; getting new music into public libraries; whether huge libraries suppress creativity by imposing a tyranny of models; and the value of collecting compositions “in the moment” vs. waiting 15-20 years to see which compositions are really enduring.

In the next presentation, Heather Buettner, sales and marketing manager of Naxos Music Library, gave a presentation on Naxos and its services. Heather fielded a number of questions regarding Naxos' streaming audio subscription service for libraries. The service uses the standard Windows Media Player, in combination with a simple Web search interface. The audio is delivered at 64K as the default, 128K for a premium price, and 20K included as a dialup subscription option.

After a business meeting, lunch, and committee meetings, Bill Ross (professor and head, UNH Milne Library) provided a history of traditional dance collecting at the University of New Hampshire and an overview of the Milne Library's online offerings. The traditional dance collection at UNH began in 1986 when the New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA) invited the UNH library to collaborate in purchasing the papers of Ralph Page, “dean” of contra dance callers. The library agreed to pay half, and the Ralph Page Memorial Weekend was inaugurated by NEFFA two years later. The Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) Collection arrived at UNH in the early 1990s, and UNH created an umbrella entity, the New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music & Dance, to encompass these two collections. Bill described some of the processing, cataloging, preservation, and technical challenges associated with traditional dance materials.

In keeping with the traditional dance theme, NEMLA members got a chance to kick up their heels with some contra dancing and playing at the end of the day. Bill Fischer (contra dance caller) and NEMLA's Mickey Koth (fiddle) led the festivities.

A full report of the conference presentations is available at http://www.wesleyan.edu/nemla/news142.htm.

Books
Fang-Lan Hsieh (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary).
    An Annotated Bibliography of Church Music. Compiled by Fang-Lan Hsieh, assisted by Jason M. Runnels. Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 2003. [iv, 255 p. ISBN: 0773465804, $109.95]

For more information or a proposal form, visit http://www.arsc-audio.org or contact Louise Spear, ARSC Program Committee Chair, at LouiseS@grammy.com

15 October 2004
New England Chapter
Peterborough, NH

Deadline for Applications
Vancouver Poster Sessions

Deadline for Submissions
MLA Newsletter #139

22-23 October 2004
Atlantic Chapter
Morgantown, WV

Greater New York-Ontario Chapter
Rochester, New York

29-30 October 2004
Southern California Chapter
San Diego, Calif.