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Music Library 2.0 and Much More Midwest Chapter’s 66th Annual Meeting in Cincinnati Midwest Note-Book MIDWEST CHAPTER OF THE MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 16:3 January 2008 IN THIS ISSUE 66th Annual Chapter Meeting Sessions .................... 4 Committee Reports ... 8 Business Meeting .. 10 Features & Columns Speaking Our History: Rick Jones talks to Therese Dickman ............................. 12 From the Chair .......... 3 News & Notes ............ 3 Administrative Structure ............. 21 CALENDAR Feb. 20-24, 2008 MLA Annual Meeting Newport, RI July 1-6, 2008 IAML Annual Conference Naples, Italy October 23-25, 2008 67th Annual Midwest Chapter Meeting Kansas City, MO NEWPORT The Midwest Chapter will be meeting during MLA in Newport on Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 p.m. Check your program for location. See you there! T here was indeed something for everyone at the 66th annual meeting of the chap- ter, held October 11-13 at the Radisson Hotel Cincinnati Waterfront in Covington, Ken- tucky. Our host institution was the University of Cincinnati, ably represented by Mark Palkovic and Paul Cauthen. Conference attendees consid- ered the philosophical and practical as they peered into the future, looked back into the past, and gained intriguing insight into the work and research of their colleagues. After catching up with friends old and new to the oldtime tunes of Jake Speed and the Freddies at the Thursday evening reception, confer- ees spent the opening plenary Friday morning in- vestigating issues relating to “Dis- covery Tools and Music Library 2.0.” These included the future of integrated library systems (by Paul Soder- dahl, University of Iowa), metadata standards for music (featuring Jenn Riley, Indiana Univer- sity), and EAD software and its applications (covered by Adriana Cuervo, Sousa Archives & Center for American Music, University of Illi- nois). The second plenary featured Susannah Cleveland describing her and Bowling Green State University colleague Gwen Evans’ “HueTunes” project in “Moody Blues: The Social Web, Tagging, and Non-Textual Discov- ery Tools for Music.” Next, Will Cowan (Indi- ana University) introduced us to the Ethnomu- sicological Video for Instruction and Analysis (EVIA) Digital Archive at his institution. Cincinnati skyline from the Texas Deck of the Radisson Hotel Cincinnati Waterfront, site of plenary sessions Following a buffet lunch in the revolving restaurant atop the hotel, Cincinnati history was the focus in a paper by bruce d. mcclung, mu- sicologist at the University of Cincinnati, about the first opera commissioned by a U.S. city— Paoletta by Pietro Floridia, and its place in the Ohio Valley Exposition of 1910. Next, Wendy Sistrunk (University of Missouri-Kansas City), described her work creating “Mu Phi Epsilon Composers and Authors,” a finding aid for music by members of the fraternity, which was founded in Cincin- nati. Saturday morning’s session was filled by two timely topics. In the first, Dwayne But- ler (University of Louisville) led a discussion on copyright and per- formance rights. Next, Debbie Tenofsky, Refer- ence and Instructional Services librarian at the University of Cincinnati, informed us about is- sues for library patrons with disabilities and how her library has addressed them. At the business meeting, the chapter re- joiced to recognize three recipients of scholar- ships for library school students. In her last of- ficial act as chapter chair, Laura Gayle Green passed the chapter scepter (or was that a cork- screw?!) to new chair Ruthann McTyre. Couldn’t attend this informative meeting? Go there now by reading the session summa- ries, committee reports, and other news from Cincinnati. They begin on page four of this is- sue of Midwest Note-Book. —Greg Fitzgerald —Greg Fitzgerald —Greg Fitzgerald —Greg Fitzgerald —Greg Fitzgerald Photo by Rebecca Littman Photo by Rebecca Littman Photo by Rebecca Littman Photo by Rebecca Littman Photo by Rebecca Littman DEADLINE The deadline for the May issue of Midwest Note-Book is April 1. See submission information on page 2.

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Page 1: MIDWEST CHAPTER OF THE MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION · Social Web, Tagging, and Non-Textual Discov-ery Tools for Music.” Next, Will Cowan (Indi- ... introduced us to the Ethnomu-sicological

Music Library 2.0 and Much MoreMidwest Chapter’s 66th Annual Meeting in Cincinnati

Midwest Note-BookM I D W E S T C H A P T E R O F T H E M U S I C L I B R A R Y A S S O C I A T I O N16:3 January 2008

IN THIS ISSUE

66th Annual ChapterMeeting

Sessions .................... 4Committee Reports ... 8Business Meeting .. 10Features & ColumnsSpeaking Our History:

Rick Jones talks toTherese Dickman............................. 12

From the Chair .......... 3News & Notes ............ 3Administrative

Structure ............. 21

CALENDAR

Feb. 20-24, 2008MLA Annual MeetingNewport, RIJuly 1-6, 2008IAML AnnualConferenceNaples, ItalyOctober 23-25, 200867th Annual MidwestChapter MeetingKansas City, MO

NEWPORT

The Midwest Chapterwill be meeting duringMLA in Newport onThursday, February 21at 7:00 p.m. Checkyour program forlocation.See you there!

T here was indeed something for everyoneat the 66th annual meeting of the chap-ter, held October 11-13 at the Radisson

Hotel Cincinnati Waterfront in Covington, Ken-tucky. Our host institution was the University ofCincinnati, ably represented by Mark Palkovicand Paul Cauthen. Conference attendees consid-ered the philosophical and practical as theypeered into the future, looked back into thepast, and gained intriguing insight into the workand research of their colleagues.

After catchingup with friendsold and new tothe oldtime tunesof Jake Speed andthe Freddies at theThursday eveningreception, confer-ees spent theopening plenaryFriday morning in-vestigating issuesrelating to “Dis-covery Tools andMusic Library 2.0.” These included the futureof integrated library systems (by Paul Soder-dahl, University of Iowa), metadata standardsfor music (featuring Jenn Riley, Indiana Univer-sity), and EAD software and its applications(covered by Adriana Cuervo, Sousa Archives &Center for American Music, University of Illi-nois).

The second plenary featured SusannahCleveland describing her and Bowling GreenState University colleague Gwen Evans’“HueTunes” project in “Moody Blues: TheSocial Web, Tagging, and Non-Textual Discov-ery Tools for Music.” Next, Will Cowan (Indi-ana University) introduced us to the Ethnomu-sicological Video for Instruction and Analysis(EVIA) Digital Archive at his institution.

Cincinnati skyline from the Texas Deck of the Radisson HotelCincinnati Waterfront, site of plenary sessions

Following a buffet lunch in the revolvingrestaurant atop the hotel, Cincinnati history wasthe focus in a paper by bruce d. mcclung, mu-sicologist at the University of Cincinnati, aboutthe first opera commissioned by a U.S. city—Paoletta by Pietro Floridia, and its place in theOhio Valley Exposition of 1910. Next, WendySistrunk (University of Missouri-Kansas City),described her work creating “Mu Phi EpsilonComposers and Authors,” a finding aid formusic by members of the fraternity, which was

founded in Cincin-nati.

Saturdaymorning’s sessionwas filled by twotimely topics. In thefirst, Dwayne But-ler (University ofLouisville) led adiscussion oncopyright and per-formance rights.Next, DebbieTenofsky, Refer-

ence and Instructional Services librarian at theUniversity of Cincinnati, informed us about is-sues for library patrons with disabilities andhow her library has addressed them.

At the business meeting, the chapter re-joiced to recognize three recipients of scholar-ships for library school students. In her last of-ficial act as chapter chair, Laura Gayle Greenpassed the chapter scepter (or was that a cork-screw?!) to new chair Ruthann McTyre.

Couldn’t attend this informative meeting?Go there now by reading the session summa-ries, committee reports, and other news fromCincinnati. They begin on page four of this is-sue of Midwest Note-Book.

—Greg Fitzgerald—Greg Fitzgerald—Greg Fitzgerald—Greg Fitzgerald—Greg FitzgeraldPhoto by Rebecca LittmanPhoto by Rebecca LittmanPhoto by Rebecca LittmanPhoto by Rebecca LittmanPhoto by Rebecca Littman

DEADLINE

The deadline for theMay issue of MidwestNote-Book is April 1.See submissioninformation on page 2.

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Midwest Note-Book

THE PUBLICATION OF THEMIDWEST CHAPTER OF THE

MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

ISSN 1063-5327

VOL. 16, NO. 3

Published in May,September, and January

Midwest Note-Book isavailable free on the Web siteof the Midwest Chapter of the

Music Library Associationhttp://mlamidwest.org/

Membership in the Midwest Chapter MLAis $8.00 annually ($4.00 for students).

Inquiries and renewals may be directed to:Keith Cochran, Secretary-Treasurer

Cook Music LibraryIndiana University

1201 E. 3rd St.Bloomington, IN 47405-7006

[email protected]

Submissions and communicationsregarding Midwest Note-Book

should be sent to:Greg Fitzgerald, EditorMusic & Dance Library

Western Michigan University1903 W. Michigan Ave.

Kalamazoo, MI [email protected]

Deadline for submissionsis the 1st of the monthpreceding publication.

The Midwest Chapter of theMusic Library Associationis a tax-exempt, non-profit

organization.

http://mlamidwest.org/

NEW MEMBERSVeronica Alzade,

student, University ofWisconsin-Madison

Matt Appleby, MusicTechnical ServicesLibrarian, University ofWisconsin-Madison

Kirstin Dougan, MusicUser ServicesCoordinator, Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Heidi Gottman, Madison,Wisconsin

Lisa Hooper, student,Indiana University

Michael Hurley,Multimedia Librarian,Youngstown StateUniversity

Michelle London,student, University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign

Elizabeth McCraw,student, IndianaUniversity

Casey Mullin, student/Metadata Assistant–Variations3, IndianaUniversity

Theresa A. M. Noble,Music LibraryManager, DePauwUniversity

James Procell, student,Indiana University

Mark A. Puente,Coordinator of DigitalProjects-SpecialCollections/MusicLibrary, University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign

Kim Ranger, Arts &Humanities Librarian,Grand Valley StateUniversity Libraries

Tracey Lynn Snyder,Cataloger, University ofChicago

Tyniece Stevenson,student, Wayne StateUniversity

David Winjum, student,NorthwesternUniversity/DominicanUniversity

WELCOME TO THEMIDWEST CHAPTER!

EAD Workshop at IUAn opportunity to learn the the basics

A workshop on Encoded Archival Descrip-tion is scheduled at Indiana University on

February 8. Ryan Lee of the Indiana UniversityArchives will direct the workshop, which issponsored by the IU student chapter of theSociety of American Archivists (SAA) with fi-nancial sponsorship of the Society of IndianaArchivists.

“Getting to Know EAD” is designed foranyone (including music librarians!) who wantsto learn the basics of EAD. The workshop willinclude a brief presentation on the history ofEAD and the structure of an EAD document;hands-on experience encoding a finding aid inEAD using a local template; and a discussionof some things to consider concerning imple-mentation. Some technical issues will be dis-cussed, but only at the most basic level.

The workshop will be held from 9 a.m.until noon, Friday, February 8, in room W302of the West Tower of the Herman B. WellsLibrary on IU’s Bloomington campus. Space islimited to 15 participants, and registration is ona first-come basis. Additional information andregistration forms are available on the websiteof the IU student chapter of SAA, http://www.indiana.edu/~saarchiv.

—Lisa Hooper, Indiana University—Lisa Hooper, Indiana University—Lisa Hooper, Indiana University—Lisa Hooper, Indiana University—Lisa Hooper, Indiana University

I f you responded to the September duesmailing, or paid your dues at the annual

meeting in Cincinnati, good for you (and thechapter)! According to our bylaws, “if a mem-ber’s dues remain unpaid for one membershipyear, the membership shall be considered inac-tive.” So if you have not paid for the 2007-08year (October 1-September 30), do so soon!

It’s simple to join or renew. Just go to thechapter website (http://mlamidwest.org) and clickon Membership Info for the membership form.Send the form, with your check payable toMidwest Chapter, MLA, to Secretary-TreasurerKeith Cochran at the address to the left of thisarticle. Thank you, and welcome (or welcomeback) to MWMLA!

Are You Renewed?!Don’t let your membership lapse

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NEWS & NOTESWe note these recent

transitions amongmusic libraries andlibrarians in theMidwest Chapterregion:

Stephanie Bonjack,formerly ofVanderCook College ofMusic, is now MusicLibrarian at theUniversity of SouthernCalifornia

Jeanette Casey is Headof the Mills MusicLibrary at theUniversity ofWisconsin-Madison

Keith Cochran is MusicCollectionDevelopment Librarianand Associate Directorat Indiana University

Kirstin Dougan is MusicUser ServicesCoordinator, Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jon Haupt, formerly ofIowa State University,is now Music andMedia Librarian at theHamon Arts Library ofSouthern MethodistUniversity

Michael Hurley isMultiMedia Librarianat Youngstown StateUniversity

Morris Levy is SeniorMusic Cataloger atNorthwesternUniversity

Jennifer Matthews isMusic and PerformingArts Librarian,University of NotreDame

Misti Shaw is Music &Performing ArtsLibrarian, DePauwUniversity

From the Chair

O ne of my all-time favorite movies isMoonstruck. In one scene Olivia Du-kakis looks across the restaurant table

to her dinner partner and says, “What you don’tknow about women is a lot.” I’ve often para-phrased that statement to “What you don’tlearn in library school is a lot,” and I’ve heardthat statement running through my head duringsome stressful situations like the one we experi-enced in my library just yesterday. We dealt withthe second round of massive leaks from theflat roof that “protects” our library. The firstround was just ten days prior. Plastic sheeting iscovering half of our stacks. Saturated ceilingtiles were pulled down before theycollapsed. Fans have been runningfor nearly two weeks—and don’teven get me started on the mold.

Stuff we don’t learn in libraryschool—but that’s where MW-MLA and MLA come in. Ourmusic librarian friends and col-leagues provide support and aspecial type of continuing educa-tion that helps get us through dif-ficult times. We leave our fall meeting enrichedand encouraged by what we’ve learned fromour colleagues; we walk away renewed, know-ing that we have so many shared experiencesupon which to draw. Those of us who havebeen around for a while need to ensure thatour younger colleagues are drawn into that cir-cle too. Of course, nobody does that betterthan the Midwest Chapter!

A healthy crop of first- and even second-time attendees joined the rest of us for a greatmeeting in Cincinnati in October. Our charm-ing hosts, Mark Palkovic and Paul Cauthen,provided a lovely hotel, great catering, and din-ing options close by. Program sessions weretimely and informative. You can read aboutthose elsewhere in this newsletter thanks to ourscholarship winners and first-timers, who wereimmediately put to work as cub reporters byLaura Gayle Green, our illustrious now-pastchair.

The fall meeting is always a time of transi-tion and for expressing thanks to many people.First is Laura Gayle, who provided such excel-lent leadership during her term as chapter chair.Talk about a tough act to follow! Sincere

thanks also to Michael Duffy, who was just anamazing Secretary-Treasurer. Mike is passingthe buck(s), so to speak, to Keith Cochran.Welcome, Keith!

So the next thing on our collective to-dolist is the MLA annual meeting in Newport, RI.I was going to list the names of every MW-MLA member who is in the program, but I re-alized that Greg probably doesn’t want to giveup that much space! Honestly, the MidwestChapter is so well represented at this upcomingmeeting—I know everyone shares my pride inour colleagues who represent their institutionsand the chapter so well. Speaking of the pro-gram, be sure to give special thanks to our ownD.J. Hoek, this year’s program chair. He and his

committee have done an amazingjob with one of the most difficulttasks in MLA. We have at least twoagenda items for our chapter meet-ing on Thursday evening. The timeis 7:00; please check your programfor place. I look forward to seeingyou there!

Speaking of meetings, markyour calendars now for our fall ’08meeting in Kansas City! The dates

are October 23-25. Laura Gayle and Wendywill be our hostesses-with-the-mostest, and Iknow they will have another great programthat will appeal to all of us.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t ex-press my thanks to all of you for the opportu-nity to serve as your chair. I’ll do my best tofollow the fine examples set by my predeces-sors. As a bit of reinforcing food for thought,I close by quoting MLA President Phil Vander-meer from his “President’s Report” in MLANewsletter no. 151 (November-December2007): “I am convinced that MLA chapters arethe greenhouses for the grass roots of MLA.At our chapters, many of our members gettheir first taste of what MLA is and can be.They get opportunities to present papers tocolleagues, make connections with people ofsimilar interests, and develop mentoring rela-tionships and friendships that last for years. Ihope all our national members support our lo-cal chapters and attend their meetings. They arevital to the health of our organization.”

Yup, couldn’t have said it better myself. Until Newport!

—R—R—R—R—Ruthann McTuthann McTuthann McTuthann McTuthann McTyre, Univyre, Univyre, Univyre, Univyre, Univererererersity of Iosity of Iosity of Iosity of Iosity of Iowwwwwaaaaa

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66th Annual Chapter Meeting: SessionsSession I

Friday, October 12, Texas Deck, RadissonHotel Cincinnati RiverfrontDISCOVERY TOOLS AND MUSIC LIBRARY 2.0

After welcomes from the University ofCincinnati’s music librarian Mark Palkovic andAssociate Dean of Public Services Cheryl Al-brecht, attendees heard from three expertswith perspectives on three discovery tools:Paul Soderdahl of the University of Iowa, onintegrated library systems; Jenn Riley, metadatalibrarian at Indiana University, on metadatastandards for music; and Adriana Cuervo ofthe University of Illinois, on EAD software.

Most internet-savvy people could saythey’ve learned something from Google. PaulSoderdahl, however, has learned a lot morethan how to tie a square knot or where he canfind the best Thai food in Manhattan. As theDirector for Library and Information Tech-nology at Iowa, he has spent enough timecomparing Google to libraries to concludethat Google is not in the information busi-ness, not in the least because seventy percentof its resources are devoted to advertising.What Google has taught librarians is that fed-erated searching is the key to users’ hearts, andthat “good enough” can be just that. Throughinnovative strategies including the implemen-tation of course management systems, “PimpMy OPAC” initiatives, and re-integration oflibrary systems, Soderdahl is constantly striv-ing to predict the present.

Jenn Riley, Metadata Librarian for IU’sDigital Library Program, noted that all meta-data standards represent a compromise be-tween specifics and holistic application. Also,because music itself is diverse in regard tostyle, format, culture, and purpose, no singlemetadata standard is appropriate for music.Riley was kind enough, however, to share themost commonly used metadata standards,languages, and frameworks in the business,complete with helpful definitions and adviceon when a certain schema should be used in-stead of another. Of course, Riley followedthis up with a warning that no matter whichnative format is chosen for a project, one willeventually have to map to another formatanyway. This presentation provided a lush

overview of metadata options for music anddrove home the principle that whatever theproject, good metadata is fit for a purpose.

If one has ever wondered how to encodean archival finding aid so it could be viewedonline, Adriana Cuervo would be the person toask. As the Assistant Archivist for Music & FineArts for the Sousa Archives at the University ofIllinois, Cuervo knows the ins and outs of En-coded Archival Description (EAD). Ten yearsago, the University of California at Berkley in-troduced EAD as a research project to serve asa standardization of collection informationwithin archival finding aids, which tend to varyin format across institutions. Today, thousandsof repositories employ EAD. Cuervo notedthat, thanks to EAD, finding aids abound onlineand therefore are conveniently available to us-ers; she also stressed that libraries need to takeadvantage of this newfound visibility by fusingEAD standards with Web 2.0 functions, such astagging, baskets, search histories, and commen-tary, in order to attract users and keep themcoming back. (Anne Shelley, University of Iowa)Jenn Riley’s presentation may be viewed at http://

www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/presentations/mlamw2007/mlamw2007.ppt. Her handout isavailable at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/presentations/mlamw2007/handout.doc.

Slides of Adriana Cuervo’s presentation may be viewed athttps://netfiles.uiuc.edu/acuervo/www/Conference_Presentations/.

Session II

Friday, October 12, Texas Deck, Radisson HotelCincinnati RiverfrontMOODY BLUES: THE SOCIAL WEB, TAGGING,AND NON-TEXTUAL DISCOVERY

Gwen Evans and Susannah Cleveland havebegun developing a project at Bowling GreenState University called HueTunes. The project, acooperative effort between the Library Infor-mation and Technology Services and the MusicLibrary and Sound Recordings Archives, is anexperiment in sound and color associations.

The presentation began with an overviewof the concepts that formed the inspiration be-hind the project: web 2.0 tenets, a desire to ex-plore non-textual search, and curiosity aboutloose associations between color, mood, andmusic. Several specific and familiar reasons are

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compelling libraries to consider the need toadopt more of a web 2.0 approach to provid-ing services: competition from other informa-tion providers, the slowness of ILS vendors toadapt to the read/write web, a generation ofusers who are digital natives and have vastlydifferent expectations of information retrieval,and the sudden and shocking need to proveour worth to communities and the academy in-stead of it being taken for granted.

A long history of associations betweencolor and music led to a desire to explore thisconnection further. From involuntary synaes-thetic responses to music to deliberate map-ping of colors to mood and the assignment ofsuch moods to music, there are strong historicparallels between music and color. These paral-lels can be difficult to gauge, and the desire tocreate a project wherein users can record theirown perceptions and see records of others’perceptions becomes all the more appealing.

The presentation included examples ofseveral projects, both commercial and social,that use color and/or mood to classify music.These include variations from such vague andunclear mood indicators as “pirate” or “cor-porate” to very specific color associations,sometimes assigned by the site’s users, some-times assigned by the site’s creators.

Starting from design guru Don Norman’sadvice to “design first, think later,” Evans andCleveland, with the expertise of student pro-grammer Jared Constrascere, have begun cre-ating a beta version of a product that will, atthis first stage, represent a proof of conceptand later develop into a more robust and ex-pandable application. HueTunes is a tool fortagging music by color. The user begins usingthe application by answering a few demo-graphic questions such as age, native language,and whether or not he is a musician, visual art-ist, both, or none. At this point, playback ofmusic begins, and the user may select a colorfrom a palette to tag his “color perception” ofthe song. After a color is chosen and con-firmed, a new song begins. When the user tiresof tagging songs, he can select “finish,” and seea list of the songs he or she has heard and asummary of how other users have taggedthose songs.

At this stage, this application is availableonly locally and has not been opened up forwidespread data gathering. Adjustments are still

being made, and all parameters have yet to beset. Ultimately, there are multiple goals for theproject: promote library collections by market-ing a “cool” application; gather and analyze dataabout how users link music and color; and createa non-textual aid for finding music in the onlinecatalog. (Susannah Cleveland, Bowling Green StateUniversity)Susannah and Gwen’s presentation may be viewed at:

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=dg88vq87_21cffj9q&fs=true&skipauth=true

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EVIA DIGITAL ARCHIVEThe next presenter was William Cowan,

principal systems analyst for the EVIA DigitalArchive Project. EVIA (Ethnomusicological Vid-eo for Instruction and Analysis) is a joint effortof Indiana University and the University ofMichigan to establish a digital archive of ethno-musicological video for use by scholars and in-structors.

While video abounds on the Internet (You-Tube, Media Commons, iTunesU), where doesone find video for scholarly purposes? Cowandescribed how EVIA has acquired video clipsfrom ethnomusicologists and transferred them tocompressed files to conserve storage space.Along with preservation of the video, the EVIAproject is very concerned with producing accom-panying metadata for complete description andto facilitate access. Cowan also demonstrated theproject’s interface and examples of video clipsand the metadata for them. (Greg Fitzgerald,Western Michigan University)For more information about the EVIA Digital Archive, go to

http://www.indiana.edu/~eviada/.

Session III

Friday, October 12, Texas Deck, Radisson HotelCincinnati RiverfrontMUNICIPAL OPERA: CINCINNATI, PAOLETTA, ANDTHE OHIO VALLEY EXPOSITION OF 1910

In a detailed and informative presentation,award-winning scholar bruce d. mcclung fromthe University of Cincinnati examined the paralleldevelopment of Cincinnati’s commerce and thearts which culminated in the Ohio Valley Exposi-tion of 1910. The focal piece of the Expositionwas the commissioned opera Paoletta by Italianimmigrant Pietro Floridia, faculty member of theuniversity’s College of Music from 1906-1908,with libretto by Paul Jones. Paoletta was reported-

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ly the first opera commissioned by an Ameri-can city. In 2004 the UC Libraries acquired thescore of Paoletta, a set of 124 original water-color costume designs, and a belt worn by oneof the principal cast members as the three-mil-lionth volume in the libraries’ collections.

mcclung’s talk described Cincinnati’s risethrough the mid- and late-1800s to the statusof “Queen of the West” as well as the “Parisof America.” The Ohio Valley Exposition of1910 was designed to celebrate the marriageof commerce and music and was a lavish dis-play of regional industry and entertainmentcovering fourteen acres in downtown Cincin-nati. Exhibitors included the Baldwin PianoCompany.

While the exposition’s organizers hopedPaoletta would become the “Great AmericanOpera,” it did not achieve the critical or audi-ence acclaim necessary for it to live on in musi-cal memory. Although the text was in Englishand the Italian composer lived in the U.S. whileit was written, and there were many local per-formers in the chorus, little else about the op-era was American. The libretto is based onKentucky native Paul Jones’ unpublished storyThe Sacred Mirror, and is set in 15th-centurySpain.

The opera ran for 29 performances duringthe month-long exposition; five of those per-formances were sold out. Aside from a fewsingular performances in 1914 in Los Angelesand elsewhere, Paoletta has not been performedsince. mcclung surmised that some of the op-era’s lack of success was due to the state ofopera in Cincinnati and the role of opera in theU.S. in the early part of the twentieth century.At that time opera was not seen as popular oraccessible to the general public. He also pro-vided the perspective that in today’s operaworld, most opera companies and perform-ances are subsidized by corporate sponsors,

and that most opera runs are between four toten performances, and it is rare that they wouldall be sold out.

The Ohio Valley Exposition closed in thered, largely due to the opera’s $60,000 produc-tion costs and receipts of only $35,000 in ticketsales. The exposition’s organizers sold off ev-erything to do with the exposition, down tothe lumber and iron used to build the buildingsand displays on the grounds, eventually makinga profit. (Kirstin Dougan, University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign)

MU PHI EPSILON COMPOSERS AND AUTHORS:A LIBRARIAN’S WORK IN CREATING A FINDINGAID

It is clear that Wendy Sistrunk, Music Cata-log Librarian at University of Missouri-KansasCity, is passionate about Mu Phi Epsilon. Inter-national Librarian for the group since 1998, sheundertook the enormous task of updating theorganization’s Composers and Authors list for thefraternity’s 2003 centennial. Her talk focused onthe process and difficulties encountered in thiswork.

Founded in Cincinnati in 1903, Mu Phi Ep-silon is a professional fraternity centered on theadvancement of music. Members of the morethan 200 collegiate chapters are encouraged toperform music by current and past memberson recitals and concerts, and to aid in this en-deavor, the organization has maintained a listof fraternity members’ compositions. Severaleditions were compiled in the 1950s, ‘60s, and‘70s, including one in 1960 by Ruth Watanabe.The last edition prior to Sistrunk’s undertakingwas in 1972 with a 1976 supplement.

Sistrunk increased the index by 500 pagesand more than doubled the number of indi-viduals included. She improved the organiza-tion of the index, created further access points,included uniform titles to allow access toworks with multiple editions or versions, andincluded manuscript as well as published ver-sions. She used several means to gather infor-mation for the new edition; she put out a callto the fraternity’s membership to submit entriesand she searched OCLC and the internet.

One of the major difficulties encounteredwas the issue of women’s names: many com-posed as Mrs. [Husband’s Name] or used apseudonym, making them difficult to identifyand track. In addition, accurately identifyingAn attentive audience listens in the Texas Deck room

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members of the organization as opposed toindividuals who were merely affiliated in someway proved somewhat difficult.

Sistrunk already has plans for improve-ments for the next edition, such as including ac-cess points for Mu Phi Epsilon performers aswell as composers, and also a discography ofworks written by or performed by membersof the fraternity. Plans for an online version ofthe index are also under discussion. (KirstinDougan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Session IV

Saturday, October 13, Texas Deck, RadissonHotel Cincinnati RiverfrontCOPYRIGHT AND PERFORMANCE RIGHTSFOR MUSIC LIBRARIES

Dwayne Butler, professor, University Li-braries and Evelyn J. Schneider EndowedChair for Scholarly Communication at the Uni-versity of Louisville, gave an amusing and in-teresting lecture concerning music copyrightlaw and its relevance for librarians. He under-stands why copyright law can seem so over-whelming because it is very long, broad, andambiguous. Butler described copyright law as abalancing act where exclusivity meets necessity.This balance has become even more difficult toestablish as a result of the Information Age.

Butler gave a brief background of copy-right law. Any original idea fixed in a tangibleitem is covered under copyright law, and as aresult has five exclusive rights: reproduction,distribution, preparation of derivative works,public performance, and public display. Thethreshold for originality can be considerablylow, which is clear when he discussed the ex-ample of Mr. Happy Crack.

Butler also pointed out how the law’s defi-nition of musical works and sound recordingsare quite ambiguous. In addition, there are twoseparate definitions of public performancerights—one broader and one stricter. All ofthis makes it difficult, specifically for librariansto determine what is legal and what is not.Nevertheless, Butler reassured us that most ofthe practices that go on in libraries, such as e-reserves and viewings of films, are consideredlegal under fair use. He advises librarians to al-ways consider how their actions may affect themarket. (Veronica Alzade, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

ISSUES FOR DISABLED PATRONSThe final presentation was given by Deb-

bie Tenofsky, Library Disability Services Coor-dinator from the University of Cincinnati.Tenofsky discussed her experience with the re-vision of the UC Libraries’ policies for dis-abled patrons and the improvements made tothe Langsam Library’s Disability Services lab.This was accomplished by collaboration withcampus disability services, information technol-ogy staff, student groups, and an advisorycommittee.

The majority of students who are disabledare either learning-, hearing-, visually-, or mo-bility-impaired. In order to meet the needs ofthese students, the Disability Services lab isequipped with large monitors, Braille printers,projection systems, multi-track cassette players,a Reading Edge machine, and headphones withmicrophones attached. Software programssuch as JAWS and Dragon Natural softwareare also available for use. The room is kept un-locked and always available to patrons.

Legally, libraries are supposed to help ev-ery patron equally—meaning librarians shouldnot do something for a disabled patron thatthey would not do for a non-disabled patron,and vice versa. Tenofsky emphasized the pointthat every library should have policies, proce-dures, and guidelines for disabled patrons, andthat they should create documents that explainthese policies and can be referred to whenneeded. Also, student staff members need tobe trained often on how to deal with certainsituations they may encounter with disabled pa-trons. (Veronica Alzade, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Laura Gayle Green (r) presents Retirees Scholarshipto Veronica Alzade

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Committee Reports

CATALOGINGSix members and four guests attended the

meeting on Thursday, October 11. MarkScharff led off by giving an update on devel-opments in the drafting of RDA: ResourceDescription and Access, the cataloging instruc-tions intended to replace AACR2. Among thepoints he made: RDA is true to its name, withemphasis on description and access over cata-log-building; it is intended for use by commu-nities outside of libraries, and will depend onspecialist communities, such as music, to devel-op implementation schemes; its drafters seekto provide principled directions, rather than the“case law” of AACR2 (some of which waswritten to accommodate music); RDA givesdirections on how to record information andconstruct access points, but not how to displaythe results in a record; and the process of au-thority control (or “access-point control”) ismore fully described than in AACR2.

Scharff also talked about some of the im-plications for music materials: moving musicalpresentation statements to the edition area, in-cluding text currently considered statements ofresponsibility (e.g. “vocal score”); working witha new definition of “score” that eliminates theformulation “[ ] p. of music” to align moreclosely with common parlance; and the addi-tion of Date/Time and Place of an Event asan RDA element (corresponding to what goesinto the MARC 518 field for sound record-ings).

Scharff shared the revised outline of chap-ters, reflecting a needed expansion because ofrules for certain materials being brought overfrom AACR2 largely unchanged; that outlineincludes a chapter for “Musical works and ex-pressions.” [Note: at the time of this writing,that outline has been superseded by a major re-organization of the entire document that moreclosely follows FRBR and FRAD]. Havingbeen the recipient of an otherwise unreleaseddraft of the music chapter, Scharff mentionedsome of the more significant changes: 1)change in terminology from “uniform title” to“preferred access point for a work or expres-sion;” 2) defining the preferred access pointfor a collaborative work as the one “common-ly named first when citing the work,” whichcarries an implication of research rather than

mechanical transcription from the item; 3) al-lowing compilers to be part of the preferredaccess point if the work is “commonly cited”using that person’s name; 4) general guidelinesinclude making “variant access points” to par-allel the preferred access point (e.g., include thename of the creator in the variant access pointif it’s part of the preferred access point, with-out specifying in what sort of record this is tobe included); 5) additions to preferred accesspoints are still pretty well-defined for generictitles, not so much so for distinctive titles.

Scharff then conducted a straw poll onthree questions related to the RDA draft. Thefirst was whether a form qualifier “Pianoscore” would be a useful counterpart to “Vo-cal score” in preferred access points. This wasgenerally agreed. The next was whether generictitles should be given in singular and plural ac-cording to the composer’s oeuvre, or always inplural. There was no consensus; some saw ad-vantages in consistently using plural, especial-ly for training and for machine processing; oth-ers argued for having titles reflect reality. Finally,should RDA define “score order,” which ismentioned in the instructions for constructing auniform title? There seemed no strong senti-ment one way or the other.

Scharff announced that Sue Stancu (Indi-ana University) had agreed to stand for electionas chair-elect. She was duly voted in, and willassume the role of chair following the 2008chapter meeting. Sue asked the group to re-member Ralph Papakhian, who was unable toattend the meeting because of illness.

Open discussion ensued. A lively exchangeconcerned the recent expansion of WorldCatto include vendor records and catalog recordsfrom European national libraries. The problemis that these records differ significantly in stan-dards from AACR2-generated records, do notalways get merged with records for the samemanifestation, and sometimes have inadequateaccess points for searching. The national libraryrecords reflect different decisions about accesspoints, both in choice and form, and descrip-tive areas are not in English; they also tend tobe less full than AACR2-generated records. Therecords from the Dutch National Library arethe most commonly-encountered ones. Vendorrecords vary widely in quality; of particularconcern were the Baker & Taylor encoding-level 3 brief records, which have very few

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phrase-searchable access points. These records,too, usually do not get merged with fullrecords for the manifestation, and librariesseem loath to upgrade them in lieu of enteringa new record. Possible solutions would be forOCLC to provide filters to exclude theserecords, or to identify the inputting library inthe brief view of search results.

Other topics covered included shelf-readycataloging and cataloging of local performanc-es received as digital files. The last item was adescription by Sue Stancu of the new policyfor cataloging and archiving recital perfor-mances at Indiana University. Performances arenow received as digital files, with a PDF of therecital program; the files are loaded directlyinto IU’s Variations software. OCLC recordsare created, with links to the files; as with otherdigital offerings in Variations, access is limitedto users on the IU campus. (Mark Scharff,Washington University)

MEMBERSHIPThe Membership Committee met on

Thursday, 11 October 2007 with four commit-tee members present. Sheri Stormes presidedsince the chair was unable to attend.

Sheri reported on outreach activities. Shereceived only three responses to her e-mails re-questing information about such activities fromthe membership. Richard LeSueur (retired, AnnArbor District Library) reported that he madea presentation to Charles Reynolds’ music bibli-ography class at the University of Michigan. Heplans to repeat the presentation to another sec-tion of the class this fall. Tracey Snyder (Uni-versity of Chicago) reported that she gave aphone interview to a young woman in the pro-cess of applying to a graduate program in mu-sic librarianship (a required component of herapplication). Anne Shelley, a second-year SLISstudent at the University of Iowa, sent Sheri acopy of her “Conference Report” paper onher experiences at the 2006 Midwest Chaptermeeting in Milwaukee. While the paper waswritten for a course in Cultural Foundations,the Membership Committee felt that it couldeasily be re-worked for an article in the Mid-west Chapter newsletter.

Longtime Midwest Chapter membersRichard LeSueur and Sheri Stormes sharedtheir thoughts about the changing environmentof music librarianship. E-mail and listservs

have enabled us to conduct daily conversationson topics that we used to be able to discuss asa group only at our annual chapter meetings.Travel budgets and general conference fundingfor librarians seems to be diminishing. Publiclibraries across the country are cutting profes-sional staff; it is no longer assumed that theperson handling music cataloging and acquisi-tions will be someone with a music degree (oreven a strong music background). We speculat-ed about how our organization needs to refo-cus its activities in order to remain viable.

Finally, the group’s discussion centered onwhat the Membership Committee should bedoing to help keep the Midwest Chapter thriv-ing. In previous years we had identified variousthemes and audiences that would benefit frompromotion of our chapter. In keeping withthose themes, we will try to pursue the follow-ing activities in the coming year:

Music divisions for public libraries: (1) Have a presence at state library con-

ferences—to let public librarians know that weare available to help them.

(2) Create core lists of materials (e.g.,scores, recordings, DVDs) for small (100 ti-tles), medium (200 titles), and large (300 titles)public libraries. These should be lists of titles,not specific recordings, editions, etc. and list-making would be carried out in cooperationwith other chapter committees, such as PublicServices and/or Publications.

Academic communities:(1) Urge all chapter members to make

brief (30-60-second) “plugs” for our profes-sion and/or organization during theirr instruc-tion sessions, especially to upper divisional un-dergraduates and graduate students

(2) Make sure that mention is made ofour organization to students enrolled in semi-nars in music librarianship at various libraryschools.

Paraprofessionals:(1) Target advertising for chapter meetings,

in both academic and public libraries, in coop-eration with the local arrangement/programcommittee.

Membership:(1) Contact all national MLA members [in

our region] that do not currently belong to thechapter.

(2) Keep the membership brochure andother materials online and up-to-date.

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Current members of the committee arechair Mary Huismann (University of Minneso-ta), Keith Cochran (Indiana University), MichaelDuffy (Northern Illinois University), PaulaHickner (University of Kentucky), Laurie Lake(Indiana University), Richard LeSueur (Ann Ar-bor District Library, retired), Sheridan Stormes(Butler University), Lynne Weber (MinnesotaState University-Mankato), and Don Widmer(VanderCook College of Music). (Mary His-mann, Uinversity of Minnesota; Sheri Stormes, ButlerUniversity)

PUBLIC SERVICESFour members of the Public Services

Committee and three guests met on Thursday,October 11, 2007. Approximately the firsthour of the meeting was spent discussing theplenary session sponsored by the committee atthis year’s chapter meeting: 1) public perfor-mance rights for libraries, and 2) assistive ser-vices for library patrons with physical disabili-ties. The remainder of the meeting consideredpossible future topics for conference pro-grams, including federated searching, potentialuses for social networking software in promot-ing library services and outreach, new digitalproducts/databases of interest to music librari-ans, and effective advocacy for libraries. Dis-cussion will continue throughout the year via e-mail. (Robert Delvin, Illinois Wesleyan University)

PUBLICATIONSFive committee members and two guests

met on October 11, 2007 from 4-5 p.m. Themeeting was convened by Therese Dickman,past chair, for Lynne Weber, the new commit-tee chair, who was unable to attend. Don Wid-mer is interested in becoming a member of thecommittee; Kathleen Haefliger would like tocontinue as a member.

It was noted that Lynne Weber edited thefirst in a series of “Speaking Our History” arti-cles for Midwest Note-Book (16:1, May 2007, pp.5-11), which draws from the interviews gath-ered for the chapter’s oral history project.Lynne’s article featured the life of Joan (Jody)Falconer, the former head of the Rita BentonMusic Library at the University of Iowa,whom Lynne interviewed in January of 2006.Therese Dickman will prepare the next articleabout Rick Jones for the January 2008 newslet-ter; others plan to provide future articles. —Photos by Rebecca Littman—Photos by Rebecca Littman—Photos by Rebecca Littman—Photos by Rebecca Littman—Photos by Rebecca Littman

Laura Gayle (l) passes the chapter corkscrew toRuthann

The Chapter’s oral history project was dis-cussed. About twenty interviews of chaptermembers have been conducted since 1996. Thecommittee plans a print publication drawingfrom the project’s oral history interviews forthe chapter’s 70th anniversary year—a merefour years away. Amy Pennington suggestedcreating a wiki to keep members informedabout the status of the project, the oral historyprocess, and progress made towards the pub-lication. Therese and she will work to developand maintain such a wiki. Recommendationsfor future interviews were also made. MichaelDuffy announced that he would interviewformer chapter chair and Northern IllinoisUniversity colleague Stephen Wright. (That in-terview has since been completed.)

Laura Gayle Green proposed that thecommittee offer an oral history program ses-sion at next year’s Kansas City meeting.Therese, as project coordinator, will provide anoverview of the chapter’s oral history project.An oral historian from the Kansas City areawill be sought to speak. The session will con-clude with a live interview of one of our dis-tinguished chapter members. It was suggestedthat former chapter chair and recent retiree Ri-chard LeSueur be interviewed by long-timefriend and chapter member Jack Knapp. Com-mittee members heartily endorsed the recom-mendation. (Therese Dickman, Southern IllinoisUniversity Edwardsville)

TECHNOLOGY, ARCHIVES, PRESERVATION ANDSOUND (TAPS)

TAPS enjoyed a sparsely attended buteventful meeting in Cincinnati, with three mem-bers and six visitors in attendance. Since ourchair, Donna Campbell, has left the chapter,

continued on page 20

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Minutes of the Business MeetingSaturday, October 13, 2007, Radisson Hotel Cincinnati Waterfront, Covington, KY

I. Call to OrderThe meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. by chair Laura Gayle Green.

II. Approval of the 2006 Meeting MinutesThe minutes of the 2006 meeting were printed in the January 2007 issue ofMidwest Note-Book (vol. 15 no. 3). A motion was made and seconded to approvethe 2006 minutes. The motion was carried.

III. Treasurer’s ReportAt the end of the Chapter fiscal year (30 September 2007), our assets totaled$9,646.64 ($4,553.64 in the U.S. Bank checking account, $811.66 in the U.S. Banksavings account, and $4,281.34 in the Associated Bank account). The Chapter’sscholarship funds are held in the Chapter checking account. At the end of the fiscalyear, the Retirees’ Fund totaled $1,630.00 and the Leslie Troutman Fund totaled$1,639.00. Laura Gayle Green discussed moving some of our funds in checking toan interest-generating account. A motion was made and seconded to accept theTreasurer’s Report as amended (change the final date of the report fromSeptember 30, 2006 to September 30, 2007). The motion was carried.

IV. Election ResultsKeith Cochran was elected to the position of Secretary-Treasurer. He will beginduties immediately. There were a total of 57 valid ballots, which represents 53% ofChapter members. Thanks to Keith and Jon Haupt for their willingness to serve theChapter by running for this office!

V. Committee Reports• Cataloging Committee: Sue Stancu reported for Mark Scharff. Seven membersand three guests attended the meeting. Mark Scharff, the Music LibraryAssociation’s representative to ALA’s Committee on Cataloging: Description andAccess, gave an update on the current status of RDA. Current issues in catalogingwere discussed, including minimal level cataloging, shelf-ready cataloging, anddigital recordings at Indiana University. Sue Stancu is Chair-Elect of the CatalogingCommittee.• Membership Committee: Sheridan Stormes reported for Mary Huismann.Members discussed changes in the Midwest Chapter, particularly how recent trendsand developments in libraries, such as listservs, e-mail, and diminishing travelbudgets have impacted and may re-shape and direct future activities and programthemes of the Midwest Chapter. Richard LeSueur and Tracey Snyder reported thatthey were involved in outreach activities over the course of the past year. AnneShelley, a second-year SLIS student at the University of Iowa, wrote a ConferenceReport paper for a course in cultural foundations on the 2006 meeting inMilwaukee. A revised version of the paper will be published in the Midwest Note-Book and excerpts will be quoted in the Membership Brochure. Membersbrainstormed about outreach activities, summarized as follows: to reach publiclibrarians, the Chapter could have a presence at state library associationconferences. A task force could be established to develop core lists of scores andrecordings for public library collections. Academic librarians could also visit music-related courses in graduate library schools and talk about the benefits of MLA.Academic librarians could also visit graduate library schools and recruit. Themembership brochure could be sent via e-mail to MLA members in the Midwestregion who are not Chapter members. Sheri closed with the final paragraph fromAnne Shelley’s paper.• Public Services Committee: Bob Delvin reported that seven members attended.The committee discussed public performance rights and services to patrons withdisabilities. The committee discussed future program topics, such as socialnetworking. Kirstin Dougan attended the meeting as a visitor.• Publications Committee: Therese Dickman reported that seven people attendedthe meeting, five members and two guests. Lynne Weber could not attend, but sheis the Chair-Elect. Therese issued a call to publish an oral history document by the70th annual meeting (in 2011). Amy Pennington recommended creating a wiki abouthow to conduct an oral history interview. Therese brought transcripts of interviewsto edit for publication in the Midwest Note-Book. The committee would like toinclude a live oral history interview on the program for the 2008 meeting in KansasCity. This program will feature Jack Knapp interviewing Richard LeSueur. MikeDuffy will interview Stephen Wright in a few weeks.• TAPS Committee: Jon Haupt reported for Donna Campbell. Three members andsix visitors attended the meeting. Jon was elected Chair of the committee.Discussion topics included the “ask-an-expert” service, “Tips from TAPS,” ethics anddigital music archives, and the phenomenon of people retaining tracks on iPodswithout listening to them. The committee also discussed the question of how many

of the “great recordings” are available only on LP,digital delivery of departmental recital recordings,and gifts issues, particularly disposal. The committeewould like to include programs in future meetings onethics and digital music archives and a ‘how-to”program on the digital archiving of music.• Bylaws Committee: Beth Christensen reported thatshe met with Grace Fitzgerald and Laura GayleGreen at the MLA annual meeting in Pittsburgh.There will be an election to amend the bylaws today.The Web version of the bylaws was recentlycorrected.

VI. AwardsThere were no applicants or awards for the LeslieTroutman paraprofessional award this year.The Retirees’ Scholarships for Student Memberswere awarded to: • Veronica Alzade, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Eric Harbeson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Anne Shelley, University of IowaEric Harbeson was unable to attend the Saturdaysessions, and was awarded half the amount of theother awardees. Congratulations to all!

VII. Old BusinessBob Acker reported on the Chicago MLA meeting(2009). The Local Arrangements Committee isconsidering whether or not to hold a localarrangements reception. Tours were suggested,including the Chicago Architecture Foundation tourand local library tours.

VIII. New BusinessThe proposed revisions to the Chapter bylawspassed by voice vote.

IX. Announcements• Laura Gayle Green announced that the hotel forthe Kansas City meeting in 2008 will have freeInternet access and free parking, but there will be nobar or restaurant.• The 2010 meeting will be in Bloomington, Illinois.Jennifer Matthews volunteered to host the 2009meeting at Notre Dame, Indiana.• Laura Gayle Green thanked members of theChapter, particularly Bob Delvin, Greg Fitzgerald,Rebecca Littman, Ruthann McTyre, and Mike Duffyfor a job well done. Laura Gayle passed thecorkscrew to Ruthann, who is our new Chapter Chair.

X. AdjournmentThe meeting was adjourned at 9:55 a.m.

—Respectfully submitted,—Respectfully submitted,—Respectfully submitted,—Respectfully submitted,—Respectfully submitted,Michael J. DufMichael J. DufMichael J. DufMichael J. DufMichael J. Duffyfyfyfyfy, Secret, Secret, Secret, Secret, Secretarararararyyyyy -----TTTTTreasurerreasurerreasurerreasurerreasurer

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Speaking our History: Rick JonesSecond in a Series in the Midwest Chapter Oral History Project“I became a librarian because I wanted to help people. That has never been to help only those people who are studentsin the school—it’s to help anyone. The chapter has made it possible for me to make my librarianship more complete,because I get a chance to share with my colleagues. And that’s really made it wonderful.”

Richard E. (Rick) Jones served MLA in variouscapacities at both the national and regional levels.He was chair of the Midwest Chapter and editor ofMidwest Note-Book. Rick held positions at OhioUniversity, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Trenton State College (now the Collegeof New Jersey), and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. From 1993 he was Music Librarian atNotre Dame University until his retirement in 2006.While at Notre Dame he hosted the chapter’s 55thanniversary meeting in 1996. Therese Dickmaninterviewed Rick during the MLA annual meeting inSeattle, Washington, on February 10 of that year.

Becoming a Music LibrarianRJ: I think it was fate. It’s about the only

way to put it. In fourth grade, the band direc-tor from the high school came and announcedthat they were going to allow students in ele-mentary school to study instruments. I selectedtrombone and very quickly decided that I reallywanted to be a conductor. I felt the best wayto do it was to get very close to the band di-rector. So I started running errands and woundup very quickly being the person who put themusic out and set the chairs, and made sure therehearsals were ready, and took everythingdown. I continued in high school and suddenlyI was taking care of the band library at thesame time. By that time I really wanted to be aconductor and the new high school band direc-tor suggested that I study conducting withArthur Cohn, who was the head of classicalmusic at Columbia Records. He thought I hadsome talent, but he also said that I had a lot ofwork to do. I knew that. He gave me lessons inreturn for being the orchestra librarian for theHaddonfield Symphony [in New Jersey].

Arthur Cohn kept telling me that I reallyneeded to study music as an academic researchdiscipline. So I made up my mind and went toWestminster College. Within two weeks Ifound myself—and I’m still not sure how ithappened—as the choir librarian, and the bandlibrarian, and the orchestra librarian, and the li-brarian for the women’s chorus. It’s not a musiclibrary in the traditional sense, but I was doing

all that and they had an office for me. I tookover the library as my office as a freshman. Inmy junior year my brass teacher, who was alsothe music historian at the school, was leaving. Ihad decided [that] maybe I didn’t want to be aconductor. I knew that there were a lot moretalented people [than] I was out there. And(sigh) I didn’t think I would make it. I haddecided that I didn’t want to be a high schoolband director . . .or even a high school orches-tra director.

I decided to teach music history because Ienjoy music history. Ray Smith was the musi-cologist there and he was leaving to go dosome post-doctoral work. I veered him intohis office and said, “What can I do? How do Iget into this?” And he told me all about [beinga music historian] and how much he enjoyed it.Then he said, “Musicologists are a dime adozen. What you ought to do is be a musiclibrarian.” I had never seen a music librarian. Ididn’t know what a music librarian did. West-minster College had three professional librari-ans and I hadn’t met one of them. Nobodydid, because they were always behind thescenes. I had been very involved with the pub-lic library, but again the people I had met werenot the librarians. And I said, “I thought beinga music librarian meant doing exactly what Iwas doing: setting up chairs, putting out stands,copying parts, and maybe doing a little arrang-ing or something like that. And I said, “Oh no.I don’t think that would be the right thing todo.” So senior year came and I was going onto graduate school.

Graduate School at Ohio UniversityI found a good graduate school in Ohio

University in Athens, Ohio. I had a full scholar-ship, was studying musicology and musictheory, and was planning still to go on to be amusic historian or maybe a college musicteacher. The day I arrived, walking down thehall with a couple of other graduate students

“Then he said,‘Musicologistsare a dime adozen. What youought to do is bea music librarian.’I had never seena music librarian.I didn’t know whata music librariandid.”

“The day I arrived,walking down thehall with a coupleof other graduatestudents who wereshowing mearound, out of themusic librarythere, walked thisbeautiful womanwho I absolutelyfell in love withinstantaneously.”

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who were showing me around, out of themusic library there, walked this beautifulwoman who I absolutely fell in love withinstantaneously. We’ve always thought it wasappropriate that she was coming out of thelibrary as I was going in! Five months later wewere engaged. The library had a lot to do withit because we were always working together inthe library—it was a very tiny room the librarywas in. It suddenly occurred to me that in Junewe were going to be married, [and] I didn’thave any income! I had a full scholarship butno income. So I went back to the dean of theschool and said, “You know we’re gettingmarried?” And he said, “Yes, that’s wonderfulnews—you two were just meant for each oth-er.” And I said, “But I don’t know if I can af-ford this.” And he said, “Well, we’ll see whatwe can do.” A week later they gave me a grad-uate assistantship as the graduate assistant incharge of the music library.

The graduate assistants in charge of themusic library before had been responsible forscheduling to make sure that the students whowere supposed to be there were there. And Itook that job and ran with it. I didn’t knowwhat I was doing, but I just ran with it. And Iloved it! The student assistants who workedthere suddenly were working, not just sittingthere guarding to make sure the books weren’tstolen. Then I graduated, and my wife had an-other two months to finish, so we were stayingthere during the summer.

They had advertised for a music librarianand they asked me to show the candidatesaround. There were two candidates. I showedthem around. I was very proud of this facilityand of the collection—of what we had donewith it. I would show them the card catalogand show them the problems in it, and theyweren’t interested. And I would show themthe circulation system and how problematic itwas, and they weren’t interested. And I wouldtalk about the space problems, and they didn’tseem interested. I went home after the secondone—it was a Friday night—and said to Pat,my wife, “You know, they are going to ruinthis place. They don’t have the slightest careabout the library or the students, or anything atall.” It really felt like my library at that point. Istewed about it all weekend. Finally, on Sundaynight Pat said to me, “You know, if you reallyfeel this strongly about it, why don’t you go tell

them what you think?” So I did. Mondaymorning I made an appointment with thedean—they had a different dean then. And Isaid, “This is none of my business. In a monthI’ll be out of here and gone. But I have to tellyou, I had to show both those people around.Neither of them is ever going to be good mu-sic librarian for this place. I was trembling, andI could barely get my words out. What I saidwas not nearly as clear as what I just said. Heturned to me, laughed, and said, “You can re-lax, because we reached that same conclusion.”I said, “thank you for listening to me. I’m veryglad to hear that.” I started to get up and hesaid, “But the committee [asked] why you didn’tapply for the job.” And I said, “Me? I’m not alibrarian. The library would never agree to this,and besides, I don’t have the training.” He [re-plied], “Well, we called the library over theweekend, and they said they’d be glad to haveyou.” So I went home and talked to Pat.About two and a half hours later I was back,having accepted the job.

There have been some diversions where Iwas head of cataloging for a while and collec-tion management in another library for a while,but music librarianship is just in my blood. Sothat’s how I became one—in 1968.

The library gave me some training alongthe way. I found out, for instance, that for awhole year I had been looking at uniform titleson cards for scores—we had been transcribingthem—and since I didn’t understand the sys-tem, we’d been doing them backwards for awhole year. (laughing) I learned to be a musiclibrarian strictly by looking at things and tryingto imitate them.

When I finally went to library school, I didalmost nothing with music. All my librarycourses were advanced courses because I hadlearned, at that point, everything they wereteaching on the job. [Rick had worked in theMusic Library at Ohio University from 1968 to1970.]

One of the things I discovered about my-self is that I don’t like things when they geteasy. And what I did in Ohio was to get thelibrary on a firm footing; unify it because it hadbeen split between the main library and themusic library; design and equip a new musiclibrary; get it moved in; get the staff working;and hired a music cataloger. All of a sudden, itseemed almost boring. …My wife wanted to

“’The committee[asked] why youdidn’t apply for thejob.’ ...I said, ‘Me?I’m not a librarian.The library wouldnever agree tothis, and besides,I don’t have thetraining.’”

“And I took thatjob and ran with it.I didn’t know whatI was doing, but Ijust ran with it.And I loved it! Thestudent assistantswho worked theresuddenly wereworking, not justsitting thereguarding to makesure the booksweren’t stolen.”

“One of the thingsI discoveredabout myself isthat I don’t likethings when theyget easy.”

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teach, and there was no way for her to teach atOhio University. So, we decided that I wouldstart applying to library schools. It was clearthat I needed the degree, and there were a lotof things I needed to learn. And so wherevershe would apply for a job, I would apply forthe nearest library school. And, fortunately for[us], North Carolina worked out. So, we wentdown to library school.

The University of North Carolina atChapel Hill

Jim Pruett was music librarian there. Wehad a thesis requirement. I had looked aroundand one of the things that I had real problemswith was trying to find a way to identify newmusic that was coming out of the non-tradi-tional countries—what I’m talking about [is]Eastern Europe and Southern Europe, exceptfor Italy. So I decided that what I really wantedto do was a project thesis on the degree towhich national bibliographies listed music, howthey listed and organized it, and so forth. Thelibrary school [advisers] said that was a finething, but they really didn’t think they had any-body to advise it. They suggest that I go talk toJim. So I made an appointment with him, toldhim about it, and sat in his office for about ahalf an hour pontificating, as my wife alwaystells me, about what I wanted to do and whatI thought was being done. At the end he said,“That’s a wonderful project and I would beglad to see it done, but you know more aboutit than I do. Go do it!” So I did.

The other thing that I really rememberabout library school was that there were fourpeople who wanted to be music librarians inthat class. And they all kept coming to me tofind out what it was like to be a real musiclibrarian. The disturbing thing is that all fourgot jobs when they graduated, [but] none ofthem stayed in the profession for more thantwo years. They all left. I never understoodwhy, because they looked like they had the in-terest and the excitement that a music librariandemands. But they all left.

My wife was on the faculty at the Uni-versity of North Carolina in Greensboro and Ihad sent out resumes to everybody around.The director at Greensboro called me in andsaid that they were impressed. I didn’t realize Iwas having a job interview. At the end of itthey offered me the job as assistant director of

the cataloging department. The head catalogerwas going to retire and they wanted me to takeover the job the following year, with the un-derstanding that I would be cataloging all themusic at the same time. The music departmentwanted a separate music library and it was go-ing to be my job to facilitate that by recatalog-ing the music, and classifying them fromDewey to LC schedule, getting it ready, mak-ing the move, and advising them on the facility,which I did. What they did was to take whathad been a large rehearsal room and convertedit into a library.

[Rick developed plans for an automatedcirculation and serials system.] I don’t knowhow I got into that. Yes, I do. I was very inter-ested in computers, and it was clear that theywanted to get the system running. At thatpoint, there were no turnkey systems. Every-body did everything in-house. Saying that I de-veloped it means that I supervised the libraryside of the whole thing. They had very twofine computer technologists there who did allthe programming. But I was the person whokept testing it, and telling them how it ought tobe done, and which way it ought to run, andhow things ought to show up.

Philosophy of Music LibrarianshipFor my career and my philosophy and the

way I enjoy working, the joy of being a musiclibrarian is that you do everything. One of thethings that sincerely worries me about the jobI’m in right now is that at some point, beforethe millennium ends, we are going to open anew music library and I’m going to be hiringthree additional music librarians. For the firsttime in my life I’m not going to be able to doeverything. I don’t know how I can do that.When I catalog, I’m always thinking as a publicservices librarian, “How is this going to beused?” When I buy, it’s always because I knowthe collection because I cataloged it, so I knowwhat’s there. When I work with the public, it’sbecause I cataloged it and bought it that Iknow how to help them. So to me being amusic librarian is doing all three of them.

I honestly don’t know how I’m going tofunction in only one role. At least I’ve beenpromised so far [that] it will be up to me todefine the jobs. What I intend to do, and theyknow this, is that each person will have a pri-mary responsibility, but everybody will catalog,

“I had sent outresumes toeverybody around.The director atGreensboro calledme in and saidthat they wereimpressed. Ididn’t realize Iwas having a jobinterview. At theend of it theyoffered me thejob as assistantdirector of thecatalogingdepartment.”

“For my careerand my philosophyand the way Ienjoy working,the joy of being amusic librarian isthat you doeverything...”

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everybody will do collection development,everybody will do public services, and every-body will do bibliographic instruction, includ-ing me. It may be more difficult for otherpeople to come in, especially since the profes-sion has developed so much more since Istarted. There’s a lot of talk in librarianshipthese days about people on the front line pro-viding services, and the people in technical ser-vices being technical people. Well I think it’scalled technical services because that’s as mucha service as meeting with the public. I knowthat there are people, and I respect and haveworked with them, who don’t like to do cata-loging and people who don’t like to deal withthe public, but I can’t do it that way. It’s got tobe a complete job. So I had no problem withthat particular job.

By that point I was running the catalogingdepartment and the music had been finished.What new music came in I cataloged. At thatpoint I took for myself the re-cataloging andreclassification or classification for the first timeof all the foreign language serials. All of ourserials at that point had never been classified, sothis was a matter of classifying them and therewasn’t anyone in the cataloguing departmentwho had any foreign language skills. By thattime the music library was open and the facultywas sending in orders for—what in NorthCarolina was considered foreign material—mainly recordings that were on DeutscheGrammophon. So suddenly I was doing theacquisitions work for those things too, becausethe acquisitions department had never dealtwith a company that supplied things outsidethe state of North Carolina. Amazingly enoughwhen I was in the library at Chapel Hill I foundthat they rarely did business with anybody elseoutside the state of North Carolina.

In Greensboro at that particular time thecity had just, maybe ten years before, beendiscovered as a wonderful place for industry.The city had literally tripled in size in ten years,most of whom moved from the north. Therewas a real antagonism between the northernersand the southerners. There were the northerncountry clubs and there were the southerncountry clubs. There was the northern area ofliving and there was the southern area of living.It didn’t carry over to the university. It didn’tmatter where you came from if you were inthe university; that was perfectly fine. But still

the university, being part of North Carolinaand being part of Greensboro, still had thisfeeling that we ought to be able to supplyanything that anybody wants and if we don’thave it there shouldn’t be a reason for wantingit. And there wasn’t a record store or recorddealer at that time in North Carolina whowould stock things like that or who wouldsupply order one copy of something for you.And of course that’s what academic librariesare always going for, just one copy. So eventhough there were a couple of dealers whoreally wanted our business and I worked verywell with them when we wanted Columbiarecords or RCA records or something like that,they didn’t particularly want to start bringing inHMV from England, Deutsche Grammophonor Archiv Production recordings. They justdidn’t want to handle those. And they didn’tbelieve that they could sell them. And ofcourse the companies in Germany and Franceand England didn’t want to send just one copy.If you wanted to order this, you got ten copiesor twenty copies. And they probably couldn’thave sold them anyway.

Martin Rubin and Audio BuffOne of my best friends at Ohio University

was a philosophy professor who used the li-brary constantly whose name was MartinRubin. [He] left Ohio University the same yearI did, because he was tired of the politics ofacademia and started this tiny company calledAudio Buff. I saw this little tiny ad in a libraryjournal that said “Audio Buff, Marty Rubin” atAthens, Ohio. I said “That couldn’t be Marty!”(laughing) So I picked up the phone and calledhim, and it turned out to be him. And wetalked and talked and talked and talked. Finally[I] had to call him back because . . .We had[had] so much fun talking that I forgot to askhim about my recordings! (laughing) So then weestablished a business relationship for the uni-versity there. Ohio was close enough to NorthCarolina that it didn’t seem like going too farafield, and so we started doing it. But it wasstill a matter that I had to do the ordering andI had to deal with them. They didn’t want todo it because they weren’t sure when this re-cording came in and it had all the text in Ger-man on the outside, whether it was the thingwe’d ordered or not. So, I was doing all thechecking in and everything.

“Amazinglyenough, whenI was in the libraryat Chapel HillI found that theyrarely did businesswith anybody elseoutside the stateof North Carolina.”

“I saw this littletiny ad in a libraryjournal that said‘Audio Buff, MartyRubin’ at Athens,Ohio. I said, ‘Thatcouldn’t be Marty!’So I picked up thephone and calledhim, and it turnedout to be him. Andwe talked andtalked and talkedand talked.”

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New Jersey Years, 1972-1977My father died when we were in North

Carolina. My wife’s brother developed a veryserious problem with his legs. It looked as if hewas going to have to be operated on andmaybe not walk for awhile at the very sametime the first of his two sons was born. Wewanted to be near our family. So we bothstarted sending out resumes all over the place.Pat decided she also wanted to work on herdoctorate, so she started applying to schools. Ithappened again very nicely that she was accept-ed at Rutgers to work on her Ph.D andTrenton College accepted me. They called [theposition] “reader’s advisor” because the headlibrarian there had come to the United Statesfrom Germany just before Word War II. Hewas very much in the German mode of librar-ianship with reader’s advisors. We had elevenreader’s advisors in the library whose primaryjob was collection development of sorts, butprimarily just working with people who want-ed to know what to read or what to study orhow to do research on a subject. My job …itreally was “music librarian,” not “reader’sadvisor of music,” because I ran a separatemusic library in the library, but that was thetitle. When I left, one of the recommendationsI made was that they call it music librarian. Mysuccessor was given the title music librarian.

Computerizing SystemsWe had a record catalog that was horren-

dous. If there wasn’t Library of Congresscopy for a recording, they didn’t catalog it.And there was this gigantic backlog of things.With all the other things I had to do, I couldnot find a way to do all that cataloging. A per-son in those days—what you did was to sitdown and handwrite or type out a card whichwas then sent to the typing pool who typed agood looking card. It was then sent off someplace where it was photocopied, came back,and then they did all the other cards. It was aterribly long and involved process and I justcouldn’t see how we could do it. Plus, in thosedays, nobody had analytics for recordings, andthat’s what I wanted. That meant even if youhad Library of Congress cards, you had to or-der six or seven sets of them, or they didn’tgive full performers. So I went over to thecomputer center again. The library had neverasked me to do anything. And in fact, at that

point none of the academic departments hadever asked me to do anything. It was a situationin which the computer center was doing onlyadministrative computing. They were just de-lighted at the idea that somebody wanted touse them to do something that was not justcrunching numbers.

Midwest Chapter Program SeriesStarting from the beginning, most of the

presentations I was involved with were aboutbibliographic instruction. It was somethingclearly, in those days—late ‘70s, early ‘80s—that people were very interested in, but hadnot done very much of. It seemed to me thatit was the kind of thing that one needed someidea of the philosophy of how to deal with it.We tried. We tried to present sessions that werenot just a “Here’s a program you can emulate,”but tried to deal with the philosophy—some-thing practical. After you deal with the philoso-phy, then you show “Here’s one way to put itinto effect.” But not to say, “Here’s how youdo it,” just a suggestion of how to do it. Therewere three or four of those that I was in-volved in.

Along around [1984 or 1985], I becameconcerned that there were issues outside librarytraining—outside of library school. I’d beentaking courses on the side. I proposed . . . [to]the chapter Executive Committee a series ofprograms that would deal with these kinds ofthings. They liked it, so they approved it. Thefirst one was [in] 1984. I set up a program onstress management. I didn’t realize howstressed I was, (laughing) but I set up a programon stress management. It was [with] a clinicalpsychologist. . . .The meeting was in Cincinnati.Everyone told me it was wonderful. The dayof the meeting, that Thursday morning, I gotup early to drive to Cincinnati, and our car hadbeen stolen! So, I never got there. People toldme it was just wonderful. He [David Chiap-pone] came in and took people and workedwith them. I mean this was not [just] a theoreti-cal explanation—and how we relieved theirstress! It was so good that in fact, the very nextyear at the Louisville national meeting, we hadhim back again to do the same thing.

The next year was marketing the library.Yes, that was the Ann Arbor meeting in 1987.I had been talking with a lot of people in thechapter about marketing and gotten the reac-

“...I becameconcerned thatthere were issuesoutside librarytraining—outsideof library school...I proposed...aseries of programsthat would dealwith these kindsof things. Theyliked it, so theyapproved it.”

“...I could not finda way to do allthat cataloging...A person in thosedays—what youdid was to sitdown and hand-write or type outa card which wasthen sent to thetyping pool, whotyped a good-looking card...it was a terriblylong and involvedprocess...”

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tion that marketing was a dirty word. It wasnot the kind of thing librarians, especially aca-demic librarians, would ever do because that’s“too commercial.” But it is something that I’dbeen talking about and thinking about for along time. [I] took a course in marketing just tosee how I could make it apply. So this was thesecond [program in the series] and it had al-ready been approved.

I started calling around the Detroit areaand calling librarians I knew. [I] came up withthe director of the Ford Theater in Detroit[Russ Collins], who had restored an old theaterand set up a repertory theater company there,fighting great odds against it. Not only fightingto raise the money, but also fighting the gov-ernment situation, where they didn’t particularlythink this was a good idea. Oh, he was justwonderful. This was somebody from thebusiness world, albeit the non-profit thing, buthe was really in business. All he could talkabout was the humanistic-artistic side of thewhole thing. And he talked about marketing.He knew about marketing, he understoodmarketing, and he did it. The other person wasthe public relations director at the DetroitPublic Library. . . . it was wonderful.

“Go Buy the Balloons!”I can still remember one of the stories.

They were having a reception at which theywere going to raise money for some purchasethat they wanted to do. In order to bring peo-ple in they were going to have balloons outfront. One of her assistants kept coming inand saying “Well, who is going to get the bal-loons?” and “How are we going to get theballoons?” and “Who is going to blow up theballoons?” Finally she said, “I just explodedand said ‘GO BUY THE BALLOONS!’”(laughing) Everybody in that room was shockedand laughed hysterically. The whole rest of thatmeeting, every time someone would [ask],“How are we going to do this?” everybodywould respond, “Just go buy the balloons!” Itwas just wonderful. All of a sudden. . .market-ing ceased to be a dirty word. People began tothink about—and of course academic librari-ans have this feeling particularly—that theycan’t just rely upon the fact that they exist in or-der to make money.

Immediately thereafter was when I gotsick and had a number of years out. Then I

came back as newsletter editor. I was on theExecutive Committee and somebody had saidat one of our meetings, “That set of programsthat you had designed had a real good start…whatever happened to that?” And I said, “Well,I’m willing to go on with it, if you really wantit.” They said “yes.” So for the St. Louis meet-ing [in 1992], I set up a program on [“Businessand Music Libraries.”] We got the head of the[St. Louis] Arts [and] Education Council [PatRich]. She talked about raising money again,but raising money for the humanities andselling the humanities. We also got the Friends’Coordinator [Donna Bardon] from your insti-tution [Lovejoy Library, Southern Illinois Uuni-versity Edwardsville]. [She] talked about volun-teers and what they can do in friends’ groupsas well as in the library. . . . Once again theresponse from people who had been thinkingabout it and didn’t know how to deal with itor people who had never thought about it,suddenly realized that this was something theycould do. It could help them get through par-ticularly troubling financial times, as well asmaking the music library more visible—not justto the community, which was very important,but to their own special community, whateverfunding agency they were dealing with.

The next one in [Lexington in 1993]… wascalled “Personnel Matters in the [Music] Li-brary.” The whole point of it was dealing withyour staff and your personnel. We had a per-sonnel director [Joan Bishop] from the [Lex-ington] Public Library. Her topic was how todeal with difficult employees… problem em-ployees. She had asked for a series of the kindsof problems that we had. We gave them to herand, in essence, what she said was, “Don’t hireher,” (laugh) which was very disappointing. Wehad a professor of library science [TimothySineath] from the University of [Kentucky],who delivered a very fine scholarly paper onpersonnel management. . . .The third one wasthe clinical psychologist [Richard Ramsey, Uni-versity of Kentucky], who. . .[discussed] on avery easy level, what the stress issues were—notonly for yourself, but for other people, andhow stress between people helped. I remem-ber all of his illustrations were cartoons. . . .

Then the last one was…two years ago[1994]…in Bloomington [Illinois]. That reallywas [on] stress and time management. [There]is a wonderful clinical psychologist [Paul Salmon]

“Once again theresponse frompeople who hadbeen thinkingabout it and didn’tknow how to dealwith it or peoplewho had neverthought about it,suddenly realizedthat this wassomething theycould do.”

“I had beentalking with a lotof people in thechapter aboutmarketing andgotten thereaction thatmarketing was adirty word. It wasnot the kind ofthing librarians,especially aca-demic librarians,would ever dobecause that’s‘too commercial.’”

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from the University of Louisville who worksprimarily with musicians…with artists. He is anorganist who works with artists on how tomake their practicing work. He has writtenseveral books, as a matter of fact, on stagefright and planning out your schedules. I hadmet him because my wife, Patricia CollinsJones, who was Dean of the School of Musicat DePauw [University], had had him comeseveral times to talk to her students about this.He had done some wonderful clinics. When Icalled him he said “I’ve never worked with li-brarians.” I [replied], “Well, music librarians arelibrarians but they’re also musicians, so it willwork out very well.” I didn’t get to that meet-ing either. My wife was sick the night before. Ijust couldn’t leave her. So I never got to thatmeeting, but I am told that was a very success-ful one. I know that he would have done avery good job. Unlike the [other] two clinicalpsychologists — both of whom had donevery good jobs before but who had neverdealt with artists before—this man was a musi-cian. He had a master’s degree in organ fromHarvard. So he knew what he was talkingabout …He was very library-oriented, even ifhe had never done this with a library group be-fore.

And that was the series . . . that I wantedto get to. I’m not sure when I originallythought of it that it was actually going to bestress management and stress management onboth ends. (laughing) What seemed to make itright at the end was [that] over that period ofnine years, from the beginning when I pro-posed it to when we did it, was we wentthrough a terrible financial crunch, dollar deval-uation which meant our serials budget’s bent allout of line; the beginning of the technologicalrevolution; complete changes in staffing andstaffing patterns; having to retrain our staffsand retrain ourselves and…ultimately thedownsizing of libraries and library staff. So inpoint of fact, it turned out to be a time of realstress for everybody…Because of the outsidepressures, you had to know something aboutbusiness, and you had to look for extra sourcesof funding, and you had to bring your libraryout to the world and impress the fundingagency with how important you were andwhat a good job you were doing. So it turnedout that all of those programs…were timely. Icertainly heard very good comments about

them. I feel that they were very successful. Infact [I] got asked by the Personnel Committeeof the national MLA to come and talk to themabout the series of programs, so that theycould see what could be done on the nationallevel.

Following the University of WisconsinYears

Well, I was sick, came back, and they [theUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee] obviouslywanted me back. They invited me back as se-nior bibliographer, in essence, to be over thejob I had been doing before as an assistant di-rector. One of the things I had made a practiceof throughout my life is not to supervisesomebody who is doing the job I had beendoing. The temptation to try to interfere—Ithink I could resist it, but it’s always there. Plus,the new person always knows that you’re therelooking over their shoulder. No matter howmuch you try not to, they’re going to feel it. SoI decided I really couldn’t do that. Pat wantedto move. She’d been President for the Wiscon-sin Conservatory and decided that it was timeto move on. So I said, “Find a job,” and I’mstill barely recovering from my illness. I said,“I’ll go do something else for awhile.” I editedfreelance for about twelve different presses forthree years.

Freelance EditingI was trying to decide what to do, know-

ing that Pat could be going anywhere in thecountry. Who would know if there would be alibrary job there? Somehow throughout mycareer I have always been the person the facultyhad [sought] to edit their manuscripts. Studentshad wanted me to advise their theses and dis-sertations, so editing was something I did allthe time. I thought, “Well, I don’t know if Ican make a living at this or not, but it is some-thing I can do for awhile.” So I started callingand writing and sending resumes to every pressthat I could think of. A whole bunch of aca-demic presses responded and said, “We don’thave full-time jobs, but if you are willing totake a book when we’ve got it, we’ll do it.”[These included] Indiana University Press,Princeton University Press, Associated Univer-sity Presses, Harcourt Brace, and the Universityof Illinois Press. They would send me a manu-script and say, “Does this look interesting for

“One of the thingsI had made apractice ofthroughout mylife is not tosupervisesomebody whois doing the jobI had been doing.”

“...it turned outto be a time ofreal stress foreverybody…Because of theoutside pressures,you had to knowsomething aboutbusiness, and youhad to look forextra sources offunding, and youhad to bring yourlibrary out to theworld... So itturned out that allof those programs…were timely.”

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you to work on?” And I would say “yes” (or“no” occasionally). And then they would putme in touch with the author, and the two of uswould work together for a month or so onthe book and send it back to them. I actuallydid three music books during that time, buteverything else was…every other subject un-der the sun. I would not do anything that washard science. It’s another language which Idon’t understand. It was too easy for me tocorrect something grammatically and make thesentence wrong scientifically. I did [do] somehistory of science things. So at any rate, I’m ed-iting along and my wife keeps telling me, “Youknow, you’re not really happy.” So finally I de-cided, “Well, I don’t think anybody’s going towant me. I’ve been out of this too long.” Butshe said to go try. So I sent out resumes andapplied for jobs. And lo and behold, I gotoffered four!

On to Notre DameNot only in terms of location—because it

was not a long commute for us to live inSouth Bend and Greencastle [Indiana], wheremy wife lives—but also the joy of startingover, Notre Dame was just exactly the place.Notre Dame … is building a music school andWest Tyler Music Library [separate from themain library]. At this point, what they aresaying is that they want a music collection. Upuntil twelve years ago, they didn’t even have anundergraduate degree in music. All of a sud-den—well, not all of a sudden—Notre Damenever does anything all of a sudden. They takea long time to think about what they are goingto do and make sure that they really want todo it. But when they do it, they decide to do itright. And so as part of building up the school,they wanted somebody to come in.

Officially my job is music librarian but it’spart of the collection development depart-ment. I do catalog and do public services andbibliographic instruction, and in essence devel-op a collection that will be worthy of thebuilding that I have to supervise the buildingof. So it’s just exactly what I had done back inOhio University. It’s starting all over again. It’sdoing everything and putting them all together,and it’s just exactly the kind of job I love todo. So here I am back at Notre Dame again.

[The building] had been planned to opensometime in 1998-99, but Notre Dame does

not start a building until the money is in thebank. There had been some preliminary draw-ings and the head of the music departmentdidn’t like them. When I saw them, I didn’t likewhat they did for the library. And there weresome other questions about the way the build-ing was facing. It will be the first building thatyou’ll see when you get to Notre Dame. Thearchitect wanted a beautiful facade with a park-ing lot, and the chancellor did not want a park-ing lot to be the first thing you saw. So they’restarting over again. I think we’ll be in beforethe new millennium comes—how much be-fore that, I’m not sure. I went in, meeting thearchitect and the new provosts just before Icame here [to this MLA meeting]. [I] went inwith my very optimistic size requests for thespace I wanted, and they said, “I don’t thinkthat’s going to be enough.” In essence [they] aregiving me about 40% more space than I wasasking for! (laughter) …The architect looked atit and said very clearly that we have to raise “x”amount more money. That seems to be some-thing Notre Dame is very good at. So while itmight be another year, maybe even two yearslonger than we thought, it’s going to work out.

The Planned 55th Anniversary MidwestChapter Meeting at Notre Dame (1996)

Just when I started getting the newsletterchanged, Allie Goudy said, “You know, I thinkwe’ve got an anniversary coming up.” Both ofus started investigating, and we couldn’t findthe year. In fact, it’s going to be our 55th anni-versary instead of our 50th one. When we dis-covered this, I don’t remember whether it wasAllie that was still chair or whether Leslie[Troutman] had started being chair. No, Alliemust have still been chair. We had an ExecutiveCommittee meeting, and everybody was dis-couraged because we’d missed our 50th anni-versary. That was [at] the Lexington meeting.

Driving home, I just got so enthusiastic. Iwanted to celebrate the chapter! I do my bestin thinking when I’m driving. I wrote a memoover and over and over again that four-hourdrive coming back home to Greencastle, andsent it off the next day. When it was acceptedthat we were going to do this anniversary in1996 and no one had volunteered for it, it justseemed appropriate to me that, what is proba-bly the newest music library in our chapter [atNotre Dame University], would be the place

“So...I’m editingalong and my wifekeeps telling me,‘You know, you’renot really happy.’So finally Idecided, ‘Well,I don’t thinkanybody’s goingto want me. I’vebeen out of thistoo long.’ But shesaid to go try. SoI sent out resumesand applied forjobs. And lo andbehold, I gotoffered four!”

“...everybody wasdiscouragedbecause we’dmissed our 50thanniversary. ...Driving home,I just got soenthusiastic.I wanted tocelebrate thechapter!”

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to celebrate the whole history. So, I really feelvery grateful to the chapter for giving us thisopportunity to host that.

Reflections about the Midwest ChapterI’m really grateful for the Midwest Chap-

ter. I’ve learned a lot from the meetings andtalking to people [at] the sessions that we’ve at-tended. Even the sessions that I ran gave methe excuse to spend the time to learn what Ineeded to learn. The marketing thing: I hadtaken a course in marketing and I was market-ing the library. Yes, I was doing it. But doingthe sessions forced me to sit down and thinkabout exactly what kind of things I wanted topresent, to stop being process-oriented, andbecome philosophy-oriented. I think that is oneof the problems librarians have all the time. Weare always thinking about “How do we do it?”not “What do we want to do?” Those have al-ways forced me to learn something, to sitdown, and rethink the whole thing.

The chapter has given me another aspectof being a librarian. I became a librarian be-cause I wanted to help people. That has neverbeen to help only those people who are stu-dents in the school—it’s to help anyone. Thechapter has made it possible for me to makemy librarianship more complete, because I geta chance to share with my colleagues. Andthat’s really made it wonderful.

“I’m really gratefulfor the MidwestChapter. I’velearned a lot fromthe meetings andtalking to people[at] the sessions.”

the first order of business was to elect a newchair. Jon Haupt was elected by voice vote.[Editor’s note: Since the meeting, Jon Haupt has as-sumed a position at Southern Methodist University andMisti Shaw of DePauw University is the new chair ofTAPS.]

Among the topics discussed were the “ask-an-expert” service, “Tips from TAPS,” andethics and digital music archives. The “ask-an-expert” service is well established, but the dis-cussion centered around whether the focusshould stay as is or if it should be more chap-ter-centric. As far as we know, none of theother chapters have a similar service, so per-haps our current system of using experts fromanywhere is fine—but some individuals ex-pressed a desire to create a service that mem-bers of TAPS could participate in directly.Along those lines, the lineup for the next year’s“Tips from TAPS” entries was assembled.

We also discussed potential topics for dis-cussion/publication/programming. The mostfascinating discussion surrounded the topic ofethics and digital music archives; apparently theSociety of American Archivists is currentlyconsidering this topic and there are a lot ofquestions and considerations. In addition to thequestions about institutional archives, we alsodiscussed the phenomenon of individuals re-taining tracks on iPods without listening tothem, as a preservation method. Apparentlysome individuals are concerned that CDs thatthey have listened to will be unavailable in thefuture and are archiving them in digital format.The committee also discussed the “LP myth”—people say that tons of great recordings onLP have not been reissued, and yet many alsostate that they have not had trouble locatinganything. It was suggested that a potential re-search project might find and examine evi-dence supporting or discrediting these claims.The committee also considered the futureprospects of digital delivery of departmentalrecital recordings, Variations3, and dealing withgifts—in particular, the institutional and politicalbarriers to handling gifts in the ways we wouldlike. (Jon Haupt, Iowa State University)

Committee Reportscontinued from page 10

Bylaws RevisedCommittee Reports and Robert’s Rules

T he membership of the Midwest Chapterapproved two changes in its bylaws at the

annual meeting in Cincinnati October 13.The first change, to Article VI, Commit-

tees, calls for each committee chair to presentan annual report at the fall meeting and to dis-tribute it “in written form in the subsequentChapter newsletter.” This reflects current prac-tice and reinforces the importance of a writtenreport in Midwest Note-Book, which serves as theofficial record of chapter business.

The second change is to Article IX, Parlia-mentary Authority, and simply specifies thatRobert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised “shall gov-ern the Chapter in all cases to which they areapplicable and in which they are not inconsis-tent with the Constitution and Bylaws and anyspecial rules of order the Chapter may adopt.”

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21

MIDWEST CHAPTER OF THE MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURETerms expire in October of the year indicated.midwestEXECUTIVE COMMITTEEChair: Ruthann Boles McTyre (University of Iowa), 2009Past Chair: Laura Gayle Green (University of Missouri-

Kansas City), 2008Secretary-Treasurer: Keith Cochran (Indiana University),

2009Newsletter Editor: Greg Fitzgerald (Western Michigan

University), 2008Webmaster: Rebecca Littman (University of Wisconsin-

Milwaukee), 2008

STANDING COMMITTEES

Bylaws(One-year terms; members may be reappointed)Beth Christensen (St. Olaf College), Chair, 2008Grace Fitzgerald (University of Iowa), 2008Ruthann McTyre (University of Iowa), ex officio, 2008Membership(Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair

serves year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair, oneyear as Past Chair)

Mary Huismann (University of Minnesota), 2008, ChairKeith Cochran (Indiana University), 2008Michael J. Duffy (Northern Illinois University), 2010Paula Hickner (University of Kentucky), 2010Laurie Lake (Indiana University), 2009Richard LeSueur, 2010Sheridan Stormes (Butler University), 2008Lynne Weber (Minnesota State University, Mankato),

2008Don Widmer (VanderCook College of Music), 2009Program(One-year terms; members may be reappointed)Laura Gayle Green (University of Missouri-Kansas City),

ChairWendy Sistrunk (University of Missouri-Kansas City)Publications(Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair

serves one year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair,one year as Past Chair)

Lynne Weber (Minnesota State University, Mankato),2009, Chair

Therese Dickman (Southern Illinois UniversityEdwardsville), 2009, Past Chair

Michael J. Duffy (Northern Illinois University), 2009Laura Gayle Green (University of Missouri-Kansas City),

2009Kathleen Haefliger (Chicago State University), 2010Ruth Inman (Kennedy-King College), 2009Amy Pennington (Saint Louis University), 2009Wendy Sistrunk (University of Missouri-Kansas City),

2008Don Widmer (VanderCook College of Music), 2010

SPECIAL COMMITTEES

Cataloging(Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair

serves one year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair,one year as Past Chair)

Mark Scharff (Washington University), 2009, ChairSue Stancu (Indiana University), 2010, Chair-ElectRichard Burbank (University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign), 2009Patty Falk (Bowling Green State University), 2008Grace Fitzgerald (University of Iowa), 2009Jill Garbs (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), 2008Jeff Gibbens, 2008Mary Huismann (University of Minnesota), 2008David (Jack) Knapp (Oberlin College), 2010Deborah Morris (Roosevelt University), 2009Ralph Papakhian (Indiana University), 2009Amy Pennington (Saint Louis University), 2009Kerri Scannell (University of Kentucky), 2009Jessica Schomberg (Minnesota State University,

Mankato), 2009Wendy Sistrunk (University of Missouri-Kansas City), 2010Barry Zaslow (Miami University), 2008Public Services(Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair

serves one year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair,and one year as Past Chair)

Robert Delvin (Illinois Wesleyan University), 2008, ChairJana Borchardt (Evangel University), 2008Emma Dederick (Indiana University), 2008Therese Dickman (Southern Illinois University-

Edwardsville), 2008Kathleen Haefliger (Chicago State University), 2008Christine Kubiak (Illinois State University), 2008Rebecca Littman (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee),

2008Brad Short (Washington University), 2008Sheridan Stormes (Butler University), 2008Don Widmer (VanderCook College of Music), 2008Carla Williams (Indiana University), 2008Technology, Archives, Preservation, and Sound

(TAPS)(Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair

serves one year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair,one year as Past Chair)

Misti Shaw (DePauw University), 2009, ChairSusannah Cleveland (Bowling Green State University),

2009Emma Dederick (Indiana University), 2010Jeff Gibbens, 2010Kathleen Haefliger (Chicago State University), 2010Lisa Hooper (Indiana University), 2010Andrew Leach (Center for Black Music Research), 2008Deborah Morris (Roosevelt University), 2008Suzanne Mudge (Indiana University), 2008Mark Puente (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign),

2010Don Widmer (VanderCook College of Music), 2009

This version of the administrative structureshould reflect changes made at the 2007chapter meeting. Please report errors andomissions to the editor.