Shelflisting Music

Library music materials require a more complex shelflisting approach than books in order to account for extremely prolific composers, works with generic titles, opus numbers, and thematic index numbers. Shelflisting Music provides clear, straightforward instructions and flowcharts to guide the cataloger through the process of shelflisting music—whether in score or recorded format—enabling anyone to produce call numbers that are consistent, accurate, and in accordance with standard Library of Congress "M" classification practices. After a brief explanation of the conceptual basis of music shelflisting, Richard P. Smiraglia brings together and clarifies shelflisting practices that are otherwise difficult to find or understand, providing concise and easy-to-follow instructions for assigning shelflist numbers. Smiraglia also includes a glossary of terms, as well as flowcharts to illustrate the process graphically. This small, easily accessible book can be kept by a computer workstation and consulted quickly for shelflisting guidance by anyone who catalogs music materials, from novices to experts.

This volume is designed to introduce the principles of music classification to beginning music catalogers, as well as to non-specialist catalogers, and those who only occasionally deal with music materials. It will surely relieve the stress level for general catalogers by providing practical guidelines as well as clarifying and explaining the most commonly used classification systems in the United States—the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), the Library of Congress Classification (LCC), and the Alpha-Numeric System for Classification of Recordings (ANSCR).

Music Description and Access: Solving the Puzzle of Cataloging is both a textbook for students and a handbook and reference source for practicing catalogers. The bulk of the book is a step-by-step guide to cataloging music materials, with dozens of examples showing images of published scores or audio recordings. Content and encoding are treated separately, using RDA and MARC21. Interspersed in the chapters on practical cataloging are short Historical Asides, essays putting particular devices or conventions into context. These essays supplement a chapter on cataloging history, which follows an introductory chapter that sets the stage for the task at hand. The book ends with a chapter by Maristella Feustle on describing and providing access to music special collections, using both archival and rare-music-cataloging standards. Aids in navigating the book include an index plus multiple lists and tables. A bibliography and a list of cataloging tools that are available online are also given.

Information Literacy in Music: An Instructor’s Companion is a practical guide to information literacy instruction for busy librarians and music faculty. This book contains examples of course-integrated assignments designed to help postsecondary music students develop foundational skills in information literacy. These assignments have been solicited from experienced librarians and faculty across the United States, and they represent a broad spectrum of approaches to music research, from historical to applied studies. Be inspired by new and creative solutions to students’ information literacy challenges and by the many examples of successful collaborations between librarians and music faculty.

In Directions in Music Cataloging, ten of the field’s top theoreticians and practitioners address the issues that are affecting the discovery and use of music in libraries today. Anyone who uses music in a library—be it a teacher, researcher, student, or casual amateur—relies on the work of music catalogers, and because these catalogers work with printed and recorded materials in a wide variety of formats, they have driven many innovations in providing access to library materials. As technology continues to transform the discovery and use of music, they are exploring ways to describe and provide access to music resources in a digital age. It is a time of flux in the field of music cataloging, and never has so much change come so quickly. The roots of today’s issues lie in the past, and the first part of the volume opens with two articles by Richard P. Smiraglia that establish the context of modern music cataloging through research conducted in the early 1980s. The second part explores cataloging theory in its current state of transition, and the concluding part looks to the future by considering the application of emerging standards. The volume closes with a remembrance of A. Ralph Papakhian (1948–2010), the most prominent music cataloger of the past thirty years—a figure who initiated many of the developments covered in the volume and who served as a teacher and mentor for all of the contributors.

Music librarianship¿a profession that brings joy and satisfaction to many¿is subject to constant change that requires, in turn, continual adaptation from its practitioners so that they become comfortable with new technologies and formats, changing standards, and fresh approaches. Relevant and solid training and education are crucial to success in this field, but they alone are insufficient to guarantee placement or promotion. Recent economic shifts have created additional instability, leaving graduates from programs in librarianship sometimes unemployed and with little feedback about the quality of their experience and education while their employed counterparts likewise have little knowledge of their skills¿ relevance to the current job market. Knowledge of training, education, and current employer expectations for music librarians can help ease such concerns and pave the way for a successful career or career change. As with the two previous editions of Careers in Music Librarianship, this volume provides career resources and guidance for current and future librarians, as well as insights for mentors and educators working with these populations. With this volume, the contributors provide a selection of readings that can help people in and considering this profession to make realistic, informed, and strategic decisions about how to succeed in it. As the profession changes, so must the professionals within it, and everyone involved with music librarianship will benefit from the guidance offered in this exciting, new book.

A Music Librarian’s Guide to Creating Videos and Podcasts is a guide every music librarian will want to use to develop and enhance multi-media skills. The digital age has created a divide between music librarians and their patrons: traditional models of interaction have been superseded or replaced by electronic communication, and virtually all librarians have felt the ensuing decline of their users’ information-seeking skills. Music librarians can now be proactive in reaching out to patrons digitally with videos and podcasts, since editing technologies for both platforms have become inexpensive and easy to use. In A Music Librarian’s Guide to Creating Videos and Podcasts Katie Buehner and Andrew Justice give music librarians the step-by-step instructions for creating their own content in both Mac and PC platforms. This ready reference on videos should find home in every library and also many personal collections.

The literature of American music librarianship has been around since the 19th century when public libraries began to keep records of player-piano concerts, significant donations of books and music, and suggestions for housing music. As the 20th century began, American periodicals printed more and more articles on increasingly specialized topics within music studies. Eventually books were developed to aid the music librarian; their publication has continued over the course of nearly a century. This book reflects the great diversity of the literature of music librarianship. The main resources included are items of historical interest, descriptions of individual collections, catalogues of collections, articles describing specific library functions, record-related subjects, bibliographies designed for music library use, literature from Canada and Britain when relevant to U.S. library practices, key discographies, and information on specialized music research. The material is ordered by topic and indexed by author, subject, and library name.