MMLLAA NEWSLETTER MLA Meets in Philadelphia Annual Meeting coverage begins on page 3 Inside: President’s Report . 2 Developing Trends . 9 In Recognition . 16 Annual Meeting . 3 Transitions . 9 MLA News . 17 New Members . 7 Committee Reports . 10 Beyond MLA . 23 Information Commons Feature . 8 Roundtable Reports . 16 Member Publications . 25 Calendar . 8 No. 164 March–April 2011 ISSN 0580-289-X President’s Report MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Jerry McBride, MLA President be set in June. This will allow us Board of Directors to better control Officers t is gratifying to reflect on this the costs of the conference and have JERRY MCBRIDE, President year’s highly successful and historic a clearer picture of the overall Stanford University meeting in Philadelphia. This was budget. It will also give committees RUTHANN MCTYRE, Past-President I University of Iowa the first MLA conference with a uni- slightly more time to plan their pro- PAMELA BRISTAH, Recording Secretary fying theme, and it shows that music grams, because the conference Wellesley College librarians are in the forefront of li- rooms and the budget for speaker LINDA W. BLAIR, Administrative Officer brary service by considering the honoraria will be determined in ad- Eastman School of Music many issues and challenges of born vance. Conference planning has be- MICHAEL ROGAN, Assistant Administrative digital materials. We’re interested in come much more complex, and the Officer your opinions about employing a Board will be exploring the possibil- Tufts University theme for the conferences. We will ity of contracting with professional Members-at-Large 2010–2012 be examining responses to the sur- conference management to provide SUSANNAH CLEVELAND Bowling Green State University vey that was sent out just after the the best conference experience for a CHERYL TARANTO conference and using that to plan fu- reasonable cost. University of Nevada, Las Vegas ture programs. The Board also has a number of LIZA VICK The historic vote on the merger challenges ahead including the re- Harvard University of MLA and IAML-US also took place view of the report of the strategic Members-at-Large 2011–2013 at the conference as stipulated by the planning committee, balancing our DANIEL F. BOOMHOWER constitution, where MLA members operating budget, examining our IT Library of Congress voted overwhelmingly for the Plan infrastructure, establishing a records KIRSTIN DOUGAN of Merger at the Business Meeting: management program for the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign 215 in favor out of a total of 223. archives, and reviewing our various LAURIE J. SAMPSEL Tre men dous thanks are due to Presi - publications programs. It is an ambi- University of Colorado at Boulder dents Ruthann McTyre and Judy tious but exciting agenda. Typeset by A-R Editions, Middleton, WI. Tsou, and the MLA and IAML Boards To help us with that agenda are for the work leading up to these im- three new Board members, Daniel MLA NEWSLETTER portant votes by our members. Boom hower, Kirstin Dougan, and Misti Shaw, Editor At the MLA Board meeting in Laurie Sampsel, with whom I’m look- Phila delphia a number of important ing forward to working over the next The Newsletter is published four times a year: September–October, November–December, March– issues for the association were dis- two years. We all owe a great deal of April, and May–June, by the Music Library Associ a tion, cussed and decisions were made. All thanks to the three members leaving c/o A-R Editions, Inc.; 8551 Research Way, Suite 180; Middleton, WI 53562, and is issued to its members MLA Board meetings are open to the the Board, Linda Fairtile, Stephen free of charge. membership. You may read the min- Mantz, and Jenn Riley. Their dedica- The purpose of the Newsletter is to keep the membership of the Association abreast of events, utes of the Board meetings on the tion and insights have been invalu- ideas, and trends related to music librarianship. All MLA website for a full account, but able for the organization. No suffi- communications and articles are welcome. Address correspondence to: I’d like to mention a few significant cient thanks can be expressed to decisions here. Ralph Papakhian was Ruthann McTyre for her great wis- Misti Shaw DePauw University the first recipient of the Special dom, patience, and good humor in GCPA Music Library Achieve ment Award, and the Board guiding MLA as President. I’m grate- 605 S. College Greencastle, IN 46135 decided to name the award in his ful that she will continue on the [email protected] honor. Be gin ning in 2011, it will be Board as Past President lending her The deadline for submitting copy to the editor for known as the A. Ralph Papakhian advice and support to our efforts. issue number 165 (May–June 2011) is May 21, 2011. Special Achieve ment Award. As we start a new year for MLA, Submissions in Microsoft Word sent via e-mail attach- ment are preferred. For many years, the operating I welcome the opportunity to hear bud get was set in June in anticipa- your opinions on how MLA can best tion of the beginning of the fiscal serve its members and on how you year, and the conference budget was would like to be involved in advanc- On the cover: Performers of the West Philadelphia determined in Septem ber. Beginning ing our profession. Thank you and Orchestra, Local Arrangements reception; taken by this year, the entire MLA budget will best wishes. Gerry Szymanski 2 M L A Newsletter • No. 164 Annual Meeting Plenary I : Thinking Beyond the Disc: Disseminating Recordings in the Digital Era Scott Stone, clined in the last fifty years and, cur- endeavor was to create a partner- Chapman University rently, the cost of recording is not ship with WHYY, the local PBS affil- With much excitement (and a normally recouped after being re- iate, to record and later broadcast not small amount of coffee) a crowd leased. These important reasons in- approximately thirty different pro- of several hundred eagerly awaited clude brand recognition, increasing grams each year. Additionally, Curtis the first session of the 80th Annual the orchestra’s audience fan-base began to work with SpectiCast, an Music Library Association meeting, from local to global, and the purely online video streaming service, to Thinking Beyond the Disc: practical one of money—donations broadcast seven or eight concerts Disseminating Recordings in the tend to increase after audiences are each year in addition to their full Digital Era. Library of Congress’ Lisa able take home a physical artifact of lineup of masterclasses. Finally— Shiota served as moderator for this the group, not just their listening ex- and perhaps most excitingly—Curtis interesting discussion and graciously perience. Finally, Millen described has recently created a partnership introduced the first of three speakers, the strides the PSO has made with with Instant Encore, resulting in a Stephen Millen, the General Manager the American Federation of Mu- service that allows users to down- of the nearby Philadelphia Sym- sicians to regulate the pay for musi- load or stream Curtis recordings, in- phony Orchestra (PSO). cians when their recordings are be- cluding all audio recorded there. Millen regaled the audience with ing disseminated on the Internet— Un fortunately, some of these ser - a brief account of the Orchestra’s solutions which have since been vices do cost money, but there is recording history (1925—first orches- adopted by many other major or- some free content on all of them to tra to make an electrical recording, chestras nationwide. tantalize the user into purchasing 1962—first orchestra to make a tele- Next, David Ludwig, composer some more of these extraordinarily vised broadcast, 2009—first orchestra and Chair of Performance Studies at fine recordings. to offer an online series of concerts). the Curtis Institute of Music (CIM), The final presenter, George After presenting this impressive his- jumped right in with a presentation Blood of Safe Sound Archives, inter- tory, Millen discussed why it is im- of CIM’s effort to create, record, and spersed his discussion of digitizing portant for the orchestra to continue archive media content generated by sound recording archives with some to record even though the sale of or- Curtis students, faculty, and guest memorable stories from his time chestral recordings has drastically de- artists. Their first major effort in this spent as recording engineer for the PSO. Some of the projects he has been involved with include digitizing the archives of the Detroit, National, and Boston Orchestras, the Smith- sonian Folkways projects, and Plectra recordings. In addition to this conversion work, Blood also helps these organizations establish a Web presence with their newly digitized archives so that listeners around the world can gain access to them. After a whirlwind ninety min- utes, the first Plenary session of MLA was over and this writer’s mind was swimming with the possibilities of a world being flooded with Born Convention Manager Bonna Boettcher and Asst. Convention Manager Laura Gayle Green briefly pause for a beverage refuel while busily tending to myriad Digital sound recordings and how details during the conference. music library users everywhere can by Gerry Szymanski benefit from their unique offerings. M L A Newsletter • No. 164 3 Annual Meeting Hot Topics Tackles Born-Digital Dilemmas and More Tom Caw, Wisconsin–Madison) reminded atten- if), and stressed that there needs to University of Wisconsin-Madison dees that the restriction on historical be a repository that is both powerful with additional reporting by recordings from Naxos in the U.S. is and sensitive. Caw asked if anyone a result of this state-by-state copy- was willing to acquire some of these Andrew Justice, University of North Texas right situation.