MOUG Annual Meeting

February 22-24, 2021

online

Monday, February 22, 2021

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

(times are EASTERN STANDARD TIME)

Presentation Abstracts

Microgenres: Memory, Community, and Preserving the Present

Leonard Martin (University of Houston)

This presentation will give a brief overview of microgenres as a cultural phenomenon, and challenges that catalogers and their institutions encounter with acquiring, cataloging, and circulating these materials. Three case-studies will be presented: Chopped and Screwed (Music), Vaporwave music, and Ambient music (Electronica). Each case study will provide background on its respective microgenre; its cultural significance; and issues/lessons-learned from acquiring, cataloging, and circulating microgenre sound recordings.

Underrepresented Collections in the Howard B. Waltz Music Library: Analyzing and Improving Subject Headings for Music Materials

Clara Burns (University of Colorado, Boulder)

Linda Bagley (University of Colorado, Boulder)

Kelsey Fuller (University of Colorado, Boulder)

In Spring of 2020, we began a pilot project to improve subject access to music materials held by the Waltz Music Library that have broad or inappropriate subject headings in our local catalog. Since we began this project via remote work, we chose to start small, with analyzing records for sound recordings with the subject heading “world music,” as we expected to find this particular term applied in vague and problematic ways. This presentation will cover our process for analyzing the use of “world music,” as well as take a brief look at the subject heading “Indians of North America--Music” in our catalog. We will outline our workflow for improving subject access to our diverse collections through a systematic analysis of our local music records. During this process we are identifying, replacing, and/or adding subject headings to inadequately described music records and thus improving subject access through these more specific and/or less offensive terms. We expect this work to be on-going and our long-term project goal is to build respectful, inclusive representations of music traditions outside the classical European canon; we also hope the improvements to these subject headings will aid in the findability of these underrepresented collections in our library’s catalog.

Reference, Discovery and Collection Committee / OCLC Discovery Services update

Monica Figueroa (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Jay Holloway (OCLC)

In this presentation, Monica Figueroa (MOUG Reference, Discovery, and Collection Coordinator) and Jay Holloway (Sr. Product Manager, Delivery Services, OCLC) will provide attendees with updates on RDCC-related activities and exciting OCLC discovery changes, including a new user interface and search engine. Holloway will also give attendees a sneak peek of upcoming enhancements and changes scheduled for the new year.

Expanding Catalog Access to Electronic Resources with WorldShare Collection Manager

Keith Knop (University of Georgia)

Simon Hunt (University of Georgia)

The University of Georgia subscribes to a number of electronic resource packages from Alexander Street Press, all of which are set up as collections in WorldShare Collection Manager, allowing for regular updates to the catalog as the contents change. However, there is often a disparity between what the packages actually contain and what OCLC knows about, and because these collections are curated by OCLC rather than community-editable there are some extra steps involved in filling in those gaps. In this presentation Keith Knop and Simon Hunt will walk through the processes involved in setting up Collection Manager, identifying gaps in the collections, locating or creating records to fill those gaps, and ensuring that those records are correctly reported for automated distribution and import into the catalog. Because so many of the items in those packages are not born digital, it is often a simple task to find a record for the physical original and derive a provider-neutral electronic record using Connexion’s Constant Data feature. Although our specific workflow is designed to work with the ALMA ILS in a consortial environment, Collection Manager is available to any library with an OCLC cataloging subscription and can be used independently of WMS or Record Manager.

On the Road to Easier Digital Score Acquisition

Kristi Bergland (University of Minnesota)

The advantages of e-resources have never been more apparent than during the present Covid-19 pandemic. Touch-free publications can be acquired and distributed without fear of spreading germs and without the extended delays currently experienced in global shipping. However, a unique set of complications arise in the acquisition of digital scores, as they tend not to fall seamlessly into the established workflows of either electronic resources or printed scores. This is further complicated by the highly variable compatibility of publishers/vendors, ranging from international publishing houses with legal departments to individual composers working from their laptops, to a library business model. This talk highlights how we are approaching acquisition of digital scores at the University of Minnesota, bridging the knowledge gaps between composers, vendors, acquisitions staff, selectors, and catalogers through the implementation of checklists and music specific boilerplate language in electronic resources licensing agreements, improving processing efficiency and the overall experience.   

Best Practices for Cataloging Librettos

Morris S. Levy (The Ohio State University)

This presentation will provide guidance in creating bibliographic records and associated authority records for librettos. It will examine the printed libretto as text and historical artifact, how librettos have been described historically using different bibliographic standards, and how to apply RDA to create appropriate access points for the librettist(s), composer(s), and work(s)/expression(s) associated with the libretto.

Lightning Talk Abstracts

A Brief Update on Music Cataloging and the New RDA

Chris Holden (Library of Congress)

On December 15th, 2020, the RDA Toolkit conducted its "switchover," with the new version of RDA replacing the original as the official version of the standard. However, this is just the starting point of a transition process that will unfold over the next several years. This lightning talk will briefly discuss what work is currently happening with the new version of RDA, how the policy statements and best practices will be eventually integrated into the Toolkit, and the expected timeline and next steps of the process.

1968 Revisited: Cataloging Nono’s Musica-manifesto n. 1

Phyllis Jones (Oberlin College and Conservatory)

In this segment, I will discuss one of the challenges I encountered while cataloging a CD of Luigi Nono’s Musica-manifesto no. 1 (1969). I will describe the process by which I chose subject headings reflective of the events featured by Nono in his composition. I will also explore some of the broader issues involved in subject analysis of historical events when cataloging music.

Cataloging Transcriptions of Jazz Performances

Amanda L. Scott (Middle Tennessee State University)

Notated transcriptions of musical performances are not directly addressed in current cataloging standards, and it is not always obvious how to best apply these standards to them. This lightning talk demonstrates how transcriptions of jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown’s recordings have been cataloged at Middle Tennessee State University’s James E. Walker Library. I will focus on some of the judgment calls I made in these catalog records, showing how I chose to address certain details while presenting other options for those details, particularly when documenting the source albums for the transcriptions. The talk will conclude with a short “wish list” for cataloging transcriptions of musical performances.

Using the Music Toolkit to Add Genre, Instrumentation, and More Access Points to Score and Recording Records

Marty Jenkins (Wright State University)

A brief update on and demonstration of the Music Toolkit, which looks at existing fields in score and recording records and adds 382, 655, and other headings as appropriate.

A Shot in the Arm: Injecting Local Catalog Data into OCLC Master Records Using a Connexion Macro-Assisted Workflow

Jim Soe Nyun (UC San Diego)

In the Spring of 2020 I carried out a project that used a Connexion macro to insert authority-controlled access points, relator terms, and some vendor-supplied identifiers output from our local catalog into 6960 OCLC master records using a Connexion macro-assisted workflow. The macro also provided several further record enhancements that could be done safely without human intervention. Earlier this month, 1593 additional titles were enhanced with a similar process, only this time also adding real-world object identifiers derived from vendor-source URIs for authorities. The brief presentation will focus mainly on the central workflow of extracting, transforming, and formatting selected catalog data and using a macro to make Worldcat modifications based on the supplied data.

Although this was a very bespoke project designed to do a very specific routine of actions, the basic core workflow could be used for a variety of situations where you want to inject targeted information into specific OCLC records, with data coming from library catalogs or even spreadsheets or text files.

Universally Remote: Cataloging Digital Collections with the Help of Student Employees

Clare Spitzer (Stanford University)

Stanford’s Archive of Recorded Sound has enlisted the help of student employees to catalog a backlog of minimally described digitized collections, allowing for recordings of performances and interviews to be discoverable with more complete metadata. When the shift to remote work became necessary it was an ideal moment for these collections to be prioritized, and also provided an opportunity to employ students with an effective and engaging remote project. In this lightning talk, Clare Spitzer (Sound Archives Metadata Librarian) will describe how students have added contents notes and names of composers, performers, and interviewers, as well as their LCNAF URIs, and the process of incorporating their work using OpenRefine to merge with existing metadata.  

Julia A. Perry Collection Goes Digital!

Stephanie Sussmeier (Westminster Choir College of Rider University)

The Julia A. Perry Special Collection is one of Westminster Choir College of Rider University’s most sought after collections that illustrates her life as a music student, teacher, and composer. As an African-American woman, Perry (1925-1979), pushed through boundaries of race and gender during an era which saw few composers of her background gain recognition. For the first time, researchers from around the world can now view the collection online via the CONTENTdm platform.  This lightning talk will also briefly discuss working with the CONTENTdm platform.

Yo Ho, a Trader’s Life for Me!, or, The Terrible Tales of Traded Tapes in our Special Collections

Thomas Pease (Library of Congress)

Michelle Hahn (Indiana University)

Fan networks dedicated to recordings existed long before listservs, blogs, and discussion boards. Before live streams and cell phone cameras, hobbyists recorded broadcasts of musical performances, and concealed recording devices to capture live musical performances. Some collectors created duplicates for friends and fellow hobbyists. Copies of these recordings proliferated in private collections. Eventually, these collections found their way into libraries and archives. Some came to these institutions through gifts-in-kind alongside legally, commercially purchased, or valuable material more highly desired by the library.

Many of these recordings provide value through their documentation, depending on the recording quality or the rarity and excellence of the performance in question. Such value is often mitigated by the manner of storage, the audio medium, the lower quality of duplicated recordings, and a lack of documentation of content, personnel, or recording context. Then there is the legality of public access because of copyright and license considerations.