Vol. 22, No. 3 - MLAMidwest.org!

Transcription

Midwest
Note-Book
Volume 22 Issue 3
Chapter Meeting >> 2
From the Chair >> 3
Member News >> 4
Technology Habitrail >> 5
In Praise of Our Past Chair >> 6
Business Meeting Minutes >> 7
January 2014
Session Summaries >> 8
Committee Reports >> 14
Speaking Our History:
Tom Caw >> 16
Administrative Structure >> 27
Midwest Note-Book: The Publication of the Midwest Chapter of the Music Library Association
1
Chapter Meeting
in Cleveland
Midwest Chapter members came from
far and wide to Cleveland, Ohio, last October 10-12.
As you’ll read in the session summaries and committee
updates in this issue, the meeting did, indeed, “rock.”
The Cleveland Public Library went out of its way to
accommodate committee meetings and conference
sessions in both its stunning historic Main Library
and the adjacent slick and modern Louis Stokes wing.
And the Friday night reception, panel presentation, and
behind-the-scenes tours at the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame and Museum’s Library and Archives made that
evening truly unforgettable. Outside of the excellent
conference schedule, attendees had no shortage of
activities to enjoy, including checking out the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, touring Severance Hall,
attending a performance by the Cleveland Orchestra,
or rocking out to Andy Leach and his band The New
Soft Shoe. The local arrangements committee, our
generous meeting sponsors, the program committee,
and the presenters really outdid themselves, and the
72nd annual Midwest Chapter meeting is one for the
history books!
—Anne Shelley, Illinois State University
Midwest Note-Book
The Publication of the Midwest Chapter of the
Music Library Association
ISSN 1063-5327
VOL. 22, NO. 3
Published in May, September, and January
Midwest Note-Book is available free of charge
on the website of the Midwest Chapter of the
Music Library Association. Submissions and
communication regarding Midwest Note-Book
should be sent to the editor:
Anne Shelley
Milner Library
Campus Box 8900
Illinois State University
Normal, IL 61790-8900
[email protected]
Deadline for submissions is the 15th of the month
preceding publication.
Membership in the Midwest Chapter is $12
annually ($6 for students and retirees). Inquiries
and renewals may be directed to the SecretaryTreasurer:
James Procell
Music Library
University of Louisville
2301 S. 3rd St.
Louisville, KY 40292
[email protected]
The Midwest Chapter of the Music Library
Association is a tax-exempt, non-profit
organization.
Statues outside the Cleveland Public Library.
Photograph by Rebecca Littman.
http://mlamidwest.org
Cover photograph by Rebecca Littman
2
From the Chair
Back home again in… Cleveland, Ohio!
In spite of having lived in Indiana for over forty years,
I will always call Cleveland my home. That’s why
I am so grateful to Andy Leach, Joe Clark, Michael
Dalby, Laurie Lake, and Laura Moody for hosting
the Midwest Chapter’s 72nd Annual Meeting in
downtown Cleveland. And what a memorable meeting
it was! The accommodations in the Hyatt Regency
at the Arcade were most comfortable and convenient
and what a treat to meet in (and later to tour) the
distinguished Cleveland Public Library. Thanks to the
flexibility of our LAC and Program Committee, we
were able to switch the night of our LAC reception
to Friday so that on Thursday evening, interested
attendees could take the RTA (for free—thank you,
Greater Cleveland RTA!) to Severance Hall to hear
the Cleveland Orchestra (at a discounted rate!) OR
trek over to the Happy Dog to see and hear the very
talented Andy Leach with The New Soft Shoe band. I
heard several reports that Andy was really burnin’ up
those guitar strings! (The show may have been free but
the experience was priceless!) The Friday reception
literally “rocked” as we met in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and Museum’s Library and Archives
and enjoyed delicious hors d’oeuvres (courtesy of the
Rock Hall) while learning from the Rock Hall Library
staff about the creation of this very special collection!
With a little finessing of our committee meeting times,
many also took advantage of free tours (courtesy of
Christine Clark and Theodore Front) of the exquisitely
renovated Severance Hall. And then, there were
the presentations! What a delightful mix of timely
topics covering both the technical and the traditional,
from talk of digitization projects involving Mahler
manuscripts and vintage sheet music and playbills to
tales of the audio legacy of the Cleveland Orchestra
to talks about graduate distance learning implications
for the library and the use of QR codes to help patrons
find library resources. There were also some practical
sessions that provided us with excellent tips on how to
engage faculty in collection development and how to
Sheridan Stormes
better market our collections and services. (Look for
more detailed reports of all the sessions on page 8 of
this issue of the Note-Book.) The meeting numbers
were strong: among the sixty-three in attendance were
fourteen first-time attendees. Sincere thanks to the
LAC (led by the Pied Piper of Development, Andy
Leach) for keeping the cost of this meeting extremely
low! Thanks, too, for the great generosity shown us by
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and by
the Cleveland Public Library and its Friends group!
A tip of the hat, also, to our ever-faithful friends at
A-R Editions for printing the eye-catchingly colorful
programs!
Looking ahead, I hope to see many of you for our
Chapter meeting in Atlanta late in February 2014, and
I encourage you to begin shopping for some longjohns for our 73rd Annual Meeting in Minneapolis!
(OK, I’m just kidding about the long-johns … I’m
confident the Minneapolis meeting is really going to
be “hot!”)
—Sheri Stormes, Butler University
3
Member News and Announcements
>> Richard Earl Jones, 69, of Granger, Indiana, died
Saturday, November 16, 2013. A native of New Jersey,
he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education
from Westminster College (B. Mus., New Wilmington,
PA). He completed graduate studies in musicology
(M.F.A., Ohio University) and Library Science (M.S.,
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill). Before
becoming music librarian at the University of Notre
Dame, a position from which he retired in 2006, he
was associate librarian for collection management at
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he had
previously served as music librarian. He spent several
years as readers’ advisor in music at Trenton State
College (now the College of New Jersey), and was
the first music librarian at Ohio University. He held
various offices in the Music Library Association and
the Midwest Chapter of that organization.
--excerpt from obituary printed in South Bend Tribune,
December 10, 2013
>> The Northwestern University Library is pleased
to announce the John Cage Research Grant, an award
established to promote the study of John Cage’s life,
music, art, and ideas through the use of Northwestern’s
John Cage Collection. This competitive grant, in
an amount up to $3000, may be awarded to support
expenses for transportation, accommodations, meals,
and copying fees for one or more on-site visits to
Northwestern University for the purpose of research
using the John Cage Collection. Applications for the
2014-2015 academic year will be accepted until April
1, 2014. For further information, see:
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/node/7001.
>> Kirstin Dougan has published the article “Assessing
Music Reference Services in an Age of Vanishing
Reference Desks.” Fontes Artis Musicae 60, no. 3
(2013): 173–181.
>> The following new members have joined the
>> Editor’s Note: See the “Speaking Our History” article
Midwest Chapter -- welcome!:
featuring Rick Jones in Midwest Note-Book 16, no. 3:
Joslyn Emmel, Music Volunteer, Pickens County
http://mlamidwest.org/documents/notebook/16_3.pdf
Library System
Scholarships
The MLA Midwest Chapter awarded three scholarships
to help defray costs associated with attending the 2013
meeting in Cleveland. Eleanor Peterson (University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Laura Thompson (Indiana
University) received the Retirees’ Scholarship, and the
Troutman Scholarship was awarded to Karen Stafford
(Indiana University). Congratulations!
Andy Leach
performs with
The New Soft
Shoe at the
Happy Dog
in Cleveland.
Photograph
by Rebecca
Littman.
Heather Fisher, Library Assistant, Grace A. Dow
Memorial Library
Janet Harper, Catalog Librarian, Center for Black
Music Research at Columbia College Chicago
Anne Lake, Student, Indiana University
Katharine Lambaria, Student, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Bret McCandless, Student, Indiana University
Jarod Ogler, Circulation & Media Services Supervisor,
Ohio State University
Kyle Shockey, Student, Indiana University
Gregory Sigman, Library Specialist, Ohio University
Karen Stafford, Circulation Supervisor/Stack
Coordinator, Indiana University
Jill Westen, Information Literacy Librarian, Wartburg
College
4
Technology Habitrail
by
Laurie Lake
A brief column dedicated to free or cheap technological
wonders which either make our day easier or more complicated.
Does technology create short attention spans or is it the
other way around? In reviewing the three technological
wonders I chose to discuss in this issue, it seems they
are borne out of the necessity to be brief and to-thepoint for our multi-tasking world. We have Tumblrs
to follow, Tweets to post, statuses (statusi?) to update.
Onwards.
Flowboard (https://flowboard.com/) Free and requires
an iPad. Visually pleasing graphic interface for quick
tutorials. Can embed live links.
In an effort to find newer, flashier, and shorter methods
to address the 18-to-22-year-old market, Flowboard
is a nifty option for presentation software. It’s free,
but requires an iPad to create. It has a high coolness
factor with its varied templates. I chose to create my
own Flowboards from scratch with their framework,
made opening and closing frames with PowerPoint,
and converted the slides to PNGs to add as images. I
incorporated the school’s sanctioned colors and fonts
for a consistent look.
Example: https://flowboard.com/s/1yub/Find-a-score
Plus: Free and easy (unlike this author)
Minus: You need an iPad to create it, but not to view it
iMovie (http://www.apple.com/mac/imovie/) $14.99
and a Mac. Free and clever trailer templates to create
your own brief tutorials.
I wish I could take credit for discovering this, but I
learned about it at the 2012 Society of Ohio Archivists
Annual Meeting from a presentation. Like most things
Apple, this groovy little tool is user-friendly and easy
to figure out. It offers fifteen different movie trailer
templates complete with soundtrack. I used the FlipCam
that belongs to our marketing department to film the
action and am lucky enough to have two clever and
hammy masters students working for me who jumped
at the chance to showcase their acting skills. You can
map out your plot using the script option. After a series
of clicking and dragging the video segments and screen
Photo by William Hook (Flickr)
shots into the template, you simply upload the video to
YouTube or Vimeo from within the iMovie program. I
suppose from start to finish the project was one day’s
work, but well worth it.
Example: http://youtu.be/omFDkT10zYo
Plus: Easy-peasy and super fun!
Minus: Mac-dependent
Poll Everywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com/)
Free. Text-message alternative to clickers.
Clickers: love ‘em or hate ‘em. I was taken in by a few
articles discussing the use of the little buggers in library
instruction. I played with Poll Everywhere on my own
for about a year wondering if I would be perceived as an
even bigger geek for saying to my classes, “Hey, kids!
Check out this cool new toy we’re going to play with
today!” accompanied by sighs and rolling eyes from my
student audience. Well, guess what? The students were
TOTALLY into it. In the music bibliography course
I teach, I used to do this round-robin procedure for
answering a bunch of questions related to their studies.
I always felt uncomfortable about putting individual
students on the spot. So, this mass participation format
seemed ideal. I’ve given you a link to a screen shot
below as my example. You’ll see what the question is
and where they text the answer code. Then, magically,
the bar graph expands as answers are sent. There was
always one kidder to texted the wrong answer on
purpose which added to some levity. This strategy is a
great way for students to get the point using something
they use everyday all day long.
Example: http://screencast.com/t/1kf5oVLdfuQx
Plus: Free to up to 40 respondents
Minus: Requires cell phones with unlimited text (don’t
want my students racking up data charges for this)
Laurie Lake is the Instructional Outreach Librarian and
Technology Coordinator for the Robinson Music Library
at the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio. She
doesn’t Tweet nor does she do the Facebook, but she does
read books printed on paper from brick and mortar stores.
5
In Praise of Our Past Chair
Throughout its history, the Midwest Chapter reports usually ahead of scheduled deadlines and lent
has been blessed with an extraordinary number of
dedicated, strong, and effective leaders. Many of our
past chairs have gone on to distinguish themselves in
leadership roles in the national MLA organization and
IAML. We owe a debt of gratitude to all of these people
for guiding and nurturing the growth of our chapter
and making it the thriving organization that it is today.
However, our current past chair, Kirstin Dougan, is one
who is particularly deserving of special recognition and
acknowledgment of her contributions.
When one considers her résumé, it’s difficult to believe
that Kirstin earned her MLS from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison as recently as 2001. She’s been
the recipient of numerous grants and has been widely
published in such journals as Fontes Artis Musicae,
The Reference Librarian, Music Reference Services
Quarterly, Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music
Library Association, Libraries and the Academy, and
The Journal of Web Librarianship. In addition, she has
made many fine presentations at various professional
conferences, including the Annual Meeting of the
Midwest Chapter of the Music Library Association, the
Southeast Music Library Association Annual Meeting,
the Annual Meeting of the Music Library Association,
the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians
Annual Conference, the Illinois Library Association
Annual Meeting, and the Annual Meeting of the
International Association of Music Libraries.
As chair of our chapter, Kirstin has been a conscientious,
hard-working, gracious, and inspirational leader (and
because she is currently past chair and continues to
guide us, I use the present perfect tense!). Kirstin’s
modesty and focus on things and people outside of
herself have obscured for most of our members all
that she has accomplished to nurture the growth and
strength of the Midwest Chapter. Throughout her
tenure, Kirstin demonstrated her ability to communicate
effectively and thoroughly in her interactions with
both the executive committee and the membership at
large. She managed to submit thoughtful and thorough
a sympathetic listening ear to members’ concerns.
As a member of the executive committee, Kirstin has
provided wise counsel to all of us from her experiences
not only as a very active member of our chapter but
also as a member of the national MLA organization and
IAML. Kirstin served as a member of the MLA Board
while simultaneously chairing the Midwest Chapter.
As those of you who have been chapter chair and/
or a member of the MLA Board know, this is a huge
commitment of time and energy to our profession. In
addition, Kirstin has initiated several significant (and
innovative) changes in an effort to help our organization
run in a more transparent, even-handed, and efficient
manner. Five initiatives are particularly noteworthy:
(1) putting out an open call for presentations for the
chapter meetings, (2) creating the MWMLA MetaLibGuide which provides links to research LibGuides
at MWMLA-affiliated institutions, (3) creating an
annual meeting evaluation form on Survey Monkey,
(4) collecting relevant pieces of chapter documentation
and making them readily available through the use of
Dropbox, and (5) proposing the creation of a scholarship
committee (which recently has been formed and charged
with making recommendations relating to how many
scholarships the chapter should offer and providing
guidance in determining the amount of each as well as
with drafting criteria for scholarship applications and
applying those criteria to submitted applications). Just
before stepping down as chapter chair, Kirstin had to
manage the replacement of two key positions on the
executive committee resulting from the resignation
within just a couple months of each other. Without
faltering, Kirstin calming and adeptly handled every
situation presented to her.
On behalf of the executive committee and the
membership of the Midwest Chapter of the Music
Library Association, I hope that Kirstin will accept this
sincere expression of gratitude for a job well done!
With admiration and deep appreciation,
—Sheri Stormes, MWMLA Chair
6
Minutes of the Business Meeting
Saturday, October 12, 2013 • Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio
I. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 10:35 a.m. by Kirstin Dougan.
II. Approval of the 2012 Meeting Minutes: The minutes of the 2012 meeting were printed in the January 2013 issue of Midwest
Note-Book (vol. 21, no.3). A motion was made and seconded to approve the 2012 minutes. The motion passed.
III. Secretary-Treasurer’s Report: As of October 5, 2013, our assets totaled $12,103.09. Currently the Retiree’s fund is $605.89
and the Troutman fund is $1,522.88. This year’s meeting was profitable for the chapter. The chapter remains in very good financial
standing.
IV. Recognition of LAC and our donors: Kirstin Dougan recognized the outstanding work of the local arrangements committee:
Andy Leach (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library + Archives), Joe Clark (Kent State Univ.), Michael Dalby (Cleveland Public
Library), Laurie Lake (Cleveland Institute of Music), and Laura Moody (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives).
V. Scholarship Awards: Three scholarship recipients were recognized: Karen Stafford received the Troutman Scholarship, and
Eleanor Peterson and Laura Thompson received the Retirees Scholarship.
VI. First Time Attendees and New Members: Fourteen first-time attendees and new members were recognized.
VII. Election Results: James Procell was elected to the position of secretary/treasurer. Elizabeth Cribbs was appointed to fill
the web editor position recently vacated by Abbey Thompson. Members of this year’s nominating committee were recognized:
Antoinette Powell, chair, Patricia Falk, and Liz Berndt-Morris.
VIII. Scholarship Committee: Volunteers were solicited for a new committee that will handle scholarship matters. If interested,
please let Sheri Stormes known before November 1, 2013.
IX. Committee Reports
Bylaws: Grace Fitzgerald reported that all proposed changes to the by-laws were passed.
Cataloging: James Procell reported that the committee discussed various matters related to RDA, including RDA in bibliographic
and authority records. In addition, the committee discussed Worldcat Local. There was discussion and support for the idea of
forming a Midwest MLA Cataloging Committee listserv. Patty Falk will serve as the committee’s new chairperson.
Membership: Jason Imbesi (Univ. of Michigan) presented the current membership profile: There are approximately 122 members
in the Midwest Chapter. This includes those who have paid dues for 2013-2014, as well as those who paid dues for 20122013, but have not yet renewed. There are twenty-two student members representing seven universities. There are four retiree
members. All states in the chapter are represented. Most members work in music libraries; only two members work in public
libraries. Paraprofessionals remain an underrepresented group within the chapter. Eight new members have joined the chapter in
the past year. Jason reported activities of the national membership committee to include a refer-a-friend type program. The new
chairperson of the membership committee is Paula Hickner.
Public Services: Rebecca Littman reported that the committee had a round-robin discussion about ways to better interact with
students.
Publications: John Wagstaff reported that the committee discussed the oral history project. Thirty interviews exist in the archive.
Eight have been published in the Midwest Notebook. The book proposal has been submitted to A-R Editions. The book will not
include full interviews published in their entirety, but rather will be “thematicised,” by pulling related topics from individual
interviews and combining them into a single chapter. There will be an accompanying CD published with the book.
Technology, Archives, Preservation, and Sound (TAPS): Emma Dederick reported that the committee’s guest speaker, Adam
Wead, Systems and Digital Collections Librarian at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives, discussed incorporating
EAD into Blacklight. Emma was re-elected chair of this committee.
X. Old Business: None
XI. New Business: On behalf of the Diversity in MLA and ARL/MLA Diversity Initiative, Jason Imbesi and Susannah Cleveland
reported that there continues to be a lack of diversity, both within the chapter, as well as within the larger organization. MLA has
identified Cincinnati, Ohio as its meeting location for 2016. Sheri Stormes (on behalf of Beth Christensen and Mary Huisman,
co-chairs) invited attendees to Minneapolis for the 2014 Midwest Chapter meeting. The dates have not yet been confirmed, but the
meeting will take place in downtown Minneapolis, as well as at St. Olaf College in Northfield, with bus transportation provided.
City recommendations for future meetings were solicited and proposed.
XII. Announcements: Laura Moody, mentoring program coordinator for MLA, encouraged “seasoned” MLA members to
volunteer as mentors for the 2014 meeting in Atlanta. Elizabeth Cribbs offered membership brochures. Contact Anne Shelley if
additional brochures are needed.
XIII. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 11:15 a.m.
7
Session Summaries
Friday, October 11, 2013
Continuation of the Reilly Digital Catalogue of
Mahler’s Musical Manuscripts
Stephen Toombs, Dr. Stephen Hefling, Roger
Zender (Case Western Reserve University)
72nd Annual
Chapter Meeting
application of different access points for searching.
Considering the importance of digital scholarship
projects like the Reilly Digital Catalog of Mahler’s
Musical Manuscripts, perhaps the most illuminating
theme within the context of this presentation is the
dynamic role that libraries can have in the dissemination
of digital scholarship.
(Laura Thompson, Indiana University)
Immersed in the sounds of Mahler’s lied “Ich bin der
Welt abhanden gekommen” upon entering the main
auditorium, the audience was aptly primed for the
presentation by Stephen Toombs, Dr. Stephen Hefling,
Dr. Stephen Hefling
discusses the Reilly
and Roger Zender. The trio from Case Western Reserve
Digital Catalog of
University kicked off the 2013 MWMLA conference
Mahler’s musical
with a presentation on the creation and implementation
manuscripts.
of the Reilly Digital Catalog of Mahler’s Musical
Photograph by
Manuscripts. Stephen Hefling began with some
Rebecca Littman.
background information about the genesis of the
catalogue and the significance of Mahler’s musical
manuscripts. He provided some telling examples about
the types of information interested researchers could
Mixing It Up: Faculty Engagement in Collection
glean from the manuscripts of Mahler’s 7th symphony,
Development
Das Lied von der Erde, and the aforementioned lied.
Andrea Beckendorf (Luther College)
Roger Zender followed, providing information about
A former double bass instructor, Dr. Andrea Beckendorf
the library’s role within the process of coordinating the
is an Associate Professor at Preus Library, Luther
creation and maintenance of the digital catalogue. It
College. She became the library’s music liaison librarian
was important for the library to define three things: the
in 2003. In her presentation, Andi described how she
needs of researchers, the coordination and integration
re-focused, prioritized, and energized the collection
of service providers to support digital scholarship, and
development of music resources at her institution by
the library’s role within the process. Once these points
actively and deliberately engaging and collaborating
were laid out, Zander explained the three-stage process
with her music faculty colleagues. Luther is a small
for the library throughout the project, pinpointing its
(2,400–2,500 students) liberal arts college in Decorah,
vital role within the development and implementation
Iowa. Its music program has long enjoyed a position
of the digital catalogue. By participating in such a
of strength and prominence on campus and has grown
project, the library increased its visibility by engaging
steadily in the past twenty years. Currently, Luther
larger audiences, promoted collaboration between it and
employs fifty-two music faculty members, twentyother departments, facilitated new forms of discovery
seven of whom either have tenure or are on a tenure
and scholarship, and created opportunities to generate
track. Andi described the amount of researched writing
more funding.
required in the music history core as “limited.” When
Stephen Toombs concluded the presentation with Andi became the library’s music liaison, she was faced
technical information about the development of with several challenges, including an over-emphasis on
the catalogue, discussing particular difficulties in collected works and print reference resources, limited
its implementation in a digital format including the participation by faculty in development of the music
creation of mock up records to assess usability, the collection, unnecessary standing orders, and differing
use of uniform titles and authorized headings, and the opinions among the faculty of what the collection’s
8
Session Summaries
continued
priorities should be.
Andi created a “Memo of Understanding,” or MOU, a
kind of agreement between herself (as music liaison)
and her faculty colleagues in the music department.
Essentially, it was a statement of collection development
priorities for music resources in the Preus Library at
Luther. The MOU stated that future purchases would
focus on 20th- and 21st-century scores and recordings,
women in music, and world music and jazz and also
provided parameters for selecting collected works.
Andi also began a collaboration project with a faculty
colleague in the music department that focused on the
purchase of opera and musical scores and recordings, in
an effort to make sure the library had pairs of scores and
recordings for a core list of works. In addition, as part
of a library-wide effort, unneeded standing orders were
cancelled, and purchasing of collected works was done
selectively. The music department was also provided
with an annual expenditure report that showed a full
picture of spending on the department, which included
not only the annual allocation but monies spent on
journals and electronic resources, as well. In addition,
Andi took some initiatives that provided new direction
for the music collection: she requested that orders be
sent directly to her, focused on building a collection
that centered on meeting students’ needs for lessons and
research, began a more selective ordering of CHOICEreviewed materials, and encouraged students to submit
requests for new library materials.
Andi has initiated collaborations with additional music
faculty members in the areas of contemporary music,
history and composition, brass, vocal pedagogy and
literature, and ethnomusicology. Last year, the faculty
in the woodwind area approached Andi and eagerly
volunteered to be the next collection development
project on the list. The results of Andi’s refocusing
and collaborative efforts have been very positive and
rewarding. The “buzz” in the music department about
the collaborations has promoted increased faculty
interest and participation in building the library’s music
resources, increased purchases of reference resources
relating to instrumental music, and enhanced vendor
relationships!
(Sheridan Stormes, Butler University)
Andi Beckendorf
shares her strategies
for engaging
faculty in collection
development.
Photograph by
Rebecca Littman.
Dogs Not Bears: Marketing Your Music Collection
Kathleen Abromeit (Oberlin College Conservatory)
Promoting music library services requires knowledge
of the primary user group of the library. Using statistics
from sources such as the Pew Research Center,
Abromeit examined behaviors of the 18- to 24-year-old
undergraduate population and developed a diverse array
of marketing techniques used at Oberlin to capture the
attention of such a tech-savvy population. Not every
marketing campaign has to focus on immediately
increasing the number of patrons; rather, librarians can
take the opportunity to brand the library as a positive
place. Orientation tours including free promotional
items are a good way to introduce students to the
library, and appealing to the parents of new students
at events like resource fairs may encourage parents to
remind their students of library services. Closely tying
the library to the school’s curriculum can also improve
its visibility. At Oberlin, the library is involved with the
Blackboard site for the first year music history classes
by creating assignments, posting videos, and answering
questions through a discussion board and e-mail. On the
library website, Oberlin advertises online resources that
are available 24/7, including a digital score collection.
Additionally, student focus groups offer opinions about
the website. Oberlin advertised in-person reference
appointments and research workshops with postcards
on student lockers. Postcards using images of dogs had
more success than images of a wounded teddy bear.
The admissions office noted that students often miss
their pets while away at college, which might explain
the appeal of dog images. A “Bibliorarities” display in
the library highlights special collections, with one case
9
Session Summaries
changing every month. The library also maintains a
blog called “Guido’s Hand,” which includes postings
on library projects, due dates, and more. Libraries
offer services beyond the “product” that students could
search online by themselves, so they should promote
the personal delivery of those services.
(Karen Stafford, Indiana University)
Kathy Abromeit
shares what
worked for her
in promoting
collections and
services.
Photograph by
Rebecca Littman.
QR Codes: A Practical Process of Implementation
and Use
Elizabeth Berndt Morris (Central Michigan
University)
QR codes are digital images that can be scanned by
a smartphone or tablet via a downloadable app which
translates the code into a pre-determined website. It’s a
great way to get information on the go without typing
out an entire and sometimes unwieldy URL. Ms. Berndt
Morris’ presentation discussed the implementation of
these codes throughout Central Michigan University’s
Charles V. Park Library. The project developed over the
spring and summer months of 2013. It was decided the
main topics for QR codes were instructions on printing
in the library, book displays, library hours, reserve
desk help, and Ask-a-Librarian. When questioned
about those who do not have smart phones, Ms. Berndt
Morris smartly responded with the statement that
this particular audience is being well-served through
other venues. Adding QR codes was merely a valueadded service. Implementation steps included: sign
design, material and cost, choosing a code generator,
and keeping statistics. The signs were color-coded and
strategically placed on the end of visible stacks. It was
important to make the signs look permanent which was
continued
done with the help of the library’s new graphic designer.
The wall decal material left no residue and proved to
be inexpensive. The chosen code generator also had
a robust function for gathering statistics. Open source
Microsoft Tag allowed for unlimited tags and categories.
The library created videos to market their new service
as well as a handy LibGuide (http://Libguides.cmich.
edu/qrcodes). To inaugurate the service, they created a
large QR code which was placed on the atrium floor in
front of the main service desk. Ms. Berndt Morris ended
her presentation by displaying the statistics generated
by their chosen code generator.
(Laurie Lake, Cleveland Institute of Music)
Elizabeth Berndt
Morris talks about
enhancing library
services with QR
codes.
Photograph by
Rebecca Littman.
Information-Seeking Behavior of Graduate Distance
Education Students
Joe Clark (Kent State University)
Joe Clark’s presentation included the survey rationale,
setting and background, methodology, demographics,
findings, discussion, and conclusions for his study of
student research behaviors. The survey was used to
determine the needs of the graduate students in the
Master of Music in Music Education (MMME) online
degree and assess the current use by these students
of services offered by the Kent State Performing Arts
Library. The demographics included course completion
by the students and age of the students. The methodology
was a survey of 24 questions in Qualtrics and was
administered in June of 2013. A drawing for Amazon
gift cards was used as an incentive to participate in the
study. The survey involved questions about in-person
visits, website viewing, use and awareness of services
offered, use of non-library web sites, comfort with
e-resources, external web sites cited, library assistance
10
Session Summaries
and tutorials, borrowing from other libraries, adequate
instruction, and how the library might better help the
students. Joe presented the statistics from the survey in
graphs and pie charts.
The results showed a few surprises, including the fact
that not all gift cards were claimed and most library help
venues were known by less than half of the students.
Many students also went to Kent State’s main library
web site page, rather than the performing arts library
page. Some students wanted more access to electronic
versions of textbooks and a few thought the website
could have easier navigation. The majority of the
students thought that articles were the most important
offerings of the library. As a result of the study, Joe
will continue to purchase targeted e-books in music
education, collaborate more with the music education
faculty, and look at the curriculum for adjustment. He
is also considering a focus group with the MMME
students and will try to determine additional needs and
how to make resources easier to access. He plans to
conduct the study again in two years.
(Patty Falk, Bowling Green State University)
Deborah Hefling
chats with Keith
Cochran after her
presentation.
Photograph by
Rebecca Littman.
The Audio Legacy of the Cleveland Orchestra
Deborah Hefling (The Cleveland Orchestra)
continued
discs, 78s, pressings, DAT, CDs, and WAV files). The
Cleveland Orchestra is featured on over 580 commercial
recordings that were produced in various formats and
labels under all seven conductors. Hefling shared some
truly delightful treasures from the archive, such as a
clip of the first recording the orchestra released (a fourminute version of the 1812 Overture, recorded in 1924);
an audio clip of pianist Alfred Loesser performing
the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, immediately after
which he was bussed off to serve in World War II; a
photograph of the control room and studio in Severance
Hall (the broadcast booth is now backstage and is still
used today); an oral history interview with George
Szell, the conductor credited with helping the orchestra
to develop its “Cleveland Sound”; and even a “blooper”
recording of a young James Levine that was captured
in the broadcast booth. Hefling left no room for doubt
by the audience members that the musical recordings
are the heart of the Archives. Starting in 1918, the
orchestra was featured Thursday evenings on national
radio broadcasts; some acetate discs have survived
from this period. Most public concerts have been
recorded since 1965, leaving over 15,000 recordings to
preserve. The Archives is currently finishing a phase of
its Audio Legacy Project, with a goal of digitizing the
recordings of the Archives. Hefling is seeking funding
to complete the project, with a goal of finishing by the
2017/18 season when the orchestra celebrates its 100th
anniversary. (Anne Shelley, Illinois State University)
We Can Work it Out: Establishing the World’s First
Rock and Roll Library
Andy Leach, Laura Moody, Amanda Raab, Jennie
Thomas, Adam Wead (Library and Archives, the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum)
In this panel session held at the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame Library and Archives, Andy Leach, Laura Moody,
Deborah Hefling, Archivist for The Cleveland Orchestra,
Amanda Raab, Jennie Thomas, and Adam Wead came
shared the rich audio and visual legacy left by one of the
together to talk about the challenges they faced and the
finest orchestras in the world. She works to preserve the
processes they used to create the Rock and Roll Hall of
orchestra’s collection of program books, photographs,
Fame’s Library and Archives. After a brief introduction
performance history, architectural drawings and,
by director Andy Leach, Greg Harris, the president and
of course, commercial and non-commercial sound
CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum,
recordings in various formats (source recordings,
gave a welcome speech that namechecked Steve
radio broadcasts, oral history interviews, transcription
Landstreet and the Free Library of Philadelphia and
11
Session Summaries
characterized the whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
organization as “one big special collection.” Andy
Leach returned to the podium and gave an overview of
how the Library and Archives began and the mission
and services currently offered before he turned the
presentation over to each of the individual librarians
responsible for specific services.
JennieThomas, head archivist, spoke first about beginning
the process of establishing the archival collection. She
discussed moving the materials from multiple storage
places into the Library and Archives building and
creating the policies, procedures, and workflows for
acquisition, intake, and processing materials. Thomas
highlighted some of the many challenges she faced
along the way, including establishing provenance for
the items acquired, defining what materials would go
to the library, archives, and museum, and deciding
which content management system and standards
should be used to process the archival collections.
While the Library and Archives has made tremendous
progress, she noted that many things remain on her todo list, including the establishment of a Museum-wide
collecting policy, the digitization of priority items, and
linking finding aids to digital objects.
Adam Wead, systems and digital collections librarian,
spoke next about the challenges of creating a set of
systems for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library
and Archive’s unique needs. He began by observing
that when he was hired, there was no ILS, no archival
processing software, no preservation storage, and no
digital initiative; all those systems had to be established
for the Library and Archives. Furthermore, because
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame includes a library,
archives, a digital collection with multiple formats,
and a museum, multiple data types had to be able to
coexist within the same larger system. Wead then
discussed how the Library and Archives staff chose the
systems and products that fit their needs best, and he
noted the progress that the Library and Archives has
made in digitizing video items. Wead also highlighted
the importance that the Library and Archives metadata
creators place on creating item-level content in as
many records as possible so that the scholars using
these particular collections can find what they need
continued
as quickly as possible. Future projects include image
digitization workflow and processing, creating an
institutional repository for the Rock Hall, and extending
the capabilities of the ILS.
Panel presentation and reception at the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame and Museum Library and Archives.
Amanda Raab, catalog and metadata librarian, spoke
about her goals of relocating, assessing, and prioritizing
collections; creating cataloging policies, procedures,
and workflows; and developing adequate tools for
enhancing the metadata that goes into the Library and
Archive’s catalog. She noted her many challenges,
including the initial backlog of over 50,000 items,
coordinating description standards between the library
and archives, and establishing description policies that
allow findability across five catalogs with three different
schemas. Raab’s future plans include reassessing
collection policies and updating the discovery interface
to incorporate new content standards, digital items,
crowdsourcing widgets, and aesthetic changes.
Laura Moody, public services librarian, completed
the panel by describing how she established the many
different public services that the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame Library and Archives provides. Moody discussed
the collection development that she performed, including
establishing subscriptions for databases, magazines,
theses/dissertations, and audio/visual materials not
already found in the collection. She then moved on to
describe the many different venues and ways in which
the Library and Archives performs instruction and
educational outreach services. Moody then concluded
with her future plans, including more outreach, Ask-aLibrarian, in-house instruction, and possible changes to
the library collections and web presence. Andy Leach
12
Session Summaries
continued
wrapped up the session with a few closing remarks and
an invitation to tour the Library and Archives.
(Elizabeth Hille Cribbs, Northern Illinois University)
pieces of sheet music dating from 1831 to 1964, along
with an initiative to make the collection more visible
using YouTube. Dickman noticed that college students
go to YouTube in order to do their music homework,
as listening assignments. She wanted to provide
Saturday, October 12, 2013 such
more access and presence for the digital collection. The
project involves three parts: scanning scores to create
Preserving and Sustaining Performing Arts a digital collection, playing and recording selected
Collections from the 19th to the 21st Centuries: pieces, and then uploading corresponding audio and
Three Illinois Projects
image files to YouTube. Dickman played selected
Kathleen Haefliger (Chicago State University)
pieces on piano and recorded them, then each MP4 file
Therese Dickman (Southern Illinois University,
and the score image file was merged to make a YouTube
Edwardsville)
video. Through its YouTube connection, the digital
Kathleen Harrison (Southern Illinois University,
collection shows as a higher result on more search
Carbondale)
engines, allowing for higher web traffic. In the end,
Dickman hopes this project encourages more musicians
As digital collections are becoming an essential part
to perform the music from the collection.
of libraries, music librarians in Illinois are taking the
ball and running with it! In this panel, attendees learned Finally, Kathleen Harrison presented “Development
about three different digital collections that are being of a Digital Media Preservation Lab to Save Morris
developed within Illinois music libraries. Kathleen Library’s At-Risk Audiovisual Collections.” To
Haefliger began with her presentation “Chicago Theater musicians, sound technology dates as far back as wax
Programs: 1900-1923: A Digital Odyssey.” This cylinders and ranges all the way up to born-digital
project was conceived from one of Haefliger’s favorite recordings. No matter the technology, preservation of
hobbies: antiquing. Haefliger likes searching for theater the musical content is essential. After conducting an
programs in antique stores around the Midwest and assessment of the library’s audiovisual collections,
she realized the amount of sociological and cultural Morris Library realized they did not have the equipment
information that can be found within these programs, needed for preserving the Katherine Dunham Wax
capturing theater life, advertisements and other tidbits Cylinders collection. The collection, created by a
showing cultural aspects. Haefliger received an LSTA dancer and anthropologist, are field recordings of
grant of $10,000 in 2004 to digitize Chicago theater Haitian Voodoo music. The conversion of the 200+
programs from cover to cover. The scanning was piece collection was sent elsewhere because of the
outsourced to Luna Imaging in California, which was fragile state of the media. This project helped to spur
expensive but saved valuable time in return. Luna the development of a digital media preservation lab at
Imaging scanned each page as a TIF file and created SIU Carbondale. The library has faced problems with
an MS Excel spreadsheet, documenting each scanned the storage of digitized audio. They are currently in a
page and its physical condition. More than 600 pages storage debate with the university, but are storing it on
(or around twenty-five programs) dating from 1902 to portable hard drives until a more permanent solution
1919 were scanned. Haefliger uses CONTENTdm as can be found. Throughout this process, Morris Library
the basis for her digital library. CONTENTdm allows used the University of Illinois’s Audiovisual Selfher to input metadata that will help search by keyword Assessment Program (AvSAP) in order to help with
and will facilitate browsing. The final project will be the assessment and inventory of the collection and to
incorporated into the Illinois Digital Archives.
prioritize which collections should be transferred via
Next, in “Colket Illustrated Sheet Music Collection the content’s importance and fragility.
Goes to YouTube,” Therese Dickman described a digital (Eleanor Peterson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
collection based on Gordon Colket’s collection of 120
13
Committee Reports
Publications
Five members attended the Publications Committee
meeting.
The entire meeting was devoted to the topic of the
Oral History Project, and especially to how our oral
history archives might best be disseminated, e.g. via a
print publication including a CD-ROM, or in a digital
archive. Wagstaff had earlier sent a message to other
Chapter chairs via MLA-L, to find out whether they too
are undertaking oral history projects. He had received
answers from Jennifer Hunt of the New England
Chapter, who had sent information about NEMLA’s
oral history project at: http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.
org/history.php [note: subsequent to the meeting, Joyce
Clinkscales sent a message that SEMLA also has an
oral history archive project, but that it is temporarily
on hold; and Dick Griscom has reported no activity on
the part of the Atlantic Chapter.] In regard to publishing
a print volume with CD-ROM, one suggestion was
that such a volume could be published in the MLA
Technical Report series. As for content, it might be a
good idea to include a reprint of Betty Olmsted’s Music
Library Association Midwest Chapter: a Brief History
(A-R Editions, 1978), and to bring the story up to date,
perhaps by using material by Jean Geil (for 1978-97),
and newly-commissioned material (for 1998-2013).
Lynne Weber was suggested as someone who could
take on the period 1998-2013. Dickman reminded
the Committee that any proposed book would take a
thematic approach to the oral history archive material
– audio of the interviews themselves could certainly
be included on the CD if the audio quality was good
enough, but the idea was not to print all the interviews
verbatim in the printed text, as some have already
been in Midwest Notebook. Rather, material gathered
using our standard interview template – for example,
on music librarians’ career paths, or their philosophy of
librarianship – would be grouped thematically. This will
be time-consuming, and the idea of using text mining
software was suggested – perhaps something like
Textalyser (see textalyser.net). It was also suggested
that Wagstaff should ask at the upcoming Business
Meeting whether any Branch members had expertise
in this area. [Note: this was done, but no-one has yet
come forward.] Dickman also circulated a printed
Excel spreadsheet showing the state of those interviews
currently in our archive. It was agreed that we should
try to get all the interviews to a publishable state, and
to have all the audio transcribed and saved to gold
CD. In the meantime, however, we should work with
what we currently have and not worry too much about
what we do not have. Harrison agreed to transcribe
the interview of Olga Buth. It was also noted material
relating to the archive, such as the original tapes and
transcripts, should ultimately be maintained in the
MLA Archives. This needs further work. Finally, it
was noted that Committee member Rob Deland is now
Chair of national MLA’s Oral History Committee [see
http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/members/group.
aspx?id=119030]. We should draw on Rob for advice,
and keep him up to date with our own project. The
next oral history interview articles for the newsletter
were also discussed. Misti Shaw and Tom Caw would
be asked to consider preparing the next “Speaking Our
History” articles.
Other action items:
(i) Wagstaff will contact the current editor of the MLA
Technical Reports series with a view to proposing a
book/CD of our oral history materials for publication.
(ii) Dickman will try to locate materials on her
spreadsheet whose whereabouts are not currently clear.
(John Wagstaff, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign)
Publications committee members meet in the historic
Cleveland Public Library. Photograph by Therese Dickman.
14
Committee Reports
continued
Membership
Cataloging
Five members of the Membership Committee and
one guest gathered to discuss an array of issues. We
reviewed the 2012 Membership Committee report and
Jason Imbesi reported on the chapter’s membership
profile. Also, on behalf of the national association’s
Membership Committee, Imbesi provided a summary
of its activities in order to determine if any of its
initiatives could possibly be applied on the chapter
level and to identify opportunities to coordinate our
efforts. Committee members also discussed their
outreach activities since last year’s meeting as well as
ways to add value to chapter membership and attract
new members to the chapter. There were many ideas
and suggestions including 1) creating a listserv for
libraries and archives to post music-related internship
opportunities in the Midwest that can be browsed by
students, early career professionals and other interested
parties, 2) establishing a refer-a-friend incentive program
for current and potential members, 3) enhancing our
chapter meeting program through the possible addition
of a poster session and further exploration of potential
Webcasting and Webinar opportunities, 4) hosting a joint
meeting with another MLA chapter or regional chapter
of a professional organization of overlapping interest,
and 5) establishing mutually beneficial partnerships
with other professional associations and fostering
underserved populations (such as paraprofessionals
and public librarians) by offering programs, resources
and services covering overlapping areas of interest. We
plan to refer these suggestions to both the Program and
Executive Committees. Jason Imbesi will step down to
past-chair after the 2014 meeting. Paula Hickner was
selected to be the new chairperson for the committee.
She will serve as chair-elect this year and chair after the
2014 meeting. (Jason Imbesi, University of Michigan)
The committee discussed various aspects regarding
the creation of RDA records, both bibliographic and
authority, as well as successes and problems associated
with the implementation of RDA at individual
institutions. Grace Fitzgerald led a brief discussion
on the use of RDA relationship designators. Mark
Scharff discussed updates and inclusion of new MARC
fields in RDA authority records. The committee also
considered the creation of a Midwest MLA Catalogers
listserv, so that we may share ideas and experiences in
implementing RDA at our individual institutions. Patty
Falk was selected as the new chair of the committee.
(James Procell, University of Louisville)
T.A.P.S.
Periodicals at the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame and Museum Library and Archives.
Public Services
No report submitted.
No report submitted.
15
Speaking Our History: Tom Caw
Ninth in a Series in the Midwest Chapter Oral History Project
Tom Caw and Misti Shaw became
Tom Caw and Misti Shaw at DePauw University.
Photo Courtesy of Misti Shaw.
acquainted in 2007 at the suggestion of a mutual
friend—a graduate student in percussion at the
University of Hartford, where Tom was a music public
services librarian. Tom soon realized that not only
was this “Misti” a fellow music librarian, but also
that she’d recently taken the helm at his alma mater,
DePauw University. Tom rejoined the Music Library
Association’s Midwest Chapter in 2008 when he
took a job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tom and Misti met to conduct this interview for the
Midwest Oral History Project in Dallas, Texas, at
the Music Library Association’s annual meeting in
February 2012.
—Misti Shaw, DePauw University
Beginnings
Misti Shaw: Hello, I am Misti Shaw and it is February 15th, 2012. I am at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas
during the Music Library Association conference in order to interview Tom Caw as part of the Music Library
Association Oral History Project. Can you state your full name for the record?
Tom Caw: Well my full name is Thomas Shepherd Caw, but I think Tom Caw is sufficient.
MS: Thank you for that clarification. Well, Tom, let’s get started by talking about your education. You’ve had
some pretty interesting educational pursuits, I’ve noticed.
TC: I have had some, Misti. I took a circuitous route to the profession of Music Librarian. I did my
undergraduate matriculation at DePauw University.
MS: Oh, DePauw.
TC: In Greencastle, Indiana.
MS: Awesome.
TC: I think you are familiar with it.
MS: I am.
TC: It’s not a dirty secret because everyone knows it, [but] while at DePauw I was involved in vocal music,
performing, and I took some music classes but I chose not to major in music.
MS: Despite Stan Irwin.
TC: Despite Dr. Stanley Irwin [1941–2008] and his amazing voice instruction and choral direction, I decided
to do something with a better future I thought. So I got a Bachelor of Arts degree in English composition. I
graduated there in 1990. A couple of years later I decided to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative
writing and I went to the University of Pittsburgh. I realized halfway through that program that I really didn’t
want to earn that degree nor did I want to teach, which was what I thought I wanted to do. I thought I wanted
to teach writing. So I did not complete that program, and there I was in Pittsburgh. I could have gone to
library school, could have pursued it there, [but] didn’t realize it.
16
A couple years later I decided to pursue
audio engineering. I went to the recording workshop
in Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1995 and completed
the music engineering and music production
program as well as their studio maintenance and
troubleshooting program. It wasn’t a degree, but
with that certificate of completion I returned to
Pittsburgh, and I didn’t end up working as an audio
engineer. I ended up living in Milwaukee. I worked
various jobs for many years. I worked as a copy
editor, as a proof reader. I did all sorts of jobs. I
worked for a number of years managing a record
store. I worked in a book store; I’ve worked in a
couple of book stores in various points of my socalled adult life, and when I was in Milwaukee I
spent time in a book store. Then I went back to
working in an office doing editing and I realized
that I just had to be back in academia. So I ended
up going to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
earning a Master of Library and Information
Science at the same time as a Master of Music in
history & literature. I finished my work there in
2005. That was when the degrees were conferred.
“I worked in an editorial job while
spending an awful lot of time in
the Espresso Royale coffee shop,
right next to the School of Music
and the Library School, and could
have realized my destiny to music
librarianship then, but I didn’t.”
MS: And, if I’m not mistaken, you specialized in
popular music? Do I have that right?
TC: That is correct. As far as my focus in
musicology in my master’s thesis, that is correct.
MS: What was the title of your master’s thesis?
TC: Gender Troubled Girl: The Disrupted Work
of Kim Gordon. I wrote it about Kim Gordon,
a musician, visual artist, performer, and most
famously of the group Sonic Youth.
MS: Interesting, and you touched on this a little bit
already, but you’ve had a similarly interesting path
of employment. Can you talk about that in more
detail?
TC: Well, as I mentioned, I worked many different
types of jobs. Actually, out of undergraduate
school I worked in book publishing for a year at
Harper Collins Publishers in New York, and I was
an editorial assistant in children’s books.
MS: Wow.
TC: Yeah, I tried to get into Adult Trade, into the
fiction, but there was an opening in Children’s
Books and I was eager to be employed, so I took
that position. After a year, I ended up living in
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, without going to
school there. I had friends from undergraduate
school who were living there. I worked in an
editorial job there while spending an awful lot of
time in the Espresso Royale coffee shop, right next
to the School of Music and the Library School
across from the Krannert Center for Performing
Arts, and could have realized my path, my destiny
to music librarianship then, but I didn’t.
“I was quite keen to go
learn all that I could under
[Linda Blotner’s] tutelage.”
MS: Well, tell us about your first job as a music
librarian.
TC: Well, after I left UW-Milwaukee, I went to
Connecticut to the University of Hartford. I was
the Public Services Librarian at the Allen Memorial
Library, and serving the Hartt School at University
of Hartford. Linda [Solow] Blotner was the head
of the library at that time.
MS: She has a Citation Award.
TC: She is an MLA Citation Award winner [in
2009], and a living legend of the profession. I was
quite keen to go learn all that I could under her
tutelage. I knew her most recently, at that point, as
the editor of Notes. I was the first public services
librarian they had at Allen Memorial Library, and
it’s a library where a lot of other folks have worked.
Phil Ponella—who is now the head at Indiana
University’s Music Library—once worked there.
Various other people have passed through there as
student employees. They [had] never had a public
services librarian, but Linda Blotner really wanted
that to be part of the outreach instruction program
for the Hartt School faculty and students. So she
created the position, and I went there and worked,
and she retired.
I realized things were in transition there,
17
and I was eager to move on, perhaps to work at
some place that had more of a musicology track,
which was lacking at the Hartt School. A position
opened at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mills
Music Library, as music public services librarian.
I interviewed and was hired, and started there in
the fall of 2008. That’s where I still am doing what
I do: helping to satisfy music information needs,
and giving instruction, reference service, doing
promotion outreach for the library to not only
the School of Music, but [also] to other schools,
departments, professors, all across campus, to
make sure they realize that we have resources and
services that could benefit them and their students.
So that’s where I am now, Mills Music Library, in
Madison, back in the Midwest.
MS: The Midwest is the best.
TC: The Midwest is the best.
“The Midwest is the best.”
MS: Well, we’re going to discuss your activities
within MLA and MLA Midwest a little bit later,
but I am wondering if you can discuss any of your
other professional activities. I think you’re pretty
involved in popular music. Can you talk about
that?
TC: Okay. Well, Misti, when I was a graduate
student at UW-Milwaukee, I was conducting
research for a paper in library school about
subject-specialty libraries. Like a lot of us, I think,
I tried to steer some of my library school classwork
toward music librarianship topics. I wanted to find
out how academic music libraries were meeting
or not meeting the information needs of popular
music studies scholars. So I starting contacting
various practitioners at other institutions. I wound
up contacting Gary Burns at Northern Illinois
University. He liked the idea of what I was working
on so much, he requested to see the paper. When
it was finished, I sent it back to him. He liked it.
He wanted to publish it, and he did publish it in
the journal that he’s the editor of: Popular Music
and Society. He also then invited me to present at
a conference [of] The Midwest Popular Culture
Association (MPCA). That’s a Midwest chapter
of a national organization, Popular Culture
Association/American Culture Association. That
was in 2002. I presented a paper at the MPCA
meeting, and ended up with my graduate school
class assignment published in the journal.
MS: That’s impressive.
TC: I wasn’t angling for that at all, it just happened,
and I felt very fortunate for that. So I’ve continued
to be an area chair for libraries, museums, and
collecting within the Midwest Popular Culture
Association for these past ten years. I also am a
member of the International Association for the
Study of Popular Music, the “I-ASPM” as it’s so
cleverly acronymed. Specifically IASPM-US. This
is an international group, similar to the way IAML
is an international association for music librarians.
So those are two other acronymic organizations that
I am professionally involved in. I have presented at
a IASPM-US Conference and presented at IASPMCanada across the border back in 2008. Not being
disloyal to the United States of America of course,
I wanted to see what it was like in Canada, and it
was metric (laughter).
“I love talking about books and
music and books about music.
I love helping people.”
Entering the Profession
MS: Okay. Let’s shift gears a bit. I’m wondering:
what led you to become a music librarian? What
were the circumstances that led to you choosing
that as a profession?
TC: All right. Well, I was working in an office,
in a cubicle world, as I like to call it. Just doing
copying of telephone directory advertising.
MS: Sounds intriguing.
TC: It was brutal. The one thing that I did find
palatable about that job was that my bosses at this
location in Milwaukee would let me bring music—
CDs—to work and play the music “quietly” in
my cubicle, quietly enough so I wouldn’t disturb
anyone else from doing their detailed work. That
kept me sane and kept my spirits up through the
long days of copy-editing telephone directory
advertising. My favorite part of any day was when
my co-workers would drift by my cubicle and stop
to say, “What are you listening to?” (laughter) I
could then put aside my copy-editing and talk to
18
them about the music and tell them about it.
The more that kept happening, the more I thought,
“Ah, I miss that interaction with people talking
about music, sharing information about music,
sharing my passion for music,” that I was able to
do on a daily basis when I worked, say, in record
stores, or when I was in the bookstore even. I
could talk about books—because I love all kinds
of writing as well—and talking about books and
music and books about music. I loved doing that.
I loved helping people, even in that strange way
in my cubicle, helping to expose them or tell them
something that maybe they didn’t know. Not in a
braggart kind of way... I just wanted to share when
they asked me about the music I was listening to.
“I went on the Internet, Misti,
and I typed in some search
terms and I found out that
there was such a thing as
‘music librarianship.’”
I realized at that point that my mother-inlaw had gone to library school late in life. She had
decided she wanted to be a children’s librarian and
do children’s story hour at a public library. So she
pursued a degree—she had always told me she
thought I should go into librarianship. Of course,
because she’s my mother-in-law, I thought, “Uh,
Mom, I don’t know… that’s a nice idea, but maybe
not for me.” But I went and I looked into it. I went
on the Internet, Misti, and I typed in some search
terms and I found out that there was such a thing as
“music librarianship,” and I found my way to the
MLA website. I had never thought of that, really,
even though in my undergraduate days at DePauw I
had spent a fair amount of time at the music library,
which as you well know has since been completely
redone and made into a spectacular, gleaming
castle in which you are the queen currently. I did
spend time in the music library, but it didn’t occur
to me that, “Oh, you can become a music librarian.”
So when I looked at the MLA site, and I read the
“Music Librarianship: Is It For You?” [guide] and I
looked at the directory of schools where you could
go, and I realized UW-Milwaukee, which was 15
blocks away from where I lived at the time, had
this dual-degree program, I looked up whom to
contact. I found Rebecca Littman’s name. She is
still there as the music librarian at UW-Milwaukee.
So I contacted Rebecca, set up an interview,
and went in to talk to her. She was enthusiastic
about the profession, to put it mildly. She was quite
eager to tell me about what a great profession it is
and all of the opportunities there were, depending
on whether I was interested in public services or
technical services, or large academic libraries,
small libraries, conservatory libraries, orchestral
libraries, working with radio, [or] working in
public libraries, big or small. She literally was the
one who told me what it was, what it meant, and
what it meant to her. I think before I left her office,
it was almost as if she had decided that I had to
become a music librarian. And I started to think,
“Well, maybe I should become a music librarian.”
“I quit my job. I enrolled
in classes immediately...
I just couldn’t wait to get
started in the profession.”
I also went and talked to the School of Music
faculty—the head of the graduate program there—
and explained my unusual circumstances of being
interested in a master’s degree program in music,
and lacking a bachelor’s in music. Luckily, I met
with Mitchell Brauner. He was sympathetic to my
plight because he had been a history major—not a
music history major—in his undergraduate days,
but eventually went on to get a master’s and a Ph.D.
in music history and musicology. So somehow that
day I decided, “I am done with a cubicle world.
I’m not going back to cubicle world.” I quit my
job. I enrolled in classes immediately as a special
student before I could be a degree candidate, so
I could start right away and do some remedial
coursework in music. I just couldn’t wait to get
started in the profession. So I would say Rebecca
Littman definitely was the inspiration, the oracle,
the one who told me what it was all about and
advocated strongly that I consider the profession.
19
Philosophy
MS: Well, you’ve been a librarian for several years
now. What is being a librarian to you? What is your
philosophy of librarianship?
TC: My philosophy of librarianship. Well, I think
after having worked in record stores and book
stores for many years; watching the inventory come
and go; never being certain of what was going to
be available at any given time; and realizing that it
was subject to the whims of the marketplace... I’ve
always loved libraries. But when I started to think
about librarianship as a profession, I realized that I
was greatly drawn to the dual-pronged philosophy
of preservation and access. That underpins
everything we do as librarians. I love that notion
of gathering, assembling, and curating, if you will.
I know some people bristle at that term and I do
most of the time. But it is a sort-of curation when
you’re doing collection development to decide
what you’re going to collect, what you’re going to
acquire, and then preserve, and make sure it’s on
hand in your library and accessible to your current
patrons and will be there, in theory at least, for the
patrons 10 years, 20, 50, 100, however many years
into the future.
So, I know it sounds corny or hokey to sing
the praises of preservation and access—providing
access to all—but really, that’s what keeps me going,
keeps me excited about the profession. Despite all
the on-going changes in technology, formats, and
issues that we face in terms of budgets, I still think
it’s a great and noble thing that we do. In terms of
my philosophy of being a public services librarian,
it’s definitely to put the patron first, always—to do
whatever I can to literally serve the public, whether
it’s the public who are my colleagues in the library,
the first year student, the dissertator, the tenured
professor, the adjunct instructor, anyone who has a
musical information need, or someone I think I can
help and I want to help—that’s what I’m driven
by. I do fully believe that is my philosophy: to do
whatever I can to help anyone with information
needs.
MS: You mentioned earlier that Rebecca Littman
was convinced that you needed to pursue
music librarianship. Do you think she saw ideal
qualifications in you? Do you think there are ideal
qualifications for music librarianship?
TC: I don’t know how I feel about “idealizing”
qualifications or the profession of librarianship.
I think there are so many different ways to be a
librarian; [though] there are definitely desirable
qualities for a public services librarian: to be
outgoing, and to be comfortable talking to a wide
variety of people no matter their age or background.
At the University Wisconsin-Madison, we have a
large international student contingency. I realize I
have to constantly be adjusting my sense of what is
culturally okay or normal or known even in terms
of tacit knowledge about things when I’m helping
someone from Singapore who has maybe only been
in the U.S. for a year or two, who is technically
amazing as a musician, and has virtuosity to spare,
but is completely flummoxed by how to enter a
simple keyword search in the online catalog to find
a score and to determine whether that score has
the parts necessary (laughter). You know, really
simple things.
“I’ve always loved libraries. But
when I started to think about
librarianship as a profession, I
realized that I was greatly drawn
to the dual-pronged philosophy
of preservation and access.”
I think [for] somebody who really wants
to be a top-notch cataloger, the qualifications for
that type of librarian [are] totally different. It’s fine
if they don’t have the greatest ease with standing
up in front of a room full of students or faculty
or just anybody and telling them how to make use
of periodical databases (laughter)... you know, the
sort of thing that I do all the time and I wish I did
more of. I can’t get enough of that performance
aspect of librarianship. But [for] some people that’s
just not their thing. I get that. I think ultimately you
have to care about information, about preserving
it and making it accessible. I guess that does
span both public services and technical services.
Somebody who really cares, and they’re not just in
it for the big bucks and the lavish conferences and
the vacations... I think that they care is the ideal
qualification.
20
Preparing for the Future
MS: Do you feel like you know what the future of
music librarianship holds?
TC: (Laughter) No, I don’t. I do feel [though]
in the face of all of the panicked voices saying,
“Everything’s
going
digital,
everything’s
electronic!” [that] it has to go that way. I think there
will still be a role to be played by music librarians
and libraries in terms of the gathering of materials,
cataloging them, making them accessible,
retrievable, usable, and understandable—no matter
what technological shifts occur. I think we will be
expected, as music librarians, both in academia and
public libraries, to be much more willing and able
to [practice] a wide variety of skills. I, like you,
was not interested in cataloging so much. I don’t
know what will happen with cataloging. I wonder
sometimes if it will all get centralized and not just
within a university or within an institution, but if
there’ll just be outsourced campuses of catalogers,
or if OCLC will somehow add a wing for every
subject, and we’ll all just take whatever they sell
us (laughter). They won’t give it to us. They’ll sell
it or license it to us. We’ll be licensees.
“I get a lot of joy in seeing
someone gain newfound
knowledge and skills and
self-reliance in the library.”
But I can’t really imagine a future where
music isn’t published, printed on paper, in terms
of scores. I can’t imagine a future where people
stop writing about music or musicians, in terms of
the histories or biographies and the musicology. I
can’t imagine people will stop performing music or
recording it, no matter what sort of media develops.
Who knows if there’ll even be a physical medium
by the end of our careers? Who knows, we might
just be curating the air or something (laughter). I
don’t know. Everyone now talks about the cloud—
all information, data, being stored in “the cloud.” I
wonder how long before “there are no clouds” and
it’s just air (laughter), or it’s just uploading and
downloading (laughter) information from oxygen.
I don’t know what the future holds. I’m not a
futurist. I just try to be in the present moment
and go forward.
MS: Well, I bet you do have some personal goals,
though, when it comes to your career. Can you
describe those?
TC: It’s a funny thing, Misti: I am not someone
who really sets goals so much. I have over-arching
goals. Or I have that sense of qualitative approach
to my profession, to be always helpful and to be
as understandable in my instruction as I can be, to
help make sure the people I am working with in the
library or working with from afar, you know online
or over the phone… get what it is that they’re
looking for, or that I helped them. I put them onto
the path and helped them develop the skills [they
need] to help themselves.
“I think that [libraries] will
continue to have to pay a lot
of money to a lot of different
people to get a lot of different
types of content.”
I remember in library school that the
expression was “Our goal is to create selfsufficient, self-reliant bibliographic users.” [That]
always made me think [that] it sounds like we’re
trying to do such a good job that we’re going to
make ourselves obsolete, or we’re going to make
it so patrons are so skilled and so talented that they
won’t need us. But I think it’s more nuanced than
that. I think you would agree with me. I get a lot of
joy in seeing someone gain newfound knowledge
and skills and self-reliance in the library.
MS: Yes, indeed.
TC: So, I think if I can continue to be able to do
what I do now, for however long I am physically
and mentally able to do it, that would be great,
because I am never going to stop being passionate
about music and information about music. I’m
not much of a quantitative person. I’m more of a
qualitative person.
MS: Quality!
TC: Yeah!
21
Technological Innovations
MS: Well, I seem to recall that you’ve been one
of the music librarians involved in discussions
surrounding music that is only published online
or in MP3 format; streaming music, as opposed
to CD. I’m wondering if you can talk about
how technological developments have affected
the profession and will continue to affect the
profession.
TC: Well, there’s no one way to measure how
much we’ve been affected by technological
innovations, even in the brief time that you and I
have been in the profession. However, I think the
trend of storing information in the cloud, as I was
just going on about, will certainly continue. And
I think in terms of distribution models for both
sound recordings and journal content, newspaper,
serial publications... I think a lot of that is going to
continue to move into more concentrated ownership
hands, [with] companies that will create license
agreements for us. So far the licensing agreements
aren’t really working so well for academia. They’re
so focused on the end consumer, the individual
consumer model. It’s undeniable that the iTunes
store platform, in terms of selling/distributing
recorded music and video performances, has been
successful, but it doesn’t take into account the
preservation and the sustained access to all of that
content.
“Because I decided I wanted to be
a librarian but I had never worked
in a library before, it seemed like
something I should probably do.”
I don’t know... I’m glad when I have a
front row seat, and I’m glad that I have a job in
the profession, but I don’t know how it’s going to
play out. I think that we will continue, as I said,
to have to pay a lot of money to a lot of different
people to get a lot of different types of content. At
the same time, even with e-books coming along in
the last few years and rising in popularity... At the
University Wisconsin-Madison we have more and
more e-books all the time appearing in our catalog,
many of which I don’t even order. [Monographs are]
part of my collection development responsibility
at University of Wisconsin-Madison. There are
many e-books that just appear through various
vendors in our online catalog on a regular basis.
I’m always surprised to see them there because
I’m not requesting them. I keep getting told “Well,
it’s part of a pilot project.” I always bristle at that
expression of “pilot project,” just for the record in
the oral history (laughter). While I’m at it, I loathe
“best practices” as well. But the pilot project... I
don’t know who is piloting it, and I don’t know
how long these e-books that appear in our catalog
are going to be available. I’ve done what I can to
promote them to people, and I haven’t received
a lot of positive feedback from either students or
faculty. Will e-books continue? Of course they
will. Actual printed-bound—will the codex endure
as graphical user interface? Yeah, I think it will. It
stuck around for however many centuries now, and
I think it will continue to be put on shelves. Now I
don’t even know what you asked me, it was about
technological innovation...
Midwest Chapter
MS: It’s okay, because the next part of our
interview is a lot less murky, and it’s the best part
of the interview, which concerns the MLA Midwest
Chapter. (TC: Ohhh yeahhh.) What were the
circumstances that led you to become a member of
the Midwest Chapter, or did MLA come first?
TC: Well, again this goes back to Rebecca
Littman. When I enrolled at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she immediately got me a
job in the music library there, right from the start.
Because I decided I wanted to be a librarian but
I had never worked in a library before, it seemed
like something I should probably do. So I started
working in the library. Rebecca was the webmaster
for the MLA Midwest Chapter [at that point]. So
of course she’s the one who told me about the
chapter. She’s the one who said, “Oh! You have
to go to the chapter meeting. It’s usually a lot of
fun. It’s informative. You get to meet people from
the region.” So I actually went to my first MLA
Midwest Chapter meeting with Rebecca. I drove
my boss, mentor, and inspiration to the meeting,
[which] was in 2002 in Bloomington, Illinois, at
Illinois Wesleyan University. Bob Delvin hosted,
chaired, ran that meeting. Then my first MLA
22
meeting was the following February, 2003
in Austin, Texas. So I went to an MLA Midwest
[meeting] before I went to my first MLA national
meeting. Those were the circumstances. I was a
student up in Milwaukee. My boss was a member
and webmaster, she needed a ride, and she told me
I was going to go to the chapter meeting.
MS: You were ensnared.
TC: Yeah. Well, and she also encouraged me to
apply to be a recipient of what at that point was
still known as the Retiree’s Scholarship, which
helped to defray the expense of my conference
attendance for the MLA Midwest. I was a Retiree’s
Scholarship recipient.
MS: Congratulations!!
TC: Thank you, Misti.
MS: And then you returned to the Midwest
Chapter. I’m interested if you can describe what’s
distinctive about the Midwest Chapter as compared
to the New England chapter.
TC: Well, MLA Midwest, as I discovered right
away at that first meeting in 2002, is full of what
we in MLA like to call “luminaries.” Not that any
chapter is lacking in luminaries, but there were
quite a few luminaries when I first went to MLA
Midwest. To meet all these people who I only knew
as names from the MLA-L [Listserv] prior to that
was pretty amazing. To discover that they were all
incredibly friendly, and outgoing, and interested
in what I was interested in, and wanting to know
why I was there, and really showing concern for
me professionally, personally.
“MLA Midwest, as I discovered
right away at [my] first meeting
in 2002, is full of what we in
MLA like to call ‘luminaries.’”
“I think the Midwest Chapter—all the
chapters—play the role of providing
that social network, a safety net, if
you will, of people in similar locales.”
MS: What has been a particularly memorable
experience in the Midwest chapter?
TC: Well, it’s funny. I think back now to those
first couple of years while I was a student member
and I wasn’t sure what to do. I remember going
to the meeting of TAPS [Technology, Archives,
Preservation, Sound]. I didn’t become a member
then of TAPS as I recall, but I was certainly
interested in TAPS. Don Widmer was chair at
that point. I’m sort of ashamed to admit [that] I
didn’t get heavily involved in the chapter in terms
of committee work at that point. I later became
involved in working on the Public Services
Committee within the MLA Midwest Chapter. I
have been on that for several years now, and I’ve
contributed to various endeavors, and been part of
the discussion before, during, and after the MLA
Midwest Chapter meeting. We’ve had pretty good
online discussions about public services issues, and
how to address them, how they’re being addressed
in the Midwest Chapter.
MS: So I think I’ve got this right: you were a
member of the Midwest Chapter, and then moved
to Hartford and [were] a member of the New
England Chapter.
TC: Yes.
In my mind the Midwest is probably more
like the Middle West, what gets dubbed “the
plains” in our parlance of MLA. But the Midwest
is so far-reaching to go from parts of Kentucky,
and up to Minnesota, and all the way over to
Missouri—or Missour“ah” if you prefer. The
people came from all over the place and it was such
a large and raucous group, who seemed to know
how to have a good time and get down to business
and discuss serious matters of librarianship. New
England is such a small land mass. It’s different
there in that there are two meetings every year in
the New England Chapter. In Midwest we have
the one, big meeting in the fall that runs usually
Thursday to Saturday. In the New England Chapter
it’s a one day affair, and they expect everybody to
just get there somehow, and drive from all over
New England to wherever it is. [You] spend all
day and have accomplished everything you need
to have accomplished by 5 p.m. so everybody can
get back on the road and get home. I found that
that led to some decent professional development
in the session that would happen, but there was far
less activity in committees and certainly far less
activity in the socializing and the camaraderie of
the mutual support network that we all get, I think,
23
out of being members of the [Midwest] chapter.
So it was a very different experience to be in the
New England chapter as opposed to the Midwest
Chapter.
MS: I think what I just heard you say was that the
Midwest is the best.
TC: Well, the Midwest, I would say, is the better of
the two to my liking.
MS: What is your concept of the role of the
Midwest Chapter when it comes to the Music
Library Association as a whole?
TC: I think the Midwest Chapter—all the
chapters—play the role of providing that social
network, a safety net if you will, of people in
similar locales, maybe similar climates. I guess we
do span a couple time zones, Eastern and Central,
so there’s diversity in the Midwest. But I think the
role is that it allows us to come together, have a big
meeting, get things done and blow off steam, and
vent in person every fall, in a handsome, attractive
locale, and enjoy the fall foliage. And yeah, I think
[it gives] us that identity that says when we come
to MLA, “Oh we’re all from the Midwest, and we
all like to have a good time.” I think it’s an identity
thing. I think there are some people who are only
members at the chapter level who don’t come to
MLA. So for them [the chapter] also plays that
role of providing instruction to them when either
they wouldn’t be able to afford to come to MLA or
maybe not have the time.
“I was so excited to hear [Andy
Leach] talk about some music
that I was fond of. I went up and
talked to him afterwards and was
quite giddy. I probably scared him
actually, with my excitement.”
MS: Tom, I’m dying to hear you describe your first
chapter meeting! Is that the one that had the hay
ride?
TC: No, Misti. The hay ride was actually in
Lexington, Kentucky, in 2005. My first meeting
was an eye-opening experience for me, getting
to meet all these people who were just names on
the Listserv to me before. My first night we were
staying at the Chateau Hotel in Bloomington. I
don’t even know if this place is still in business.
It was teetering on the line of charming and
dilapidated, more charming than dilapidated. It
had a nice bar, and we all sat down at the bar on
our first night in booths. Ralph Papakhian sat down
next to me. I couldn’t believe that was Ralph, you
know? We had drinks, and talked, and laughed, and
I immediately felt welcomed. It was incredible.
“[Richard LeSueur] told me to seek
out Sarah Dorsey, [and that] I would
recognize her by her laughter. [I
was] to go into the exhibit hall, find
this woman who was laughing, and
introduce myself.”
One of the things I really came to like about
the MLA Midwest were all the people who were just
characters. [During that] meeting at Bloomington
there was [a session that] I thought was kind of
silly. I walked out at one point to go to the restroom
and there was this whole cluster of librarians who
had already walked out of the presentation and
were sitting in a room outside having a grand time
chatting with each other. I stopped and chatted
with them. Steve Wright—who has ascended
into the higher echelons of the administration but
at that point was a music librarian at Northern
Illinois—was sitting there talking with I think Beth
Christensen from St. Olaf and Leslie Troutman
from the University of Illinois. I remember Steve
congratulating me on escaping the session that
was going on, and I said “Oh wow, okay.” So I
ended up sitting out there with them and talking. It
stuck with me that it’s okay to walk out of things if
you’re just not…
MS: Interested?
TC: Yeah. You can be yourself here. That was
[also] my first introduction to hearing all these
people talk and give instruction and presentations.
Andy Leach—who at that point was at the Center
for Black Music Research at Columbia College
Chicago—did a reference refresher on bluegrass
and old time music. I was so excited that somebody
was talking about music that wasn’t just classical,
Western art music, and Andy was young, a lot
younger than I am. I was so excited to hear him talk
about some music that I was fond of. I went up and
24
talked to him afterwards and was quite giddy. I
probably scared him actually, with my excitement.
And there was a guest performer there, the organist
Ann Marie Rigler, who played a recital of Baroque
and contemporary works at Evelyn Chapel at
Illinois Wesleyan. At that point she was the acting
music librarian at Penn State, and had been a
member of the Midwest Chapter earlier. She was
an amazing performer, an amazing organist, and
I had a great time chatting with her and it turned
out that she knew Dr. Timothy Noonan, who was
one of my music history professors at the time at
UW-Milwaukee and it just made me feel like “Oh!
This is all connecting. People know other people
from other places.” And it all started to seem
interconnected in a way that I liked.
“To this day I can’t believe that at my
first chapter meeting I just happened
to sit next to Dena Epstein and she
was so welcoming and interested in
what I had to talk about.”
The chair at that point of MLA Midwest was
the amazing Richard LeSueur, Ann Arbor Public
Library, and meeting him there certainly stands
out in my mind. He would then go on to change
my professional life in MLA to a greater extent
when I would go to the Austin meeting in 2003. He
called out my name one day as I was walking down
the stairs into the exhibitor/vendor hall. I turned
around and he said “Come here!” He told me he
thought I should get involved on the Membership
Committee for MLA, not just the chapter. He told
me to seek out Sarah Dorsey, [and that] I would
recognize her by her laughter. I [was to] go into the
exhibit hall, find this woman who was laughing,
and introduce myself because he apparently had
already dropped my name to her. He thought it was
time that a grad student be part of the Membership
Committee. What could I say? I said “Okay. Sure.”
So Richard LeSueur pointed me literally in the
direction to get involved in MLA and set me on
my course. Now he might say he regrets it, but we
have a good joking rapport, he and I. So meeting
Richard LeSueur there obviously did great things
for me in my career arc.
MS: Do you have any other stories or recollections
that stand out, either from the chapter or from
MLA that you’d like to share?
TC: Yeah, actually I just remembered something
else from that first chapter meeting in 2002. Because
I was a Retiree’s Scholarship winner, I was at the
luncheon when they make the presentations of the
awards. Rebecca Littman didn’t orchestrate this. It
just happened. I sat down next to Dena Epstein who
was there attending the meeting. I couldn’t believe
it. “Oh! Dena Epstein!” I knew of her already. She
was legendary and had an [MLA] award named
after her. She was the sweetest woman. She loved
the fact that I was living in Milwaukee because
she was from Milwaukee originally. We had an
amazing chat and to this day I can’t believe that
[at] my first chapter meeting I just happened to
sit next to Dena Epstein. She was so welcoming
and interested in what I had to talk about. I can tell
stories ‘til the sun comes up...
“What I’m proudest of is if I
go home at the end of the day
and I can say, ‘You know, I
helped some people today.’”
MS: As a matter of fact, I’m not gonna let us move
on until you talk a little bit about the hay ride.
TC: Oh yeah! Two things about the MLA Midwest
Chapter meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2005
really stand out in my mind: the copious amounts
and varieties of bourbon that were available to
consume, and the fact that we went to the Kentucky
Horse Park. It was funny because the whole place
was basically deserted, and we were the only party
crew there. They took us on a hayride across the
whole grounds. So [there was] this amazing cluster
of music librarians on hay bales getting dragged
by a tractor all over the place looking at beautiful
pastures, meadows, fences, and some horses. We
ended up going back to the welcome center and
having some of that bourbon and some delicious
food. Then some dance group came and performed
for us. It was at first scary, then it was surreal and
then it was delightful. They started dragging us up
to square dance with them, and I ended up square
[dancing]. I don’t know whether it was the bourbon,
the music, or the costumes of the dancers, but it
25
was a good time. It was a very good time.
MS: Well, before we conclude the interview, I would like it if
you could talk about what you’re most proud of achieving so
far in your career as a music librarian.
TC: See, this brings me back to my not being a quantitative
person but being a qualitative person. There are a million little
moments—actually, there’s probably one moment that recurs
in librarianship as a public services librarian: that moment of
having someone approach you in some state of need, whether
it’s panic, last minute, or the start of a research project,
curiosity, or they just want some specific edition. That moment
of helping them through their anxiety, their unease... helping
to the point where their need is satisfied; every time I do that,
that’s the thing I’m proudest of, every time that happens.
I mean, I have all these grandiose dreams and plans
and schemes for programs I’m going to implement or new
ways I’m going to do information literacy instruction, or new
models of collection development that are gonna be unlike
anything anybody’s ever done before to make it streamlined
and cost efficient. I think we all just kind of muddle through
as best we can. I think as long as I am alert to the needs of the
Tom Caw. Photo Courtesy of Misti Shaw.
patrons, the public, and I meet those [needs] more often than I
don’t, that’s really what I’m in it for. What I’m proudest of is if I go home at the end of the day and I can say,
“You know, I helped some people today,” and I feel like they appreciate it.
MS: Tom, it was truly a delight. Thank you so much for participating in this interview.
TC: You’re welcome, Misti.
Editor’s Note:
Readers of this oral history should keep in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the
interviewer, narrator, and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such
historical sources. The Music Library Association, Midwest Chapter is not responsible for the factual accuracy
of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein; these elements are for the reader to judge. The manuscript
may be read, quoted, and cited freely. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, electronic
or mechanical, without permission in writing from the Music Library Association, Midwest Chapter.
26
Administrative Structure
Executive Committee
Chair: Sheridan Stormes (Butler University), 2014
Past-Chair: Kirstin Dougan (University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign), 2014
Secretary-Treasurer: James Procell (University of Louisville),
2014
Newsletter Editor: Anne Shelley (Illinois State University),
2014
Web Editor: Elizabeth Hille Cribbs (Northern Illinois University), 2014
Standing Committees
Bylaws (One-year terms; members may be reappointed)
Beth Christensen (St. Olaf College), Chair, 2014
Grace Fitzgerald (University of Iowa), 2014
Paula Hickner (University of Kentucky), 2014
Membership (Three-year terms; members may be reappointed;
Chair serves year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair, one year
as Past-Chair)
Jason Imbesi (University of Michigan), Chair, 2014
Paula Hickner (University of Kentucky), Chair-Elect, 2017
Michael J. Duffy (Northern Illinois University), 2015
Jack Knapp (Oberlin College and Conservatory), 2016
Richard LeSueur (Ann Arbor, MI), 2016
Rebecca Littman (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), 2015
Sheridan Stormes (Butler University), 2015
Lynne Weber (Minnesota State University, Mankato), 2015
Carla Williams (Indiana University), 2016
Program (One-year terms; members may be reappointed)
Sheridan Stormes (Butler University), Chair, 2014
Beth Christensen (St. Olaf College), 2014
Mary Huisman (University of Minnesota), 2014
Publications (Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair serves one year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair, one year as Past-Chair)
John Wagstaff (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Interim Chair, 2015
Rob Deland (Vandercook College of Music), 2015
Therese Dickman (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville),
2015
Michael J. Duffy (Northern Illinois University), 2016
Greg Fitzgerald (Western Michigan University), 2014
Kathleen Haefliger (Chicago State University), 2016
Kathleen Harrison (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale), 2014
Ruth Inman (Kennedy-King College), 2015
Amy Pennington (Saint Louis University), 2015
Anne Shelley (Illinois State University), 2015
Wendy Sistrunk (University of Missouri-Kansas City), 2014
Lynne Weber (Minnesota State University, Mankato), 2014
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)
James Procell (University of Louisville), Chair, 2014
Patty Falk (Bowling Green State University), Chair-Elect, 2016
Kerri Baunach (University of Kentucky), 2015
Elizabeth Hille Cribbs (Northern Illinois University), 2017
Grace Fitzgerald (University of Iowa), 2015
Mary Huisman (University of Minnesota), 2016
Jason Imbesi (University of Michigan), 2016
Kevin Kishimoto (University of Chicago), 2016
Nicole Long (Wheaton College), 2016
Deborah Morris (Roosevelt University), 2015
Chuck Peters (Indiana University), 2016
Sandy Rodriguez (University of Missouri-Kansas City), 2016
Mark Scharff (Washington University), 2015
Janet Scott (Indiana University), 2016
Wendy Sistrunk (University of Missouri-Kansas City), 2016
Sue Stancu (Indiana University), 2016
Public Services (Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair serves one year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair, one year as Past-Chair)
Rebecca Littman (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Chair, 2014
Tom Caw (University of Wisconsin-Madison), 2015
Liz Berndt Morris (Central Michigan University), 2015
Robert Delvin (Illinois Wesleyan University), 2014
Kirstin Dougan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), 2014
Jill King (DePaul University), 2015
Technology, Archives, Preservation, and Sound (T.A.P.S.)
(Three-year terms; members may be reappointed; Chair serves one year as Chair-Elect, two years as Chair, one year as Past-Chair)
Emma Dederick (Indiana University), Chair, 2016
Susannah Cleveland (Bowling Green State University), 2015
Kathleen Harrison (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale), 2014
Sandy Rodriguez (University of Missouri-Kansas City), 2014
Misti Shaw (DePauw University), 2015
Peter Szabo (Ohio Wesleyan University), 2014
Terms expire in October of the year indicated. This version of
the administrative structure should reflect changes made at the
2013 chapter meeting. Please report errors and omissions to the
editor ([email protected]).
27

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