Message from the Chair
Spring 2018 Meeting Summary
Secretary/Treasurer’s Report
Fall 2018 Meeting Preview
Fall Meeting Travel Grant Application
Fall Meeting Call for Proposals
Noteworthy News
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

July, 2018

Dear NEMLA members:

Get your passports ready! During the spring meeting at the New England Conservatory (NEC) in March, outgoing chapter chair Jared Rex shared the exciting news that our fall meeting would be held in Montreal jointly with the New York State/Ontario chapter of MLA and the Quebec chapter (SQACBM) of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (CAML). Jared had announced that the Greater New York chapter of MLA would also participate, but they have since decided to drop out. The meeting will be held at McGill University’s New Residence on Thursday, November 8 and Friday, November 9, which we chose because it leads into the long Veteran’s Day weekend observed in the U.S.

We realize that this will be a more expensive meeting for our members for a variety of reasons, but we are working on ways to make it affordable, starting with making it possible to stay only a single night in Montreal. The event will begin Thursday morning with French-language presentations, but bilingual welcome messages and English-language presentations won’t start until Thursday afternoon. The event will wrap up mid-afternoon on Friday. The registration price, $60 US, will include breakfast on Thursday and Friday, a reception at the end of the Thursday program, Friday lunch, and numerous catered coffee breaks. We will have a block of discounted rooms ($179 CAD) at the Hilton Garden Inn Montreal Centre-Ville Hotel, right across from McGill’s music library. Most importantly, we have travel grants available for up to three people, described in greater detail elsewhere in the newsletter.

To balance the expense and inconvenience of the Montreal meeting, the NEMLA board decided when we signed on that our spring 2019 meeting should be in Boston to be accessible to as many of our members as possible. I am happy to announce that my own institution, Boston University, will host the Spring 2019 meeting. We still have a lot to focus on before then, so we have not yet set a date.

We expect there will be a competitive process for selecting presentations. Don’t be shy about responding to the call for proposals. I hope NEMLA will be well-represented among the presenters.

To recap election announcements from Jared, I offer congratulations to our winners, Sarah Funke Donovan of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as our new Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Patricia B. M. “Tish” Brennan of Rhode Island College as our new Member-at-Large. I thank Laura Stokes, Past Chair, and Jonathan Manton, Member-at-Large, for their work as they cycle off the Board, and Jared Rex for all his guidance as he transitions to Past Chair. I thank Ruthann McTyre, Elizabeth Berndt-Morris and Sara White for their willingness to run for our elected positions. Finally, I thank Lisa Wollenberg of the University of Hartford as our new web editor, and I thank Sarah Hunter of Boston University as she steps down from that role, one she continued to hold even when her job duties moved away from music librarianship. As program chair for the NEC meeting, I am proud of the well-attended and informative event. I particularly appreciate Alan Karass, who pulled double duty as both our Secretary/Treasurer and our site host. It is clear why Alan was eager to show off NEC’s new library and other spaces, and the whole library staff was extremely hospitable.

I look forward to serving you as the chapter chair, and I am excited about all we have lined up.

Respectfully submitted,

Marci Cohen, Chair, New England Music Library Association
Assistant Head, Music Library, Boston University

Spring 2018 Meeting Summary

23 March, 2018

Pierce Hall, New England Conservatory

The morning began with opening remarks from Jared Rex, NEMLA Chair. Then attendees were greeted enthusiastically by Tom Novak, NEC Interim President, Provost, and Dean, a person who clearly has no room for any more “hats.”

Following introductory remarks, the first session, “Bound for Glory: Cataloging Bound Sheet Music as Collections” was given by Robert Cunningham of the Boston Public Library and Andrea Cawelti of Harvard University. Attendees were led through the steps of a project to create effective and efficient cataloguing workflow for bound collections of (mostly) sheet music.  The descriptive problems presented by these often miscellaneous groupings of compositions– whose only common element may be that they had a single owner who chose to have them bound together in a volume– were described with enthusiasm and wry humor by the team of Cunningham and Cawelti. The creator/owners of these unique collections sometimes turn out to be people of import or significance in some realm of endeavor (perhaps even music!) such as Julia Ward Howe, but others are more obscure and will require research effort beyond established works of authority.  Robert specifically mentioned the use of Ancestry (Library Edition) as well as Family Search (sponsored by the Church of the Latter-Day Saints) as useful personal identification resources. Following the meeting, it has been confirmed by Andrea that Harvard’s collection records are on ArchiveGrid, but that this would be dependent on the searcher’s individual institutional profile. Those interested in complete details of these cataloguing best practices are encouraged to contact Andrea [ cawelti@fas.harvard.edu ] and/or Robert [ rcunningham@bpl.org ] for the latest copy of the procedures.

The next presentation was given by Jean Wald of Stetson University. In “Pianists Speak: The Interviews of Robert Dumm, 1959-2008,” Jean outlined the challenges of working with a special collection in the absence of dedicated archival staff, lack of time away from primary duties for the non-archivist, adequate secure space for research and storage, and lack of funds for materials and staff. Despite the bumpy road, Jean enriched our picture of the pianistic world by working with nearly 400 oral history interviews making up the principle part of the Robert Dumm Collection at Stetson University.  Dumm (1928-2012), once Dean at Boston Conservatory in his early career, spent over 40 years interviewing a wide array of “pianistic” personalities, mainly performers but also composers, piano pedagogues and their students both famous and obscure, competition winners, piano makers, piano tuners, and various others. The renown of these individuals varied from luminaries like Van Cliburn and Nicolas Slonimsky, to local piano teachers who had attended master classes Dumm held throughout the US and Canada.  Regardless of the logistical and support challenges, Jean continues to move forward with arranging, cataloguing, and digitizing these recordings and their transcriptions for future students and scholars. View the collection description here.

After these presentations, Jared Rex opened the business meeting by welcoming the first-time attendees and announcing the current openings on NEMLA committees. Jonathan Manton then reported on his activities as Member-at-Large including the administration of the MLA Annual Meeting Travel Grant and the Public Library Panel at the Spring 2017 Meeting at MIT. Sofía Becerra-Licha put out a call for institutions willing to host the NEMLA Archives. Alan Karass submitted the Treasurer’s report (provided below). Marci Cohen put out a call for mentees for the NEMLA First-Time Attendee program. Jared then discussed the possibility of transforming the current committee structure to a communities-of-interest model. He also shared preliminary information on the Fall Meeting in Montreal—a joint meeting with NYSO and SQACBM. He announced the election results including our new Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Sarah Funke Donovan and new Member-at-Large, Patricia B. M. “Tish” Brennan. Jared also announced that Lisa Wollenberg will be assuming the role of Webpage Editor and thanked Sarah Hunter for her years of service in that position. The gavel was then smoothly passed from Jared Rex, now Past Chair, to Marci Cohen as incoming chapter Chair, who promptly adjourned the meeting for lunch.

Upon our return to NEC, a panel discussion was held titled, “Migrating to a New Integrated Library System (ILS) and Discovery Layer: Perspectives from the Trenches.” Stage-setting for the panel topic was provided by Anne Adams, Chair of the NEMLA Technical Services Committee (TSC), who explained that numerous libraries in New England have migrated from one library services platform to another in the recent past. The TSC wanted to provide chapter members with an overview of the process as well as words of advice (and possibly warning) from those recently in the trenches. Panelists included Michael Rogan of Tufts (migrated June 2017 from III a.k.a. Innovative to ExLibris Alma/Primo), Tish Brennan of Rhode Island College (migrated December 2016 from Innovative to OCLC Worldshare Management System (WMS)/Discovery in a consortium environment), Rebecca McCallum & Alec McLane of Wesleyan (migrated July 2017 from Voyager to ExLibris Alma/Primo in a consortium environment) and Andrea Cawelti of Harvard University (scheduled for migration July 2018 from HOLLIS Classic (Aleph) to ExLibris Alma/Primo). Some aspects of each institution’s experience including pre-migration planning and preparation, data clean-up, and post-migration “chestnuts”, including handling of material types, faceting, searching EBSCO databases, and authorized access points as well as the user interface were discussed. The wealth of experiential information provided by the panel was formidable.  Some panel members expressed that there is and will be more data clean-up than they first imagined or plan for, including not just bibliographic data, but acquisitions & financial data and patron data. They advised considering a year of mapping and clean-up, a year of testing, implementation and training, and at least a year of post-migration surprises and further clean-up. Ideally, one would imagine in advance all possible anomalies in how a new system will translate technical services information into public services information in a way different from a familiar old system to ensure patrons do not lose access to essential features or information on which they have come to rely. This is unfortunately virtually impossible to attain.  Each of the panelist’s institutions experienced post-migration “Yikes!” discoveries including data which did not migrate properly, data which was not indexed or is otherwise now unsearchable or un-browsable, data which was not displaying as anticipated, faceting working counterintuitively to patron expectations, “discovery” software obscuring essential catalog information or unable to harness the robust metadata of the underlying databases creating inaccurate results for patrons, and other problematic issues. All the panelists agreed that music librarians need to make their voices heard to their library system vendors, not just as individual customer institutions, but collectively through the MLA User Group structure. Librarians should also take advantage of mechanisms provided by the vendor (such as a community center for requesting changes/fixes) to vote for improvements and enhancements. There is greater power to effect change in collective action so librarians should not be shy about asking fellow music users of that vendor to vote or endorse their requests.

The afternoon continued with tours of the Blumenthal Family Library and the SLPC followed by a concert including setar Improvisation by Nima Janmohammadi, and a performance of Ciaccona (2015) by Cody Forrest, violin. The concert ended with Invocation (2017) for String Quartet by Cody Forrest, performed by Chu Chun Jean Huang and Shuxiang Yang, violins, Daniel Orsen, viola, and Joseph Gotoff, cello. The audio fidelity of YouTube can only present a glimmer of these exciting recent compositions. The meeting closed with a reception.

Recordings of the proceedings for this meeting may be found on NEMLA’s YouTube channel.

Secretary/Treasurer’s Report

Balances (3/23/18)

Checking: $4,280.49

Savings: $4,006.63

Total: $8,287.12

Oral History Grant

Beginning amount $1,000

Expenses since 2015: $519.50

Current remaining: $480.50

Checking Account

Restricted funds (grant): $480.50

Unrestricted/NEMLA (non-grant): $3,799.99

Income from memberships paid this report period (8/1/17-3/23/18): $1,072

October 2017 Meeting

Expenses: $681

First-time attendees: 2

Registrations: 51

March 2018 Meeting

Expenses: $1,014.98

First-time attendees: 5

Registrations: 64

Fees

Eventbrite (meeting registrations): $232.04

PayPal (memberships paid online): $44.12

Fall 2018 Meeting Preview

McGill University, Montreal, QC

Thursday and Friday, November 8-9, 2018

NEMLA is going to Canada! The New England (NEMLA) and New York State/Ontario Chapters (NYSO) of the Music Library Association, together with the Québec Chapter of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (SQACBM), are now accepting panel, poster, and presentation proposals for our fall meeting at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec on November 8 and 9, 2018. We are pleased to announce that the MLA Board of Directors will also be joining us for this international conference. Please be advised that attendees from the U.S. will need a passport to attend.

Registration is $60 (US). On Thursday, the day will end with a reception at the Marvin Duchow Music Library. More details on the meeting including hotel information, etc. will be forthcoming.

Travel Grant

NEMLA is now accepting applications for grant support to attend the Fall chapter meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The $400 of support may be awarded to a single individual or divided among as many as three awardees at the discretion of the NEMLA Board.
Preference will be given to current or recent MLS graduate students or new library professionals.

Applications are due Wednesday, August 15, 2018. To apply, please complete the form at https://goo.gl/forms/AzvMyMEY8HoVCL6i2.

Call for Proposals

We welcome submissions explaining and raising awareness of your recent projects, research, innovations, discoveries, etc., relating to music and to the profession of music librarianship — anything that you think would benefit Chapter members and their constituencies. Presentations should be 35 minutes in length (including questions period). Please indicate if additional time is requested, subject to approval. Proposals must include:

• Name(s) and affiliation(s) of presenters/panelists
• Presentation language (English or French)
• Contact information (e-mail and telephone number)
• Title of presentation/panel
• An abstract of 100-200 words
• Any additional equipment required beyond a computer, Internet access, projector, and speakers

Please send proposals via e-mail to any member of the program committee (see below), using the subject line: “Joint Conference Fall 2018 Proposal.”

The proposal deadline is Wednesday, August 1, 2018. Accepted presenters will be notified of their status by August 15, 2018.

Program Committee:

Sarah Funke Donovan, Boston Symphony Orchestra (sdonovan@bso.org)

Jim Farrington, Eastman School of Music (jfarrington@esm.rochester.edu)

Christiane Melançon, Université de Montréal (christiane.melancon@umontreal.ca)

Noteworthy News

NEMLA Archives

NEMLA Archives needs a permanent home! The NEMLA chapter’s archives comprises 18.5 linear feet of historical materials that include oral histories, newsletters, business records, photographs, and more. The bulk of the collection is currently stored (unofficially) at the Boston Public Library, plus a few linear feet in the national MLA archives at the University of Maryland (which we, along with most chapters, have been asked to withdraw and house locally). Therefore, we are in search of a new home for this collection in the New England region. Please contact NEMLA chapter archivist Sofía Becerra with any questions or leads: sbecerralicha@berklee.edu. Thank you!

NEMLA Officers

 

Chair: Marci Cohen Assistant Head Music Library Boston University 771 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA 02215 mcohen2 at bu.edu (617) 353-3707

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Sarah Funke Donovan Associate Archivist for Digital Assets Boston Symphony Orchestra 301 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115 sdonovan at bso.org (617) 638-9452

Past Chair: Jared Rex Music Librarian Fenwick Music Library College of the Holy Cross 1 College Street Worcester, MA 01610 jrex at holycross.edu (508) 793-2295

Secretary-Treasurer: Alan Karass Director of Libraries New England Conservatory 290 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02115-5018 alan.karass at necmusic.edu (617) 585-1247

Member-At-Large: Patricia (Tish) Brennan Associate Professor/Head of Reference James P. Adams Library Rhode Island College 600 Mt Pleasant Ave Providence, RI 02908 pbrennan at ric.edu (401) 456-2810

Newsletter Editor: Memory Apata Music & Performing Arts Librarian Dartmouth College Paddock Music Library Hopkins Center, HB 6245 Hanover, NH 03755 memory.r.apata at dartmouth.edu (603) 646-3234

NEMLA Archivist: Sofia Becerra-Licha Archivist Stan Getz Library Berklee College of Music 1140 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02215 sbecerralicha at berklee.edu Office: (617)747-8001

Website Editor: Lisa Wollenberg Public Services Librarian Allen Library University of Hartford 200 Bloomfield Ave West Hartford, CT 06117 lwollenbe at hartford.edu Office: (860) 768-4840

Publication Information:

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.
Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Memory Apata
memory.r.apata@dartmouth.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Alan Karass
alan.karass@necmusic.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership$16.00

Return to the New England Music Library Association home page.

Message from the Chair
Spring 2018 Election Ballot
Spring 2018 Meeting Information
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

Dear NEMLA members,

Happy new year!

It is a pleasure to greet you in my last newsletter column as Chair. My term of office seems to have just started; in fact, it’s hard to believe spring is almost upon us!

It was wonderful to see many you at MLA in Portland a few weeks ago. For those who missed our annual chapter dinner, we had twenty-five members in attendance for an evening of fun and fellowship at The Picnic House PDX, a restaurant which allowed us a glimpse inside Portland’s bustling food scene. Marci and I attended the Chapter Chairs’ meeting at MLA, where we discussed issues facing our chapter directly with the MLA board. We were pleased to hear that we are eligible to apply for chapter grants again this year to assist with NEMLA’s increasing palette of outreach initiatives. If you have an outreach idea you would like the board to consider funding with a chapter grant, please let me know.

I hope that many of you will be able to join us for NEMLA’s spring meeting, which is just around the corner on Friday, March 23 at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. If you are new to our organization and have not attended a meeting before, please consider applying for a First-Time Attendees Program, which covers costs of lunch and travel expenses to attend the meeting. The program committee — chaired by Marci Cohen with members Carolyn Johnson, Jenée Force, & Sara White, and site host, Alan Karass, with his NEC staff – have created a rousing day of events. We will hear a reprise of Robert Cunningham and Andrea Cawelti’s presentation given in Portland on cataloging binders collections (which I was fortunate enough to attend, and I am delighted to hear a recap), about the trials and tribulations of migrating to a new ILS system, and a session focused on interviews compiled by Robert Dumm. After the presentations, we will tour NEC’s new Blumenthal Family Library and its Student Life and Performance Center, which will be followed by a special concert of compositions from two NEC doctoral candidates, Nima Janmohammadi and Cody Forrest. More details about registration can be found below. As always, our spring meeting will also include our annual business meeting. A call for agenda topics will be announced in the coming weeks. Please let me know if you would like something added to the meeting’s agenda.

Voting for open board positions will commence on February 25, 2018. Positions on this year’s slate include Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Member-At-Large. There are multiple candidates for each open position (biographies below). Members in good standing will receive an e-mail ballot to vote in the upcoming days. If your membership has lapsed, please renew your membership now in order to vote. I am especially grateful to our nominating committee (chair: Laura Stokes; members: Suzanne Eggleston Lovejoy; Maria Jane Loizou) for their hard work of putting together a qualified slate of candidates as well as the members who have volunteered their time and efforts to run for office! As you are aware, these efforts allow NEMLA to continue running smoothly, so I encourage you to vote for the newest additions to NEMLA’s ever-revolving board.

With that, I look forward to seeing many of you at our spring meeting! It has been a joy to serve NEMLA for the last two years as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and now Chair, and it has been exciting to be a part of promoting music librarianship both locally in New England and as a representative of our chapter nationally. Marci Cohen will become your next Chair at the spring meeting, and I look forward to her leadership over the following year.

Respectfully submitted,

Jared Rex, Chair, New England Music Library Association

Music Librarian, College of the Holy Cross

Spring 2018 Election Ballot

Spring 2018 Election Ballot

Elections for two positions on NEMLA’s board will begin on February 25, 2018. On that day, all NEMLA members in good standing will receive an email message inviting them to vote. Many thanks to our candidates for running, and to the Nominating Committee for their hard work in assembling this slate.

Candidates for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect

Sarah Funke Donovan

Sarah Funke Donovan would be thrilled to serve NEMLA in the capacity of Vice-Chair/Chair Elect. She has been a NEMLA member since 2012, and has previously served a term as NEMLA Secretary-Treasurer from 2013-2015. During that time, she effected the organization’s inaugural use of EventBrite to manage meeting registrations and payments. Her experience also includes work for other professional associations: as a member of New England Archivists, she served on the program committee for NEA’s Spring 2016 meeting in Portland, Maine.

Sarah currently works as the Associate Archivist for Digital Asset Management at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. From 2012-2016, she managed grant-funded digital content projects for the BSO Archives, and in 2017, was promoted to her current position in order to implement and manage the organization’s first digital asset management system. When she’s not letting her 20-month-old experiment with alternative tuning techniques on her old banjo, she brings her family to outdoor concerts or holds ukelele sing-alongs.

Ruthann McTyre

Ruthann McTyre is the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Director of the Gilmore Music Library at Yale University.  She came to Yale in August 2013 from the University of Iowa, where she was head of the Rita Benton Music Library for 13 years.  Prior to that appointment, she worked at Baylor University, UNC Chapel Hill, and Southern Methodist University.  She holds an undergraduate degree in Music Education, a master’s degree in voice,both from SMU, and her Library Science degree is from the University of North Texas.  Ruthann has been an active member of the Music Library Association since 1988 and had the privilege of serving as President 2009-2011.  Chapter involvement in other parts of the country has most recently included Midwest Chapter Chair, program chair (As Chair-Elect), and hosting Midwest at UIowa.  Her favorite assignment at the national meetings was facilitating the Hot Topics sessions for several years.

Candidates for Member-at-Large

Elizabeth Berndt-Morris

Liz Berndt-Morris is the Music Reference and Research Librarian at the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library. In this role she serves as a liaison to the Music Department and coordinates research, teaching, and learning services and initiatives for the Music Library.

Prior to Harvard University, she was the Curator of Music at Boston Public Library in the Arts Department working mostly with special collections, and Music Reference and Collections Librarian at Central Michigan University where she earned a master’s degree in music education. She also holds a MLS degree with a specialization certificate in music librarianship from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from the University of Kentucky.

Patricia B. M. “Tish” Brennan

Tish is currently Head of Reference and Research Support, Coordinator of Library Instruction (James P. Adams Library) and liaison to the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Rhode Island College. She keeps out of trouble by singing with Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and dancing with the Modern Jazz Dance Studio tap ensemble. Tish holds an AB in Music from Brown University and an MSLS from Columbia University. She has been a member of NEMLA from 1976–1997 and 2000–present, and has served as editor of the Directory of Music Libraries and Collections in New England and on the Instruction Committee.

Having had two hats to wear—music librarian and general reference/instruction—for a good part of her career, she is very interested in the Outreach responsibilities of the NEMLA Member-at-Large.  She holds memberships in NELA, RILA, ACRL/NEC, and other local library organizations and would welcome the opportunity to reach out and promote NEMLA to our New England library colleagues.  Collaborating with the Vice-Chair and the Programming Committee as part of the Education role of the Member-at-Large would be an exciting challenge to tackle as well.

Sara White

Sara White moved to New Haven, Connecticut from Lansing, Michigan, where she was the library assistant in the Fine Arts Library at Michigan State University. She studied music performance at Michigan State University before receiving her MLS from Wayne State University. After moving to New Haven, Sara became the Reference and Adult Services Librarian for the West Haven Public Library. She quickly became involved with the Connecticut Library Association and New England Music Library Association. She currently serves on the Programming Committee for NEMLA, the Development Committee for MLA, and is the Chair of the Reference and Adult Services section of the CLA. In her free time, Sara loves playing her bassoon in her community orchestra, teaching bassoon lessons, scrapbooking, and hiking with her husband and their pug.

Spring 2018 Meeting Information

Register here!

We are pleased to announce the registration information for our Spring 2018 meeting.  Early Bird registration will be $18 for regular members and $9 for student and retired members. Please register by Thursday, March 15 to receive the Early Bird rate. Registrations from March 16 through 23 (including walk-ins) will be $20 and $10, respectively. Early bird registration ends Thursday, March 15.

Our spring meeting will take place on Friday, March 23 at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA at Pierce Hall, 241 St. Botolph St. The day will feature sessions on the archival collection of interviews with piano luminaries conducted by Robert Dumm, how to work with binders’ volumes, and a panel discussion on ILS and discovery layer migration. The event will also include a business meeting, a tour of the newly opened Blumenthal Family Library and Student Life and Performance Center (SLPC), a concert and a closing reception.

Thursday Dinner

All attendees are invited to a pre-conference group dinner on Thursday night, March 22 at 7:00 p.m. at Five Horses Tavern, 535 Columbus Ave. The restaurant includes vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free menu options. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Marci Cohen (mcohen2@bu.edu) by Thursday, March 15.

Meeting Program

9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Registration; coffee and pastries

9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Opening Remarks – Jared Rex, NEMLA Chair; Tom Novak, NEC Interim President, Provost, and Dean

10:00 – 10:40 a.m. “Bound for Glory: Cataloging Bound Sheet Music as Collections” (Robert Cunningham, Boston Public Library; Andrea Cawelti, Harvard University)

10:40 – 11:20 a.m. “Pianists Speak: The Interviews of Robert Dumm, 1959-2008” (Jean Wald, Stetson University)

11:20 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. Business meeting

11:50 a.m. – 1:20 p.m. Lunch on your own

1:20 – 2:40 p.m. “Migrating to a New ILS and Discovery Layer: Perspectives from the Trenches” (Patricia (Tish) Brennan, Rhode Island College; Andrea Cawelti, Harvard University; Rebecca McCallum, Wesleyan University; Alec McLane, Wesleyan University; Michael Rogan, Tufts University)

2:40 – 3:25 p.m. Tours of the Blumenthal Family Library and the SLPC

3:30 – 4:15 p.m. Concert:

Setar Improvisation / Nima Janmohammadi, DMA Candidate

Ciaccona (2015) for violin alone / Cody Forrest, DMA Candidate
Chu Chun Jean Huang, violin

Invocation (2017) for String Quartet / Cody Forrest, DMA Candidate
Chu Chun Jean Huang and Shuxiang Yang, violins
Daniel Orsen, viola
Joseph Gotoff, cello

4:15 – 5:30 p.m. Reception

Hotel

NEC has a standing special rate at the Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02116. Enter the corporate/promotion code NEC when making reservations online or on the phone. Full details, including a link to the hotel website, are on the NEC website. NEC also has a list of additional hotels nearby or accessible via public transit.

Transportation

Attendees are encouraged to take public transportation. NEC has public transit and driving directions to campus. NEC is 0.8 mi. from Amtrak’s Back Bay Station. South Station, with Amtrak, MBTA, and intercity bus service is 2 miles away. Gainsborough Garage at 10 Gainsborough St. is the closest parking; additional parking information is available here.

NEC/Boston Information

Here is a campus map of NEC. The library website is here. The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau has more information about the city.

First-Time Attendees

If this is your first NEMLA meeting, we welcome you to apply for our First-Time Attendees Program. This grant covers registration, lunch, and travel expenses. Both current members and non-members are eligible, so long as they have not attended a meeting before. The deadline to apply for funding through this program is March 9, 2018. Please apply here. Also note that funding is regrettably not available for all first-time attendees, but we do strive to accommodate as many as we can on a first come, first served basis.

To encourage new involvement in NEMLA, if you bring a first-time attendee to the meeting, you will receive free registration. To take advantage of this offer, email Marci Cohen (mcohen2@bu.edu) by March 9 with the subject line “NEMLA first-time attendee referral.” Include your name and affiliation and the name of the first-time attendee you are hosting. The new attendee must also register for the First-Time Attendee Program, but this does not have to be done simultaneously.

Welcoming First-Time Attendees

Would you like to help a first-time attendee feel more welcome at their first meeting? We are looking for hosts to aid newcomers in getting to know our organization and its members. The time commitment is very low. You will be paired with a first-time attendee to either introduce them to people during the registration/coffee period in the morning or have them accompany you to lunch. (You are not responsible for paying for their lunch.) Our board members did this at our fall meeting, and it was so successful that we are happy to roll out the opportunity to all our returning attendees. Please email Marci Cohen (mcohen2@bu.edu) by Monday, March 19 to volunteer.

NEMLA Officers

Chair:
Jared Rex
Music Librarian
Fenwick Music Library
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
jrex at holycross.edu
(508) 793-2295

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
Marci Cohen
Assistant Head
Music Library
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
mcohen2 at bu.edu
(617) 353-3707

Past Chair:
Laura Stokes
Performing Arts Librarian
Orwig Music Library
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
laura_stokes at brown.edu
(401) 863-3999

Secretary-Treasurer:
Alan Karass
Director of Libraries
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5018
alan.karass at necmusic.edu
(617) 585-1247

Member-At-Large:
Jonathan Manton
Music Librarian for Access Services
Irving S. Gilmore Music Library
Yale University
120 High Street
PO Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520
jonathan.manton at yale.edu
(203) 432-5549

Newsletter Editor:
Memory Apata
Music & Performing Arts Librarian
Dartmouth College
Paddock Music Library
Hopkins Center, HB 6245 Hanover, NH 03755
memory.r.apata at dartmouth.edu
(603) 646-3120

NEMLA Archivist:
Sofia Becerra-Licha
Archivist
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
sbecerralicha at berklee.edu
Office: (617)747-8001

Web Page Editor:
Sarah Hunter
Electronic Inventory Manager
Mugar Library
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
shunter at bu.edu
Office: (617) 353-5810

Publication Information:

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.
Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Memory Apata
memory.r.apata at dartmouth.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Alan Karass
alan.karass at necmusic.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership$16.00

Return to the New England Music Library Association home page.

Message from the Chair
Secretary/Treasurer’s Report
Fall 2017 Meeting Minutes
Spring 2018 Meeting Preview
Seeking Nominations/Committee Members
Noteworthy News
Special Report: Oral History Excerpt
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

Greetings, NEMLA members!

Although the weather in New England has changed from luscious fall colors to stark white and chilly, I am still thinking about our spectacular fall meeting at Yale University back in October. It was wonderful to see so many new and old NEMLA members there, and it is a meeting that will be remembered for years to come. For those who were unable to attend–or for those wanting to refresh themselves on the day’s events–you can read a thorough summary of our meeting from our Member-At-Large, Jonathan Manton, in the pages below. After every meeting, it is important to acknowledge the efforts of those who assisted with facilitating local arrangements and programming for their willingness to take on extra responsibilities. I would like to thank the staff of Yale’s Gilmore Music Library–in particular, Jonathan Manton and Ruthann McTyre–for welcoming us to Yale’s campus and arranging our special tour of antiquarian and rare music materials, and also to Anne Rhodes and Kimmy Setzo for providing a memorable concert to conclude the meeting. Marci Cohen, our Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, and our first-rate program committee developed an intriguing program of speakers and tours, and their contributions allowed the meeting to happen seamlessly. Special thanks to all of our presenters: Mark Bailey, Bridget Carr, Sarah Funke Donovan, and John Marks! For those who participated in committee meetings, I look forward to hearing about your discussions and developments over the next few months.

With committees in mind, there are still many open positions on almost every committee. These committees are the lifeblood of NEMLA. They allow our organization to engage with its membership in a way suited to your interests, and I encourage you to consider serving NEMLA in this way. Every committee member brings unique skills and experiences that benefit our collective knowledge base. It is also a good way to impact the national discourse of music librarianship at a local level. Please let me or any other board member know if you are interested in one of our open committee positions. As I mentioned in our fall newsletter, the board is also exploring the idea of developing communities of interest to either supplement or replace our current committee structure. While I have started this discussion with some of you, I hope to be able to discuss it at greater length with more of our membership in the coming months before our spring meeting.

In case you missed the announcement, I am delighted to mention  that our spring meeting will be held at the New England Conservatory on March 23, 2018! As many of you know, NEC opened a new music library last summer, and I am thankful that Alan Karass and his staff are willing to host us in the midst of acclimating to their new space. Please join us in what is shaping up to be a informative and engaged day. If you have been working on a special project or new initiative, consider drafting a proposal to present at our spring meeting. Submissions can be emailed to Marci Cohen until January 17th. More information about our spring meeting can be found below.

As in past years, we will have a chapter dinner at the MLA national meeting. This year we will be in Portland, OR, and the dinner is on Thursday night, February 1 at 7:00 p.m. Be sure to mark your calendars and consider joining us! NEMLA’s annual dinner is always a highlight of our national meeting since it allows us the chance to get to know one another better in a lighthearted atmosphere surrounded by wonderful food and colleagues. Currently, I am in the process of finalizing a restaurant which suits multiple dietary needs. Further details will be announced in early January.

Lastly, with every new year comes the opportunity to consider nominating yourself or one of your colleagues to run for office on our board. Two positions will be open at our spring meeting: Vice-Chair/Chair/Past-Chair and Member-At-Large. While Laura Stokes and Jon Manton will be missed when they rotate off of the board, this is a wonderful opportunity to serve the constituents of our organization and make a difference. If you are new to NEMLA–or if you have served on committees in the past but not on the board–I strongly encourage you to consider running for office. It has been an extremely rewarding opportunity for me. The deadline for nominations is February 7, 2018; please contact Laura Stokes with nominations.

Best wishes for wonderful and restful holidays, and a happy new year! See you in Portland!

Respectfully submitted,

Jared Rex, Chair, New England Music Library Association

Secretary/Treasurer’s Report

Membership

Thanks to all who have renewed their memberships or have recently joined NEMLA.  We currently have 71 active members (we had 50 in December 2016)!  If you have any questions about the status of your membership, please e-mail Alan Karass at nemlaboard@gmail.com.

Meeting attendance

We had 51 people attend the meeting, two of whom were supported by our first-time attendee program.

Finances

Fall meeting income: $ 880.28

Fall meeting expenses: $ 599.82

First-time attendee expenses: $ 80.00

Checking account: $ 4,879.38

Savings account: $ 4,005.53

Grant funds (Oral history): $ 480.50

Submitted by

Alan Karass
NEMLA Secretary-Treasurer

Fall 2017 Meeting Minutes

The Fall Meeting of the New England Chapter of the Music Library Association (NEMLA) was held at Yale University Library on October 20, 2017. This was an especially memorable meeting for me, as myself and my colleagues at Yale had the great pleasure of hosting the meeting and welcoming our fantastic colleagues from across the region to the first meeting at Yale since 2010.

NEMLA Chair Jared Rex kicked off proceedings by welcoming fifty-one attendees, including three first-time attendees. He also announced the winner of NEMLA’s 2018 MLA Travel Grant award – a $500 award to assist with travel to the MLA 2018 Annual Meeting in Portland, OR. This went to Leonard Martin from New England Conservatory. Congratulations Leonard! See you in Portland! Jared then introduced Susan Gibbons, University Librarian for Yale University Library, and Ruthann McTyre, Director of the Gilmore Music Library at Yale, who offered a warm welcome to Yale.

Marci Cohen, NEMLA Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, then introduced our speakers for the day. First up was Mark Bailey, Head of Historical Sound Recordings (HSR) at the Gilmore Music Library, who presented  “Historical Sound Recordings as Musical Mentors.” In this presentation, Bailey discussed the unique role archival sound recordings play in the study of performance practice, especially during the early part of the 20th century. Bailey noted that the use of sound recordings within performance practice research continues to grow. HSR has never been busier! One notable takeaway for me from Bailey’s presentation was his highlighting of a 1903 recording of Verdi’s Otello, with Francesco Tamagno in the lead role. Tamagno was selected by Verdi to be the very first Otello for the première of the work at Teatro alla Scala on February 5, 1887. Tamagno’s recording of the work in 1903 is perhaps the nearest thing we have to a source that indicates Verdi’s preferred voice and stylistic approach for the role of Otello.

Next up were Bridget Carr and Sarah Funke Donovan from Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Archives. Their presentation, “Navigating the Rapids of Streaming Audio: Rights and Permissions for Presenting Audio Materials Online,” outlined a myriad of rights-related issues they had to address as part of a large scale AV digitization and access project at the BSO Archives. In order to make the digitized items available online, Carr and Funke Donovan had to negotiate performer rights for numerous different categories of performer, including students, faculty, guest artists and some union member performances. This included reviewing signed releases for student performances, notifying faculty and guest artists of the plans to stream recordings, giving them the right to opt-out if preferred, and restricting union member performances to onsite access only. They also had to work with a number of publishers to negotiate rights for those works that were still under copyright. However, they ultimately discovered that their existing Performing Rights Organization (PRO) licenses covered about 70% of the in-copyright works they planned on making available.

Our final presentation of the day was from John Marks, entitled “Designing and Equipping Workspaces for Digital Archiving of Legacy Audio Media.” As Marks noted at the start of his presentation, he intended to talk about the “wires and pliers” of sound recording digitization equipment setups, with the intention of providing attendees with some useful tips for building basic setups in-house, at a reasonable cost. Marks provided us with a guided tour of a variety of products and workflows for any libraries considering digitizing sound recordings in-house.

With presentations, lunch, and committee meetings complete, we began a pretty busy but enjoyable afternoon which included a stop at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to view a selection of the amazing archival musical gems held at Yale, and a tour of the newly renovated Gilmore Music Library. We were then treated to a fantastic half hour of song, provided by Anne Rhodes and Kimmy Szeto, who presented a selection of songs from the Gilmore Music Library’s Special Collections, including works by Virgil Thomson, Kurt Weill and Cole Porter. To end the day, we then went “To the tables down at Mory’s”, to quote the famous Yale Whiffenpoof’s song about the Yale Club, for our final reception.

On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone who made the trip to New Haven for the meeting. I know I speak for the rest of my colleagues at Yale when I say how happy we were to see the library filled with so many of our Music Library colleagues. This is also my last meeting review as NEMLA Member-at-Large. It has been a pleasure to serve NEMLA in this role for the past two years.

Submitted by Jonathan Manton, NEMLA Member-at-Large.

Spring 2018 Meeting Preview

Spring 2018 Meeting Preview

NEMLA’s spring meeting will be held on Friday, March 23 at New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston. Our NEC hosts are proud to show off the brand new Blumenthal Family Library, which just opened this fall.

The New England Conservatory of Music, founded in 1867, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States, and it is widely recognized as one of the country’s most distinguished music schools. The newly opened Blumenthal Family Library contains a diverse assortment of musical materials—125,000 books and 80,000 recordings—that supports the school’s curriculum and preserves the rich musical legacy of NEC and musical life of Boston.

Please watch the NEMLA listserv for registration and other details in the upcoming months. Please e-mail Marci Cohen (mcohen2@bu.edu) if you have questions.

The program committee also encourages all NEMLA members and other colleagues to consider submitting proposals to present at the spring meeting. We want to hear about new initiatives and projects at your home institutions. We welcome submissions explaining and raising awareness of your recent projects, research, innovations, discoveries, etc., relating to music and to the profession of music librarianship — anything that you think would benefit chapter members and their constituencies.

Presentations should be 35–40 minutes in length. Please indicate if additional time is requested, subject to approval. Proposals must include:
Name(s) and affiliation(s) of presenters/panelists
Contact information (email and telephone number)
Title of presentation/panel
An abstract of 100-300 words
Any additional equipment required beyond a computer, internet access, projector, and speakers

Please send proposals via email to the program committee by emailing Marci Cohen (mcohen2@bu.edu). In your submission e-mail, please use the subject line: “NEMLA Spring ‘18 Proposal.”

The proposal deadline is Wednesday, January 17. Accepted presenters will be notified of their status by February 9, 2018.

Special thanks to the program committee and Alan Karass for hosting us.

Marci Cohen, Vice-Chair/Chair Elect
Assistant Head, Music Library, Mugar Memorial Library
Boston University
mcohen2@bu.edu
617-353-3707

Seeking Nominations/Committee Members

Call for Nominations:

NEMLA seeks candidates for two positions on the NEMLA Board. Serving as a Board member is a great opportunity to contribute substantially to your MLA chapter as well as to music librarianship overall. Candidates for these positions will appear on the ballot for the Spring 2018 election:
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect (3-year term):

• Chairs the Program Committee
• Serves as an ex-officio member of the Education & Outreach Committee.
• Performs the duties of the Chair in the latter’s absence.
• The term of office shall be one year, after which the Vice-Chair shall succeed to the office of Chair and then Past-Chair, requiring a commitment of three years.

Member-at-Large (2-year term):

• Acts as liaison to relevant professional organizations in New England (such as the New England Library Association (NELA),the six state library associations, the New England chapter of ACRL (ACRL/NEC), and the New England chapter of the American Musicological Society (AMS), primarily to promote information
  exchange and outreach.
• Serves as Chair of the Education & Outreach Committee.
• The term of office shall be two years.

Terms of office begin immediately after the spring meeting. Officers must be in good standing and current with their dues. The Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect must also be a member of the national Music Library Association.
Please email Laura Stokes (laura_stokes at brown.edu) if you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for one of these positions, or if you have any questions.  The nomination deadline is Wednesday, February 7, 2018.

Noteworthy News

Thank you, Ned Quist, music librarian, par excellence.  We wish you a joyous retirement. Thanks for the memories!

Edwin “Ned” Quist is a long-time music librarian and member of both NEMLA and MLA. Ned’s career as a music librarian began at the Peabody Institute of Music, where he was the Head of the Arthur Friedheim Library from 1976 to 2001. In 2001, he became the Music Librarian and head of the Orwig Music Library at Brown University, taking over the position previously held by Carol Tatian. Ned worked tirelessly to augment Brown’s holdings, especially in popular music sound recordings, and developed Brown’s audio digitization capacities. Ned served as Vice-Chair of NEMLA in 2005–2006, Chair in 2006–2007, and Past-Chair in 2007–2008. In 2011, Ned was made the Associate University Librarian for Research and Outreach Services at Brown; in this role he has directed outreach from the libraries to academic departments and centers and managed the core group of subject specialists in the library. He remained active and interested in NEMLA and MLA even after his move into library administration. Ned, his wife Alice Pace, and their friend Andrew Grover are the members of White Squall, a band specializing in traditional and folk music which was featured at NEMLA’s Spring 2014 chapter meeting.  Ned is also a dedicated and talented woodworker. Ned will retire from Brown on January 3, 2018.

Laura K. T. Stokes, Performing Arts Librarian, Brown University

Special Report: Oral History Excerpt

On August 18, 2017, Debra Mandel, Head, Recording Studios, Northeastern University Libraries, went to Brown University and interviewed Ned for the MLA Oral History Project.  Here is an abridged version of that interview.

DM: Good to see you. So we’re going to be generally talking about your career as a music librarian, and your involvement in MLA and NEMLA. So, let’s start out with your background prior to becoming a music librarian, maybe your background in music and how you chose to come to librarianship?

NQ: Well, to some degree it was accidental. At the time I first became a music librarian, I was a grad student at the Peabody Conservatory in Music History. At that time, I was close to finishing my degree–my masters degree–and Geraldine Ostrove–who was then the music librarian at the Peabody Conservatory–had just resigned to take a job at New England Conservatory. The scuttlebutt was that they hadn’t started a search yet, but things were very informal in those days, and my boss at the time–I was working as a secretary in the music education department just to make a few bucks while I was finishing my masters thesis–said, “Why don’t you talk to the director and say you’d be interested in working in the library, if you are,” and I said, “Sure!” So, I sent an email–no, I didn’t send an email, I sent a memo– there was no email in those days–to the director and got an invitation to join him for lunch, which I did. And he was sitting there with the Dean, and these were in the days when the lunches were considerably more alcoholic than they are these days. So the director at that time was Richard Franko Goldman–son of Edwin Franko Goldman of the famous Goldman Band–and Richard sat me down. We had a nice chat for awhile, then he said, “So, you want to be a music librarian?” I said, “I’d like to do that, it sounds like fun.” He says, “You know how to order books?” I said, “I’m sure I can figure it out.” He said, “Good. When can you start?” And he offered me the lordly sum of $6,000 a year, which to me was a lot of money. This was 1976, just before Peabody joined the Johns Hopkins family. So, by the time I became librarian in July, we were part of the Johns Hopkins community as a school, and that’s how I got started. So it was totally by accident and it was totally, probably illegal; these days, it would be considered very bad HR practice. But I was delighted to get in through the back door, and shortly thereafter I became a student at Catholic University, where I got my library degree while working in the library.

DM: What do you remember most about that library?

NQ: It was very small; we were in what had previously been a dance studio, a hallway, and, I think, the changing rooms for the dance studio. It was that way until–gosh–almost 1990? I’m trying to remember what year–probably 1990. We got a new library at that point and I was involved in the design. I wasn’t involved in the construction but I certainly monitored it every day. I had my own hardhat and I’d go over and wander around, and the foreman would see me and grab me and show me what was going on, so it was kind of fun. But the early years in the music library were difficult. Everything was totally manual in those days.  We bought a PC, I remember, one year, that was about 1980. It was one of the first IBM PC’s, cost $4,000, had no hard drive, and took about ten minutes to boot up.

DM: Unbelievable.

NQ: So, yeah, that’s how I got started.

DM: So were you involved in any organizations then, did you get involved?

NQ: I joined the local chapter–the Chesapeake chapter, then–of MLA, and was very involved in that and went to my first MLA meeting in Boston, actually.

DM: Was that your first time in Boston?

NQ: Yeah, I think so, ‘78 maybe? And that’s where I met all sorts of people that would later become my colleagues in NEMLA.

DM: Very interesting. So, what brought you to Providence, Rhode Island? When did you make that move?

NQ: I made that move in 2001. I had been at the MLA meeting in New York that year, and saw the advertisement on the table. At that time my first wife and I had divorced and my children had moved out with her to California, so I had nothing keeping me in Baltimore. I applied for this job, and much to my surprise, I got it. So–it was exciting, especially since I’d only worked in one place for almost twenty-seven years.

DM: And did you have a very strong network in MLA?

NQ: I was involved in MLA, I’d been Convention Manager for MLA, I’d been on the board before I came here, during that famous period when we went through the shift of management firms.

DM: So then when did you get involved with NEMLA?

NQ: Well, as soon as I got to Providence I got involved with NEMLA. I can’t remember what meeting I went to first, but of course, one of my references for this job was Paula Matthews–who, I think, by that time had probably moved to the Boston Athenaeum.

DM: Right.

NQ: And so, I think she was instrumental. Also, my predecessor at Brown, Carol Tatian, made sure that I knew about NEMLA and was going to attend the meetings. Actually I was much more diligent about attending NEMLA meetings than I had been previously in Baltimore attending the Chesapeake chapter.

DM: So, what do you think you liked about NEMLA?

NQ: Well, NEMLA was a very sophisticated and large organization compared to the Mid-Atlantic Chesapeake chapter, which was very small. I mean, we were lucky if we got ten or fifteen people in a meeting. And the first NEMLA meeting I went to was forty or fifty people. And I’ve seen bigger ones. So, I remember one year, I think, in NEMLA, we had a joint meeting with Greater New York in New London. We had close to a hundred people at that meeting. First of all, Greater New York: no one went to those meetings, I’m told, so this was a big opportunity for them to get out of town (laughs).

DM: Very impressive, very impressive. So, how have you been involved in, or how had you been involved in NEMLA, either in committee work or serving as an officer?

NQ: I really never belonged to any committees but I somehow ended up as chair of NEMLA, just in time for the national MLA meeting to come to Newport. I think I had just finished being chair by the time it actually got here. I was involved in the invite. I remember doing a little hotel and city looking. Ken Crilly from Yale, myself, Ginny [Virginia] Daniels from Harvard, and I’m trying to remember who else was involved in this process. But there were several of us who visited various places around New England. I think Ken went to Manchester, New Hampshire–and of course he handled New Haven–and I looked at Portland, Maine, and Newport, and Ginny did a couple of other places too. And so we all came together and decided to make this offer to the MLA chapter.  I’ll never forget when we made the first offer, Ginny was convinced that you had to take a boat to get to Newport (laughing). We had to explain, “No, actually there’s bridges on both sides. The boat hasn’t been true since the early 1950’s, I think, so…” Anyway, that’s–and what else did I do in NEMLA? That’s about it. So local arrangements, chair, and president chair or whatever it’s called.

DM: So do you remember anything about that conference, the MLA conference and how it went?

NQ: Oh gosh, do I ever. Um, some good stories about that conference. Well, we had our chapter meeting, our NEMLA chapter meeting at Newport, I think, the fall before. So that would mean, the Newport meeting was 2004? 2005? [Ed. note: The Newport MLA meeting was in 2008.] And, so the fall before, we had our chapter meeting down there, and that was a lot of fun. Of course the exciting thing about that meeting was finding out–well after we’d signed the contract–that the hotel was undergoing–it had changed hands–and it was undergoing major renovation. And I guess we could have gotten out of the contract at that point, but we decided, no, we’d stick with it. I say we, it was mainly the convention manager, who was Gordon Rowley, I think, at that point. And the board, the MLA board, decided, “No, we’ll stick with it and see how it goes.” So, it was exciting because the hotel was half torn up. There was only a handful of us actually staying in the hotel. Their meeting rooms were all completely renovated and brand new, you could still smell the carpet. Everybody else had to be bussed to the hotel from various hotels around town: the Marriott,–which was really in walking distance–the Viking,–which was way across the bridge and up the hill a bit–and there may have been people at yet another place. But the hotel paid for that transportation, so basically we had a shuttle service running for us throughout Newport, which was fabulous.

DM: That’s fabulous.

NQ: But I can remember walking through some of the areas that were under renovation, and there were these great sheets of plastic hanging from the ceiling, dripping wet, because remember, this was February. And of course, by the end of the week we had snow. I’m trying to remember what else happened that meeting, though, that was real interesting. I remember one of the funny things about it is, we were told by the hotel–maybe the general manager who knew something about the history–that was on Goat Island, which during World War II had been a part of the submarine base. And before that, though, it turns out it was the site of one of the largest public hangings of pirates in the United States–or the colonies–and they were buried on Goat Island.

DM: Oh, boy.

NQ: So, that was kind of an interesting story to tell people. I also remember dragging equipment through the hotel–because we brought a local Cajun band in to play for the banquet–and having to help them drag all their equipment from some back door off an alley way. And the other thing I remember about that meeting–which many people will–is that was Suki Sommer’s last meeting. She was there in a wheelchair, sort of holding court, and people were coming to visit her in her room when they could, when she wasn’t sleeping. And it was, it was kind of a bittersweet farewell to her.

DM: So, at this stage in the interview, I’m going to ask you to reflect on anything you would like about your profession, about your association with NEMLA or MLA, or how you feel that your current position has been shaped by your years being a music librarian, and having organizational responsibilities.

NQ: Well, you’ve probably seen the article I wrote for Careers a couple years ago about music librarians leaving the nest, and it’s something that I actually learned when I was here. I remember going to a meeting of the Library Advisory Council at Brown, which is made up of alums and members of the Brown Corporation, the board. And they had this meeting in the library, and I had invited Katherine Bergeron–she was the chair of the music department at that time, so I invited her to this meeting at my boss’s request, and we were sitting there, and I think the woman in the room was the former–current director, at that time, of the University of Virginia libraries. She was director of the Virginia libraries, and she said something that stuck with me ever since: she said that more than any other part of librarianship, music librarians seem to be the most upwardly mobile. So, that was always sitting in the back of my head, and I think I actually used it in that article that I wrote–which I cheated on. I basically got a bunch of people to tell me how they became administrators. I contacted Michael Keller–who I used to room with in MLA way back in the dark ages, and we’d been in the RLG Music Program Committee together–and of course, my own boss, Harriette Hemmasi who was a former music librarian. And I think I also dragged in my good friend at Notre Dame, who I knew in the Mid-Atlantic states, Katherine Parr Walker…Katherine Parr Walker. Anyway, Diane and Michael and Harriette and maybe one other person told me what they thought about it, and it was interesting because it’s a very different approach. We all kind of agreed, I think, that music librarians get to do a greater variety of things. They get to know things at the ground level; and because rarely do they have big staff. I’m not sure, Indiana or, um–I’m trying to think of places that have great, big staff–Indiana, Illinois, maybe. You get to do all of these things, from fixing the photocopier machine to cataloguing, to reference work, to collection development, to electronic resources–all of that stuff is done by music librarians. So, of course, they’re the ones who are best qualified sometimes to step into these positions. I’m not sure I was, but I still got the opportunity to do it, and I’m about ready to finish doing it so, that’s kind of where I am right now, about that.

DM: So you’ve had a wonderful career–

NQ: Yeah!

DM: And you’ve been a wonderful part of the NEMLA and MLA organizations. So, thank you very much. If there’s anything else you’d like to say at this time?

NQ: Well, thank you, I’m honored that I got asked.

NEMLA Officers

Chair:
Jared Rex
Music Librarian
Fenwick Music Library
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
jrex at holycross.edu
(508) 793-2295

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
Marci Cohen
Assistant Head
Music Library
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
mcohen2 at bu.edu
(617) 353-3707

Past Chair:
Laura Stokes
Performing Arts Librarian
Orwig Music Library
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
laura_stokes at brown.edu
(401) 863-3999

Secretary-Treasurer:
Alan Karass
Director of Libraries
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5018
alan.karass at necmusic.edu
(617) 585-1247

Member-At-Large:
Jonathan Manton
Music Librarian for Access Services
Irving S. Gilmore Music Library
Yale University
120 High Street
PO Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520
jonathan.manton at yale.edu
(203) 432-5549

Newsletter Editor:
Memory Apata
Music & Performing Arts Librarian
Dartmouth College
Paddock Music Library
Hopkins Center, HB 6245 Hanover, NH 03755
memory.r.apata at dartmouth.edu
(603) 646-3120

NEMLA Archivist:
Sofia Becerra-Licha
Archivist
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
sbecerralicha at berklee.edu
Office: (617)747-8001

Web Page Editor:
Sarah Hunter
Electronic Inventory Manager
Mugar Library
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
shunter at bu.edu
Office: (617) 353-5810

Publication Information:

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.
Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Memory Apata
memory.r.apata at dartmouth.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Alan Karass
alan.karass at necmusic.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership$16.00

Return to the New England Music Library Association home page.

Message from the Chair
Secretary /Treasurer’s Report
Fall 2017 Meeting Registration/Information
Committee Updates
Oral History Excerpt
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

Dear NEMLA members,

It’s hard to believe that September has arrived once again! Whether you took a long vacation, short day-trips, or had a “staycation” at home, I hope you have enjoyed a relaxing and restful summer.

The NEMLA Board met for its annual meeting in early August. Many topics were discussed; however, one recurring theme we addressed was how to approach our outreach efforts to first-time attendees in new ways including, more specifically, how to retain and encourage new members to join and become active in our organization. Although numerous ideas are still being discussed, the board voted unanimously to offer free meeting registration to NEMLA members who bring a first-time attendee to a NEMLA meeting this year! I encourage everyone to reach out to paraprofessionals, library staff, or other individuals interested in our profession and bring them with you to our meetings. The board is enthusiastic to implement this outreach effort as early as our fall meeting, and we are excited about new possibilities for outreach in this area.

In case you missed the listserv announcement, NEMLA received a grant of $500 from the Music Library Association to help offset expenses associated with a library school student, recent graduate, or new professional attending the 2018 MLA national annual meeting in Portland, Oregon! Modeled from a similar grant offered by the Atlantic chapter last year, I am elated that NEMLA is able to provide this unique opportunity in New England. Interested applicants can apply here; applications are due September 30, 2017. I encourage everyone to share this information with interested parties who may not currently be NEMLA members, especially library school students and paraprofessionals who are interested or work in music librarianship. Special thanks to Laura Stokes, Jonathan Manton, and Sofia Becerra-Licha for drafting, editing, and submitting the grant application to MLA.

The arrival of September (and return of the fall semester) signals that arrangements for our fall meeting are underway. Marci Cohen and the Program Committee are tirelessly working on planning and arranging the logistics of the day. It will be held on Friday, October 20 at Yale University in New Haven, CT. The program looks spectacular and promises to be engaging with presentations on historical sound recordings, audio streaming rights, and digital archiving of legacy audio media. The music antiquarian in me is particularly excited to view treasures from Yale’s Beinecke Library. Other events include a tour of Yale’s Gilmore Music Library and a concert of songs from Yale’s extensive libraries featuring Anne Rhodes and Kimmy Szeto. We will conclude with a reception at Mory’s, a tavern near Yale, which was a favorite spot of composer Cole Porter among other prestigious Yale alumni! Additional details can be found in the fall meeting information section below. Lastly, consider attending the pre-conference dinner on Thursday night, October 19, by sending a RSVP to Marci Cohen if you will be arriving to New Haven early.

Looking ahead to our committee meetings held at our fall meeting, we have many open positions on almost every committee: the Program Committee, Instruction Committee, Technical Services Committee, and the Nominating Committee. Special thanks for Maria Jane Loizou for joining the Nominating Committee! If you have not recently served on a committee–or if you have served on one of our committees in the past–I encourage you to consider serving our organization on a new committee. Please contact one of our board members if you are interested. Another topic discussed at the board meeting was the possibility of establishing communities of interest to either supplement or replace our current committee structure. More information on these will be released and discussed over the upcoming year.

As mentioned above, if you are considering attending our fall meeting for the first time, please consider applying for our First-Time Attendees Program which provides funding for appropriate travel expenses.

With that, I hope your semester, if applicable, is off to a smooth start, and I look forward to seeing everyone in New Haven!

Respectfully submitted,

Jared Rex, Chair

New England Music Library Association

Secretary/Treasurer’s Report

New Members and Membership Renewals

NEMLA Memberships are now up for renewal (our membership year begins September 1).

Everything you need to renew your membership (including a 3-year renewal option) is on our Membership page: http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/get-involved/membership/

Use the online form (scroll down the membership page) to update your information and indicate your method of payment.  Use the PayPal button (scroll down the membership page) to pay by credit card or PayPal.  To pay by check, make check payable to NEMLA and mail to:

Alan Karass

New England Conservatory

290 Huntington Ave.

Boston, MA 02115

Fall 2017 Meeting Registration/Information

We are pleased to announce the registration information for our Fall 2017 meeting.  Register here!

Our fall meeting will take place on Friday, October 20 at Yale University in New Haven, CT.  All sessions will take place in the International Room in Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St., unless otherwise noted. The day will feature sessions on Historical Sound Recordings as Musical Mentors, the Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives’ work in dealing with rights for audio streaming and Designing and Equipping Workspaces for the Digital Archiving of Legacy Audio Media. In the afternoon, we will see music collection gems at Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, get a tour of the recently renovated Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, hear a concert of songs from Yale’s special collections and conclude with a reception at at Mory’s, the famous Yale Tavern.

We are happy to introduce a new initiative to encourage new attendees. If you bring a first-time attendee to the meeting, your registration will be free. See First-Time Attendees below for more details.

Meeting Program

9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.: Registration; coffee and pastries (underwriting by Arkivmusic) [Hallway leading to International Room]

9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.: Opening Remarks – Jared Rex, NEMLA Chair; Ruthann McTyre, Director of Gilmore Music Library, Yale University Library; Susan Gibbons, University Librarian, Yale University Library.

10:00 – 10:40 “Historical Sound Recordings as Musical Mentors” (Mark Bailey, Yale University)

10:40 – 11:20 a.m. “Navigating the Rapids of Streaming Audio: Rights and Permissions for Presenting Audio Materials Online” (Bridget Carr and Sarah Funke Donovan, Boston Symphony Orchestra)

11:20 a.m.-12:00 p.m. “Designing and Equipping Workspaces for the Digital Archiving of Legacy Audio Media” (John Marks, Esperanto Audio/The Tannhäuser Gate)

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m: Lunch on your own

1:30 – 2:00 pm – Committee Meetings

2:15 pm – Music Collection gems @ Beinecke (Beinecke Library)

3:00 pm – Tour of Gilmore Music Library (Gilmore Music Library)

3:45 pm – Concert: Anne Rhodes and Kimmy Szeto performing songs from Yale’s special collections (Sudler Hall)

4:30 pm – Reception (Mory’s, 306 York St. – cash bar)

Early Bird registration will be $18 for regular members and $9 for student and retired members. Please register by Thursday, October 12, 2017 to receive the Early Bird rate. Registrations from October 13 through 20 (including walk-ins) will be $20 and $10, respectively.

Thursday Dinner

All attendees are invited to a pre-conference group dinner on Thursday night, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. at Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant, 176 Temple St. The restaurant includes vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free menu options. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Marci Cohen (mcohen2 at bu.edu) by Thursday, October 12.

Hotel

We have reserved a block of rooms at La Quinta Inns & Suites in New Haven. The rate is $85.50-$107.10 depending on the night and the number of beds in the room. The hotel has free parking and is near I-91 and I-95. It is a short cab ride from the Yale campus, the dinner on Thursday, October. 19 and New Haven’s Union Station, with Amtrak service as well as regional bus and rail, including MTA service from New York’s Grand Central Terminal. The hotel also offers a local shuttle within a 5-mile radius of hotel, including Yale.

To reserve a room, please contact the hotel directly at (203) 562-1111 or their Group Desk at 1-800-642-4239, Option 1 and ask for the special rate for NEMLA.  Reservations must be made no later than 9/27/2017 in order to guarantee this special rate.

The Yale Visitor Center has a full list of lodging in the area with additional options.

Transportation

The Yale Visitor Center has driving directions to campus. The Yale Transportation Options site has information on parking and public transit options, including Amtrak and regional rail and bus service. In addition, Union Station is served by Peter Pan bus.

The Broadway parking lot at Broadway and Elm St. is the closest Yale-operated lot to Sterling Memorial Library. Other options are available. On-street parking is metered.

Yale Information

Here is a campus map of Yale and the website for Sterling Memorial Library. The Visitor Center website has more information about the campus and New Haven.

First-Time Attendees

If this is your first NEMLA meeting, we welcome you to apply for our First-Time Attendees Program. This grant covers registration, lunch, and travel expenses. Both current members and non-members are eligible, so long as they have not attended a meeting before. The deadline to apply for funding through this program is Oct. 6, 2017. Please apply here.  Also note that funding is regrettably not available for all first-time attendees, but we do strive to accommodate as many as we can on a first come, first served basis.

To encourage new involvement in NEMLA, if you bring a first-time attendee to the meeting, you will receive free registration. To take advantage of this offer, email Marci Cohen (mcohen2 at bu.edu) by Oct. 6 with the subject line “NEMLA first-time attendee referral.” Include your name and affiliation and the name of the first-time attendee you are hosting. The new attendee must also register for the First-Time Attendee Program, but this does not have to be done simultaneously.

Update on Committees

Laura Stokes, Past-Chair

There are lots of transitions to report for NEMLA’s committees!  We’d like to thank Anne Adams for volunteering to become the new chair of the Technical Services committee.  We also welcome Carolyn Johnson and Jenée Force to the Program Committee and Leslie Piper to the Publications Committee, and are delighted by Maria Jane Loizou’s return to the Nominating Committee. We appreciate the time and energy all of you devote to our organization!
Several committees are still looking for new members.  This is a great way to work on developments in music librarianship, meet people in this field, and be active on the regional level.  Specific groups seeking new members include the Program, Instruction, and Publication Committees.  We are also looking for people who would like to help with our web management.  If you are interested, please get in touch with the committee chairs or any member of the board.

http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/organization/committees/

Update from the Oral History Committee

Reminiscing with Jennifer Hunt, Past NEMLA Chair

By Debra H. Mandel

Director, Snell Library Recording Studios, Northeastern University

The following conversation was selected from an abridged transcript from the March 17th NEMLA oral history committee interview conducted by me with Jennifer Hunt. Jennifer is Director of the Boston Conservatory Albert Alphin Library at Berklee.  She served as NEMLA chair in 2013, program chair in 2014 and past chair until 2016.

DM: So how did you become involved in NEMLA?

JH: Well, I started working at the Boston Conservatory in October of 2002 and I can’t remember exactly who told me about NEMLA, but I very soon thereafter found out about it and knew it would be a good idea to become a member. So I joined, and I didn’t do too much with NEMLA for a number of years, but, around 2011, Suzanne Lovejoy, who was the program chair, was looking for a meeting venue, and she called me up and said, “Would you like to a host a NEMLA meeting?” And I thought about it and said, “Well, yes I would, but you know, the Conservatory is pretty short on space, and I had concerns about that, and so I thought well, if there was another place near us where we could sort of have part of the meeting at the Conservatory and another part of the meeting there. So you see back then we were already collaborating, long before the merger. So that’s when we went ahead– we had part of the meeting at the Conservatory and we wrapped up in the afternoon over at Berklee.

DM: So how has NEMLA changed over the years?

JH: Well, people have come and gone. But with most things, I would say technology has really helped us along, you know. If you look at our website right now, you can go on there and find videos of our past meetings and see pictures. 20 years ago, did we have that? No. I think a lot of our business procedures probably have been the same, somewhat. I know we did change the bylaws a little bit, but it’s still generally the same concept. NEMLA is the regional chapter of the Music Library Association. But I feel like we’re getting more innovative and certainly getting better as we age.

DM: Is there anything else you would like to add about your association with NEMLA?

JH: Well, there was one other time I remember quite fondly; there was a meeting, it was held over at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. We had the meeting–had, you know, business meetings and whatnot–and then–we were there, I believe, on a Friday afternoon–and the symphony had a rehearsal. So we got to go sit in, and I just remember sitting there thinking, “This is fabulous, I’m getting paid to hear the symphony.”

DM: (laughs) How lucky was that?

JH: Yeah. But yeah, NEMLA is just really a great organization and it’s very easy to get started with and get involved with. There are always many opportunities, they’re always looking for people to join committees, you know. And just like, I just–all of a sudden, you know, I was just a regular member for a couple of years and the next thing I knew I was the chair. So, it can happen to anybody!

NEMLA Officers

Chair:
Jared Rex
Music Librarian
Fenwick Music Library
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
jrex at holycross.edu
(508) 793-2295

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
Marci Cohen
Assistant Head
Music Library
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
mcohen2 at bu.edu
(617) 353-3707

Past Chair:
Laura Stokes
Performing Arts Librarian
Orwig Music Library
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
laura_stokes at brown.edu
(401) 863-3999

Secretary-Treasurer:
Alan Karass
Director of Libraries
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5018
alan.karass at necmusic.edu
(617) 585-1247

Member-At-Large:
Jonathan Manton
Music Librarian for Access Services
Irving S. Gilmore Music Library
Yale University
120 High Street
PO Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520
jonathan.manton at yale.edu
(203) 432-5549

Newsletter Editor:
Memory Apata
Music Library Supervisor|Education & Outreach
Dartmouth College
Paddock Music Library
Hopkins Center, HB 6245 Hanover, NH 03755
memory.r.apata at dartmouth.edu
(603) 646-3234

NEMLA Archivist:
Sofia Becerra-Licha
Archivist
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
sbecerralicha at berklee.edu
Office: (617)747-8001

Web Page Editor:
Sarah Hunter
Electronic Inventory Manager
Mugar Library
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
shunter at bu.edu
Office: (617) 353-5810

Publication Information:

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.
Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Memory Apata
memory.r.apata at dartmouth.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Alan Karass
alan.karass at necmusic.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership$16.00

Save

Message from the Chair
Spring 2017 Election Ballot
Spring 2017 Meeting Information
Noteworthy News
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

Dear NEMLA members,

Spring is slowly tiptoeing its way into New England; I hope that by the time you’re reading this, warmer weather will have arrived at last.  Either way, NEMLA members are hard at work getting ready for the Spring Meeting, which will be on June 2 at MIT.  Jared Rex and Marci Cohen (the current roster of the Program Committee) have been working with Peter Munstedt to ensure that the space, refreshments, and musical programming will be top-notch.  The call for submissions is open until April 7, so if you’re interested in presenting, be sure to send your proposal in to Jared.  Early-bird registration for the meeting ends on May 26.  I’d also like to encourage anyone who is thinking about attending their first NEMLA meeting to apply for First-Time Attendees funding, which covers registration, lunch, and travel costs; the deadline for that will be May 19.  And I will put out a call for agenda items for the business meeting closer to the spring meeting itself, but if you already have a burning agenda item, please send it in to me!

It was wonderful seeing so many of you at MLA’s national meeting in Orlando in February.  The chapter dinner was a rousing success, with thirty-one members showing up for a fun evening of Cuban food and conviviality.  Pictures of the dinner are available here.  Special thanks to Pat Fisken for taking so many of the photos, and congratulations as she heads into retirement.  Many of us have been anxious about MLA Newsletter editor Michelle Hahn, who was badly injured in a traffic incident at MLA, but I’m glad to hear that she is out of serious danger and doing much better as of recent weeks.

At the Chapter Chairs meeting in Orlando, Jared and I had an opportunity to talk with MLA’s Web Manager, Katie Buehner, and Chair of the Web Committee, Ray Heigemeir, about MLA’s offer to centrally administer membership and web services for the chapters.  Unfortunately, MLA is not able to accommodate NEMLA’s existing membership structure within the framework they have developed, and in addition, moving our membership system to MLA would involve moving NEMLA’s website over to MLA’s platform.  MLA’s system is not yet able to handle meeting registration, which for our chapter (with biannual meetings) is one of the most time-intensive administrative tasks.  Because of all this and a current lack of active member time and energy to devote to moving our website again, we have decided to put the question of switching to MLA’s membership services on hold for the moment, pending further developments from MLA.

On another topic: everyone please remember to vote in the spring election! Ballots will be sent out to members in good standing on April 24.  The positions of Vice-Chair/Chair/Past-Chair and Treasurer are both up for election.  Thanks to everyone who expressed interest and/or agreed to run; we deeply appreciate those who volunteer their time, energy, and expertise to keeping this organization running smoothly.

It has been a pleasure serving this organization as Vice Chair and Chair for the last two years, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with the NEMLA Board in the capacity of Past Chair for the next year.  At the Spring Meeting, the Chair position will turn over to Jared Rex, who I’m confident is going to be a great leader for this organization.  Looking forward to seeing you in Boston in June!

Respectfully submitted,

Laura Stokes

Chair, New England Music Library Association
Performing Arts Librarian
Virginia Baldwin Orwig Music Library, Brown University

Spring 2017 Election Ballot

At 9 a.m. on Monday, April 24th, 2017, members in good standing will receive an email message inviting them to participate in the election of two new members to the NEMLA board. Our thanks go to the candidates standing for election, and to the Nominating Committee for their work assembling the election slate.

Candidate for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:

Marci Cohen has been the Assistant Head of the Music Library at Boston University’s Mugar Library since November 2015. She currently serves on the NEMLA Program Committee, which she also did from 2009 to 2011. Other NEMLA activities include the Education & Outreach Committee (2010-2012) and working on the design and administration of the volunteer/internship placement service survey (2011-2012). She presented on the Stooges at the Fall 2014 NEMLA meeting. She earned a B.S. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, an M.L.S. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and an M.A. in music from Tufts University. Prior to coming to Boston University, she was a reference librarian at Berklee College of Music and a multimedia librarian at Northbrook (IL) Public Library.

Candidate for Secretary/Treasurer:

Alan Karass is Director of Libraries at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA. He is a graduate of Clark University (B.A., Music), Simmons College (M.S., Library and Information Science), the University of Connecticut (M.A., Historical Musicology), and the Open University (Ph.D., Ethnomusicology). Alan served as co-editor of Music Reference Services Quarterly from 2000 to 2007, and has written articles for Serials Librarian, American Recorder, Music Reference Services Quarterly, Music Library Association Newsletter, and Boston Early Music News. His chapter “Identity, Music, and Festivity in Southern Tunisia” appears in the Handbook of Musical Identities published by Oxford University Press in 2017. He previously served NEMLA in numerous capacities including Newsletter Editor from 1996 to 1999, and Chair-elect/Chair/Past-Chair from 2000 to 2003.

Spring 2017 Meeting Registration

We are excited to announce the registration information for our Spring 2017 meeting!

Register here!

Our spring meeting will take place Friday, June 2, 2017 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While specific details of the day’s events are still forthcoming, we anticipate an exciting day featuring a wide variety of presentation topics and our annual business meeting. The day’s events will conclude with a special concert of compositions by MIT faculty member Charles Shadle followed by a reception in MIT’s Lewis Music Library (optional tours available). Please note that the Early Bird registration deadline is May 26, 2017.

Meeting Program

Registration and coffee/pastries will begin at 9:00 a.m. in the Lewis Music Library with opening remarks tentatively scheduled for 9:45 a.m. in Building 4, Room 270. (See MIT’s campus map). Building 4, Room 270 is a short 3-minute indoor walk from the Lewis Music Library.

Early Bird registration will be $16 for regular members and $8 for student and retired members. Please register by Friday, May 26, 2017 to receive the Early Bird rate. Registrations from May 27 through June 2 (including walk-ins) will be $18 and $9, respectively.

Lunch will be on-your-own this meeting, but the schedule will provide ample time for dining at restaurants in the Kendall Square area. Here is a preliminary list of available dining options near MIT.

Hotels

Here is a brief list of hotels in close proximity to MIT’s campus:

Boston Marriott Cambridge Hotel, 50 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02142. Phone: (617) 494-6600

Doubletree Suites Cambridge/Boston, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston, MA, 02134. Phone: (617) 783-0090

Hyatt Regency Cambridge, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02139-4896. Phone: (617) 492-1234

The Kendall Hotel, 350 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. Phone: (617) 577-1300

A comprehensive list of hotels in the area is available from MIT. Due to limited availability, we encourage you to book your lodging accommodations at your earliest convenience.

Transportation

We strongly advise attendees to use MBTA subway/bus service to MIT from your desired starting location, if possible, as parking is extremely limited and expensive. For those using subway service, the Kendall Square/MIT stop on the MBTA Red Line is the closest subway stop to MIT.  MIT’s campus is also served by several bus lines; please visit the MBTA website for times and schedules.

MIT Information

Here is a campus map of MIT.  Please note that the day will incorporate the following buildings: the Lewis Music Library (Building 14, ground floor); Building 4, Room 270 (our meeting room, which is a short 3-minute indoor walk from the Music Library); Kresge Auditorium Little Theatre (the concert location: Building W16, basement). Kresge Auditorium is approximately a 15-minute outdoor walk from our meeting space.

The Lewis Music Library’s website is here.

Here is a link with detailed driving directions to MIT as well as pay parking lots.

If you are looking for things to do near MIT check out this link.

First-Time Attendees

If this is your first NEMLA meeting, we welcome you to apply for our First-Time Attendees Program. This grant covers registration, lunch, and travel expenses. Both current members and non-members are eligible, so long as they have not attended a meeting before. The deadline to apply for funding through this program is May 19, 2017. Please apply here.  Also note that funding is regrettably not available for all first-time attendees, but we do strive to accommodate as many as we can on a first come, first served basis.

Thursday evening dinner

All attendees are invited to a pre-conference group dinner on Thursday night, June 1st. More details are forthcoming.

Comprehensive registration information with a detailed schedule will be available in late April. Please watch the NEMLA listserv for more details.

Noteworthy News

Pat Fisken retired from her position as Head of Paddock Music Library at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH on March 31, 2017. She worked in Cataloging at the Dartmouth College Library from 1973-1977, in Special Collections from 1977-1980, and in the Music Library since 1980.

Some things that Pat plans to do this spring and summer include:  visit her children and grandson in Pennsylvania and Oregon, spend more time outdoors, work on a community vegetable garden, swim, practice yoga, read, write, visit friends, and simply “be in the moment”!  Oh, and she hopes to get to NEMLA at MIT in June ;-).

Chair:
Laura Stokes
Performing Arts Librarian
Orwig Music Library
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
laura_stokes at brown.edu
Office: (401) 863-3999

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
Jared Rex
Music Librarian
Fenwick Music Library
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
jrex@holycross.edu
(508) 793-2295

Past Chair:
Zoe Rath
Reference Librarian ILL Service
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
zrath at berklee dot edu
617-747-8143

Secretary-Treasurer:
Sharon Saunders
Bates College Library
48 Campus Ave
Lewiston, ME 04240
ssaunder at bates.edu
207-786-8327

Member-At-Large:
Jonathan Manton
Music Librarian for Access Services
Irving S. Gilmore Music Library
Yale University
120 High Street
PO Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520
jonathan.manton at yale.edu
T: 203-432-

Newsletter Editor:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
Archivist/Records Manager
New England Conservatory
Spaulding Library
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu
(617) 585-1252

NEMLA Archivist:
Sofia Becerra-Licha
Archivist
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
sbecerralicha at berklee.edu
Office: (617)747-8001

Web Page Editor:
Sarah Hunter
Electronic Inventory Manager
Metadata Services Department
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
shunter at bu.edu
Office: (617)353-5810

Publication Information:

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.
Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Sharon Saunders
ssaunder at bates.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership$16.00

Message from the Chair
Secretary/Treasurer’s Report
Fall 2016 Meeting Minutes
Spring 2017 Meeting Preview
Seeking Nominations/Committee Members
Noteworthy News
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

Dear NEMLA members,

Looking out the window at the blowing wind and huge piles of crunchy leaves, it seems that fall is drawing to an end and soon, too, the fall semester will come to a close.  Although I’m looking forward to cozy holidays inside, I’m glad to do so with fond memories of the NEMLA activities of recent months.

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the fall meeting, which took place on a breathtakingly beautiful day (October 14, 2016) at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont.  I’d like to express a great deal of appreciation to all the people who worked on this meeting, especially Vice-Chair Jared Rex, Marci Cohen of the Program Committee, and our host, Joe Tucker. They put together a wonderful day, which included a moving performance by an ad-hoc vocal ensemble at the end.  Jonathan Manton’s report on the meeting will fill you in (or jog your memory) about the specifics of the program, but I also want to thank everyone who presented or who participated in the committee work there.

If you’re still thinking about getting involved, it’s not too late: several committees are still looking for new members (especially Publications and Program), and we are still accepting nominations for the next election in the spring, when we’ll vote on Vice-Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, and Newsletter Editor.  Please see Past-Chair Zoë Rath’s call for nominations in this newsletter for more details, and get in touch with me or the committee chairs if you are interested in joining a committee.

A lingering matter from NEMLA’s summer board meeting is the question of whether NEMLA will, like other regional chapters, switch to using MLA’s centralized system for membership renewals.  I will be asking for feedback on this matter from the membership as a whole, so please watch your email. We will also be seeking information from chapters that have chosen to make the switch; over half of the other chapters are now using MLA’s renewal system. This system does allow for members to select chapter membership only if they do not wish also to join the national organization.

For those of you who are planning to come to the MLA national meeting in Orlando: in lieu of a chapter meeting there, we will gather for a group dinner.  The chapter meetings are typically scheduled for late on Thursday (although that is still TBD on the meeting schedule as of this writing!), so let’s preliminarily plan on Thursday evening.  I will be looking for a restaurant that can accommodate a potentially large group with a diverse array of dietary needs—so if you’re planning on joining us, please send me a message so I can start to estimate the headcount.

All best wishes, and see you in 2017!

Respectfully submitted,
Laura Stokes, Chair, New England Music Library Association Performing Arts Librarian
Virginia Baldwin Orwig Music Library, Brown University

Secretary-Treasurer’s Report

Membership

Thanks to all who have renewed their memberships or have recently joined NEMLA.  We currently have 50 active members!  If the 21 people whose membership was last paid through Aug. 31, 2016 renewed their memberships, we would have 71 active members!  If you have any questions about the status of your membership, please e-mail me at nemlaboard@gmail.com

Meeting attendance

Bennington College was a spectacular place to meet in the Fall.  We had 30 people attend the meeting, one of whom was supported by our first-time attendee program.

Finances

Fall meeting income: $ 520.23

Fall meeting expenses: $ 565.96

First-time attendee expenses: $ 196.57

Checking account: $ 2508.77

Savings account: $ 4,005.09

Grant funds (Oral history): $ 480.50

Submitted by

Sharon Saunders
NEMLA Secretary-Treasurer

Fall 2016 Meeting Minutes

The Fall Meeting of the New England Chapter of the Music Library Association was held on the beautiful campus of Bennington College, VT.  I personally don’t remember a more picturesque setting for a chapter meeting than this, overlooking the Green Mountains on a spectacular Fall day.

Following an introduction from NEMLA Chair Laura Stokes, welcoming thirty attendees who had made the trip to Bennington, Jared Rex, NEMLA Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, introduced our wonderful sponsors for the day: Oceana Wilson, Dean of Crossett Library at Bennington, and Zeke Bernstein, Dean of Research, Planning, and Assessment. Oceana and Zeke spoke briefly about Bennington’s history, research ethos and the library’s critical role at Bennington. Dean Wilson highlighted a collaboration between the School of Music at Bennington and the library related to a collection of highly unusual custom built instruments created by long-time Bennington Professor, Gunnar Schonbeck, that are now held at Mass MOCA. The collection of instruments, which includes an eight-foot-tall banjo, were featured in frequent concerts during Schonbeck’s time at Bennington. The School of Music and the Library are now working to digitize posters and recordings from these concerts.

Jared Rex then introduced the opening act of the excellent program he and the Program Committee put together. Memory Apata, Pat Fisken, and Adam Nemeroff from Dartmouth College, introduced a recently released Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the Dartmouth’s edX instance, DartmouthX, entitled Introduction to Italian Opera. The course, which is currently in session at the time of writing, was the result of a large scale collaboration including librarians from the Paddock Music Library, instructional designers, IT, and Steve Swayne (Jacob H. Strauss 1922 Professor of Music at Dartmouth, who was the instructor for the course). Pat Fisken, Head of Paddock Music Library, spoke about the success of the course being a product of the effective team that was put together for the project. Pat noted that her principal role in the project had been to source the content to support the course and negotiate rights as needed. Adam Nemeroff, an Instructional Designer at Dartmouth, then outlined his role in the project. He noted that Instructional Designers are professional educators who collaborate with faculty and students to design and implement virtual learning platforms. Adam highlighted the design process for the MOOC, working backwards from goals and objectives, finally selecting content. He also highlighted a number of tools and methodologies he used in his role as Project Manager for the MOOC. Finally, Memory Apata, Music Library Supervisor at the Paddock Music Library, and recipient of a NEMLA First-Time Attendee award for the meeting, discussed her Teaching Assistant type role for the MOOC project. Her role included building resource lists for the course, which for the most part included high quality yet free resources given that many course participants would not have access to the paid databases and other tools to which many university libraries subscribe.  Memory was also responsible for promotion of the course, primarily via social media and mailing lists. Dartmouth is now working on another MOOC on German Opera, which is due to be launched in Spring 2017.

The second presentation of the day featured an update on the rapidly changing world of music vocabularies. Anne Adams, Music Cataloger at Harvard University, provided us with an overview of two recent vocabularies that are now being used by Music Catalogers, the Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus (LCMPT) and Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT). Anne noted that both of these vocabularies have been designed with a view toward Linked Data. Anne highlighted that many libraries are still using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for terms that are now in LCMPT but that in time, LSCH will be used solely to describe the “aboutness” of an item. LCDGT is still not being used by many music catalogers, but will be something to keep an eye on for the future. For further news and updates related to these vocabularies and other topics related to music cataloging and metadata, follow the MLA Cataloging and Metadata Committee’s blog 

Following committee meetings and lunch, Zoe Rath, Manager of Collection Development at Berklee College of Music, outlined work she had recently undertaken as an embedded librarian for a Music Therapy class at Berklee. Zoe mentioned that this was just one example of how she is trying to move beyond the reference desk more, to meet patrons outside of the library and to better connect with them. Zoe mentioned that her work as an embedded librarian involving meeting with the faculty for the class, attending classes for the program, creating Libguides specifically for the class, and holding drop-in hours for students to stop by for research assistance. Zoe hopes to build upon the success of this initiative, to have more of presence in Berklee’s recently launched online graduate degree course in Music Therapy, and to also create a collection of circulating instruments for music therapy students and faculty.

The final presentation of the day was by NEMLA’s chair, Laura Stokes. Laura spoke to us about her ongoing detective work into the publishing history of Musica Sacra, a 19th-century compendium of organ and vocal music, published (mostly) by Berlin: Ed. Bote & G. Bock. Laura outlined that the facts of publication for the various volumes differs wildly across myriad records in Worldcat and other bibliographic sources. She has been working to ascertain more accurate publication information for each volume, since the facts of publication have implications for Musica Sacra’s relationship to contemporary church politics. She is also interested in why there was a change of editor after volume four of the series, a change that may have also been politically motivated. All of this work is part of Laura’s doctoral dissertation, which she is due to defend in December.

With the meeting’s presentations complete, we were then treated to a vocal concert by Thomas Bogdan (Voice Faculty, Bennington College), Kerry Ryer-Parke (Voice Faculty, Bennington College), Dane Whitman (Kilpatrick Fellow, Bennington College) and Joe Tucker (Research Services Librarian, Bennington College). The quartet performed a highly diverse and imaginative program, from Monteverdi to Lennon and McCartney.

A huge debt of gratitude goes to Bennington College for hosting us, especially Joe Tucker from Bennington who, along with Jared Rex and Marci Cohen, took care of all of the arrangements for the meeting, including organizing the weather, which was amazing!

Submitted by
Jonathan Manton, NEMLA Member-at-Large.

Spring 2017 Meeting Preview

NEMLA’s spring meeting will be held on Friday, June 2, 2017 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA! While it has been a number of years since NEMLA met at MIT–the last time was May 2001–we look forward to being back in Cambridge to experience a diverse day of programming in the midst of MIT’s extensive campus (and to sneak a visit to MIT’s Lewis Music Library).

Considered among the world’s best universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in 1861. It supports a mission of advancing knowledge and educating students at the highest level. The Lewis Music Library contains a diverse assortment of musical materials supporting the school’s curriculum including approximately 18,000 books, 40,000 music scores, 26,000 recordings, and 100 journal subscriptions.

Please watch the NEMLA listserv for additional details in the upcoming months (including registration information, accommodations, call for proposals, etc.). Please e-mail Jared Rex (jrex@holycross.edu) if you have questions.

The program committee also encourages all NEMLA members to consider submitting proposals to present at the spring meeting. We want to hear about new initiatives and projects at your home institutions!

Special thanks to the program committee and Peter Munstedt for hosting us.

Jared Rex, Vice-Chair/Chair Elect
Music Librarian
Fenwick Music Library
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
(508) 793-2295
jrex@holycross.edu

Seeking Nominations/Committee Members

• Publishes at least four newsletters each year.
• Serves as an ex-officio member of the Publications Committee. Maintains and posts to social media sites, including NEMLA’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
• Works with the Web Editor and other Board members to update NEMLA’s website.

Chair:
Laura Stokes
Performing Arts Librarian
Orwig Music Library
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
laura_stokes at brown.edu
Office: (401) 863-3999

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
Jared Rex
Music Librarian
Fenwick Music Library
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
jrex@holycross.edu
(508) 793-2295

Past Chair:
Zoe Rath
Reference Librarian ILL Service
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
zrath at berklee dot edu
617-747-8143

Secretary-Treasurer:
Sharon Saunders
Bates College Library
48 Campus Ave
Lewiston, ME 04240
ssaunder at bates.edu
207-786-8327

Member-At-Large:
Jonathan Manton
Music Librarian for Access Services
Irving S. Gilmore Music Library
Yale University
120 High Street
PO Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520
jonathan.manton at yale.edu
T: 203-432-

Newsletter Editor:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
Archivist/Records Manager
New England Conservatory
Spaulding Library
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu
(617) 585-1252

NEMLA Archivist:
Sofia Becerra-Licha
Archivist
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
sbecerralicha at berklee.edu
Office: (617)747-8001

Web Page Editor:
Sarah Hunter
Electronic Inventory Manager
Metadata Services Department
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
shunter at bu.edu
Office: (617)353-5810

Publication Information:

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.
Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Sharon Saunders
ssaunder at bates.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership$16.00

Return to the New England Music Library Association home page.

 

 

 

Message from the Chair
Spring 2016 Meeting Summary
Secretary/Treasurer’s Report
Fall 2016 Meeting Preview
Noteworthy News
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

Dear NEMLA members,

It’s a pleasure to greet you as the chair of NEMLA for 2016–2017. Summer is in full swing, with the long days, a slightly slower pace (at least for many of us), and maybe even some time both to travel and to unwind.  Whether your summer adventures happen in far-flung places around the globe, or you’re day-tripping to the Cape, Tanglewood, or another nearby hotspot, or even just relaxing on a quiet porch, I hope everyone finds some time to enjoy it.  New England offers a wondrous array of musical opportunities, festivals, and events that can enliven the summer months; we’ve collected information about a few of them here:  http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/free-fun-summer-events-in-new-england-2/.

Looking back to the last few months, I’d like one more time to acknowledge the terrific team at Harvard for hosting our Spring 2016 meeting.  Amazing local host and outgoing NEMLA past chair Kerry Masteller has been a mainstay of the board and of our organization for many years, and she did incredible work to make the spring meeting happen.  The support from Sarah Adams, Lynn Sayers, Marty Schreiner, and Liza Vick was also invaluable. And Sharon Saunders’ work with the budget and registration is what makes it all function and flow together seamlessly.

With the end of the academic year, the annual turnover of the NEMLA board also occurred at the spring meeting.  Many thanks to (now Past Chair) Zoe Rath for a terrific 2015–2016 year under her leadership.  We will miss Chris Schiff as our Member-at-Large, but are pleased to welcome Jonathan Manton back, not only to New England but back to the NEMLA board, as our new Member-at-Large. Looking to the fall, Vice-Chair Jared Rex and the (slightly smaller) Program Committee are busily planning our next meeting at Bennington College, currently scheduled for October 14, 2016.

Speaking of the somewhat reduced forces on the Program Committee: NEMLA needs you!  NEMLA is one of the most active chapters in the Music Library Association, but we can only do that with the support and participation of our members, especially though committee work and hosting meetings.  The following committees are currently in need of new members: Program, Education and Outreach, Instruction, and Publications.  The Oral History committee is also reinvigorating and will be looking to long-term members who are willing to be interviewed.  You can see the work that has already been done on that project here: http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/oral-history-project/.

Committee work is a great way to participate in the life of the organization, become more connected with your colleagues, and stay aware of activities in various parts of music librarianship in the New England region.  If you are interested, please email the chairs or one of the NEMLA board members.  And please let us know if you’re interested in hosting a future meeting!

Wishing everyone an enjoyable rest of the summer.  See you all soon!

Respectfully submitted,

Laura Stokes, Chair

Spring 2016 Meeting Summary

The 2016 Spring Meeting of the New England Chapter convened at Harvard University’s Lamont Library on June 3^rd.  Those in attendance were treated to a program of amazing breadth and variety, a true testament to the eclectic duties and interests of our members and institutions, and to the careful selection of NEMLA’s program committee.

Following introductory remarks, the first session featured three different greater-Boston collections.  One of the key takeaways was: YOU (AND YOUR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS) ARE NOT ALONE!  Those collections that we all have nested away in boxes here and there are truly interesting, unique, and worth surfacing.  And when we do the work of cataloging and advertising we will find our audience.

A case in point was Dana Gee’s presentation on the project to locate and provide access to the plethora of American sheet music collections in the Houghton library.  As “duplicate” items were cataloged and partially digitized, they revealed both a rich and complex world of social references that is known in popular sheet music and a much richer world of performers.  Far from being duplicates, the rotogravure covers of well-known songs might feature as many as ten or more different insets of the performers that toured them in music halls.  They also opened doors on marginalized performers such as male impersonators.  For a taste, see this post on the Houghton Library Blog.

Catherine Hammer presented on The Minuetta Kessler Collection of the Boston Public Library.  Kessler’s career was in itself a near microcosm of music in the 20^th Century.  A child prodigy, daughter of Russian Jewish refugees who relocated to Calgary, Kessler was a Juilliard graduate.  Her 50 year residence in Boston included a Boston Pops performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto under Arthur Fiedler.  She wrote concerti, an opera, an amazing assortment of children’s music, and a tribute to Martin Luther King.  Materials in the Boston Public Library collection include manuscripts and sketchbooks for much of her music, including her first composition “The Bears and the Children Playing on the Bridge,” to a number of pieces for Jewish services, to scores from her own music publishing business (Music Resources), to photos of her music game “Staftonia” being played by some of the many children she taught.  Those in attendance were invited to select from de-accessioned duplicates of some of Kessler’s publications – a generous and lovely gift!

Last in this session was Lingwei Qiu’s introduction to the history of Chinese piano music, built around the 2015 publication of a 10 volume anthology celebrating the centennial.  The first published Chinese piano composition was inked by a Harvard alum, Chao Yuen Ren, but it takes sleuthing to find the score.  The initial printing was in the journal “Ke Xue = Science” published in Shanghai in 1915.  As with the previous two presentations, attendees were introduced to a world crying out to be discovered.  Though reasonably new, Chinese piano music has already gone through significant changes and obvious compositional phases, including the nationalist one that yielded Xian Xinghai’s famous Yellow River Concerto.  Attendees were able to visit the exhibit of these materials at the closing reception in the Loeb Music Library.  For images and more, please see “Along China’s Keys” in the Harvard Gazette.

The morning wrapped up with a presentation by Ronald Broude on “The Origins of Urtext.”  The concept of Urtext arises from 19^th Century scholarship which renewed an interest in seeing an unedited text in the way that its creator and contemporaries saw it.  But in the years following the Second World War it has been applied by various publishers in so many different and contradictory ways as to render it almost meaningless.  Henle, Bärenreiter, and Schott all apply the term to “performing” editions which are prepared (in some cases) from the composers’ complete works editions – all showing the intervention of an editor, and many frequently including interpolations (such as fingering) which composers rarely include.  For more, please see Broude’s paper “Musical Works, Musical Texts, and Musical Editions: a Brief Overview” in the journal Scholarly Editing.

The afternoon started with the annual Business Meeting.  Treasurer Sharon Saunders gave a report confirming the chapter’s solid financial standing.  Calls were made for committee participation and the election results were revealed.  Jared Rex of Holy Cross was confirmed as NEMLA Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Jonathan Manton was confirmed as the Member-at-Large.  They will need your support as they seek venues, committee members, and input during the year ahead, so watch for emails concerning future needs and developments.

After a very successful year, Zoe Rath turned over the gavel to new NEMLA Chair, Laura Stokes.  Zoe will head the Nominations Committee as Past Chair.  Watch for her call for nominations in the next academic year, and in the meantime think about ways that you or your colleagues might participate.  In her first official act, Laura Stokes forcefully gaveled the session to a close.

The afternoon presentations were full of surprises.

Alan Karass delivered a paper based on his doctoral research in ethnomusicology: “Singing ‘Hasta Siempre, Comandante’ in Tunisia (Or, What I’ve Been Doing in Tunisia for the Last Seven Years).”  Showing just how vital and in-tune with the zeitgeist music research can be, Karass discussed how a song lauding Che Guevara has been turned into a well-known folk anthem in not-normally-Spanish-speaking Tunisia.  The recently-minted Dr. Karass’ work encompasses the time during which the Arab Spring occurred.  In a hopeful sign he talked about how Che has gone from being an aspirational figure of striving for freedom (before the Arab Spring) to a historical figure known and studied even in Tunisian high schools (after).

The last talk of the day was delivered by James Jordan: “What Is Old is made New Again: The E.M. Skinner Organ Restoration at the Church of the Transfiguration, Orleans, MA.”  As a member of the Community of Jesus, Jordan has been involved in the acquisition and reconfiguration of seventeen E. M. Skinner organs into a single (if it can be called such) instrument.  Reflecting the Community’s focus on worship through the visual and performing arts, the organ is both a musical and architectural masterpiece.  Jordan presented the history of the instrument and a tiny peek at the physical work of combining Skinner’s great organs.  Of course it takes a master to build a great organ, and Jordan dedicated a portion of his presentation to speak of the work of Nelson Barden on this project.  See their website for videos of Barden and the organ, and more on the organ project and the Church of the Transfiguration.  Those who might be on or near Cape Cod should try to schedule in a tour of the Church or one of their concerts.  It promises to be beautifully overwhelming.

The program wrapped up with a triumphant concert at the Loeb Music Library by NEMLA’s own Maria Jane Loizou (accompanied by Tal Zilber).  Her selection of Lullabies and Dances started with a lullaby by Paul Bowles, followed by works by Astor Piazzola and Kurt Weill, and finished with a selection of Greek songs, including a rousing finale in the 9/8 karsilama rhythm – and yes, I did see many audience members counting 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3, as she sang!  It was a beautiful end to the day, and a nice transition to the closing reception next door.

With this the author turns over the duties of the Member-at-Large to Jon Manton, and I send my sincere thanks to Kerry Masteller, who is also rotating off the board this year.  Kerry: Your firm hand and good counsel have made my time on the board a joy.  Thank you.  Respectfully submitted by Chris Schiff, former Member-at-Large, and now ACTIVE member of the Education and Outreach Committee.

Secretary/Treasurer’s Report

NEMLA Business Meeting Minutes, June 3, 2016, Harvard University

• Zoe Rath welcomed the first-time attendees.
• Sharon Saunders submitted the Treasurer’s report (reproduced below).
• Various NEMLA Committees Chairs reported on the status of the committee memberships. These included: Education and Outreach; Nominating; Program; and Oral History.  Committees are welcoming new members–please volunteer for a committee of your choice!
• Laura Stokes put out a call for topics/programs for future meetings and also a call for volunteers to host future meeting.
• Zoe Rath announced the election results and Kerry Masteller thanked all members who ran for election.
  • Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Jared Rex
  • Member-at-Large: Jonathan Manton
• Zoe Rath turned the meeting over to incoming Chair, Laura Stokes
• New business
  • Alan Karass talked about an archives conference that he attends. He will post information about it on NEMLA-L
  • Suzanne Lovejoy said that, as a Member-at-Large of the Music Library Association, she will take our concerns to the MLA Board

Laura Stokes adjourned the meeting

Treasurer’s Report from the Spring Business Meeting

Balances (June 1, 2016)
Savings	4,004.93
Checking	2,675.32
Total	6,680.25
Oral history grant
Beginning amount	1,000.00
Expense (3/2015)	183.00
Expenses (7/2015)	336.50
Current remaining	480.50
Checking account
Restricted funds (grant)	480.50
Unrestricted/NEMLA (non-grant)	2,194.82
Total	2,675.32
Members (57 current members)
Income from memberships paid this report period (6/1/2015-6/1/2016)	714.80
October 2015 meeting
Expenses	1,068.39
First-time attendees	139.20
Registrations	863.13
Fees
Eventbrite (meeting registrations)	111.87
Paypal (memberships paid online)	27.20

 

Fall 2016 Meeting Preview

Bennington College
Bennington, VT

Friday, October 14, 2016

The Fall NEMLA meeting will take place at Bennington College in Bennington, VT on Friday, October 14, 2016.

Bennington College, a small liberal arts institution, was founded in 1934. With a total enrollment of around 800 students, Bennington has a strong history of embracing the performing arts, especially modern dance, and continues to include the performing arts as an equal offering to its other liberal arts curriculum.

More details will be announced over the NEMLA listserv in the upcoming weeks including hotel information and a call for presentation proposals. Please e-mail Jared Rex (jrex@holycross.edu) if you have questions.

Special thanks to Joe Tucker from Bennington, for assisting with conference logistics, and to Marci Cohen, who is serving on the program committee.

Noteworthy News

Pam Bristah recently retired from her position as Music Librarian at Wellesley College, Bristah had worked in the Wellesley Music Library since the summer of 2000.  Before coming to Wellesley, she was Head Librarian at the Manhattan School of Music for eleven years. At Westminster Choir College, she sang in the Westminster Choir, which performed in the Spoleto Festival, both in Italy and Charleston, and with New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among other orchestras, under Robert Shaw, Leonard Bernstein, William Steinberg, James Levine, Rafael Kubelik, and other conductors.

We will miss her but she plans to continue attending MLA meetings and looks forward to seeing us in Orlando!

Paraclete Recordings announces the release of For the Beauty of the Earth:  Celebrating Creation in Brass, Organ, and Percussion—a collection of contemporary brass works honoring Creation. From David Marlatt’s evocative Windscape and Earthscape to the brilliant and stirring hymn arrangements of James Curnow; from the echoes of space in Anthony DiLorenzo’s Luminosity to Charles Widor’s renowned Toccata arranged for organ and brass; and the beauty of Brenton Broadstock’s Benediction, each work expresses an awe and appreciation for the beauty and boundless mysteries of our universe.

The generous range of sound and colors produced by the 15-member Gabriel V Brass Ensemble and organist SharonRose Pfeiffer, worthily reflect the majesty of creation which words cannot capture.

Recorded in the superb acoustics of Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA, and it’s famous Worcester Organ, this disc gives the listener the full experience of hearing the brilliance of these works and the vibrant artistry of Gabriel V Brass Ensemble and organist SharonRose Pfeiffer.

NEMLA Officers

Chair:
Laura Stokes
Performing Arts Librarian
Orwig Music Library
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
laura_stokes at brown.edu
Office: (401) 863-3999

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
Jared Rex
Music Librarian
Fenwick Music Library
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
jrex@holycross.edu
(508) 793-2295

Past Chair:
Zoe Rath
Reference Librarian ILL Service
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
zrath at berklee dot edu
617-747-8143

Secretary-Treasurer:
Sharon Saunders
Bates College Library
48 Campus Ave
Lewiston, ME 04240
ssaunder at bates.edu
207-786-8327

Member-At-Large:
Jonathan Manton
Music Librarian for Access Services
Irving S. Gilmore Music Library
Yale University
120 High Street
PO Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520
jonathan.manton at yale.edu
T: 203-432-5549

Newsletter Editor:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
Archivist/Records Manager
New England Conservatory
Spaulding Library
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu
(617) 585-1252

NEMLA Archivist:
Sofia Becerra-Licha
Archivist
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
sbecerralicha at berklee.edu
Office: (617)747-8001

Web Page Editor:
Sarah Hunter
Electronic Inventory Manager
Metadata Services Department
Boston University
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
shunter at bu.edu
Office: (617)353-5810

Publication Information:

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.
Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Sharon Saunders
ssaunder at bates.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership$16.00

Return to the New England Music Library Association home page.

 

Message from the Chair
Spring 2016 Election Ballot
Spring 2016 Meeting Registration
Noteworthy News
NEMLA Officers
Publication Information

Message from the Chair

Dear NEMLA members,

It has been a pleasure working as your Vice Chair and Chair of NEMLA and working with the board for the past 6 years. I am proud of everything this organization has accomplished during this time and what it continues to accomplish. Some of our achievements include the smooth transition to our WordPress website and the excellent documentation of our meetings through our newsletter, website, video recording, and photos. There is also a growing commitment to preserving our past through our archives and through our NEMLA oral history project. I would note that we are still missing quite a few previous presentations, although our website currently includes many past presentations. If you are willing to add your presentation, please email your powerpoint or notes to Sarah Hunter and she will post them.

It was nice seeing so many of you at this past MLA conference in Cincinnati and later at the NEMLA Korean dinner at the Sung Korean Bistro. Over 24 of you attended and I have never heard so many compliments on a good restaurant choice! You can see additional photos of our delicious dinner on the NEMLA Facebook page.

This year the weather seems to need some meds to get rid of the mood swings! I’m sure all are looking forward to Spring and then to Summer. I hope to see many of you at our upcoming Spring meeting at Harvard. Thank you to our Vice Chair, Laura Stokes and the Program Committee (Anne Adams, Ilana Revkin,  and Jared Rex), together with our Harvard host Kerry Masteller for their hard  work arranging this meeting,  Thanks also to Sharon Saunders for putting the registration site up on Eventbrite. To see more details about this meeting please read: Spring Meeting at Harvard 2016

Before I end this letter, I want to remind you all to please take the time to vote for our new Vice-Chair / Chair-Elect and Member-at-Large. A big thank-you to Kerry Masteller (Past Chair) and to the Nominating Committee for recruiting our candidates, and to the members who have decided to run. Short bios of the candidates are included in this issue of the newsletter; look for a ballot in your email soon. If your membership has lapsed, remember to renew it in order to vote.

I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at our Spring Chapter meeting in June at Harvard.

Respectfully submitted,

Zoë Rath, NEMLA Chair
Reference Librarian
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music

Spring 2016 Election Ballot

At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 26th, 2016, members in good standing will receive an email message inviting them to participate in the election of two new members to the NEMLA board. Our thanks go to all of the candidates standing for election, and to the Nominating Committee for their work assembling the election slate.

Candidate for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:

Jared Rex

Jared Rex has been the Music Librarian at College of the Holy Cross since August 2015. He hosted NEMLA’s Fall 2015 conference and currently serves on NEMLA’s Program Committee. Prior to his time at Holy Cross, Jared held various positions including Acting Librarian at the Nashville Symphony, Head Librarian of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, Library Fellow at New World Symphony, and Personal Librarian to conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. He has also worked in the music libraries at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, University at Buffalo, and the Boston Conservatory. Jared attended Manhattan School of Music Pre-College and the Boston Conservatory, where he received a B.M. in Piano Performance. He also holds a M.L.S. and M.A. in Music Theory from University at Buffalo.

Candidates for Member-at-Large:

Liz Berndt-Morris

Liz Berndt-Morris has been the music curator at the Boston Public Library since January 2015.  Her position includes predominantly providing reference and developing and maintaining the music collection of the BPL. She was previously employed at Central Michigan University, where she was a music librarian for almost six years.  During that time she participated in reference, collection development, original cataloging, and teaching in both one-time class sessions and a 100-level course, “Introduction to Research and Libraries,” each semester. She also earned tenure and had an approved sabbatical before moving to Boston. During her time in the Midwest, she was active in the Midwest Chapter of MLA by chairing the Public Services Committee.

Andrea Cawelti

Andrea Cawelti is the Ward Music Cataloger at Houghton Library, Harvard University. A graduate of Oberlin (Greenwood Conservatory Prize) and The Juilliard School, she began her career as an operatic mezzo-soprano. The recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including winning the Met Competition, she has sung with the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Opera, and the Columbus Symphony, among others. Prior to Houghton, she worked at the Loeb Music Library at Harvard University, the Chicago Symphony Archives, and the New York Public Library Music Division. She completed her MSLIS at Drexel University in 2010.

Jonathan Manton

Jonathan Manton is Music Librarian for Access Services at the Gilmore Music Library at Yale University. His role oversees all aspects of access to Music Library collections, both physical and digital. Notable areas of concentration include circulation and course reserves, and all things digital, including digital projects and audio and video streaming access for media.

Before joining Yale in February 2016, Jonathan was Sound Archives Librarian at Stanford University’s Archive of Recorded Sound. There he principally worked on creating access to an archive of nearly half a million sound recordings through arrangement and description, outreach and public services, and digital project work. While at Stanford, Jonathan notably created digital access to numerous collections from the archive’s holdings for the first time.

Previous to his position at Stanford, Jonathan was based in Boston, MA from 2010-2012. During this time he served remotely as Technical Support Officer for the Britten Thematic Catalogue Project, a forthcoming online resource in development at the Britten-Pears Foundation in the United Kingdom that, once complete, will detail all of Benjamin Britten’s works online, both published and unpublished. He was also a member of NEMLA during this time. He served as Secretary/Treasurer in 2012 and was on the Technical Services Committee from 2011-2012.

Jonathan received his MSc in Information and Library Management from the School of Computing, Engineering, and Information Sciences at the University of Northumbria, UK and MMus in Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Arts from the University of East Anglia, UK. He has published articles in both Brio (International Association of Music Libraries, UK) and Notes (Music Library Association, USA) respectively.

Spring 2016 Meeting Registration

Registration is now open for the Spring 2016 NEMLA meeting!

Registration

The spring meeting will take place on June 3, 2016 at the Lamont Library at Harvard University, followed by a short musical program and a reception at Harvard’s Loeb Music Library.  We have an exciting program to offer: various special collections, the history of the Urtext, ethnomusicological adventures in Tunisia, and the E. M. Skinner organ project.  Our day will end with an opportunity to hear the vocal stylings of our very own Maria Jane Loizou!

We are still working on the exact timing of the program schedule (watch for updates!) but we will gather for coffee and light breakfast items at 9 a.m. in Lamont, with the opening remarks scheduled for 9:45 a.m.

Early Bird registration will be $16 for regular members and $8 for student and retired members. Please register by May 27, 2016 to receive the Early Bird rate. Registrations from May 28 through June 3 (including walk-ins) will be $18 and $9, respectively.

No catered lunch this time, but the lunch break on the schedule will offer an opportunity to enjoy one of Harvard Square’s many dining options.  Check out http://www.harvardsquare.com/restaurants if you would like some ideas.

Hotel

We have negotiated a conference rate of $199 per night (with tax, that’s $228.28—it’s Boston…) at the Holiday Inn Boston–Brookline at 1200 Beacon Street in Brookline.  If you are driving, you can also park there for $34/night.  Please make your reservation by June 2 to ensure this rate.

Reservation’s #: 855-813-9839

Booking Code: MLA

Booking Link: New England Music Library Association

Transportation

Harvard’s transportation directions can be found at this page: http://www.harvard.edu/on-campus/visit-harvard/directions  Regardless of your mode of transportation, we recommend the use of public transit into Harvard Square itself, since parking is extremely limited.

The Lamont Library website is found here: http://library.harvard.edu/lam, with a link to a map showing its location.  The Loeb Music Library website is here: http://library.harvard.edu/mus, with a map as well.  Please note that we will gather in Lamont in the morning.

First-Time Attendees

If this is your first NEMLA meeting, we welcome you to apply for our First-Time Attendees Program. This grant covers registration, lunch, and travel expenses; both current members and non-members are eligible, so long as they have not attended a meeting before. The deadline to apply for funding through this program is May 20, 2016.  Please apply here: http://tinyurl.com/c8mjvz9.  Please note that funding is regrettably not available for all first-time attendees, but we do strive to accommodate as many as we can on a first come, first served basis.

Thursday Evening Dinner

All attendees are warmly invited to a group dinner at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 2, at Tanjore restaurant in Harvard Square.  If you are planning to come, please let Laura Stokes know by Tuesday, May 31 at the latest, so we can give the restaurant a headcount.

A huge, huge thank-you to Kerry Masteller, Sarah Adams, Marty Schreiner, Lynn Sayers, and the Harvard Library staff for hosting this meeting and contributing so much to the arrangements!

Noteworthy News

Holly Mockovak reports that Marci Cohen has joined Boston University as the Assistant Head of the Music Library, Mugar Memorial Library, replacing Sarah Hunter, who recently became BU’s Electronic Inventory Manager for the Libraries. Marci brings her knowledge of popular music, the music industry, and music journalism to the role, complementing the backgrounds of their staff. Within MLA, she’s currently the copyright web editor, a member of the Dena Epstein Award and Education Committees, and Coordinator of the Jazz and Popular Music Round Table. With co-author Grover Baker, her most recently published article is “Takin’ Care of Business: Music Business Reference” in Music Reference Services Quarterly 18/3-4 (2015), 157-163.

Sofía Becerra-Licha was accepted into the prestigious program: The Coalition to Advance Learning in Archives, Libraries and Museums. The Coalition began in 2013, and is supported by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with administration provided by OCLC.

The goal of the group is to work in deliberate coordination across organizational boundaries to devise and strengthen sustainable Continuing Education and Professional Development programs that will transform the library, archives, and museum workforce in ways that lead to measurable impact on our nation’s communities.

Amanda Axel joined Berklee College of Music as their Processing Archivist in April 2016. Prior to joining the Berklee staff, she served as Project Archivist for the Jonas Salk Papers at the University of California, San Diego, and Project Archivist at Northwestern University. A native of Illinois, Axel holds a Master’s of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Illinois and a joint BA in History and History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Erica Charis, Assistant Director, Assessment Programs & Planning Learning Resources at Berklee, was a member of an international committee that recently published its findings. The edX Library Working Group on Intellectual Property Materials in MOOCs talked with libraries across the country about current practices and thoughts on best practices regarding class materials for “massively open online courses” like those available on edX and Coursera. Erica was involved in those initial screenings and then was asked to remain on the project to pull together a final report of best practices for IP in MOOCs and recommendations  for further research, from a multi-media perspective.  If you are interested, you can read the report at https://lettheceleryrot.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/ipmaterials-final.pdf.

One final note – check out this interesting Yale News article about the Oral History of American Music archive.

NEMLA Officers

Chair:
Zoe Rath
Reference Librarian ILL Service
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
zrath at berklee dot edu
Phone: 617-747-8143

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
Laura Stokes
Performing Arts Librarian
Orwig Music Library
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
laura_stokes at brown.edu
Office: (401) 863-3999

Past Chair:
Kerry Carwile Masteller
Reference and Digital Program Librarian
Loeb Music Library
Music Building, North Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
kmastell at fas.harvard.edu
Office: (617) 495-2794
Fax: (617) 496-4636

Secretary-Treasurer:
Sharon Saunders
Bates College Library
48 Campus Ave
Lewiston, ME 04240
ssaunder at bates.edu
207-786-8327

Member-At-Large:
Christopher Schiff
Ladd Library
Research Services
Bates College
2 Andrews Road
Lewiston, ME 04240
cschiff at bates.edu
Office: (207) 786-6274

Newsletter Editor:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
Archivist/Records Manager
New England Conservatory
Spaulding Library
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu
(617) 585-1252

NEMLA Archivist:
Sofia Becerra-Licha
Archivist
Stan Getz Library
Berklee College of Music
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
sbecerralicha at berklee.edu
Office: (617)747-8001

Web Page Editor:
Sarah Hunter
Electronic Inventory Manager
Mugar Memorial Library
771 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
shunter at bu.edu
Office: (617)353-5810

 

Publication Information

New England Quarter Notes is published quarterly in September, December, March/April and June/July.

Back issues may be accessed from:
http://nemla.musiclibraryassoc.org/resources/newsletters/

Address all correspondence concerning editorial matters to:
Maryalice Perrin-Mohr
m.perrin-mohr at necmusic.edu

Inquiries concerning subscription, membership and change of address should be directed to:
Sharon Saunders
ssaunder at bates.edu

Membership year runs September to August.
Regular Personal Membership:$12.00
Student and Retired Membership:$6.00
Institutional Membership:$16.00
Return to the New England Music Library Association home page.