Spring Meeting: Program and details (March 28, 2014)

Spring Meeting 2014

Meeting will be held on Friday, March 28 in the Center for Digital Scholarship, Rockefeller Library (10 Prospect St.), Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. For more details please see our current issue of our February issue of NEQN.

Registration

Advance registration is now open for the spring meeting of the New England chapter of the Music Library Association (NEMLA). The meeting will take place at Brown University, Providence, RI, on Friday, March 28th, 2014. If you plan to join us, please complete and submit the registration form by Friday, March 21st.

Program

Thursday, March 27, 2014

6:30pm Dinner, Trinity Brewhouse

Friday, March 28, 2014

Center for Digital Scholarship, Rockefeller Library (10 Prospect St.)

9:00 – 10:00 Registration, coffee & light refreshments

10:00 – 10:20 Greetings and Announcements

10:30 – 11:30 Morning Session

OMEKA: Online Exhibits for Music Librarians

Jean Bauer, Digital Humanities Librarian, Brown University
Elli Mylonas, Senior Digital Humanities Librarian, Brown University

11:30 – 12:30 Library Tour: Orwig Music Library

12:30 – 2:00 Lunch (on your own)
Here are some suggestions from UrbanSpoon for restaurants near Brown University.

2:00 – 3:00 Business Meeting

3:00 – 4:00 Afternoon Session

Preserving Unique Films in the Benny Goodman Collection

Remi Castonguay, Public Services Project Librarian, Gilmore Music Library, Yale University
Francesca Livermore, Arts-Area Digital Librarian, Haas Family Arts Library, Yale University
The Music Never Stopped: The Grateful Dead at Wesleyan

Alec McLane, Music Librarian/Director of the World Music Archives, Wesleyan University

4:00 – 5:00 Reception

Presentation Descriptions

OMEKA: Online Exhibits for Music Librarians

Jean Bauer, Digital Humanities Librarian, Brown University
Elli Mylonas, Senior Digital Humanities Librarian, Brown University 
A short, hands-on introduction to the OMEKA.net, which is a freely available software package for creating online, professional quality exhibits. Special focus given to the handling of visual materials like scores, audio, and video clips. PLEASE NOTE: If you would like to follow along with the presentation on a laptop or similar, you are encouraged to bring one along; please also go to http://omeka.net and create a free login account ahead of time. 

Preserving Unique Films in the Benny Goodman Collection

Remi Castonguay, Public Services Project Librarian, Gilmore Music Library, Yale University
Francesca Livermore, Arts-Area Digital Librarian, Haas Family Arts Library, Yale University 
From beta and VHS tapes to LPs, 78s, CDs, reel-to-reel audio, films, and 2 inch quads, academic music libraries often end up as the repositories for the strangest and most complex kinds of media. The Yale Gilmore Library is no exception in that regards. This presentation will provide an overview of a film preservation project focusing on materials in the Benny Goodman archive. 
Films in this collection focus on an interesting aspect of Goodman’s career, his role as an American cultural ambassador in the 50s and 60s. In the mid-20th century, as Penny Von Eschen presents it in her book on jazz diplomacy, the “U.S. State Department unleashed an unexpected tool in its battle against Communism: jazz. From 1956 through the late 1970s, America dispatched its finest jazz musicians to the far corners of the earth, from Iraq to India, from the Congo to the Soviet Union, in order to win the hearts and minds of the Third World and to counter perceptions of American racism.”
This presentation will introduce the collection content areas and their significance to jazz history. We will also talk about the particular complexities of film as a medium and how its varied nature impacts long-term preservation decisions. Finally, we will take you through the intricacies of this grant-funded project in the hopes of providing experience-based advice and planning tips that could save you painful regrets! 

The Music Never Stopped: The Grateful Dead at Wesleyan

Alec McLane, Music Librarian/Director of the World Music Archives, Wesleyan University 
On May 3, 1970 the Grateful Dead played at Wesleyan University on an East Coast tour that included many other campus venues. This came at a politically-charged period in American History, just a few days after the U.S. invasion of Cambodia that sparked significant campus unrest, leading to the killing of 4 students at Kent State University on May 4, and also in the midst of the New Haven trials of several members of the Black Panther Party. At Wesleyan, a couple of faculty-organized projects led students to make audio and video recordings of the event, of which some versions still remain. Parts of the existing audio recording have been widely circulated, and in Deadhead circles it has been affectionally dubbed “one of the worst AUDs [audience recordings] ever.” The video has not yet been made public. Despite the availability of the recordings, documenting the “documenters” themselves has been a challenge, and several questions surround the circumstances and extent of the actual projects to make the recordings. I will pursue a trail of evidence that led to the gathering and preservation of the recordings, drawing on invaluable assistance from the wider community of Deadheads. The overall picture reveals much about not only the social environment of the time but also the campus community that sought to organize and document such an event, and demonstrates the continued usefulness of archives in piecing together social history. 

Transportation and Parking

Parking At Brown

There are 55 parking spaces in the visitor lot on Brook Street behind Minden Hall (Map), which can be accessed as early as 7:00 am. The $15.00 rate allows a guest to park all day. The guest must purchase a visitor parking permit via one of the two pay station machines located in the visitor parking lot at the time of the visit. Credit, debit, and cash are all accepted. Please see Brown University Driving Directions & Parking for more information.

Street parking is also possible, but with a number of cautions. Please observe signs carefully. Nearly every spot near the Rockefeller Library is a two- or three-hour spot, which means that every two or three hours you must move your car to a different block. In addition, many of these are metered spots, but you would still (nonetheless) need to move your car on schedule. Some spots are marked as Brown-owned and may be open for cars without Brown permits after noon, but still must be moved on a regular schedule.

There are a few streets right around the Orwig Music Library that have all-day free parking, including Young Orchard Ave. and parts of Cooke St.; they are conspicuous by the lack of signage stating otherwise. Although it will be spring break and thus there are fewer people parking, those who are planning on using street parking are advised to arrive early in the day.

Visitors with mobility concerns:

Any NEMLA attendees who require a handicapped parking pass for campus are asked to get in touch with Laura Stokes (laura_stokes@brown.edu) so we can make arrangements for the necessary placard for Brown handicapped spaces. Brown’s Student & Employee Accessibility Services (SEAS) runs a shuttle that will take people (up to eight riders, or four riders and two wheelchairs) from point-to-point on the Brown campus. The number for the SEAS shuttle is 401-225-9572; Laura will also need to make SEAS aware of it a few days ahead of time if a number of people think they will need rides, so please be in touch.

MBTA commuter rail

The two main means of transportation from the Providence commuter rail station are to walk or take a taxi. The walk is short (.7 miles) but involves a climb up a very steep hill (College Hill). Wear comfortable shoes!

Walking Directions from Providence Train Station to Rockefeller Library (map)

It is usually fairly easy to get a taxi from the Providence train station, but here are the numbers for a few local companies:

  • American Cab (401) 487-2111
  • Checker Cab (401) 944-2000
  • Economy Cab (401) 944-6700

Lodging

We have made arrangements with the Hampton Inn & Suites for a discounted room block at $119/night (plus tax) on the nights of March 27th and March 28th. The rate includes complimentary breakfast, but does not include parking. The Hampton Inn is located in downtown Providence, approximately a 10 minute walk from campus.

Your reservations must be made by March 7th to receive this rate! Mention NEMLA when you call to make your reservation.

Parking and Transportation from the hotel: The Hampton has a shuttle that goes to the Providence train station; you will need to call the hotel before you arrive in order to arrange it. The Hampton is also about a 10-15 minute walk from the train station, and there are usually a few taxis waiting just outside the station.

As for parking at the hotel, visitors are warned that parking overnight on the street in Providence without an overnight parking permit is not permitted and will likely land them a ticket. The Hampton has an affiliated lot that works on a valet system at $25.

Although there are self-park lots nearby, none of them are overnight. So the Hampton lot may be your best bet. Park Downtown Providence also maintains a complete list of parking lots in the area.

Restaurants Near Campus

Here’s an Urban Spoon guide to the local arrangements committee’s favorite lunch spots near campus, with a few notes for each restaurant (particularly with regard to vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free options): Urban Spoon: NEMLA@Brown

Things To Do In Providence

Thanks to Sheila Hogg, here’s a list of events and attractions in Providence on March 27-29: Providence Local Attractions