MUSIC LIBRARY
ANNUAL REPORT, 1 July 2002–30 June 2003
Prepared by: Richard Griscom, music librarian,
with assistance from
Richard Burbank, catalog coordinator,
William Buss, library technical assistant,
Esther Gillie, digital services coordinator, and
Marlys Scarbrough, operations manager
I. Narrative Summary of the Year's Activities
I.A. Core Processes
I.A.1. Services and Access
Staffing
The library is beginning FY2004 with 12.66 FTE staff, down 3.5 FTE from the beginning of FY2003, resulting from the loss of Leslie Troutman, frozen vacancies, and student-wage cuts.
Leslie Troutman. The Music Library suffered a tremendous loss this year with the death of Leslie Troutman, who, besides being an outstanding reference librarian, trusted colleague, and friend, served an invaluable role in library as mentor, cheerleader, and voice of calm whenever things seemed to be whirling out of control. The short of it is: without her the library is a very different place, and we have all done our best to cope with this profound loss, which we continue to feel on both personal and professional levels.
Digital services coordinator hired. Esther Gillie joined the staff on 21 August 2002 as digital services coordinator, a position that replaces the special collections coordinator position formerly held by Jean Geil.
LCII vacancy. In February 2003, Margo Robinson (.5 FTE) accepted a transfer to the Veterinary Medicine Library. Initially, the position was frozen because of the anticipated budget shortfall, then it was cut as a part of the budget reduction plan for FY2004. Because of the loss of the position, the library's new book shelf is no longer maintained. The other job responsibilities of the position have been assumed by the remaining clerical staff.
Hiring of LTA in Music Cataloging. In fall 2003, Burbank and Griscom conducted a search to fill the LTA vacancy that resulted from Paul Keith’s transfer to Rapid Cataloging in September 2001. Robin Hess was hired in December 2002 to fill the position, and her start date was set for March 2003 to coincide with the return of Burbank from a medical leave of absence.
Reduction in student wages. In June 2003, the Music Library was told to plan for an 80% reduction in student wages—a, a drop from $41,774 down to $8,000. In response to this cut, the Music Library laid off all but two student assistants, cut twenty-five hours per week from its summer hours, closed the second-floor service desk, and staffed the first-floor service desk with full-time staff, including librarians. In July, the student-wage figure for FY2004 was increased to $20,000, which was still less than half the previous year’s figure, so plans proceeded to shut down the second-floor service desk permanently and to transfer heavily used materials (CDs, videos, and reserve materials) to the first floor. The library also received permission to reduce hours of service for the new academic year.
Administration
Temporary assignment of music librarian to Slavic and East European Library. On 21 August 2002, Griscom ended his temporary assignment as interim head of the Slavic and East European Library. During the period from April 2002 to August 2002, he had served half time in Slavic and half time in Music.
Music cataloging
All materials in backlog represented in online catalog. In spring 2003, the Music Cataloging department began transferring records from OCLC into Voyager for materials in the backlog. (Approximately 10 percent of the backlog materials were not represented in OCLC, and short records were created for these.) In fall 2003, routine cataloging activities were suspended so that the staff could focus on the completion of this project, and by Thanksgiving all materials currently held in the backlog were represented in Voyager. To our knowledge, the Music Library is the only library in the system that has its entire backlog accessible through Voyager. Work on this project is ongoing; after Thanksgiving, graduate students searched newly acquired materials against OCLC and transferred records when available and created short records for the remainder.
Accommodated a medical leave in the department. Richard Burbank, the cataloging coordinator, was on a medical leave during the last half of December 2002 and the months of January and February 2003. During this period, Griscom assumed responsibility for supervising the department.
Special collections
Database of King LPs. The library’s graduate assistants completed their work on a Microsoft Access database of the 15,000 LP recordings in the Lawrence King collection, which are housed in the basement of the University Press building. At this point, the database needs to be edited and mounted on the library’s webpage.
Russian Folk Music Collection. Marlen Vavrikova was hired this year to work on the Russian Folk Music Collection. She processed materials from the Shenkman Collection and placed them in acid-free folders and boxes, resolved lingering problems with individual items that were leftover from Tammy Livingston’s work on the collection, and added index entries for several song collections to an MS-Access database.
Preservation
Jean Cutler documentary on Harry Partch. In 1996, the Music Library acquired several dozen reels of 16mm film shot by Jean Cutler (M.M., Ph.D., theater, UIUC) in the late 1960s in
preparation for a planned documentary on the work of Partch. Although Cutler prepared a fairly detailed shot list for the documentary, production of the film was never completed. Through the years, this footage has become legendary among Partch scholars, and the library has received a number of requests to see the film. The Cutler films provide unique visual documentation of Partch’s instruments in performance, which is why they are of such great interest to scholars.
Griscom received $4,000 in funding from the NEH Challenge Grant competition to transfer a significant portion of the film footage to preservation-quality videotape, which then can be used as the basis of editing a version of the final documentary based on Cutler's shot lists. Griscom sent eight tins of reels and clips to Summit Film Labs in Pittsburgh, Penn., in late July 2003.
School of Music archival discs. Esther Gillie supervised Verletta Kern's work on cleaning, rejacketing, and boxing two hundred transcription discs of concerts and recitals recorded by the School of Music.
Endowment fund. In May, the library received a bequest that will be used to establish a preservation endowment fund for the Music Library.
Electronic resources
Print reserves. In fall 2002, Gillie worked with Mary Laskowski (Undergraduate Library) to provide electronic print reserves for six School of Music classes. This new service complements to our existing audio reserves service.
Redesign of the Music Library’s webpage. In fall 2002, Gillie supervised a review of the library’s web site, and as a result revised the homepage to make its layout clearer and more usable. In spring 2003, Verletta Kern and Diana Eynon completely revised the library’s Special Collections pages as a part of a GSLIS assignment.
I.A.2. Collection Development
Budget
For fiscal year 2002/2003, the library received a $2,155 (1.5%) increase to its budget, which totaled $143,456. This amount was distributed and expended as follows:
Budgeted Expended
Music dissertations $1,100 492
Music media 15,000 14,566
Scores (Harrassowitz approval plan) 6,000 10,697
Scores (Pepper approval plan) 6,000 4,633
Scores (firm orders) 41,426 41,054
Books 27,392 32,010
Monographic continuations 20,500 23.211
Continuations 10,000 13,735
Periodicals 16,038 17,030
TOTAL 143,456 157,427
Friends Supplementary Fund. Griscom’s request for the microfilm set Italian Music Manuscripts, c. 1640–c. 1820. Section A: Music Manuscripts, c. 1640–c. 1720 ($4968) was funded.
Notable acquisitions
Research files on American tunebooks from Jim Hall of Antioch University.
Nineteenth-century American song books from William Brooks
Four hundred pieces of organ music from Joan L. Gray and Robert E. Gray
Printed music from the library of John Garvey
Two hundred pieces of printed music from Judy Rodgers Johnson
Books, periodicals, and LPs from the library of Bruno Nettl
Books from the library of Alex Murray
Reassignment of collection development responsibilities. In May 2003, Burbank and Griscom assumed responsibility for Troutman’s collection development responsibilities. Burbank began building the sound-recording collection, and Griscom began selecting video materials and monitoring the library’s DVD approval plan.
I.A.3. Support/Ancillary Activities
Instruction of music librarianship students. The professional staff provided instruction and supervision for Verletta Kern’s practicum in music librarianship in spring 2003. Griscom supervised Ben Knysak’s and Diana Eynon’s practica on metadata construction for the Variations 2 project in the summer.
Cooperation with Indiana University music librarianship program. On 14 April 2003, Mary Davidson, head of the music library at Indiana University, brought six music librarianship students to Urbana. Our professional staff described how we organize work in our library, and Don Krummel lectured on American music printing.
I.B. Training and Staff Development
Circulation student orientation/training sessions. Scarbrough conducted training sessions for new and returning students in the fall and spring semesters.
Reference graduate assistants. Troutman trained graduate assistants Diana Eynon, John Seguin, Ben Knysak, Neil Pereira, and Verletta Kern for service at the Information Desk.
I.C. Innovative Ideas, New Initiatives and Successful/Failed Examples
Variations 2 Project satellite site. In 1998, Indiana University invited the School of Music to serve as a satellite site for the next phase of its digital music library project (“Variations 2”) as part of a three-million-dollar grant funded by the National Science Foundation. Indiana’s initial work on the project took longer than anticipated, so our participation was delayed until early 2003. Staff from Indiana made a site visit on 12 March 2003 to install Variations client software on computers in the Music Library and the School of Music and to provide training.
During the course of subsequent discussions with Mary Davidson, head of the Indiana University Music Library, Griscom suggested the possibility of graduate students at Illinois providing assistance with the creation of metadata for sound recordings in the Variations 2 project. Griscom, Ben Knysak, and Diana Eynon visited Indiana on 5–6 June for Variations 2 metadata training, and in June and July, Knysak and Eynon each contributed 100 hours to cataloging for the project as part of a GSLIS practicum. Their work on Variations 2 allowed Indiana to work through some problems with the client software and allowed them to see how metadata cataloging on the system functions in a remote setting. Knysak and Eynon both gained invaluable experience creating metadata for this state-of-the-art digital library project.
II. Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment Activities
Stacks preservation assessment for the score collection. Gillie worked with Tom Teper on creating an instrument to measure the condition and use of both the score and book collections in the Music Library. After testing and refining the tool, Gillie identified a sample population, the library’s graduate assistants (Diana Eynon, Ben Knysak, and Neil Pereria) recorded data on the sample, and Gillie collected the data in an MS-Access database. The results will assist the library in selecting materials for offsite storage as well as for deacidification treatment and replacement. The next steps in the project, including a sample of books and recordings, and a piece-by-piece assessment of special collections, have been postponed due to budget cuts.
VI. Goals and Planning
VI.A. Last Year's Plans
Staffing
Fill the LTS vacancy in Music Cataloging. The position was recast as an LTA position and filled in March 2003 through the appointment of Robin Hess.
Staffing for audio encoding. The $2,000 to cover student wages for encoding was not provided.
Make more efficient use of the library’s clerical employees. The library did not receive an increase in student wages.
Staff development
Reference refresher sessions. Troutman held a few meetings of the reference staff, but because of her illness and our subsequent problems with staff coverage, these were discontinued.
Training sessions for cataloging staff. Burbank began a series of continuing-education sessions with the cataloging staff.
Circulation
Revision of circulation manuals. No progress on this goal; carry over to FY04.
Shift and weed music stacks. The latter part of the music stacks were shifted, and some materials were weeded.
Review items in the collection that are no longer represented in the catalog. No progress on this goal.
Cleanup related to the OCLC card project. Some progress; carry over to FY04.
Investigate the possibility of transferring part of the cassette-recording collection to the Oak Street Facility. Not pursued, primarily because construction of the facility has fallen behind schedule. We still intend the cassette collection to be our top priority for transfer to the facility once it has opened.
Cataloging
Add records to Voyager for materials in the backlog. By the end of November 2002, all materials currently held in the backlog were represented on Voyager, either by full bibliographic records taken from OCLC or short records created by the cataloging staff.
Special Collections
Shift and weed Special Collections stacks. No progress.
Resume processing of sheet music. Scarbrough decided that the existing database should be proofread before processing resumes, so that has been the focus of work during the past year.
Collection Development
Compare compact disc holdings to “A Basic Music Library.” No progress on this goal.
Replace LPs on reserve with compact discs. No progress on this goal; carry over to FY04.
Replacement procedures document. No progress.
Information delivery
Begin providing web-based access to print reserves. Completed.
Investigate the possibility of providing listening workstations in the Music Library. Not pursued due to budget constraints.
Mount choral reference file database on the web. Gillie corresponded with Aart Olsen about the database, and some issues of consistency of data across individual fields in the database are a concern. The database might require cleanup before it is mounted.
User instruction/Reference
Revised handouts on searching the public catalog. Online guides were updated, but no progress on the printed handouts; carry over to FY04.
Real-time reference. Not pursued because of Troutman’s illness.
Public information
Evaluate and make revisions to the library's website. Completed.
Physical plant
Review and revise the disaster-preparedness plan. Not pursued because Griscom learned from Tom Teper that a revised library-wide document is being prepared.
Secure area in Special Collections. No progress, but now nearly a moot point, because the removal of the CDs and reserves from Special Collections and the closure of the service desk make the area more secure. The area, however, is still in need of climate control.
Carpeting and signage. Bart Clark noted in August 2003 that the carpet should be replaced this year. Signage not pursued.
VI.B. Next Year's Plans and Goals
Facilities
Eliminate second-floor service point. In July 2003, the staff decided that the best way to accommodate the 50% reduction in the Music Library’s student-wage budget would be to consolidate the library’s two service points by closing the second-floor service desk and handling all public services transactions on the first floor. In order for this change to succeed, heavily used materials behind the second-floor desk had to be transferred downstairs in order to eliminate the need for continual trips upstairs to retrieve materials.
Griscom and Scarbrough worked with Bart Clark and Matt Emmert on a plan to transfer the library’s compact disc and reserve collections downstairs, exchanging places with the library’s LP collection, which moved upstairs. The move involved not only the transfer of thousands of shelf feet of materials but the exchange of ranges of shelving to accommodate the smaller size of compact discs and the increased size (and weight) of LPs. During the first week following the end of Summer Session II, the library was closed in the morning so that the staff could (1) transfer the compact disc collection to temporary shelving erected by Emmert’s crew, (2) relocate the reserve collections to shelving behind the first-floor circulation desk, (3) relocate nearly the entire LP collection to the reserve shelving on the second floor as well as other pockets of free shelving throughout the library, and (4) remove the shelves in preparation for the university’s metal workers to transfer the framework. This work was completed by Chris Pawlicki, David Butler, Pat Lee, Gail Schmall, Scarbrough, and Griscom. The metal workers moved the framework for two ranges of CD shelving, which displaced one range of LP shelving downstairs. The range of LP shelving was relocated upstairs in the former location of the CD shelving, and the remaining two ranges of LP shelving downstairs were shifted to accommodate the two ranges of CD shelving. The new configuration was in place by the start of fall 2003 classes.
Public services
Revise handouts. Because of the transformation of the library's physical space, many of the library's handouts need to be revised.
Real-time reference. In spring 2004, Gillie will work with Kathleen Kern on integrating the Music Library into the University Library’s real-time reference project.
Circulation
Revise circulation manuals. Scarbrough will continue revising the series of circulation manuals. Many changes are necessary as a result of the migration to Voyager.
Plan for future space needs. The Music Library still has sufficient shelving space to accommodate at least five years of growth, but now is the time to start planning for freeing up space in the library for long-term growth. Library volunteers have identified hundreds of LPs that are suitable for transfer to the storage facility, and the library’s cassette collection can be transferred in its entirety. The library will work on establishing criteria for identifying other materials in the collection that can be weeded or transferred to offsite storage.
OCLC card project. Two years ago, Scarbrough supervised students in a project to weed OCLC cards from the card catalog. The students have been searching the cards against Voyager and discovering that some have fallen off the database. Scarbrough will continue to supervise followup work to confirm that the items are in the collection, and replacement bibliographic records will be created by Music Cataloging staff as needed.
Music Cataloging
Continue to create Voyager records for all materials upon receipt. This will remain a top priority for the department. By continuing to create records for all materials as they are received, our selectors will avoid placing duplicate orders, and by making backlog materials accessible through our online catalog, we can allow patron requests to help establish cataloging priorities.
Add microfilm and dissertation backlog to Voyager. The library’s backlog of unprocessed microfilm, dissertations, and other materials should be represented in the Voyager database, if only by short bibliographic records.
Preservation
Complete the stacks preservation assessment. In FY2003, Gillie planned and supervised a preservation assessment for the printed music collection (see above). Once the examination of individual items has been completed, Gillie will analyze the data. From this study, we will be able to determine what percentage of our collection is acidic and how heavily it is used. The results will allow the library to set priorities for deacidification and other forms of preservation.
Digitization of sheet music. Tom Teper has invited the library to participate in a sheet-music digitization project that will become a part of the Open Archive Initiative.
Complete the rejacketing project. There are many School of Music transcription discs left over from Verletta Kern’s work this spring. Gillie will order more supplies, and graduate students can complete the work this year.
Special Collections
Sheet music. Continue proofreading the existing sheet-music database, and begin processing recent receipts.
Mount Kasura finding aid on the web. Last year, we discovered the word-processing files for the Kasura catalog that had been prepared in the mid-1990s. It would be a useful resource to have available on through the library’s webpage.
Collection Development
Purchase compact discs to replace LPs on reserve. A fairly large number of LP recordings are still used for class reserves. We will search for compact-disc reissues of these titles (or the repertory contained on them) and purchase them so that the LPs can be retired.