- Joan Flintoff LoPear on state-of-the-art music cataloging
- Leslie Andersen with a virtual peek at CSULB's amazing Spidell electronic classroom
- Dan Del Fiorentino on the International Music Products Association's Oral History Project (did you know they recently completed their 125th interview?)
- Stephen Davison and Gordon Theil, fresh from IAML, with highlights of their presentation on the Digital Archive of Popular American Music and Frontera-Strachwitz collection at UCLA.
- A tour of the Long Beach Public Library
September 2002 Number 77
Note: The online and printed editions of this newsletter may differ in content.
IN THIS ISSUE
MLA/SCC ANNUAL MEETING ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11
Plan now to attend the annual meeting of the MLA/SCC on October 11 at Long Beach Public Library. Both an Executive Board meeting and the annual MLA/SCC Business meeting are scheduled.Afternoon program highlights include:
Join your colleagues for a delightful day in Long Beach, enjoy dinner with a Long Beach Symphony Orchestra musician at a restaurant on trendy Pine Street, and sit in on an opening night evening rehearsal of the Symphony with their vibrant new Music Director, Maestro Enrique Arturo Diemecke! $25.00 includes our meeting, dinner & parking (members only rate).Fill out the registration form and send it to Marion Scichilone by Tuesday, October 8th to take part in this not-to-be-missed day of musical activities.
Don't forget to take advantage of the opportunity to pay your MLA /SCC dues for 2002-2003 at the same time-write one check, enjoy the day and rest easy for the next year knowing that you're a member of our outstanding organization.
I look forward to seeing all of you at Long Beach Public Library in October!
Carol Dales
Cal State Dominguez Hills, University Library
GREETINGS FROM OUR NEW CHAIR
So, this is how it feels to be a Chair!Let me express my sincere appreciation to our membership in placing confidence in me in this role. After reviewing our Chapter's rich history (going back to 1941) and the impressive list of leaders who served before me, I do feel humbled. A special note of thanks is extended to Kevin McLaughlin for making it look easy and to the entire Executive Board who makes it easy! I do feel honored to be a part of this group.
The MLA/SCC has been working hard in recent years to provide more than simple "networking" opportunities for our membership. A focus on expanding education and technological advances in the field of artifact preservation and digital archiving are two such areas addressed in recent conferences and meetings. Thinking outside the box has become the job of music librarians within their institutions, and the more we are being looked to for leadership and recommendations in technological advances, the more we need to rely on our tools as librarians to meet these needs. Our hope is that this Chapter can serve as one of those vital tools for you.
This is a challenge for our Chapter of course, but it is one we are facing head on. For example, at our Fall Meeting in Long Beach, two sessions will address librarians' roles in digital archiving and in the creation of new projects that preserve our musical past, such as an Oral History program.
My thanks to all of you for your continued support of our Chapter, and I do hope to see you on October 11 in Long Beach!
Dan Del Fiorentino, NAMM-International Music Products Association
GREETINGS FROM OUR PAST CHAIR
I'm back now, but still decompressing from my month of truly amazing adventures in Europe for three-and-a-half weeks in August. Gallivanting for a week in Romania was a particular highlight - the view from the Carpathian Mountains is dazzling! In addition to hiking to 2,500 meters near Bran (home to the Count's famous castle), I made stops in Sighisoara, Brasov, and Cluj-Napoca. While in Cluj I had the opportunity to take a guided tour of three Romanian libraries (and what librarian could resist this urge?), including the Music Conservatory library.Computerized cataloging is still nascent in Romania - only the larger universities (like Babes-Bolyai) seem to have made this step and most everything at this Conservatory, including scores, books, and recordings, is kept track of on cards. Still, with four or five full time staff, each specializing in one aspect of the collection, the library is very well organized and efficiently run. I was especially fascinated by the standard practice of copying materials, including contemporary scores, parts and CDs for placement on the shelves and open circulation (my translator got a nice chuckle out of my hosts when relaying my question about "copyright restrictions"!).
Well, it is nice to be back and very nice to see the Chapter in such capable hands. I look forward to the new era with Dan Del Fiorentino as our new Chair.
See you all in Long Beach on October 11!
Kevin McLaughlin, California Institute of the Arts
IT'S MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME
Please remember to renew your MLA/SCC Chapter membership for 2002-2003. Dues are still an unbelievably low $10--or less, depending on your category of membership--and you'll be ensuring that you receive Chapter news from September 2002 through August 2003. Also, please take advantage of this opportunity to indicate your interest in participating in Chapter activities!Please note-if you're attending the Annual Meeting on October 11th, simply include your dues in the check you write for your meeting registration.
MEMBER NEWS "Managing Music for Non-Music Librarians" was the name of the program that Jeff Schwartz, Kevin McLaughlin, and I presented last November (2001) at the California Library Association Conference. Our exciting title attracted about thirty public librarians! Jeff and I, with the aid of PowerPoint presentations and handouts, talked about acquiring a music vocabulary, choosing appropriate reviewing and ordering sources, and becoming familiar with the best print and electronic sources to answer music-related reference questions. I concentrated on classical music, and Jeff served as the popular music maven. Kevin, who kindly joined us for this CLA Conference Planning Committee-sponsored program, spoke about enrichment opportunities, namely our Chapter and how much we would welcome new members interested in music librarianship.
Although I felt that the audience at this nine o'clock Sunday morning program was a bit sleepy, the oral and written feedback was excellent, for which we were very happy. Next time, because there were several questions about cataloging, we would like to take a cataloger along. Any volunteers?
- Nanette Schneir
Here's a communiqué from our Vice Chair / Chair Elect, Vic Cardell:
In late October 2001, I started work at San Diego Public Library, my first job as a public librarian. I select music scores, and books about theater and film, decorative arts, and sports. I'm having lots of fun with the new subject responsibilities.My review of 14 sheet music databases on the Web was published in Notes, v.58, n.4 (June 2002), pp. 889-900.
During vacation in Santa Fe in late July, I saw the North American premiere of Kaija Saariaho's moving opera L'Amour de loin, starring Dawn Upshaw. The performance was stellar. The production by Peter Sellars included a stage covered in water, two spiral staircases that extended from the orchestra pit to the top of the theater, and some very creative lighting. At the end of the opera, Upshaw sang while lying flat on her back in the water. Just before curtain call, she was given a towel and donned a terrycloth bathrobe. The principals all came sloshing through the water for their curtain call, except for the composer, who accepted her applause from the front of the audience.
Let's give a warm welcome to new member Cherice Hall! She's beginning her MLIS this semester through San Jose State's Distance Education program. Cherice has been director of Instructional Materials in the Music Department of California State University, Northridge since 1995, and completed her master's degree in vocal performance there in 2000. A member of the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, she sings at 2 churches and teaches beginning piano and voice in her spare (?) time.
New member Liza Vick is the new Research Librarian for Music and Dance at University of California-Irvine. She started in February 2002 and her responsibilities include bibliographic instruction, collection development, and reference. She previously worked on music-related American Memory projects at the Library of Congress and is happy to be a new member of the MLA Southern California Chapter.
Louise Spear, on leave from the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, is working as Project Manager for Archiving and Preservation at the GRAMMY Foundation, a non-profit arm of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. She will be planning preservation priorities and designing a GRAMMY Archives--either at the Recording Academy headquarters in Santa Monica or in cyberspace. Did you spot her sitting in the balcony on the Latin GRAMMY Awards telecast?
HAPPENINGS SPECIAL EXHIBIT: THE ART OF SURFING
September 2 through November 30: Surf guitar-god, Dick Dale: October 8th! The Arts Libraries at UCSD presents a special exhibit in the Geisel Library of surfing-related items: CDs of current surf guitar bands and LP album covers of past surf guitar bands, colorful topographical maps of surfing sites, historic books about Hawaiian surfers, and surfing movie posters. Classic surfing movies will be shown in an informal festival. Surf guitar-god Dick Dale will speak at a special event on Tuesday evening, October 8. All events associated with this exhibit are free. Exhibit hours (library hours) are listed at: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/services/hours.html. For more information, please call the Music Library at (858) 534-8074. This exhibit is partially funded by the American Library Association.
Kenneth Calkins, Music Librarian, UCSD
voice: (858) 534-1267 / fax: (858) 534-0189
From the MLA Listserv- It is with great sadness that I report that Tanjore Viswanathan, legendary singer and South Indian flute player, died early this morning (September 10, 2002) of a heart attack. I know that in the course of his roughly 45 years as an active musician in the US, studying with Mantle Hood at UCLA, teaching at Cal Arts, and eventually settling at Wesleyan, some of you have encountered him and his music. Viswa was a member of one of the great musical families of South India, and he survived his brother Ranganathan, who played the mrdangam, as well as his sister Balasaraswati, one of India's greatest dancers, both of whom served on the Wesleyan faculty as well. He had been declared a national treasure by the government of India.His American students have been devoted, and far too numerous to list. Among the best known was the late Jon Higgins, who became well known in India as an accomplished singer of South Indian classical music - the only American to ever achieve such distinction. One former student in particular followed him from Cal Arts to Wesleyan and became his wife, Jody Cormack Viswanathan. She has been instrumental in the creation of the World Music Archives at Wesleyan, where Viswa's own collections of recordings are housed.
Alec McLane
Scores & Recordings / World Music Archives
Olin Library, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459
ANNUAL MEETING
Long Beach Public Library
Friday, October 11, 2002
11:30 am MLA/SCC Executive Board meeting 1:00 pm PROGRAM
Music Cataloging in the New Millenium
Joan Flintoff LoPear, Music Catalog Librarian, Young Research Library, UCLA
Spidell Electronic Classroom
Leslie Andersen, Arts Librarian, CSULB
Music Oral History Project
Dan Del Fiorentino, Resource Center Librarian, National Association of Music Merchants
The Songs of Long Ago: Building a Digital Archive of Sheet Music and Audio
Gordon Theil, Head, and Stephen Davison, Music Librarian for Special Collections, Music Library, UCLA4:15 pm Tour of the Long Beach Public Library 5:30 pm Dinner at a downtown Long Beach Restaurant
A musician from the LBS has been invited to join us!8:00 pm-10:30 pm Long Beach Symphony
Evening Rehearsal at the Terrace Theater
Conductor: Enrique Arturo Diemecke
Walton - Crown Imperial
Diemecke - Camino y Vision
Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2REGISTER today!
DIRECTIONS AND PARKINGTravel south on the 710 Freeway towards Long Beach. Take the Broadway exit, then refer to the location of the Parking Structure on the map below.
The restaurant for dinner will be on Pine Avenue, within a few blocks of both the LBPL and the Terrace Theater.
HOTEL INFORMATIONVisit the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau website for a list of nearby hotels and motels, including rates.
Make sure to click on the "Attractions" button for information on activities and interesting places to visit in Long Beach, including the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Queen Mary, cruises to Catalina Island, the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden at CSULB, and more!
MLA/SCC Executive Board
Chair: Dan Del Fiorentino, NAMM-International Music Products Association
Vice Chair/Chair Elect: Vic Cardell, San Diego Public Library
Secretary/Treasurer: Joan Flintoff LoPear, UCLA Young Research Library
Members-At-Large: Don Brown, El Camino College
Liza Vick, UC-Irvine
Past Chair: Kevin McLaughlin, California Institute of the Arts
MLA/SCC Newsletter, No. 77, September 2002
Editor: E. Carol DalesThe MLA/SCC Newsletter is published twice yearly. Please send communications to: E. Carol Dales, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Library, 800 E. Victoria Street, Carson, CA, 90747-0005; e-mail: cdales@csudh.edu; phone: 310-243-2088; fax: 310-516-4219
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Music Library Association, Southern California Chapter