Oral History Committee Annual Report 2022
submitted by Sara Wallace
Current Roster
- Sara Wallace, Senior Chair (2023)
- Catherine Hammer, Junior Chair (2025)
- Robert S. DeLand, Committee Member (2022)
- Karen Olson, Committee Member (2025)
- Nurhak Tuncer-Bayramli, Committee Member (2025)
- Katherine DeFonzo, Committee Member (2025)
- Jacey Kepich, Committee Member (2025)
- Christina Taylor Gibson, Ex-officio member (2025)
- Therese Dickman, Committee Member (2026)
List of Previous Goals and Progress Made
- Participate in and contribute to Oral History interviews of past MLA presidents and other important MLA officers.
- Interview conducted of former MLA President James Cassaro by Deborah Campana (11/17/2021), with transcription in progress.
- Interview in progress of former MLA President Jerry McBride.
- Support an increase in depth of diverse talent of all ages and levels within the MLA Oral History Committee through recruitment, mentorship opportunities, and goal-setting check-ins/meetings.
- Therese Dickman (Past Chair, 2017-2021) has been re-appointed to the Oral History Committee.
- Co-Chairs Sara Wallace and Catherine Hammer met over Zoom on the evening of Monday, August 1, 2022, for an MLA Oral History Committee Meeting in preparation for Catherine Hammer’s leadership transition from Junior and Senior Chair, to discuss the upcoming interview of Jerry McBride by a fellow music librarian, Pat Fisken, to discuss mailing of the recording device by Rob DeLand for use during the interview, and to work together on details of the Annual Report.
- Oral History Committee held a meeting over Zoom on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, with the following current members present: Sara Wallace, Therese Dickman, Catherine Hammer, and Jacey Kepich, along with Sam Boss (potential new committee member). We discussed plans for future interviews, the MLA website migration, and web presence. Jacey Kepich took notes and shared the meeting minutes.
- Oral History Committee members were encouraged to participate in the Implicit Bias Testing Reporting activity to increase our awareness of implicit bias, as well as improve our understanding during interactions with each other as we work to increase diversity and promote inclusion within the Oral History Committee and the Music Library Association.
- The full MLA Oral History Committee plans to meet again this fall to continue to plan for the year.
- Work with additional committees within the MLA to increase value of work and creativity through collaboration.
- Ongoing work on a blog through past member Ellwood “Woody” Colahan (2017-2021) for the Oral History Committee to expand visibility and access to information pertaining to activities of the committee.
- Continuing to develop ideas for Oral History-related articles for the MLA Newsletter. For a past example, consult Part I of former MLA president Michael Colby’s interview conducted and transcribed by Marci Cohen, (edited by T. Dickman) appeared in the MLA Newsletter, issue 210. See
https://wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/mla-newsletter-issue-210/ The concluding Part II of Michael Colby’s interview article was published in the forthcoming issue 211: https://wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/mla-newsletter-issue-211/
List of Future Goals
- To increase ease of access to MLA Oral History Committee interviews by promoting work related to Oral History materials for all types of MLA members throughout the national organization.
- ALIGNMENT WITH MLA STRATEGIC PLAN OBJECTIVES: “Goal Area 3: Cultivate Inclusivity – Goal Statement: Build, maintain, and engage a diverse and inclusive membership. Objective 3.5: Prioritize accessibility at all MLA events, in-person and virtual, and in all MLA virtual spaces” and “Goal Area 4: Strengthen Communication – Goal Statement: Refine and improve intraorganizational and external communications.”
- Continue to work with the MLA Newsletter to tell interesting stories from the history of the MLA.
- Possibly create blog articles related to transcribed Oral History Committee interviews.
- Seek out ways for new MLA members and interviewees, especially from underrepresented groups and other MLA committees, to connect with the Oral History Committee.
- To coordinate with MLA chapter and music-related oral history projects.
- ALIGNMENT WITH MLA STRATEGIC PLAN OBJECTIVES: “Goal Area 1: Organize Strategically – Goal Statement: Hone MLA’s identity by refreshing the mission, core values, and organizational structure to reflect MLA’s priorities…Objective 1.3: Cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with other organizations that offer financial as well as professional opportunities and advantages. Considering merging with low-membership or struggling arts or library associations that share a similar mission” and “Objective 1.5: Evaluate the structure of MLA to determine if it has become too large to be optimally effective or to be able to act nimbly and quickly to current circumstances and changes to the field of music librarianship.”
- Encourage MLA Oral History Committee members to connect with their local MLA chapters to seek out new ideas for collaboration in their own communities.
- Connect people working on MLA Oral History Committee related projects with new opportunities, such as determining the feasibility of related grant writing.
- Continue to seek out projects which will increase Oral History Committee visibility and participation at MLA conferences, such as creating a presentation with the MLA Archivist.
- To continue to provide opportunities for MLA colleagues to partner with others and to share project ideas, strategies, best practices, and results.
- ALIGNMENT WITH MLA STRATEGIC PLAN VALUES: 1) ADVOCACY, 2) COLLABORATION, 3) COMMUNITY, 4) GROWTH, and 5) INCLUSION
- MISSON STATEMENT: “Provide leadership for the collection and preservation of music of all kinds and information about music in libraries and archives.”
- To create new opportunities to interview members of the MLA and transcribe oral interviews using funding requested earlier in the year through the 7.036 – Oral History Committee – Budget Request.
- Continue to reach out to past MLA Presidents, such as Mark McKnight and Susannah Cleveland, as potential interviewees.