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- Session Summary
- Service Spotlight
- Five Questions
- Did You Know...
- Committee Update
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Service Spotlight
This month’s spotlight is shared by Jessica Abbazio and Ellen Ogihara, who reflect on serving as Student/Early Career Representatives. Jessica served during the 2019-20 term, and Ellen during 2020-21.
Now in its final year of a three-year pilot, the Student/Early Career Representative to the MLA Board position provides an opportunity for a newer member of the organization to get hands-on experience with the inner workings of MLA. By now, we’ve participated in a range of activities. We’ve attended monthly virtual board conversations, including the formal winter, summer, and fall meetings. In addition to meeting synchronously with the entire board, we’ve also participated in asynchronous email threads that allow this group to accomplish important business between meetings. During all these discussions, we’ve advocated for the student/early career member perspectives, helping shape the direction of various MLA initiatives with the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) in mind. Ellen found her involvement with the Diversity Committee to be particularly helpful, as this appointment coincided with her tenure on the board. Her opportunity to bridge the work of these two important groups opened the door for the possibility of future partnerships centered on IDEA.
Another responsibility of the Student/Early Career Board Representative has been the collection, processing, and publishing of the organization’s Annual Reports – a big job, but a rewarding one! Making these important records available to the membership at large helps to increase dissemination of information about the crucial work happening in all committees, special offices, and other groups within MLA. While working with the MLA Board — and in particular, Recording Secretary Misti Shaw — Jessica helped establish a workflow for processing Annual Report submissions for publication through WordPress. As MLA’s digital presence transitions to a new platform, we hope to make annual reports more accessible to anyone who’s interested in the work of the broader organization.
We were pleasantly surprised by how much of the MLA Board’s work intersects with the experiences and perspectives of student and early career members. From gathering feedback on how to create community and mentorship opportunities for newer members, to discussing membership and registration fees, the Student/Early Career Representative can offer a unique viewpoint. By prioritizing accessibility and inclusivity in all of our contributions, our hope was to make a positive impact for our colleagues, present and future. For us, this experience also demystified the work of the MLA Board, something that may seem very far removed from the day-to-day life of a student or early career member. By learning about the processes and operations that keep our organization running, we were able to develop a more comprehensive understanding about how to advocate for others who are beginning their careers in music librarianship.
MLA’s adoption of a new strategic plan prioritizes advocacy, collaboration, community, growth, and inclusion. Community-building and inclusion are integral parts of serving as the Student/Early Career Board Representative, and we value the opportunity to contribute to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for emerging members of the profession. We hope that students and early career librarians will continue to contribute to the development of our organization as a whole, and the Student/Early Career Board Representative pilot program has been a strong first step in that direction.
CMC Town Hall Summary
Hermine Vermeij opened the 2022 Cataloging and Metadata Committee (CMC) Town Hall by highlighting CMC’s jointly sponsored session at MLA this year: The Journey to Enlightenment Continues: Further Conversations Between Public and Technical Services Professionals. [Editor’s note: See Nurhak Tuncer’s session summary, as well as PDF slides referenced below.]
As announced during the meeting and advertised on MLA-L, CMC’s upcoming eLearning events include: Introduction to Music Cataloging (May 2-27); Music Cataloging with LC Vocabularies (May 30-June 24); Music Cataloging with Library of Congress Classification (July 11-August 5); and Using the new RDA Toolkit to Catalog Music (August 9-11).
Committee transitions include: Chair of Vocabularies Subcommittee: Rebecca Belford to Janelle West; Secretary/Webmaster: Joshua Henry to Kristi Bergland; SACO Music Funnel Coordinator: Beth Iseminger to Leo Martin; Incoming CMC Chair: Rebecca Belford.
Hermine highlighted several sections of the CMC website, including “Latest News” and the “Training and Information Videos” sections, as well as how to access the CMC Groups, Archive, CMC Reports, and the CMC Handbook. Three subcommittees had openings at the time of the conference (Content Standards, Encoding Standards, and Vocabularies).
Next, Karen Peters provided MARC and Metadata updates. Recent MARC updates include MARC Update 32, June 2021, Field 046, Special Coded Dates (Bibliographic and Authority Formats) and Field 348, Notated Music Characteristics (Bibliographic Format). MARC Update 33, November 2021, included Field 007/byte 13, Sound recording: Original capture and storage technique (Bibliographic format), labels changed to reflect terms for both capture and storage in all cases, label definitions rewritten to be clearer, and proposal and subsequent editorial changes to definitions made with significant input from MLA (Field 344 $j). Field 344, Sound Characteristics (Bibliographic format) added new $j (Original capture and storage technique), analogous to 007/13; uses same labels/definitions, and linked Data friendly and facilitates conversion between MARC and BIBFRAME.
The selected MARC Changes approved in January 2022 (to appear in MARC Update 34, mid-2022) are: Field 340, Physical Medium (Bibliographic Format) (Proposal No. 2022-01), which redefines $f (was: Production rate/ratio) to limit usage to microforms and was formerly used, among other things, to record playing speed of sound recordings. It clarifies that playing speed of sound recordings belongs in 344 $c (Playing speed) or 347 $f (Encoded bitrate) and clarifies proper place for encoding other information formerly encoded in 340 $f as well. Field 373, Associated Group (Authority Format) (Discussion Paper No. 2022-DP04, converted to a fast-track proposal), adds new $i (Relationship information) and $4 (Relationship) subfields.
Peters also reported the impact of BIBFRAME on MARC as evidenced at 2022 Midwinter MARC Advisory Committee meetings: there were three proposals and no discussion papers authored by the (NDMSO-led) MARC/RDA Working Group, and no proposals or discussion papers authored by NDMSO itself. LC did have a reaction to Discussion Paper (DP) No. 2022-DP05, authored by the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Standing Committee on Standards, exploring accommodating subject relationships to Works and Expressions in the Authority format. LC rejected the notion of implementing any changes to MARC that might result from the DP’s conversion to a proposal, because such changes are “bibliographic description.” This was due to (1) perceived overlap between bibliographic and authority formats, (2) the results of an internal study, and experience with BIBFRAME. LC is experimenting with the idea of migrating title (including name/title) authority records from the Authority format to the Bibliographic format. Other Encoding Standards Subcommittee (ESS) activity reported was the Metadata for Music Resources Task Group’s maintenance of Metadata for Music Resources and the MARC Cataloging Inefficiency Task Group’s final report presented at the ESS Business Meeting, which included four recommendations for changes to MLA Cataloging Best Practices.
Rebecca Belford followed with an updated from the Vocabularies Subcommittee, which had worked on the Types of Composition for Use in Authorized Access Points for Music, including plurals for non-preferred terms (type xrefs). Additional updates on deriving faceted data, MLA Thematic Indexes (MLATI), Best Practices for LCMPT, Music-Related LCGFT, LC Vocabularies Maintenance, and Music theater/Musical theater clarifications can be found in the CMC Town Hall slides (pp. 19-21). Also included are LCMPT terms that are new and changed (pp. 22-23). Vocabularies updates beyond music include: the LCDGT manual, SACO editorial meetings, and the Core SSFV updated Retrospective Implementation of Faceted Vocabularies: Best Practices for Librarians and Programmers. Regarding the “Illegal aliens” BFM updates by OCLC In WorldCat: the LCSH and LCCSH flips are completed, and FAST is nearly done. An upcoming LC change: Implementation of History Notes in Field 688 in Authority Records for LCSH, LCGFT, LCDGT, LCMPT, and CYAC.
Keith Knop provided updates for Content Standards. All MLA RDA Best Practices content from the original RDA Toolkit was incorporated and content will be visible to the public after March 23. The MLA Application Profile includes a list of elements, recording status, recording method to use, etc.; a best practices and “cheat sheet;” and a spreadsheet, with tabs for score-only element, recording-only elements, and universal elements. A draft will be available for comment with the March Toolkit update. The MLA RDA Metadata Guidance has introductory matter that doesn’t fit in the new Toolkit, guidance for representative expressions and aggregates, instructions for constructing access points, an overview of elements arranged by MARC/ISBD area, and MARC examples arranged by element. Next steps include a draft for public comments with the Toolkit update.
Keith also offered an update from the Electronic Scores Working Group, which is currently working on a discussion paper covering issues that affect cataloging decisions and workflow. Items to come include requesting feedback and examples of practice, as well as Best Practices documentation.
Kevin Kishimoto spoke on behalf of MLA’s Linked Data Working Group (LDWG), whose goal for 2021- 2022 was to use the Sinopia linked data editor to test aspects of BIBFRAME and the Performed Music Ontology (PMO) for music resources. PMO is (necessarily) under revision, and there is significant Sinopia development in 2021 (LD4P3 grant) including BIBFRAME-to-MARC conversion. LDWG members built a broader knowledge and skills base in linked data theory/practice and linked data tools, and LDWG used Sinopia resource templates to create native linked data and analyzed results with visualization tools and simple SPARQL queries. To revise the 2016-2017 PMO, a group met regularly covering PMO, Sinopia, data creation, and visualization, with the rationale that both BIBFRAME and our understanding of linked data had developed significantly since the original PMO was created. PMO classes and properties related to medium of performance needed to be simplified for practical use and better align music linked data practice with LRM (2017). Reference LDWG approach outline in the slides (pp. 32-43). 2022-2023 LDWG Plans, hopes, and dreams include BIBFRAME and PMO (in Sinopia), exploring other linked data tools, ontologies, ecosystems, etc., using PCC URIs in MARC, and creating and updating items in Wikidata. Outreach, training, and education are planned to increase MLA CMC involvement with linked data for music, align ourselves with non-MLA linked data projects and groups, and add new members to LDWG. Members interested in joining the group may contact Kevin (kishimoto@stanford.edu). A full list of objectives for the LDWG plans can be found in the slides (pp. 44-48).
Next, Kathy Glennan, Keith Knop, and Karen Peters introduced the Representative Expression model as part of “An Evolution in the WEMI Model: Originating in IFLA LRM.” Creating the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM) was a chance to consolidate the Functional Requirements models and make them coherent with each other, to reconsider some of the modeling choices, and to find new ways of solving problems. The main areas in the IFLA LMR are included here, with the granular detail located in the slides (pp. 50-61).
One oddity in FRBR is that there are two medium of performance attributes: medium of performance (musical work), a work-level attribute; and medium of performance (musical notation or recorded sound), an expression-level attribute. Enter the representative expression concept, which allows certain expression-level characteristics that best represent the intention
of the creator to be associated with the work. A representative expression attribute can come from any expression–it does not have to be the original expression or an extant expression. There is generally no need to identify a specific expression as a representative expression, nor to distinguish one representative expression from another. Access points for works may be used
as access points for representative expressions. Details and more help can be expected in LC and MLA metadata guidance documentation. MARC Proposal No. 2022-04: Recording Representative Expressions in the MARC 21 Authority and Bibliographic Formats was approved by MARC Advisory Committee in January 2022. It will be official after publication in MARC Update 34 (mid-2022). A new field (387) with one linkable subfield per element will cover most representative expression attributes, but this was not sufficient for Medium of Performance or Key; for these elements, new indicators will be defined in the 382 and 384 fields.
Damian Iseminger and Kathy Glennan provided on update on the RDA Toolkit Update, which had quarterly releases (updates), published in April and July 2021. A behind-the-scenes server migration caused the cancellation of the other 2021 releases. Release notes are available with each update located under the Resources tab: Resources > Revision History > Notes. Server migration challenges caused profile login problems, access via IP authentication, and the admin site not being available. Orientation and Training Resources from ALA Digital Reference include regular news updates and free monthly webinars on a variety of topics. The RDA Toolkit YouTube channel includes past webinar offerings and a prerecorded RDA Toolkit demo. News and announcements from the RSC and the RDA Board can be found on their website, which includes recent documents by year, proposals and discussion papers by sponsoring groups, and other public documents.
The session concluded with Damian’s update for Collection Level Description in RDA. A collection, as viewed by RDA, is a plan to gather two or more items that together form a collection manifestation. The basis of the plan could be the holdings of a research library or materials that originate from an agent. Collection level description is metadata that is created to describe a collection or a collection and its constituent items. Changes to accommodate the collections model, new relationship elements, and definitions of metadata work, metadata statement, and metadata description sets can be found on CMC Town Hall slides (pp. 75-77). There are new concepts and elements for describing collections and for metadata works describing collections, as well as new relationships for relating collections to their descriptions. Relationships relating metadata works to agents responsible for them have been revised.
Submitted by Jade Kastel, Western Illinois University
Photo credit: Freemason card catalog, Erol Ahmed via Unsplash
Session Summary: Journey to Enlightenment
During the 2022 MLA conference, the Cataloging and Metadata Committee and Public Services Committee co-sponsored “The Journey to Enlightenment Continues: Further Conversations Between Public and Technical Services Professionals.” Speakers and moderators for this session included Victoria Peters, Nara Newcomer, Sylvia Yang, Casey Mullin, Hermine Vermeij, Allison McClanahan, and Andrea Beckendorf.
Using the topics of search and discovery as guidelines, this virtual session covered six themes: Name-Titles for Works/Known Items, Genre/Form Terms, Medium of Performance Terms, Faceting, Communication/Collaboration, and Advocacy. For each theme, attendees were grouped into virtual rooms, where they shared experiences from their institutions, including feedback from working with different Integrated Library Systems (ILS) such as Alma, FOLIO, and Sirsi. Each ILS platform has limitations that directly affect discovery of the music items. Sometimes what has been transcribed in the bibliographic record by the cataloger may not be accurately reflected in the catalog’s discovery layer. For example, in FOLIO, the subject and genre terms in MARC fields 655 and 650 were not indexed, preventing users from locating items according to these terms. One of the attendees mentioned that their institution has developed an additional “homegrown” algorithm to collate terms, but it only affects faceted searching.
Discussion also included MARC field 382 (Medium of Performance, or MoP) and how these terms were reflected in the discovery layers. Attendees reported that in Alma, there is currently “authority control” for the 382, but it is non-functional; Alma looks at the field as a string, not as individual terms. Generally, when these terms are added by catalogers, they may not be usable in discovery depending on the ILS of the particular library. Overall feedback from the discussion was that 382s are being used and included, but some institutions’ discovery layers suppress the 382 (along with all non-300 3XX fields). Therefore, they are not useful to patrons. It is more beneficial when a catalog displays these terms in the discovery layers, enabling users more specific search options. Regarding implementation of discovery layers, attendees discussed several steps, such as initiating conversations within their individual libraries, especially if certain music formats were not displayed.
Often, public services staff are not aware of metadata they would like displayed since it is “hidden” in the MARC view. It’s important for technical services staff to be involved in display decisions since they know the transcribed individual fields for specific items better. One of the attendees suggested creating an MLA-wide repository of music-related Primo normalization rules so that members can share with each other. Attendees also agreed it may be beneficial for catalogers to work reference shifts to better understand user needs. Another suggestion was to host regular “search parties” for multiple staff to perform searches in the catalog and evaluate accuracy of results in order to advocate for effective improvements.
The main takeaway from this meeting was how both public and technical services librarians can hold informative conversations to improve advocacy for music item discovery. Our discussion shows that the library’s public interface catalog is not perfect. It is necessary to direct students to proper search limiters and teach them alternate ways of finding information, such as looking at a specific item’s publication platform and not relying entirely on the discovery layer. Students need to know that each discovery layer has flaws, and that is why they should consult with a librarian to learn more about alternate search techniques for effective research.
Submitted by Nurhak Tuncer
Photo credit: Agence Olloweb via Unsplash.com
Five Questions with Greg Sigman
Get to know Greg Sigman, Performing Arts Librarian at The New School in New York, NY!
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in the countryside about five miles outside of the small southeast Ohio town of Caldwell. Our nearest neighbor was half a mile away, and we could walk there down the middle of the road and often not even encounter a car. Now, I live in Queens, where our nearest neighbors walk by just outside our apartment door perpetually shouting into phones or discussing where they should have brunch. The street is a river of cars with delivery persons streaming by on electric bikes at all hours. Just a bit of contrast.
What might others be surprised to learn about you?
Well, I was a Girl Scout for a number of years, which people might not expect, given all my facial hair. I used to help out with our daughters’ troop, and GS of America doesn’t let you do much– I used to drive Scouts to events and help manage logistics– unless you’ve had a background check and are registered as a member yourself, so I did that and carried the membership card around for quite a while.
What superpower would you choose for a day, and why?
I’m going to go with the power to touch a printed volume and immediately have its contents committed to memory. How cool would that be? It might not get me into a Marvel movie, but it would get me a lot of funny looks as I walked through libraries and bookstores in the city just touching all the books I could find. What collection should I visit first?
What’s your favorite thing about MLA?
I could talk about the professional resources, the outstanding conferences all over the country (knock on wood for next year), great avenues for presenting and publishing, but my favorite thing about MLA is, and always has been, the people. You all are the best, most helpful, friendliest, and smartest folks around. Thank you!
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
There is no such thing as a library emergency! This came from my first librarian boss and mentor, Holly Oberle. I don’t mean to say that library work is not important, far from it! Just that you don’t need to make yourself frantic over *anything*. Take a breath and give it another minute, and your work will be better for it.
Did You Know?…
…the namesake of Josef Suk’s piano cycle About Mother was Antonin Dvořák’s daughter?
Written in 1907, the five-movement piece evokes memories of a dearly-loved woman who died prematurely, leaving behind her husband and three-year-old son, to whom the piece is dedicated. Suk and his bride, Otilka Dvořák, had happily married less than ten years prior on her father’s silver anniversary. Tragically, both father and daughter died within a year of each other.
Sources:
“Hidden Gems for a Musical Mother’s Day” by Gail Eichenthal, Classical California KUSC, https://www.kusc.org/culture/staff-blog/mothers-day-hidden-gems (accessed 5-4-22).
David Doughty. Liner notes for Anthology of Czech Piano Music. Radoslav Kvapil. Recorded December 1994. Musical Concept ALC6001, streaming audio. Accessed May 4, 2022. Naxos Music Library.
Graham Melville-Mason. Liner Notes for Suk, J.: Piano Music. Margaret Fingerhut. Recorded 1990. Chandos 9026-27, streaming audio. Accessed May 4, 2022. Naxos Music Library.
Image credit: “Mother Playing With Her Child.” https://www.marycassatt.org (accessed 5-4-22).