Today I have my final meeting with my internship adviser. It's almost a little bittersweet. I am turning in the final version of my project (of which I am very confident of the Collected Works sheet, and slightly less thrilled with my Monuments work), as well as discussing the ups and downs of Acquisitions and Collection Development for a Music Library.
I truly think that this job is a lot more complicated than I ever anticipated it to be. Collection Development sounds like an exciting responsibility for a Librarian. I mean, what higher level of control can you exert than picking out what gets to be part of the overall collection? But there is /so/ much that goes into that that it is almost overwhelming; at least for me.
I feel like taking the class S502 (Collection Development) con-currently with my internship was really a benefit, rather than a detriment, as perhaps assumed by other staff members at the beginning of this venture. By doing both at once, I was able to relate lessons learned in the classroom to issues in my internship work and vice versa, which I think only enhanced my education on the subject overall.
I would definitely recommend this internship to any other Music Librarianship specializations, if only because the future of Music Librarianship is looking like a good deal of hybrid librarianship (or taking on more than simply one area of responsibility: i.e. just cataloging or reference) and chances are, we will be making some Collection Development decisions in the future. If one hasn't experienced this, it could be (and probably still will be for me) rather daunting for a new professional.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Project Frustrations
After turning in the rough draft of my entire internship project, I'm feeling a little disheartened. I spent countless hours on that thing (well, not countless, since I had to actually count them for my internship) and there are still issues. Today, my adviser and I went over a few of the searching mistakes I had made (or rather, showed me tricks of how to get around odd Workflows quirks) and I am to re-examine some of the records for which I had previously thought we were missing volumes.
Even though it seems tedious, I feel like I am learning a lot from this project. I have become close and personal with the M2s and M3s, which is such a small part of what the actual library is. I'm not sure that I'd want to be a collection developer for such a large facility, as I have no idea how my adviser manages to keep on top of all the incoming lists and acquisitions whilst attempting other projects like the one I am working on. It seems a rather overwhelming to even contemplate.
Time for Round 2!
Even though it seems tedious, I feel like I am learning a lot from this project. I have become close and personal with the M2s and M3s, which is such a small part of what the actual library is. I'm not sure that I'd want to be a collection developer for such a large facility, as I have no idea how my adviser manages to keep on top of all the incoming lists and acquisitions whilst attempting other projects like the one I am working on. It seems a rather overwhelming to even contemplate.
Time for Round 2!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Standing Orders
Thanks to my Collected Works and Monuments projects I have a new respect for anyone who manages Standing Orders. You would think that this would be an easy task: you order something like a series, and whenever a new one comes out -- you get it, right? Sometimes.
I am discovering slowly yet surely that some of our standing orders are not being filled, whether due to the company itself stopping the production of the series (or the publisher going out of business) or due to just a very slow updating process.
For my project, I have been checking our holdings against our very well organized and documented spreadsheet of standing orders, which is IMMENSE. We had quite a lot of orders for both collected works and monuments, as well as other series which comes incrementally. The spreadsheet also keeps track of complete orders (when we have all of the volumes) and orders which have been cancelled or stopped production. This is not an easy task, if only because the vendors and publishers generally don't keep their online catalogs up to date.
So again, I am incredibly grateful to have this resource at my disposal, even if it blows my mind as to how vast and intricate the whole process is.
I am discovering slowly yet surely that some of our standing orders are not being filled, whether due to the company itself stopping the production of the series (or the publisher going out of business) or due to just a very slow updating process.
For my project, I have been checking our holdings against our very well organized and documented spreadsheet of standing orders, which is IMMENSE. We had quite a lot of orders for both collected works and monuments, as well as other series which comes incrementally. The spreadsheet also keeps track of complete orders (when we have all of the volumes) and orders which have been cancelled or stopped production. This is not an easy task, if only because the vendors and publishers generally don't keep their online catalogs up to date.
So again, I am incredibly grateful to have this resource at my disposal, even if it blows my mind as to how vast and intricate the whole process is.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
EBooks?
E-Books and the Music Library at IU are kind of at an interesting cross-roads. At present, we generally don't order that many, unless they are specifically requested by a patron. Why? Because generally, you cannot make a quick copy and mark up an E-Book score, and generally that's what our patrons use the library to accomplish.
This, however, is not the trend in all music libraries. When visiting Butler University, Sheri Stormes, the Performing Arts Librarian, explained, when asked, that she does tend to order books in E-Book format if they are available, simply because that seems to be the format that most Butler students are now utilizing in their research and in the classroom. I should have asked her specifically about scores, but we were a tad short on time.
In this current internship, I have yet to firm order an E-Book, and am a tad curious as to how that would differ from firm ordering any other monographic title. Would it immediately be added to the OPAC and usable? (Obviously this would be a major plus if we did start purchasing E-Books.) What would the MARC records look like? (That's the cataloger in me.)
For music research, I'll admit that I find physical books and scores more appealing if only because I can interact with the object to a greater extent than I could with my Kindle screen (although, I love my Kindle dearly). But I am interested to see that if in the next five years or so another Acquisitions and Collection Development Intern will spend his/her time beefing up our E-Book collections.
This, however, is not the trend in all music libraries. When visiting Butler University, Sheri Stormes, the Performing Arts Librarian, explained, when asked, that she does tend to order books in E-Book format if they are available, simply because that seems to be the format that most Butler students are now utilizing in their research and in the classroom. I should have asked her specifically about scores, but we were a tad short on time.
In this current internship, I have yet to firm order an E-Book, and am a tad curious as to how that would differ from firm ordering any other monographic title. Would it immediately be added to the OPAC and usable? (Obviously this would be a major plus if we did start purchasing E-Books.) What would the MARC records look like? (That's the cataloger in me.)
For music research, I'll admit that I find physical books and scores more appealing if only because I can interact with the object to a greater extent than I could with my Kindle screen (although, I love my Kindle dearly). But I am interested to see that if in the next five years or so another Acquisitions and Collection Development Intern will spend his/her time beefing up our E-Book collections.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Class Cross-Over
Today, for my Music Librarianship class, we visited the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Library (a completely different setting than a normal music library) and the Library at Butler University. From what I learned, I can apply it to my internship in saying that there are /many/ different ways to develop a music collection, and many different strategies depending on the academic institution or organization for which one is working.
Our first stop along the tour was at the ISO Library, which is run by three enterprising Orchestra Librarians. They, unfortunately, do not get to do much of their own collection development, as generally the seasons and other performance decisions are made elsewhere. But they are the curators of their collection, and oversee its every detail, which seems much more hands-on than what we do at the Music Library.
As for Butler University, they are obviously a much smaller school at about 2100 students (very similar to my undergrad). Their music library is not so much of a library as it is a collection housed within their main campus library, but it is still overseen by an enterprising Performing Arts Librarian which a heavy music background. The campus, and size of the library, are much more admittedly my speed, and I hope to end up in an institution very similar to Butler once I graduate in August.
Our first stop along the tour was at the ISO Library, which is run by three enterprising Orchestra Librarians. They, unfortunately, do not get to do much of their own collection development, as generally the seasons and other performance decisions are made elsewhere. But they are the curators of their collection, and oversee its every detail, which seems much more hands-on than what we do at the Music Library.
As for Butler University, they are obviously a much smaller school at about 2100 students (very similar to my undergrad). Their music library is not so much of a library as it is a collection housed within their main campus library, but it is still overseen by an enterprising Performing Arts Librarian which a heavy music background. The campus, and size of the library, are much more admittedly my speed, and I hope to end up in an institution very similar to Butler once I graduate in August.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Fighting with the OPAC
Okay. So you've heard IUCat is bad, right?
... c'mon.
If you haven't, then you've been leading a sheltered life of only keyword searches.
Well, IUCat and I have been fighting.
Because of recent events in my life, including the untimely death of my uncle in a motorcycle accident last week, I've been doing more of my internship project from the comfort of my room -- which means I don't have access to Workflows. This /should/ be okay. But it isn't.
The more work I do, the more I'm discovering that our OPAC just isn't cutting it, and this is for a /basic/ comparison project of items I know /should/ be in the catalog. I know when I can't find /any/ volumes of a series that I'm in trouble. I've tried Advanced Search, and some fancy boolean tricks to attempt to fish out the information, and while it manages to work about 65% of the time... that's just not good enough.
Maybe once we get the Blacklight search feature installed, it will be better.
... maybe?
... I can hope?
... c'mon.
If you haven't, then you've been leading a sheltered life of only keyword searches.
Well, IUCat and I have been fighting.
Because of recent events in my life, including the untimely death of my uncle in a motorcycle accident last week, I've been doing more of my internship project from the comfort of my room -- which means I don't have access to Workflows. This /should/ be okay. But it isn't.
The more work I do, the more I'm discovering that our OPAC just isn't cutting it, and this is for a /basic/ comparison project of items I know /should/ be in the catalog. I know when I can't find /any/ volumes of a series that I'm in trouble. I've tried Advanced Search, and some fancy boolean tricks to attempt to fish out the information, and while it manages to work about 65% of the time... that's just not good enough.
Maybe once we get the Blacklight search feature installed, it will be better.
... maybe?
... I can hope?
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Monuments Project
Having at least completed my Collected Works project in rough draft form, I've been told to move onto another list on Harrassowitz's online catalog: Monuments of Music from Europe. Initially, I was pleased to note that this list is substantially shorter than the previous project -- but don't worry, this seems even harder after delving into the first round of checks.
Instead of having every volume written by the same author (or attributed to one composer) all of the monuments have each volume attributed to a DIFFERENT author. This means that if a monograph is not cataloged with a series title, I literally have to go down the list one by one and check every individual title. And if you thought the Collected Works had a lot of volumes.. these monuments (the name says it all) are even worse (ranging from 100-200 volumes per collection).
This is going.. to take awhile.
Instead of having every volume written by the same author (or attributed to one composer) all of the monuments have each volume attributed to a DIFFERENT author. This means that if a monograph is not cataloged with a series title, I literally have to go down the list one by one and check every individual title. And if you thought the Collected Works had a lot of volumes.. these monuments (the name says it all) are even worse (ranging from 100-200 volumes per collection).
This is going.. to take awhile.
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