Tuesday, December 30, 2008

It's been a while!


It has been a while since I blogged last, so here's an update. Before I left Buffalo for break, I spent a great deal of time in the Treasure Room with my trusty laptop taking an inventory of the Hiller materials, noting their condition and carrying many of the flowcharts to Preservation to be cleaned and encapsulated. Basically, they are going to take all of the remaining glue off, re-glue some labels and then vacuum seal the charts in clear mylar. The ultimate goal is to create a finding aid to attach to the Music Library website. It's slow going, but I'm getting there!

In holiday news, I got Nils Grinde's A History of Norwegian Music! It is a book that I fell in love with in Gettysburg, and checked out of the UB Music Library from about mid-August to mid-December (way past the allowed loan period!) When I unwrapped the book, I literally cried. I'm a loser, I know, but I never, ever thought that I would ever own this book. It's the seminal volume for research in Scandinavian music, and I am thrilled that I now own it! I also received the ornament above, and my mom wrote "Buffalo 2008" on the back.

In musically unrelated library news, I had the chance to see my friend Matt this past week, and he was telling me about his library experiences in Durbin, South Africa. Apparently, he walked into the library looking for a book, which should have been on the shelf, and when he went up to the desk to ask about it, the guy behind the desk basically told him that it could be on the shelf, or it could be in any of the random piles on the tables. Apparently, there is no system in place for reshelving books so they just kind of sit there. Matt said that he said to the guy, "You know, where I come from, books get put on a cart and then someone puts them away so that people can find them later." The guy behind the desk looked at him and said, "Yeah, that is a good idea...." Crazy, just crazy.

One last thing, I promise! Two days ago, I booked a trip to Norway in March! Not only will I spend some time in Oslo, but I'm also going to go North and visit the Ringve Music Museum and Library in Trondheim! I'm so excited!