R.I.P. King of Pop

OK, I need to get this out there. It's not Music Library related at all, but the death of Michael Jackson has rocked me to the core for the past 2 days. I was never really a crazy Michael fan, at least not on the outside. My admiration for him was mostly held on the inside as I watched his life unravel throughout my youth. However, the idea that there will be no one as popular or as famous as him ever again is hard to grasp. He is irreplaceable, and I wonder if future generations will really fully understand his influence.

Summer Reading Time!!!

So my classes are done, and I (miraculously) have time to sit down and read a book - for fun! So far I'm blowing through them.

Books I Have Read:
Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope
Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux
Dorothy Baden-Powell, Pimpernel Gold: How Norway Foiled the Nazis
Hanna Aasvik Helmersen, War and Innocence: A Young Girl's Life in Occupied Norway (1940-1945)
Robert Fisher, The Knight in Rusty Armor

What I am Reading Now:
Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father

Books I Would Like to Read:
(In no particular order)
Gosselin/Carson, Multiple Bles8ings (I know, I know, but I own it....)
Gunnar Sonsteby, Report from #24
Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (starting with the first, we'll see how far I get)
Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian (It's been on my reading list for a while, but now I own it)
Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure, The Soprano State
Curtis Sittenfeld, American Wife: A Novel (highly recommended by my friend Ellie)
Steve Lopez, The Soloist (Amazing movie, now I have to read the book)

I know that I have tons more to update on, namely MLA and Norway and what's happening in the Music Lib. this summer. I'll get there, I promise.

Because I can't concentrate at work right now...

I'm currently reading American Music Librarianship by Carol June Bradley (one of the founding librarians of the UB Music Library), and I have come across a few interesting librarian quotes:

"A librarian should not be a fossilized antiquarian, no matter how steadily his gaze may be fixed on 'history' of yesteryears; he should be alive with the trends of today and make ample room on his shelves for the 'new men,' whether or not they have 'arrived.' The librarian is essentially a registrar, not a critic. It remains for posterity to pass final judgement. And posterity must find a complete dossier, conscientiously assembled, not selected in accordance with personal taste or preference." ~Carl Engel (c.1925)

Aside from the constant use of "him/his/he" denoting that all librarians are/should be male, I think this notion has not changed all that much. And then there was this one:

"A librarian ought not to content himself with giving the public what it happens to want, but ought to help create a demand for what the public needs...no self-respecting library can afford to be without certain cultural documents...After all, it is not the frequency of use that counts, but the use to which a book is put." ~Oscar G.T. Sonneck

Well-stated, sir, well-stated.

L-I-B-R-A-R-Y

So I'm sitting watching the snow fall, checking in CDs from a 2004 antitrust settlement
. After I unwrap the CD, I have to write "UB Music Library" on each one, which has become stressful because I'm so afraid that I'm going to spell "Library" wrong by forgetting an r and spelling it L-I-B-A-R-Y or L-I-B-R-A-Y, thus completely destroying my credibility. Or maybe I'm the only one who will notice...

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!

It's the Biblioburro!!

NY Times - 10/20/08 - Donkey Library?

Cutter-ing and some news

An ongoing project that I have to work on as a GA is update and maintain the library's Cutter file. What's a Cutter file, you ask? Well, in its original form, it was a card catalog. Yes, a bonafide wooden cabinet with :gasp: catalog cards in it! On each card is the name of a composer, editor, or compiler that we may (or may not) have in the catalog. It is my job to look for the person's name in the catalog and check to see if we have an authority record for it (basically, what the person prefers to be called in the catalog as prescribed by the Library of Congress). If we don't have the record, I search WorldCat for it and export it into the catalog. If we do have the record, I insert the name and Cutter number for each person into a Word table and then pull the card out of the drawer. Let me tell you, pulling that card is the most cathartic thing because, while card catalogs still have their place in the world, it represents a move forward into the future of librarianship. I know that to most of you this seems like a boring thing to do, but I don't do it all the time, so have no fear!

And now for some news items:
NY Times - Levi Stubbs, Four Tops lead singer, dies
NY Times - Tin Pan Alley? Apparently not so awesome...