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| Access to Music (Summary)
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Search and Retrieval
Collections of published material and archives are increasingly available in digital form with associated metadata
(see also resource description). Some libraries already offer collections combining, at the same level of access, published material (e.g. recordings) and archival documents (e.g. unedited recordings of musical events). This allows for the implementation of much more advanced tools for music information searching, analogous to the way the well-established field of information retrieval has provided for text, but with the caveat that music is not reducible to text.
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The
Dublin Core, sponsored by OCLC in Dublin, has yet to take on board the needs of music cataloguing in any practical application (although some work is being done), and this is also true in the case of XML (extensible markup language). MPEG-7
and other standards that include rules for metadata.
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In the United Kingdom, the Music Libraries Online
project has gone some way towards demonstrating the feasibility of linking music library catalogues by using the ANSI Z39.50 (now ISO 203950) protocols, although some of the issues involved regarding minimum standards have yet to be resolved.
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The
Encore! Project has demonstrated, to some extent, the approach which takes data from a number of sources and attempts to fit them into a common format in a single database.
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Consideration
should also be given to the development of a
digitally-available multilingual music thesaurus to facilitate
user searching. These issues should be addressed by
international consortia (e.g. IAML/RILM project, the European
Music Navigator Project and others; See MUSICNETWORK Working
Group Music Libraries http://www.interactivemusicnetwork.org/),
Standards
are also vital for other fields of activities :
Copyright and agreements with the commercial sector (see also
copyright)
Legislation surrounding copyright varies considerably across Europe, despite European Union legislation, as interpretations differ. Some countries have negotiated particular arrangements for rights; others have not and prefer voluntary arrangements. Other countries have more informal agreements with publishers, as in the United Kingdom where the
Music Publishers
Association, in agreement with various organisations, publishes guidance in a code of fair practice.
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Although established to protect copyright owners’ rights,
Musi©opy, an organisation in the Netherlands, assists public libraries in providing a regulatory scheme for photocopying and lending right through payment of compensation to rights owners.
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German states pay a royalty to the collecting society
VG Wort which ensures lending rights for printed and non-printed works, including printed music but excluding music sound carriers. So far contracts have to be negotiated by individual libraries.
For digital libraries the use of standard procedures for watermarking is essential and as soon as the standards are defined they should be incorporated.
Staff and training
A music library must be run by a qualified librarian with good musical knowledge or
qualifications or a musician with library experience or qualifications. There have been efforts by music librarians in some countries to address this problem by ensuring training for those who handle music in libraries but have no experience of it.
The following approaches are useful models:
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Special
courses to train non-music specialists in libraries in music
librarianship, funded in the wake of the new Danish Public Library Act in order to broaden expertise.
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Information on stand-alone CD-ROM for study of music librarianship and distance learning module for training in music librarianship. See also: Distance Learning, a course for music librarianship in the UK, by Ian Ledsham. Fontes Artis Musicae, vol.47/1, 2000.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/olu/
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The
Annual Reports of the UK branch of IAML include information on music library training provided on a voluntary basis by experienced music librarians.
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Training for museum practitioners has been greatly assisted by
guidelines in all aspects of museum work.
FUTURE AGENDA
Digital distribution need not be confined to the commercially-viable recordings of pop stars. Technically, libraries will soon be in a position to provide their users with whatever recording is needed. But the economics are complex, as are the issues of copyright and royalty.Public libraries could act as information channels guiding users to the music that they seek and then obtaining it for loan or sale. This raises questions of competition with retailers. But there will be music and images which are held and made digitally as text or sound exclusively by libraries, museums and archives,
perhaps especially that which is created in a local or regional context.
The promotion of
distributed searching, browsing and
personalisation between music and film libraries, and its extension to allow for music-specific queries, will enhance local and remote access via networked services,
personalisation and browsing). The feasibility of a single European gateway to music resources on the Internet should be
explored, taking into account the efforts of relevant EU projects
such as the European Music Navigator ( http://www.musicnavigator.org/
) set up by the International Association of Music Information
Centres (IAMIC) and other multinational umbrella organizations.
A fuller technical research agenda for music should be developed and implemented to cover key issues such as:
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automatic extraction of musically significant features from online scores and recordings
(melody, perceptual characteristics);
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music summarisation to allow for the development of “intelligent” music information retrieval tools;
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presentation tools geared for music (side-by-side presentations of scores, analyses,
video);
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simultaneous presentations of scores and recordings etc
A set of core courses will need to be developed for music librarianship in the electronic age, especially in acting as an intermediary for improved “hybrid” (physical and electronic) searching in assisting the user.
LINKS
Europe
Interactive Music
Network (MUSICNETWORK)
The IST project MUSICNETWORK (start: August 2002) brings together
the music industry, content providers, research institutions etc.
including music libraries in order to bring music into the
interactive multimedia era.
http://www.interactivemusicnetwork.org/
WedelMusic
The IST project WedelMusic started in January 2000, addresses IPR problems with watermarking, access and processing/retrieval secured solutions tested by music publishers (Riccordi, Suvini, BMG).
MIRACLE
The EU-funded project: Music Information Resources Assisted Computer Library Exchange has partners in the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Switzerland, Italy and Denmark. The website provides links to all those countries’ libraries for the blind.
http://www.svb.nl/project/Miracle/miracle.htm
Australia
National Library of Australia
With relatively fewer resources than in some countries, the Australian music library community has devised a project similar to the UK’s Cecilia, but more far-reaching, with links to the entire music community and with the needs of users a paramount consideration.
Picture Australia
This site contains over half a million-image records from collections in museums, galleries, archives, universities, public libraries and historical societies.
http://www.pictureaustralia.org/
Czech Republic
Okresní knihovna, Olomouc
One of a large number of public libraries providing accessible information online on their music collections.
http://www.ok-olomouc.cz/index.html
Others include:
Mestská Knihovna v Praze (Municipal Library of Prague) http://www.mlp.cz/
Národní Knihovna v Praze (National Library of the Czech
Republic) http://www.nkp.cz
Severoceská vedecká
knihovna v Ústí nad Labem http://www.svkul.cz/
Akademie Múzických Umení (Music Faculty of the Academy of
Performing Arts in Prague) http://www.h.amu.cz
Hudební Oddelení
Knihovny Kromerížska (Knihovny Kromerížska Public Library)
http://www.knihkm.cz
Okresní Knihovna
Tábor, (Tábor Public Library) http://www.vkta.cz
Oddelení duchovní hudby pri Centrální katolické knihovne
(Central Catholic Library)
http://www.ckk.cz
Knihovna mesta Hradce
Králové http://www.knihovnahk.cz
Denmark
Silkeborg library
An easily accessible multicultural library which includes links to the culture and music of a
wide range of countries represented in their collections.
http://www.silkeborg.bib.dk/
Roskilde
http://www.roskilde.dk/
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