Thoughts on my experiences thus far

I've had a lot of fun working to expand both my knowledge of Jazz and collection development issues and practices this semester. I hope that I've provided some valued services to the music library at Indiana University.

I've had a good time reading literature on collection development that I chose to read, not a list of readings that was imposed upon me by a course instructor. I think the most valuable readings were Michael Fling's book, Library Acquisition of Music, and Ross Atkinson's article, "Six Key Challenges for the Future of Collection Development: Introduction for the Janus Breakout Sessions." These would be good documents for any library intern for music to read.

In the next few days I plan on taking a closer look at Jazz reviews in current Jazz periodicals to select new recordings for the library collection. I also plan on taking a look at the library video collections for Jazz. That's all for now.

Abstract: Mary F. Casserly, "Collection Management as Risk Management," Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 28 (2004): 79-92.

This paper identifies some of the risks to library values, as well as to scholarly communication and the information marketplace that those in collection development must interact with. Casserly identifies two main sources of challenges to library primacy:

1. changing constituent needs and expectations: evidence that a change has occurred, but unclear if any patterns have emerged in the information seeking patterns of researchers; and
   
2. competition from emerging information services: external products and information services, internal competition from Blackboard and other course management software that can manage course reserve materials, but most important competition coming from the World Wide Web, which not only responds to information needs, but has literally reached into every aspect of life in the 21st century.

To help better understand the changing needs of students and faculty, the author identifies some steps that can be taken. These include:

• Talk to faculty about materials for teaching needs
• Identify user needs using assessment tools like LibQUAL+
• Do environmental scanning of external and internal forces acting upon collection development practices, budgets, etc.
• Make sure to market library services to users
• Enhance collections by improving access channels to them
• Hire employees that are adaptable to change, and focus professional development on the changing educational environment.

Another way to understand the risks of collection development is to understand the market for information resources:

• Actual collection use
• publisher and vendor mergers limiting access to purchasing avenues
• vagaries of intellectual property and copyright laws
• subscription-for-access resource changes, unplanned additions and deletions
• growth of library system and consortial acquisitions taking purchasing power away from individual collection managers.

It is clear that Casserly has identified a number of possible risks involved in the world of library collection developments. But more importantly, she tries to propose some solutions for these risks. Perhaps it would be interesting to read more about how following some of these recommendations is affecting collections management in libraries.

Abstract: Ross Atkinson, "Six Key Challenges for the Future of Collection Development: Introduction for the Janus Breakout Sessions," Library Resources & Technical Services 50, no. 4 (2006): 244-51.

Ross Atkinson had a long and distinguished career in collection development for academic libraries. At the time of his death earlier this year, he worked for Cornell University, and had organized the "Janus Conference: A Look Backward and Forward at Collection Development," of which this was one of the major addresses. There is a streaming video of Ross's presentation at http://libdev.library.cornell.edu/glopad_test/tests/RA/RA_video.htm . The six key challenges for collection development have been talked about and worked on since his presentation at this and other conferences and in other library organizations. He outlines three reasons for collecting information:

• Political and economic: institutional capital. We collect to differentiate the quality of the educational experience students receive at a particular institution. Atkinson believes that worries about growing homogeneity of collections are really unfounded, as the varying paths to accessing that information will inevitably differ from one library to the next.
• Material: preservation. Long-term access, cultural memory. Problems include technological limitations of digital preservation, and the increasing access instead of ownership mentality of many academic disciplines.
• Contextual: privileging. Inclusion of materials in library collections is a process of deciding which information resources are more important than others, and effort to bring this information to the library historically meant making access to this information easier for the patron. Now, with digital delivery and free availability of many information resources online, print collections in libraries are less accessible, turning the privileging system on its head.

These motivations for collecting beget issues affecting the activity of collecting in the current economic, political, and social world of academic communication. It was Ross's goal that identifiying these six challenges would also result in significant action:

1. action to digitize collections in a great retrospective conversion effort,
2. to make a rapid transition to electronic information by demanding scholarly publishers to deliver their content in this format,
3. to develop deeply coordinated and integrated collections by creating core lists and dividing out advanced, peripheral subjects,
4. to negotiate collectively with publishers for the best and most cost-effective access to electronic publications,
5. to ensure the long-term archiving of digital materials for the sake of cultural preservation, and
6. to support alternative modes of scholarly communication to circumvent the stranglehold some publishers have on libraries (think Elsevier).

I liked this article because I could tell that Atkinson was putting everything he cared about out for others to see and scrutinize, and for its high level of informed insight into the profession by one of its great luminaries. Atkinson's adventurous spirit is evident in some of his recommendations to challenge legality of collective collection development and the implicit challenge to copyright through such activities as recon digitization of print materials and archiving of subscribed digital content to ensure future access.

Abstract: Lynda Fuller Clendenning, J. Kay Martin, and Gail McKenzie, "Secrets for Managing Materials Budget Allocations: A Brief Guide for Collection Managers," Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 29 (2005): 99–108.

Clendinning, Martin, and McKenzie explore the process of encumbering budgets for library monographic materials in an effort to help collection managers use budgets most effectively. The key to over-encumbering budgets is to understand first that not all materials ordered will be delivered, and that items ordered from different areas of the world have different rates of fulfillment. The savvy collection manager will take these factors into account when ordering from foreign (i.e. non-U.S.) vendors.

The authors summarize four important points at the end of their article that a collection manager would do well to remember, paraphrased below:

1. Order new titles consistently through the fiscal year. Placing orders in large batches a couple times a year interrupts a consistent flow of book receipts. If orders are placed en masse near the end of the fiscal year, items may not be received, reducing purchasing power for the following year.
2. Review open orders at least once each year. This allows managers the opportunity to know which titles are taking longer to be received so that appropriate adjustments can be made: titles could be cancelled, or funds could be unencumbered.
3. Determine the right over encumbrance level for individual budgets and publication regions. Analyze the length of time from order to receipt, average price and discount mix of vendors and their performance.
4. Watch the encumbrance and expenditure levels throughout the fiscal year. As the year progresses, attention should move from a focus on unencumbered balance to expenditures and the corresponding cash balance.

Having had experience ordering monographic materials for a large academic library, I'm familiar with the process of encumbering funds and paying invoices when items are received. I didn't understand why some selectors chose to overencumber their budgets, and my supervisor in acquisitions didn't seem to, either. This article helped me understand how doing so, with the knowledge that all items will not be received, is a good way to take full advantage of funds in a fiscal cycle, but that doing so requires an increased level of attention and knowledge of vendor fulfillment.

Abstract: James Cory Tucker and Matt Torrence, "Collection Development for New Librarians: Advice from the Trenches," Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 28 (2004): 397–409.

In one sentence, this article purports (correctly) that library school ill prepares graduates for work in collection development, and so the authors have pulled together some tips and recommendations for starting out as a collection manager. Tucker and Torrence concede that most of these lessons are best learned on the job, but that sometimes the lack of experience upon starting a position can leave the newly hired employee bewildered, not knowing where to turn to take on difficult tasks of selection, budget management, collection assessment, and liaison activities.

To this end, the article is a good overview and can serve as a valuable reference for identifying tasks to accomplish within the first few months of starting work. These include arranging meetings with faculty, staff, and other campus organizations that might have valuable input regarding the types of materials to collect to support research and instruction. The new collection development librarian should also be careful to learn the ins and outs of budget management. I would use this article as a reference if I had some collection management duties as part of my job. Now, if they would have only been able to explain how one goes about getting a job in collection development straight out of grad school; every job in this area I've seen is looking for lots of experience, presumably because it takes a lot of on-the-job training to bring recent grads up to speed on this type of job.

Abstract: Amanda Maple and Jean Morrow, Guide to Writing Collectiion Development Policies for Music, Music Library Association Technical Reports, no. 26 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001).

As mentioned in this book's preface, this volume is adapted in part from the American Library Association's Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements (1996), and should only serve to highlight specifics regarding music collections in print, electronic, and recorded media. The format of the book is simple:

1. a checklist outlining the types of information that should be included in a music library's collection development policy
   
2. an outline of a sample written policy with examples taken from various types of music libraries (research university, conservatory, liberal arts college, sound archives, public library, etc.)
3. a complete collection development policy for Middlebury College Music Library

The book serves as a good reference source for libraries wishing to write collection development policies, but makes for pretty dry reading otherwise. Its convenient outline format, with many relevant examples, can help a collection management librarian build a comprehensive policy with the appropriate specificity to the institution. Morrow and Maple also briefly describe some popular methods for analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of a library's collection: the conspectus approach, and the narrative statement approach.

As I read this book, I was reminded about the huge breadth of music collections, including scores and sound recordings for various instruments, ensembles, genres, styles, cultures, traditions, or popular idioms. I caused me to wonder how collection developers effectively attend to all of these areas. I concluded that perhaps it is impossible, but that having a collection development policy that outlines desired collection levels, and regular reading of that policy, could help the collection developer to remember percussion music, or hard bop, or Renaissance French chansons, or audio engineering manuals, or any other area that is easy to overlook in a music market saturated with Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.

Abstract: Karen Schmidt, "Past Perfect, Future Tense: A Survey of Issues in Collection Development," Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 28 (2004): 360-372.

Schmidt's article is about change. And as one of the areas of librarianship that has been most affected by the rapid shift to electronic access, I found it appropriate to read her comments on how collection management librarians have been handling changes in monetary resources and the marketplace for information resources Indeed the very concept of a collection is changing from a group of materials having a physical location and a fixed number to fluid collections of print and digital content that changes rapidly over time, and not always in the direction of increased access.

Schmidt doesn't provide any new observations about potential challenges facing library collection developers, nor does she really suggest any ideas for solving them. One of her most important observations, however, is that even when faced with rapid changes in workflow, technical skill sets, library-vendor relations, media formats, etc., librarians can and should look to skills that set them apart for librarian work in the first place: "Qualities of leadership, of vision, of risk-taking, of emotion are imperative. The future of collections is one of collaboration. The successful collections leader requires both grounding in business and a willingness to reach out and establish new relationships." For me, these are encouraging words, even if they are directed more toward mid-to-late career librarians who haven't lived their formative years in front of a PC.

Finally, she reminds the reader that collecting is active, implying that we must not complacently sit around for the challenges of the information age to wash over us. Rather, we can be active participants for forging new solutions, or at least ride the chaotic wave of the information onslaught without falling off the board. Just as the surfer relies upon the antagonistic force of the wave to stay standing, Schmidt reminds us that the uncertainty of the future can help propel us forward: "The future is tense. We need to remind ourselves on occasion that tension moves us forward."

Abstract: Selections from Richard Griscom and Amanda Maple, eds., Music Librarianship at the Turn of the Century, Music Library Association Technical Reports, no. 27 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000).

Articles I read:
Daniel Zager, "Collection Development and Management"
John Shepard, "Preservation"
George Sturm, "Music Publishing"
Tom Moore, "Sound Recordings"
John and Jude Lubrano, "The Antiquarian Music Market"


This collection of articles, focusing on the current state of affairs and possibilities for the near future of music librarianship, was initially published as a special issue of Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (56:3) in March 2000. Each author brings perspicacious insight into the challenges of his (all males, for some reason) discipline at the beginning of the new millennium. Reading these articles almost seven years later, we find that many of the problems mentioned have not yet been solved. Let's take a look at some examples:

Zager notes that the rapid change in formats during the nineties opened new windows of opportunities for finding and using information more effectively, but stagnating or diminishing library budgets put strain on collection building, as selectors have even more media formats from which to choose. Zager also identifies the challenges of physical spaces to store collections, and the possibilities and limitations of cooperative collection building, still a topic of considerable speculation and debate in the library world.

Shepard identifies the ephemeral nature of many media formats particular to music. He notes that while the issue of acidic paper has largely been solved, we have not been able to arrive at a statisfactory technological solution for preserving sound recordings that are rapidly deteriorating (cylinders, DAT tapes, other magnetic tape recordings, CDs, DVDs, etc.) Digital reformatting creates its own set of problems because complex computer systems must exist that can read the digital information. In 2007, these same problems have not been solved, despite advances in image and audio recording and storage technologies. Shepard notes that librarians in the 21st century will have the daunting task of choosing what to save in the sinking ship of deteriorating audio formats, as there is far too much recorded sound to save everything in time.

Sturm, writing on the state of music publishing, notes a continuing trend of classical and avant-garde composer's scores being published in smaller and smaller markets, but also sees an increasingly sophisticated distribution network on the Web that can allow works to be produced on demand, keeping printing and warehousing expenses down while providing increased selection of materials to the world. He sees the need to concentrate on music education in performance as a way of revitalizing the market for printed music, and believes that composers will begin again to write art music that appeals to more people, at skill levels that are approachable.

While the printed music market is dwindling, the sound recording market has exploded, and although Moore wrote this article in 2000, he recognized the huge potential impact of digital delivery of music. The iPod appeared in October 2001 with the iTunes Music Store as a way of delivering music legally to consumers. The same reservations Moore mentioned about the quality of the compressed audio formats used online affect libraries' decisions to (not) collect music in this format, for the time being. I expect this will change as digital music delivery becomes the dominant format for popular, folk, and world musics.

Finally, the Lubranos believe that antiquarian materials will become some of the most important items in a library's collection as document delivery, ILL, and other resource sharing programs expand. These unique, rare, items are the foundation for source studies scholarship, and provide tangible media that can communicate historical data not found in reprints or digital documents. The Lubranos see the burgeoning online market for used and antiquarian books as a possible boon for antiquarian collectors and dealers, and this has proven to be the case in the years following this article's publication.

In all, these five articles are interesting cameos into the Zeitgeist of music librarianship at the turn of the century. It has been a good, if brief, overview into the challenges that collection managers face in the 21st century, and maintains its relevancy for the time being.

Abstract: Katie Maier-O'Shea, "The Library of Babel: Making Sense of Collection Management in a Postmodern World," Journal of Academic Librarianship 31, no. 2 (2005): 143-50.

Maier-O'Shea writes a thought provoking article about currents of change in higher education, library collection development, and publishing, showing how these are exhibit a more "postmodern" sensibility. She identifies three characteristics of postmodernism and shows how libraries fit them. These characteristics are:

1. a resistance to hierarchy and control (exhibited by increasing interdisciplinary nature of scholarship, growing lack of control over print and electronic resources);
   
2. nonlinear thinking (manifest by "hypertext", folksonomic searching and access of information in the digital age as opposed to more linear, hierarchical constructs); and
3. the blurring of boundaries (shown by the rapid increase in new, multimedia formats that are accessed in a multitude of delivery avenues).
   

Despite some interesting comments on libraries affected by forces identified as placing "postmodern" pressures on library collection management and budgeting policies, the author of this article seems to be seeing the situation with a decidedly "modernist" sensibility, presenting these pressures as difficulties with no clear solution. A "postmodern" perspective would accept the extreme unlikelihood of actually finding a solution, choosing rather to revel in the multiplicity of options available to one who rejects the notion of a "one true path" to collection development.

Unfortunately, postmodernism and science don't make good bedfellows, and trying to wholeheartedly adopt it as a way of understanding collection management in libraries could prove unfruitful. Although a "softer" science, it still is called library science because we would like to think that we can apply the scientific method and statistical analysis to enlighten our understanding of information organization, access, collection, and instruction. As long as we taxonomize, deduce, classify, and survey our collections and users, we will constantly be troubled by the unexpected, the resistance of knowledge and information to being stored, described, and used in any quantifiably measurable way. And being troubled isn't what postmodernists do; rather, they see the absurdity of the search for such knowledge, and highlight the irony that we seek the information nonetheless.

In the end, the pithiest observation of Maier-O'Shea's article comes in her conclusion: "These ideas are clearly in the formative stage... Lacking a clearly articulated vocabulary about how to build collections in a postmodern electronic environment, our conversation sounds, at times, like babbling." Clearly, her ideas are in their formative stage; so much so, that it makes the reader wonder why the article was written in the first place, given that no conclusions or truly meaningful observations were made. Is this a pure example of "postmodern" scholarship, or unintentional irony about the absurdity of attempting to write about the unknowable?

Abstract: R. Michael Fling, Library Acquisition of Music, Music Library Association Basic Manual Series, no. 4 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press; Music Library Association, 2004).

I thought I would start my reviews with a work by my own internship advisor, Michael Fling. He recently retired from his position as collection manager for the music library here at Indiana University. As a capstone to a long and distinguished career, this tome serves to impart some of his expertise to the music library world.

Library Acquisition of Music gives a basic overview of some considerations that must be made for searching and ordering music scores and sound recordings in particular. These two formats pose difficulties for acquisitions staff not experienced in music terminology and particularities of publishing practices in these two mediums. For example, music scores often do not carry ISBNs, the nearly ubiquitous numbering system found on most mass-marketed books. Rather, each publisher has its own unique numbering system, which helps distinguish one publication in the publisher's catalog from other works. This becomes a difficult realm to navigate when one publisher could publish multiple versions of the same work in different score formats, including study scores, piano reductions, performance scores and parts, critical editions, etc., often with almost identical publishers numbers. Compound these nuances with the prevalence of foreign language imprints, each using their own language (sometimes non-Roman language such as Russian or Greek) to describe the type of score. Then, vendor catalogs, often omit critical information about a score that distinguishes it from another. Then, multiple reprints of public domain works by different publishers confounds the process of selecting the proper work further.

Clearly, the selection of materials for libraries requires a music expert, capable of understanding the various needs of music library patrons, the ins and outs of over 1000 years of music history, the frustrations and particularities of music publishing and distribution practices, as well as the skill to communicate with various music vendors and responsibly manage significant resources in library budgets. The book helps identify areas of trouble for music acquisitions personnel to look out for. He also provides a number of resources for locating music materials, including specialized music genres such as Jazz, microforms, used and antiquarian items, and dissertations.

Core CD Collections from eJazzLines.com

Well, I've finally finished going through the four core collection levels for CDs, plus the core collection for CD boxed sets. Its amazing how long it takes to check the library catalog for recordings. Its not a matter of matching ISBN or any other identification number. Many of these CDs are re-releases of LPs or 78s, have been remastered, and often with previously-unreleased tracks. Many of the companies that originally published these songs are no longer in business, so the re-releases are distributed by other companies. Hence, each CD on the list must be checked at the track level for a match in the catalog. This makes for long, sometimes-tedious work.

The lists contained 893 items, 597 of which I have selected for purchase. This means that the library (which includes the Archives of Traditional Music) did not own 66.85% of the titles on the lists. Looking at the first core collection level, however, shows that the library only lacks 33% of the titles; at the second level, the library lacks about 60% of the titles. This shows that the library has done better collecting what may be considered the "most important" Jazz recordings, although much can and should still be added to the collection.

I've kept each core collection list separate from the others to help Michael Fling and the future collection manager at the music library prioritize purchases. The total cost for all the items on the lists comes to $13,152.64, or $22.03 per title. This includes the expensive boxed set titles, which have anywhere between 4 and 20 CDs each. Taking them out, the total cost for the 4 core collection levels would be $9,364.11, or $16.69 per title. Not bad, but looking around online I found that many of these titles can be bought for less from Amazon or CD Universe if one would just do the work of searching for them. If the library is interested in saving $600-$1,000, this could be an option, but then one would have to make the ethical decision about whether the work eJazzLines did to compile the core lists is worth anything to the library.

Also, I guess it remains to be seen whether or not these core collection lists represent good indicators of quality recordings every library should own. That's why I'm sending the list to one of the Jazz faculty here at IU to have a look at. Thomas Walsh is interested in having a look at the work I've done thus far so he can help make some recommendations for materials I haven't yet been exposed to. It will be good to get his suggestions so as to collect materials that could have definite research impact at the university.

I'm now at about 90 hours into the internship. At this rate (about 15 hours a week) I should be done by the end of the semester. Next, I hope to take a look into reviews and lists found in current Jazz periodicals to find recent releases that would be appropriate for the collection at IU. I'll definitely have a smaller list to show for it, but I think it will be a good exercise.