The Music Library at the University of Washington is fortunate to count among its holdings a substantial collection of rare musical scores. A highlight of our special collections is the William Crawford III Music Collection. Given to the UW in 2014, the Crawford Collection includes over 700 rare, early-edition vocal scores, spanning six centuries…[Read more]

As librarians, we recognize that the ways in which our students access information are changing, rapidly and dramatically. The students we work with today face an information landscape that is often very different from what we remember from our student years. So much of what our music students need is seemingly readily available online through…[Read more]

Critlib, or critical librarianship, is the discussion and application of social justice issues in the library field. Generally, the application of critlib has been focused on information literacy and pedagogy, as well as cataloging, but one important aspect of the discussion that is often overlooked is that of library management. Just like…[Read more]

Proposal for Book ‘Em: Libraries, Librarians, and Information in Mystery Fiction, 1970-2018

Many academic libraries conduct extensive user studies when redesigning their websites, considering characteristics such as design features, information architecture, and link and information placement. One of the less studied aspects impacting library website usability is choice of language. This article presents the results of a usability study…[Read more]

DocPerform is a multi- and interdisciplinary research project based at City, University of London. Led by members of the Department of Library & Information Science, it comprises scholars and practitioners from the fields of performing arts and library & information science. The project concerns conceptual, methodological and technological…[Read more]

Argues that the list of Core Library Values compiled by the American Library Association should be applied to our broader information landscape, not just to libraries.

This essay suggests that there has been a relative lack of digitally enabled historical research on the recent past, when compared to earlier periods of history. It explores why this might be the case, focussing in particular on both the obstacles and some missing drivers to mass digitisation of primary sources for the 20th century. It suggests…[Read more]

Think back to your first year of college. How did you feel? Eager? Excited? Maybe also fearful, anxious about fitting in, making friends, or being successful? First-year students have a lot on their minds. It can be challenging to help them forge a meaningful connection with the library. Amidst the internal cacophony generated by the transition to…[Read more]

This presentation defines BEAM and discusses how the author introduced it in a graduate-level music bibliography course.

Open access has changed. At the beginning of the millennium, it was portrayed in a romanticizing way and was embedded in a conceptual ensemble of participation, democratization, digital commons and equality. Nowadays, open access seems to be exclusive: to the extent that commercial players have discovered it as a business model and article fees…[Read more]

As cultural heritage collections become available online they carry the promise of ‘access’ – new audiences, new uses, new understandings. But access is never simply open. Limits are imposed, structures are defined, categories are created. Decisions are made about what gets digitised and why. This chapter will describe a series of exper…[Read more]

The process of managing information in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) design projects remained relatively unchanged between publication of works of Bavarian theorist Albrecht Dürer and French mathematician Gaspard Monge in the 1500s and 1700s respectively, and the widespread adoption of computer aided design (CAD) in the early…[Read more]

Der Markt für wissenschaftliche Informationen hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten einen enormen Konzentrationsprozess durchlaufen, und zwar nicht nur was Publikationen, sondern Produkte des gesamten akademischen Workflows betrifft. Dies könnte am Ende zu einem „end-to-end lock-in” führen. Sowohl um dieser Entwicklung etwas entgegenzusetzen als auch…[Read more]

Given the unique cultural artifacts and ephemera contained in music libraries, music librarians spend much of our time concerned with the description of materials that fall outside the mainstream expectations of descriptive cataloging. Such diverse objects include dance manuals, record carriers, magazines, posters, and other promotional materials.…[Read more]

Shared productivity applications like Google Docs have become commonplace in libraries, but there are many other free, web-based resources that librarians can use for staff management and collaboration. Library staff at BGSU have been using applications such as Dropbox, Hiveminder, and Floorplanner, as well as many others, for such tasks. We will…[Read more]

Social justice and critical theory frameworks have been utilized to discuss library pedagogy and cataloging, but librarians have been slow in applying critical theory to how we actually manage libraries and lead staff. Management is not glamorous; rather, many still hold the traditional view of management as upholding hierarchical values. At its…[Read more]