TEACHING MUSIC LIBRARIANS THROUGH VERY LARGE DATABASES: Local Online Catalogues, OCLC, and RLIN

TEACHING MUSIC LIBRARIANS THROUGH VERY LARGE DATABASES: Local Online Catalogues,OCLC, and RLINAuthor(s): Mary Kay DugganSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 40, No. 3 (July-September 1993), pp. 191-197Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23508340 .

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TEACHING MUSIC LIBRARIANS THROUGH VERY LARGE DATABASES

Local Online Catalogues, OCLC, and RLIN

Mary Kay Duggan (Berkeley, CA)*

Große Datenbanken, die hundert bis tausend bibliographische Nachweise zur Musik ent

halten, sollten in den Ausbildungsplan für Musikbibliotheksstudenten einbezogen wer

den. Die Musikbestände, Suchmechanismen und Ordnungsprinzipien dreier Systeme,

OCLC, RLIN und Melvyl, werden kurz beschrieben. Die Nutzung solcher Datenbanken

für Bibliotheksschulen und Informationsstudien in Amerika werden hinsichtlich der Hard ware, Verwendbarkeit, Kostennutzung und CD-ROM-Alternativen miteinander ver

glichen. Die Anwendung großer Datenbanken kann für das Erreichen der folgenden pä

dagogischen Ziele von Nutzen sein: verfeinerte Suchstrategie, Vertrautheit mit Details

der MARC-Dokumentation, Methoden der bibliographischen Unterweisung in die Benut

zung des Katalogs, Auskunftsdienst, Verwaltung und Kataloggestaltung.

Le programme d'études des élèves bibliothécaires musicaux devrait inclure les grandes

bases de données contenant plusieurs centaines de milliers de références bibliogra

phiques en musique. Les fonds musicaux, les mécanismes de recherche et les fichiers

de trois systèmes (OCLC, RLIN et Melvyl) sont décrits brièvement. L'auteur compare

l'acquisition de ces bases de données par les écoles de bibliothèques et sciences de l'in

formation américaines en termes d'équipement, de disponibilité, de coût d'utilisation et

d'options CD-ROM. Les grandes bases de données peuvent être utilisées à des fins

pédagogiques dans les domaines suivants: stratégie de recherche sophistiquée, familiari

sation avec certains détails des notices MARC, techniques d'initiation à la recherche

bibliographique utilisées dans le catalogue, service de renseignements, gestion des col

lections et modèle de catalogue.

The premise of this paper is that very large bibliographic databases exist contain

ing hundreds of thousands of music records; as such these are important sources

of music information which belong in the curriculum of training for music library and information studies. During the past decade, librarians have begun to divide

their time between printed and computer resources for cataloguing, reference,

acquisition, and the creation of bibliographies. The syllabi of courses in schools of

library and information studies are undergoing revision as databases large and

small, online and CD-ROM, play an increasing role. With the availability of such

databases comes a challenge to teachers and practicing librarians to incorporate their music resources into training programs and library practice. This paper is not

*Mary Kay Duggan is Associate Professor of Library and Information Studies at the University of

California at Berkeley.

191



192 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 40/3

concerned with the introduction of music users to very large databases of records in MARC (Machine-Readable Catalog) format. The focus is rather on defining the music resources of very large systems, discussing how those resources can be

important in the training of music librarians, and how they can be provided to schools of library and information studies in the United States and Europe.

As examples of very large systems that may be used to teach music librarians, I have chosen those used at the University of California at Berkeley: OCLC and RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network), both introduced in the United States and now looking to European development, as well as Melvyl, the cata

logue of the state-wide University of California (see Table 1). Melvyl was

developed to be an enduser catalogue with extensive help messages and screens to aid searchers. OCLC and RLIN were developed as tools for cataloguers to

input and share cataloguing in online union catalogues. OCLC's search keys were

originally short and abbreviated to keep down the cost of online access and per item charges. Quite new interfaces for its basic catalogue include PRISM for

cataloguers (available in the United States in 1992, in Europe in 1993), ERIC for command language searches by keyword and subject, and First Search with menus of choices to assist searchers unacquainted with command language. All

three—Melvyl, OCLC, RLIN—utilize complex search mechanisms to enable music users to retrieve records from their large holdings.

The number of bibliographic records for music scores and sound recordings in the three databases is sufficiently large to indicate that real strides are being taken toward a universal bibliography of music. RLIN increased its music holdings significantly in 1992 by adding the Rigler Deutsch Index of pre-LP sound record

ings held in the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, Stanford University, Yale University, and Syracuse University. This is estimated to be 90

percent of all sound recordings produced in the United States between 1890 to the

1950s, as well as a sizeable portion of releases from other countries. The large repository of music holdings found in OCLC is also available offline by annual

subscription to two CD-ROMs. OCLC has contracted with the CD-ROM pub lisher Silver Platter to provide access to its music sound recordings through Silver Platter's software interface. Melvyl provides access to most of the holdings of music libraries in the California university system, a good portion entered through retrospective conversion projects undertaken in conjunction with OCLC.

The quality of the millions of bibliographic records varies. Recent publications in all three databases are likely to be full AACR2 MARC records, and in agree ment with established authority files available for online consultation by the user. Older converted records or large files created as units (such as the Rigler Deutsch Index) may be minimal records, or follow other cataloguing rules or authority systems. All three systems are union catalogues of holdings of many libraries, and thus give the user the privilege or burden of access to many variations of the same record. OCLC has over 5,000 contributors, many of them public libraries. RLIN

currently has less than two hundred full general members, primarily research institutions, one of the newest being the British Library. Melvyl includes the

cataloguing of nine University of California campuses, plus several other California institutions.



TEACHING MUSIC LIBRARIANS THROUGH DATABASES 193

Melvyl RLIN (Research Libraries (University of California) OCLC Information Network)

6,884,510 Books 26,000,000 Bibl. Records 17,243,165 Books

788,551 Journals 600,156 Scores 3,515,576 Serials

202,543 Scores 719,020 Sound Recordings 1,020,168 Scores

98,867 Sound Recordings 200,000 Sound Recordings + 900,000 Sound (Rigler/Deutsch)

SEARCHING: SEARCHING: SEARCHING:

Long search not allowed at peak hours no display over 256 items clustering of titles

ALSO: ALSO: ALSO:

Medline Epic (25 databases) Special Files (art, ISTC, ESTC, Current Contents First Search (menus) etc.)

some titles full text Music Library CD, 400,000 Sound Recordings

TABLE 1. Music holdings in very large databases.

Because the systems are so big, normal search strategies often produce results too large for users to process. Melvyl advises patrons to avoid long searches at peak hours and suggests alternative search commands. OCLC does not complete searches that produce over 256 items. For long searches RLIN has

developed an intermediate display of "clusters" of items, each containing many records. To finish a search an RLIN patron must choose a point in the cluster upon which to expand, sometimes missing useful entries in other clusters.

All three systems have begun to add non-catalogue files to their holdings.

Melvyl provides access to such resources as Medline and Current Contents, the latter a very current index of 6500 periodicals including seventy-seven music

titles.1 A few hundred journals are now available on Melvyl in full text, and can be downloaded and printed at users' stations in and out of the library. Through Epic, OCLC provides its basic file and twenty-five other databases. A system of Selective Dissemination of Information allows users to request full texts of articles

online or in print. RLIN has incorporated specialized files such as Rigler/Deutsch, art files, and early printed books, and is supporting research toward the use of non-standard bibliographic data, such as image material from museums and ar

chives. How are such very large databases provided to schools of library and informa

tion studies? Inclusion of bibliographic networks in library school curricula began in the United States in the 1970s with the development of local online catalogues and the need to train students in the MARC format of OCLC (and later RLIN) that

was being used to accomplish library catalogue conversion projects. OCLC agreed to grant membership, usually available only to libraries, to accredited library

1. For a list of the titles included, see Mary Kay Duggan, "Music in Today's Interdisciplinary

Information Environment," in The "Music Information Explosion" and its Impact on College Teachers

and Students, Proceedings College Music Society, 33rd Annual Meeting, 25 October 1990, edited by Thomas F. Heck (CMS Report), pp. 12-14. In press.



194 FONTES ARTIS MUS1CAE 40/3

schools in the United States. Schools are given a "standard profile" that is for the most part identical to that of member libraries. OCLC waives many fees that are

charged to regular library members, essentially charging for the hardware needed for network access (a dedicated terminal) and a flat monthly fee for Network Service and System Access. With the publication of the OCLC database on CD-ROM (CAT-CD450), library schools in the United States can also purchase a

microcomputer workstation and CD-ROM readers that are compatible for use with other computer products and receive a subscription to OCLC's basic file on

CD-ROM, paying a monthly maintenance charge for the hardware. At dedicated OCLC online terminals students also have free access to OCLC's EPIC databases

including the catalogue database, with keyword and subject searching, and have

2,000 free searches per year on First Search, with its menu system for easy access. To provide substantial use of OCLC to its students through both online and CD-ROM access, a library school incurs a considerable annual cost. At

Berkeley this is distributed across a student enrollment of about 160 students, and across the curriculum as a tool for cataloguing, reference, collection management, special services, and catalogue design. OCLC Europe is currently reviewing its

policy of provision of service to library schools in the United Kingdom and, by extension, continental Europe. In Europe computer hardware has never been made available through OCLC, and telecommunication complications have encour

aged the use of CD-ROM rather than online access. RLIN has a similar program for discounting service to library schools in the

United States. Schools purchase a dedicated terminal and pay a monthly fee for access and maintenance. In addition there is a charge of $.25 for each search which schools can absorb or pass on to individual searchers. Important to RLIN's

European presence is the 1992 membership of the British Library which will enter

catalogue records from the new library at St. Paneras to the main computer in California through a direct line from Westminster.

Since a significant portion of the cost of access to OCLC and RLIN in library schools involves the maintenance of dedicated hardware and communication

charges, availability via the Public Access Network promises to increase student use. Some libraries, for example, Columbia University Library, provide such access within the library building. Many library school students in the United States and some in Europe are given an Internet password upon enrollment and

encouraged to use national and international resources for their assignments, including hundreds of library catalogues and bulletin boards.2

Local catalogues of music materials, whether online, CD-ROM, or housed in a

single small computer, are often the best, cheapest and most-used tools for

pedagogical purposes. While the design of local tools may be far from the best available for information access, such catalogues are nevertheless readily available for class exercises and can be a direct link to a local and perhaps a regional collection. However, it is often difficult to create the programming necessary to utilize local catalogues for instruction in preparing bibliographic records. OCLC

2. Mary Kay Duggan, "Electronic Information and Applications in Musicology and Music Theory," Library Trends 40:4 (Spring 1992), 764-65.




includes software for the creation of records with access to the basic file for copy cataloguing and with space for creating student files of records. There is also

strong competition from commercial systems which can supply single computer workstations providing sophisticated access and easy creation of student files.

Many library schools today provide online links to local and regional library catalogues that utilize dial-up access, offering students a chance to compare access and quality of records from different kinds of libraries.

What pedagogical goals might such databases serve for music librarians? With the provision of easy and frequent access to selected databases, students become confident users who can then develop a critical understanding of the capabilities and future possibilities of digital information in the rapidly changing parameters of our professional lives. When students become familiar with fields specific to music materials—such as scores and sound recordings, music key, or opus number—as these are included in general bibliographic tools of access, they learn to appreciate them as aids to music researchers.

As major information tools for music become available outside the music library in the computer installations of a general library, on networks to academic offices and residence halls, and through modems to individuals in homes, the music librar ian's service role can change from one of reactive interaction with individuals

—response to requests for information or for finding tools in the local collec tion—to a proactive instructional mode. To alert general library users to the

existence of invisible electronic information about music available in the system, the music librarian can create signs, brochures, newsletters, give classes, and

provide electronic network aids to the information available there.3

By attempting to use full information from MARC records in very large databases, students comprehend the difficulties in search strategy involved. One

interesting exercise that combines music MARC facility, search strategy, and

catalogue design asks students to take a musical score and a sound recording from their personal collection and to retrieve several catalogue records for the items from the three large databases, to print the variants, and to compare the records in terms of utility to the user. The same exercise provides a lesson in catalogue

design as students are asked to record their search strategies, the information that they would have liked to use to search, and the difficulties they encountered in entering that information for a successful search. Discussion in class might then

focus, for example, on searching or limiting by form of composition (MARC tag 048: see Figure 1) a task which requires a list of the codes close at hand, and the

difficulty in creating a system that would provide such lists to users.

One of the current research projects at Berkeley allows users to search Melvyl at a workstation and complete the search with software on the individual machine.

In such a system a music library could provide online access to lists of codes for

such fields as form of composition or instrumentation for post-processing, as well

as add easy menus to assist users in carrying out searches specific to music.

3. See reference desk questions and answers in "Using the GLADIS and MELVYL Online

Catalogs" by Ann Basart, Cum notis variorum, no. 124 (July 1988), 9-10; Susan Bower, "Music in

the Melvyl Catalog," DLA Bulletin (1989), 5-8, 15.



196 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 40/3

FIN PN Chausson ALS FCP SG ALS 048 VA01 ALS 048 OA

1) Chausson, Ernest, 1855-1899. [Songs. Selections] Poeme de l'amour et de la mer :

[SOUND RECORDING] / (France : Erato ; P1983.) c-9118 NJRG87-R423 2) Chausson, Ernest, 1855-1899. [Poeme de l'amour et de la mer [SOUND RECORDING]] Poem of love and the sea, (Angel [1973]) c-9665 NJRG72751133-R M1611 Variant search statement: FIN PN CHAUSSON ALS FCP SG ALS 048 VA01 AND 048 OA

FIGURE 1. A sample search in RLIN using MARC tag 048 and the "also" command.

Students participating in on-site training in a music library will be able to witness how frequently the online tool becomes a first step in serving user needs in both catalogue searches and reference questions. Observation of service at a music reference desk that has easy access to all three of our very large databases will quickly prove that the system with the best interface will be used first, even if there is a small fee per search, and that efficient librarians will learn to use the online tool at their fingertips rather than walk far from the telephone or questioner to a printed tool that might be less up-to-date. Since commercial bibliographic software such as ProCite has been written to interface with OCLC or with software developed to interface with your own online catalogue, assignments can ask students to create bibliographies of books, articles, scores, or sound record

ings for instructors' courses or for post-graduate researchers, sorted by field and

printed in the desired format.

Very large databases can be used to learn collection management. A catalogue that extends beyond a single music library to include regional holdings becomes a tool for the analysis of comparative collection development policies, and can

provide information needed for neighboring institutions to integrate their goals. Students can use OCLC's collection analysis software to compare the music

holdings in specified call numbers; thus they can compare the collections of different music libraries of approximately the same size.

As libraries select online catalogues, music librarians often take on responsi bility for the design of computerized information for music, joining together in committees to select or design local catalogues, actively lobbying to make sure music records are well represented, and analyzing and proposing methods of access to music records. They may create user groups for regional or national information products to share solutions to problems or to voice their concerns about music access.4

4. An example is the MOUG Newsletter (Music OCLC Users Group). The Best of MOU G is a

republication of lists of uniform titles along with the corresponding authority record control numbers for the works of J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, F. J. Haydn, and Franz Schubert. By having the authority record control number, a user can go directly to an authority record which is otherwise inaccessible due to the 256 record limit. For uniform titles of Antonio Vivaldi, see MOUG Newsletter, no. 31. An online users' group is NOTMUS-L (Notis Music Library List) that allows members to interact through the Internet. Such groups arrange meetings in conjunction with annual Music Library Association

meetings.




The cost of acquiring electronic information has changed the nature of acqui sition policies and forced library educators and librarians to band together to lobby for the provision of sample CD-ROM databases in library schools and for lowcost workstations giving online access to large databases. In preparation for service on

committees, students can be asked to review the role of existing large biblio

graphic databases and to make predictions about the future of library and gov ernmental investment in such databases as well as the position of music informa tion in steps toward universal bibliography.



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TEACHING MUSIC LIBRARIANS THROUGH VERY LARGE DATABASES: Local Online Catalogues, OCLC, and RLIN