UC/STANFORD MUSIC LIBRARIANS
Minutes of the Berkeley Meeting
Monday, November 11, 1996
Morrison Hall, UC Berkeley

Present: Garrett Bowles (UCSD), Susan Bower (UCSB), Michael Colby, Chair (UCD), Mary Kay Duggan (UCB), Steve Fry (UCLA), Nancy Lorimer (S), John Roberts (UCB), Barbara Sawka (S), Phil Schreur (S), Louise Spear (UCLA), John Tanno (UCR), Mimi Tashiro (S), Gordon Theil (UCLA), Judy Tsou (UCB).

  • The meeting was called to order at 10:35 by Michael Colby. Susan asked to postpone the first agenda item (the serials agreement) until the UCLA contingent arrived.

  • UC/SML Web site. Garrett reported on the Web site for the UC Music Librarians group, which he maintains at UCSD. The site currently Includes the list of UC/Stanford music serials holdings and current subscribers, with commitments to continue. It also contains the agenda and minutes of UC/SML meetings, the annual reports, and a directory of members with mail and e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.
    The question of site security arose. The group thought the minutes and directory of addresses/phone numbers should remain closed to the public. If something seems useful to the public, it should be placed elsewhere, perhaps in another directory open to the public. Also, it was suggested that the serials list might be massaged and placed in another directory. However, the data is not totally accurate, and subscription details are not entirely up-to-date, as it is an unfinished document and intended to remain a work in progress. Therefore it could be misleading to the public. MELVYL may one day be able to indicate whether subscriptions are current. John Tanno suggested listing new collections and new staff on the web page. The group congratulated Garrett for his great work and efforts on the web site.

  • Update on the Serials agreement. Susan reported on the serials project. She has maintained it on dBase III+, which can be integrated with many good database management programs like Foxpro and Access. Susan presented for discussion the continuing list of serials received by UC/SML libraries. Five-year subscription commitments were agreed to by the following institutions: Susan further reported that the Memorandum of Agreement for the music serials commitments had been approved and signed by the collection development officers of each campus. Gordon volunteered to provide the agreement to Garrett in electronic form to place on the UC/SML web page.

  • RILM on MELVYL. Garrett reported on the RILM Task Force's testing of RILM on MELVYL using both native mode and the Z39.50 interface. Susan , Lorelei Tanji (UCI), and Garrett are on the Task Force. Susan tested the Z39.50 version, Lorelei tested the native mode, and Garrett put guides sheets for basic and advanced native mode RILM searching on the UCML/S web page. He noted that while the RILM database was very dirty--mostly because of technical problems--it was also rich in indexing and searching capabilities. He asked that the UC/SML group play with the database and describe their experiences to the Task Force.
    Garrett further reported that all 31 search modules were now available in native mode instead of the 19 previously available. He assured the group that members of the Task Force are available for training and technical assistance. He pointed out that since journal indexes were essentially title-word oriented, being focused on prose text, terms are more important than uniform titles on the database, the only truncation available with the + is the English plural ("s"), and umlauts are ignored. He confirmed that RILM will be available in Z39.50 format on a test basis soon. Gordon observed that MELVYL e-mail works from native mode, but not through the Z39.50 databases, and Garrett added that the number of citations able to be e-mailed is 20. John Tanno praised RILM for attempting to keep the indexing up to date while compiling abstracts later.
    Michael led a brief discussion on the International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP). He and Garrett serve on the MLA- inspired IIMP advisory committee. Comments included the thought that IIMP was a slick product but without much data at this point, and the data seems pretty uneven.
    Mimi mentioned that Stanford was testing RILM on Socrates, and was discovering problems with the data. She found problems especially with publishers, meetings, and series entries, most of which were initiated from the OCLC database and not the indexing. John Tanno brought out the experiences of his music bibliography class students, who compared RILM on FirstSearch with the CD-ROM version. They found the FirstSearch version clunky and old fashioned and preferred the CD- ROM. Susan noted that UCSB's main problem with RILM was that they only were allowed 5 ports for its use. There was discussion about getting hits without using the colon and the problems with using the s (for "search") before actual search commands.
    There was discussion about which campus bought which versions of Music Index (MI) and IIMP. Davis chose IIMP over MI because the interface looks more like other familiar databases. UCSB chose IIMP and cancelled the print form of MI. UCSD chose neither IIMP or MI on CD ROM, but is awaiting the web version of IIMP. UCB didn't order IIMP on CD ROM. UCLA used savings from the cancelled RILM CD-ROM to buy IIMP and MI on CD ROM. UCR didn't order either the new MI or IIMP CD- ROMS . Stanford chose the IIMP but not the MI on CD- ROM. UCI chose IIMP.

  • Future projects: Contemporary composers. Steve noted that UCLA had cancelled their contemporary composers blanket with Harrassowitz because few people used the scores. He said he had talked to Bonna Boettcher at Bowling Green Univ. about the consortium approval plan with Front for contemporary composers scores among Ohio institutions. They were apparently satisfied. Susan said that UCSB reviewed their composers list with faculty every few years. John Roberts thought the consortium might work, but not necessarily through Front. Michael brought up David Day's l993 list of contemporary composers collected in major U.S. institutions. Gordon pointed out that it would be difficult to make a commitment to comprehensive coverage of a composer. Susan asked if this project would include sound recordings. John Roberts suggested starting with American composers, and noted that the music issued by smaller publishers would be important to include. Mimi noted that she is currently surveying Stanford faculty about contemporary composers they want represented. It was decided that Garrett would chair a committee to study the issue. Steve, Mimi and John Roberts will serve on the committee.

    Michael suggested the UC/SML group meet during the Fall joint SCC/NCC MLA meeting, which will be among the northern campuses.

    John Tanno reported on Infomine, the Arts internet engine mounted on a DLA Sun workstation. He asked for volunteers to contribute music sources on it. Susan pointed to problems with taking responsibility for particular areas of indexing on Infomine. John pointed out that Lorelei was maintaining music on Infomine at this point.

  • Campus reports. Michael adjourned the meeting at 3:48pm.

    ACTIONS:

    Stephen Fry,
    Temporary UC/SML Secretary
    With gracious assistance from Mary Kay Duggan
    November 19, 1996