• 2004 SEMLA Annual Meeting in Atlanta
• From the Chair
• Member news
• Crossword puzzle p. 6
• Fundraising update
• Fineman memorial
• East Carolina receives awards
• Ole Miss receives collection
• Minutes, business meeting

2004 SEMLA Annual Meeting in Atlanta

Brenda Beasley

The Southeast Chapter of the Music Library Association celebrated its 2004 annual meeting, October 7 - 9, in Atlanta, Georgia on the beautiful campus of Emory University. The hotel, opening reception, and banquet were located in the nearby town of Decatur, Georgia, a delightful tree-lined community in East Atlanta.

The program committee at the Robert W. Woodruff Library: Lenny Bertrand, Joyce Clinkscales, and Dennis Clark

Registration and opening reception were held in the rotunda of the Old DeKalb County Courthouse on the Square. Built in 1898 in federal style, the Courthouse now houses the DeKalb County History Center and serves as a welcome center for the town of Decatur. And welcoming it was, as members greeted one another over an amazing spread of fresh fruit and cheeses, breads, quesadillas, exotic pocket sandwiches and plentiful wine. Our meetings were held in the Robert W. Woodruff Library, where our forty-eight attendees enjoyed an enriching program covering the gamut from biographical and ethnic collections to some of the legal and technical challenges faced by music librarians. The Program Committee did an excellent job of coordinating this diverse palate of sessions. Many thanks to Leonard Bertrand, Chair (Tulane), Dennis Clark (Vanderbilt) and Joyce Clinkscales (Emory) for a fine program! Dr. Linda Matthews, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries, gave us a warm welcome that included an overview of the history of Emory University. Founded as a Methodist college in 1836, its first president, Warren Candler, was brother to the Coca-Cola magnate, Asa Candler, who donated $1 million, making the transformation of Emory College into Emory University possible in 1915. Today Emory is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse university communities in the United States. Its 11,300 students (half are graduate students) and 2,500 faculty members display the highest of academic standards. The university is known for its outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, with major graduate emphases in medicine, law, theology, and business.

Our first presenter, Randall K. Burkett, is Curator of African-American Collections in Woodruff Library's Special Collections and Archives. His topic, The William L. Dawson Papers: a Music Archive Extraordinaire , discussed the acquisition of the collection from the Dawson family. Burkett described how the Dawson papers enhance Emory’s African- American Collection, which includes periodicals, sheet music, sound recordings and manuscript collections. Dawson (1899-1990), an African American composer and conductor of the Tuskegee Institute Choir, brought black folk songs from his youth to the classical concert halls of New York City through his most famous work, The Negro Folk Symphony. An exhibition of these materials will be displayed in the Schatten Gallery of the Woodruff Library, Jan. 18-June 30, 2005. For more information, see: http://specialcollections.library.emory.edu/brochureaa.html

Next, Susan Potts McDonald, Coordinator for Arrangement and Description Services, told us more about Dawson, his collection, and about arranging these materials. There is much correspondence, both professional and personal, including letters to other black musicians of the day and personal letters to his wife. Dawson collected works of black composers and publishers, many photographs of the Tuskegee Institute, including some of him conducting various ensembles. Also in his papers are field recordings made on his trip to West Africa, rehearsal and concert recordings of choral music, popular music, and spirituals, and extensive news clippings and journal articles.

Kate Murray, A/V Media Collections Conservator, shared preservation challenges presented by the Dawson collection. There are numerous sound recording formats in the collection, including acetate, cardboard, plastic, aluminum and floppy vinyl demo discs, each requiring different treatment. Other concerns are the fragility of these materials, susceptibility to mold, the need for specialized playback equipment, duplication across various formats, and the numerous unidentified recordings needing research. Murray played some preservation-enhanced and some unedited recordings from the collection.

The morning break was held in the Special Collections area. We were allowed to go out on the balcony, which circled the entire 10th floor, for a spectacular view of the campus and its abundant foliage. Among the more than 70,000 volumes in Special Collections are collections of Irish literature, including rare editions of W. B. Yeats, Victorian literature, incunabulae, Southern authors and Southern imprints, contemporary Irish poets, Confederate imprints, and of course, the African-American Collection. Manuscript collections include the papers of John Wesley, Sam Nunn, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Bobby Jones, and the Gone with the Wind collection. The University Archives are also located here: http://specialcollections.library.emory.edu/

Hodges discussed legislation that was introduced as a means of deterring illegal file transfer, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004, and the Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act of 2004. Some universities such as Penn State recognize that their students will continue downloading regardless of the law, so they have provided a legal option for students by paying a licensing fee that allows a certain number of songs per student each month. The debate over the legislation of illegal downloading involves compromising the privacy of individuals who can now be monitored for illegal activity. Questions arise over who is responsible for illegal activity--the computer companies and liaisons like Napster who provide the technology, or the individuals who take advantage of it.

After an al fresco lunch on the library patio, the early afternoon session began in a small group format. Emory Library Human Resources Officer Dianne Smith and HR Associate Linda Nodine gave a presentation on the topic, How to Hire the Right Person. Guidelines and examples were handed out to participants, encouraging a structured approach for search committees. Things to keep in mind are required abilities vs. desired qualifications--what qualities must one bring to the job and what can they be trained to do. During the afternoon break the group went to the 4th Floor to tour the Heilbrun Music and Media Library with its state-of-the-art workstations and music collections. In addition to its books, scores and periodicals, patrons can find the library's audiovisual collections and listening facilities, as well as a language lab and classroom. The space that formerly held the Music library has been renovated into the Matheson Reading Room, which mirrors the grand reading room of a century ago. It is a stunning space with its arched windows, soaring ceiling, chandeliers, and library tables with reading lamps.

Al fresco lunch on the library patio

David Hursh, Music Librarian at East Carolina University, led the 3:00 session, Good Medicine and Good Music: The Virtual Life of Mrs. Joe Person. Hursh was approached by the grandson of Alice Morgan Person about donating the Person materials to ECU. When Hursh realized the rarity of this collection and its regional importance, he accepted it without hesitation. Mrs. Person was a renaissance woman in the late 1800s: pianist and composer, wife of a Confederate soldier, mother, herb gatherer, entrepreneur, inventor of "Mrs. Joe Person's Remedy," and women’s rights advocate. Her demonstration of pianos at the Raleigh Exhibition led to many more performances, traveling cross-country to exhibitions featuring her best-known works: A Collection of Popular Airs and Plantation Melodies and The Blue Alsatian Mountains. For more information, see: http://www.lib.ecu.edu/digital/music/person/

The last session of the day featured Dennis Clark, Music Librarian at Vanderbilt University. His presentation, Under African Skies: Recording and Collecting the Music of Uganda, included video footage of his trip to Kampala, Uganda, to record and preserve the traditional and contemporary folk music of the Ugandan people. With the widespread epidemic of HIV/AIDS, Ugandans are concerned that their traditional music might vanish. They have embraced this project and have learned how to continue recording their music on their own. The CDs they record are sent to Vanderbilt to be archived and studied by researchers. Clark also passed around a traditional banjo-lyre made of wood, hide, and tanned skin--an instrument played by many Ugandans. For more information, see: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases?id=12110

Banquet at the Watershed Restaurant

Friday night's banquet was held at the Watershed Restaurant, a local treasure partially owned by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls. Housed in a converted garage, the place had a "Pottery-Barn-meets-70s-Retro" ambiance, with its soft greens and blues mingled with industrial features. Southern specialties were served, such as country captain or salmon croquettes with creamy grits and spinach, along with celebrity Chef Scott Peacock's award-winning, made-from-scratch desserts. Saturday morning brought a delightful session in the Pitts Theology Library. The vaulted, beamed ceiling bespeaks the library’s origins as a chapel, where attendance was mandatory in the early days of Emory. There are four levels all open in the center to view the magnificent ceiling. It feels like a theology library. I hope their new facility, now in the planning stages, can retain some of the hallowed, gothic features enjoyed by its current library.

Dr. M. Patrick Graham, Director, exhibited several dozen hymnals, spanning over five centuries of publication, for our group to peruse. In his opening remarks he stated that the entire holdings at Pitts include over 525,000 volumes, 20% of which are rare books. The Pitts Library subscribes to more than 1,500 periodicals, and typically adds over 21,000 volumes to its collections annually. There are about 15,000 works of English and American hymnody and psalmody, a collection that is second in size only to the Library of Congress. The core collection of 5,000 hymnals was purchased from the Harvard Theological Seminary in 1975. Ten thousand images of woodcuts have been digitized for free downloading for use in church bulletins or programs. See: http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/woodcuts.htm

Dr. Harry Eskew, Dean Emeritus of Music at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisiana, has used the hymnal collection perhaps as much as anyone. He presented highlights that focused on pivotal Southern imprints and Southern hymn writers of prominence. Thanks to all the presenters for their time and for sharing their excellent work. Again, thank you, Local Arrangement Committee, for the superb food, transportation, lodging, dining, meeting facilities, and local entertainment and pre-/post-tour options! Kudos to Joyce Clinkscales, Chair (Emory University), Christine de Catanzaro (Georgia State University), Guy Leach (Georgia State University), and Richard Golden (Emory University) for a successful, memorable meeting!

Harry Eskew and Lenny Bertrand

Happy New Year from the almost-frozen North (of the chapter, anyway)! Hey—compared to some of you, it’s pretty cold here in NORTH Carolina. 2004 was yet another great year, with our interim meeting in Crystal City, VA and our annual meeting at beautiful Emory University in Atlanta. You’ll enjoy reading Brenda Beasley’s account of our meeting in this issue—she manages to make a conference sound like a travelog to some exotic locale. Thank you, Brenda!

Many thanks to Local Arrangements Chair Extraordinaire Joyce Clinkscales and her tireless committee of Christine de Catanzaro, Guy Leach and Richard Golden. If there were any snags at our conference, the committee must have kept them to themselves because we sure weren’t aware of any. And thanks also to the Program Committee, Lenny Bertrand, chair, along with Dennis Clark and Joyce Clinkscales, who assembled a wonderful range of presentations, from showing off Emory treasures, to hiring the right person, to surviving library integration, to pursuing Ugandan music on mopeds, and more.

Among other business at the Emory meeting, we elected new officers to the Board and bade “old” ones farewell. Welcome to Margaret Kaus, Vice- Chair/Chair-Elect and Robena Cornwell, Member-at- Large! And thank you to the Nominating Committee— Laurel Whisler (chair), Lois Kuyper-Rushing and Alan Ringwood—for assembling such a great slate of candidates. I am forever indebted to outgoing Board members Sarah Dorsey and Laurel Whisler for their wise counsel, hard work and unparalleled dedication to the chapter. We do meetings so well, you won’t want to miss our interim chapter meeting, scheduled for 7-9pm, Friday, February 17 at the Vancouver MLA. I hope we have a strong showing of Southeasterners there! We’ll be firming up plans for hosting MLA in Memphis next year. Be sure to bring along your blues sunglasses, Elvis wigs, or Egyptian headdresses, and be prepared to toss rubber duckies at the MLA business meeting when we issue the official invitation!

Diane Steinhaus leads the business meeting in Atlanta

As I write we are entering Phase II of our fundraising efforts for the MLA 75th Anniversary commission— corporate donations. If you haven’t done so already, we need your help approaching local and regional business for support. Laurel Whisler the Wonderful is the tireless (well, she does get tired sometimes) force behind SEMLA’s fundraising efforts. Please see her update in this newsletter and contact her if you can help. There’s still much to do before Memphis 2006.

This issue of Breve Notes marks the first under our new editor, John Leslie. Our former editor, the imitable Alan Ringwood, has accepted a new position at UT Austin—we wish him well! I look forward to a long and productive tenure for John, who has hit the ground running and I know will do a great job as well. Be sure to send all your interesting tidbits to John for future issues!

Gene Leonardi, Music Librarian at NC Central University in Durham for over 30 years, retired in April 2004. Congratulations, Gene!

Harry Eskew is author of the article "Shape-Note Tradition" in the revised and enlarged edition of the reference work, Key Words in Church Music, ed. by Carl Schalk (Concordia, 2004).

David Hursh has authored two recent articles: “Good Medicine and Good Music: The Virtual Life of Mrs. Joe Person at East Carolina University,” published in North Carolina Libraries (Summer 2004): http://www.nclaonline.org/NCL ; and, “Calling All Academic Music Library Reference Desks,” appearing in Music Reference Services Quarterly 8, no. 3 (2004): 63-81.

Fund Raising Update for MLA 75th Anniversary Conference

As you know, SEMLA is the host for MLA's 75th Anniversary Conference in Memphis, February 2006. Phase One, individual giving by SEMLA, is complete. Our giving and pledges, in addition to the generous gift from the Music Library Service Company, totaled $4,425.

On behalf of the LAC Fund Raising Committee, let me publicly thank the following people for their generous pledge or donation in support of the commission:

We are now in Phase Two, in which we contact local and regional businesses and corporations. A solicitation packet has been mailed to one SEMLA member per institution for assistance in seeking these donations. If you did not receive a packet and would like to participate, please e-mail me (Laurel.Whisler@furman.edu). Our hope is that those who received packets will seek assistance from others at their institution and coordinate fund raising efforts with any other SEMLA members who might work in the same city to avoid multiple requests from the same company.

Our overall fundraising goal is in excess of $20,000, which includes MLA's portion of the commission and such conference expenses as banquet and exhibit opening entertainment, 75th Anniversary celebratory events, and partial subsidy of the concert tickets. We have other fund-raising opportunities to explore (contacting potential MLA individual donors and our own institutions, for example), but businesses and corporations will be our most significant source of revenue. Let me thank you in advance for your continued assistance in this effort.

Laurel Whisler
Chair, LAC Fund Raising Committee, MLA 2006

Memorial Note for Yale Fineman

John Druesedow, Duke University

We note sadly the recent passing of Yale Fineman, who was a member of SEMLA when he was User Services Librarian at Duke University (November of 1998 to July of 2002). From Duke, Yale went to the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was Music Librarian and Head of Reference and Circulation Collections at the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library. Over the past two years, he waged a truly remarkable and courageous battle with cancer. Last spring, SEMLA and the Atlantic Chapter of MLA commissioned a guitar piece, Cascada, composed by John Mayrose, a graduate student at Duke, for Yale; it has been performed in public on two occasions in Durham.

Yale was a graduate of the University of Massachusetts (Boston) in music, Tufts University in musicology, and the University of Pittsburgh in library science. He was also a virtuoso guitarist who at one time considered a performance career. A great admirer of Albéniz, he compiled the Spanish composer’s premier website, “ The Life and Music of Isaac Albéniz,” which presently stands first in the Google array for Albéniz. And lest we forget, Yale compiled a pathbreaking website for classical music, DW3.

Also not to be forgotten: Yale greatly loved Spain— he was fluent in Spanish—and traveled there a number of times. He said he felt at home in Madrid.

Yale and Carol Fineman were married in the spring of 1999 in the Thomas Room of Duke’s Lilly Library (SEMLA met there for one session during the annual meeting in 2003). The marriage ceremony was performed by Roger Loyd, Director of the Divinity School Library at Duke. Carol’s address is 3402 Pendleton Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20902.

East Carolina University’s Music Library received two awards from The North Carolina Society of Historians on October 9 for a digital exhibit titled Alice Person: Good Medicine and Good Music. The exhibit presents the life of a unique 19th century North Carolina folk musician, patent medicine entrepreneur, and women's rights advocate, Alice Person. The Paul Green Multimedia Award recognized the exhibit for promoting NC history through creative and artistic methods, and the Paul Jehu Barringer Award was a special honor, which this year was given to only 2 of nearly 800 entries. ECU Head Music Librarian, David Hursh, served as principal investigator for the exhibit.

The University of Mississippi’s Blues Archive has received the Sheldon Harris Blues, Jazz and Black Music Culture Collection; Measuring 240 linear feet, the collection materials range from the 1830s to the 1990s. The collection consists of mixed media: monographs, periodicals, wax cylinders, 78 rpm records, 45 rpm records, 33 1/3 rpm records, compact discs, open reel audio tapes, audio cassettes, VHS video tapes, BETA video tapes, sheet music, posters, manuscripts, photographs, a 1920 banjo and various ephemera. The collection grew out of Mr. Harris' fascination with blues and jazz music, and includes his extensive research files for his book, Blues Who's Who (1979), the first biographical blues dictionary. The sheet music and poster collections document minstrel songs and shows from the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries. The collection will be in-process for another year.

• Margaret Kaus is the new Vice chair/chair elect; Lynne Jaffe also ran.
• Robena Cornwell is the new Member-at-large; Catherine Gick also ran.

Meeting dates not yet set. MLA will be meeting at the Peabody and SEMLA will likely be downtown, but probably not at the Peabody due to the expense.

A. Laurel Whisler, a member of the MLA 75th Anniversary Committee, talked about the progress on the MLA 75th Anniversary commission fundraising. The goal is $10,000.

• Phase I of fundraising--from among the SEMLA membership-- has netted $4325 in pledges or payments.
• Phase II will be corporate donations. Laurel, assisted by Neil Hughes, Phil Vandermeer, and Lynn Jacobson, will arrange an effort to identify local and national businesses that will be contacted by selected SEMLA members for donations. SEMLA members can make suggestions of who to ask, but it will be coordinated such that no business is approached more than once. Contact scripts will be provided and levels of giving (e.g., $1-249 "Sonata level") will be determined. In exchange for donations some type of advertising may be made available, such as in Breve Notes and/or the SEMLA Memphis meeting program. The goal is to have most businesses contacted by the Vancouver meeting.
• Phase III will involve contacting select individuals in MLA, such as past officers or long-time members, for one-time gifts; this would be done after the Vancouver meeting and coordinated with MLA treasurer Nancy Nuzzo.
• Phase IV will involve requesting assistance from our own institutions in the new fiscal year.

Once the commission is paid, any additional money raised goes toward Local Arrangements Committee costs, such as perhaps subsidizing the MSO concert tickets for the commission premier. In October of 2005 the MLA board will approve the convention budget, but we can continue to raise money after that. Neil suggested that we would need to inform the convention manager of our fundraising progress by August, so we may need to move institutional funding requests up.

B. Roberta Chodacki Ford, Chair of the MLA 75th Anniversary Committee, gave an update of their progress. They plan to have 8 initiatives for celebrating the anniversary.

1. MLA newsletter: Steve Mantz is pursuing retrospective column ideas.
2. Composition commission: the contract with the composer has been signed; Ken Caulkins, MLA Publicity Officer, and a representative from the MSO are working on a joint communication plan for announcing the commission and the selected composer.
3. Honoring long-time MLA members: the Membership committee (Sarah Dorsey, chair) is looking into this.
4. Commemorative logo: a competition for a 75th anniversary commemorative logo has already occurred--the winning recommendation is to be considered at the MLA fall board meeting.
5. Conference session re: MLA archives and oral histories. There is a subcommittee for this.
6. Exhibit or poster session by MLA and/or chapter archives and other presenters.
7. Small flashy events (SFE) at the Memphis meeting
   1. Singing Elvises welcoming attendees at events like the plenary session
   2. MLA big band and other groups playing hits of 1931 throughout hotel during breaks
   3. Grand entry of birthday cake at the banquet accompanied by MLA presidents past and present &/or work in firsttime attendees
   4. Blues lyrics competition open to all members and all performed at banquet
   5. 5-minute addresses to the MLA banquet attendees by MLA's great orators (e.g., Sukie Sommers)
   6. Daily raffle/door prizes (although raffles aren't allowed by TN law)
8. Development committee will highlight the anniversary in its regular development committee activities, such as a brochure

1. The invitation to MLA 2006 in Memphis to be extended at the Vancouver 2005 meeting. Volunteers to plan the invitation were asked to stay after the business meeting to start planning. Some ideas already in the air: an Elvis impersonator who could explain the duck theme, rubber duckies to throw into the crowd, other themes: blues/rock/Beale St/BBQ/Egypt/ “Got duck?” t-shirts.
2. The SEMLA 2005 banquet will be at the Isaac Hayes Restaurant near the Peabody.
3. The concert for the commission piece premier is within walking distance of the hotel, so no need for buses.
4. An opening reception is unlikely to be planned unless we really overshoot the commission fundraising goal; we'll need to make that clear for people expecting a reception.
5. Anna will call on SEMLA folks to help serve in LAC capacity, since there aren't too many others in the Memphis area who could help with the planning.

1. Future SEMLA venues. Roberta Chodacki Ford has offered to host in 2006 at the Columbus State University Library in Columbus, GA. The FL crew (University of North Florida /Jacksonville Public Library) offered to joint host in 2007.
2. Alan Ringwood has taken a new position as Head of the Music Cataloging Unit at UT Austin. The invitation for applications for a new newsletter editor was reiterated. The board hopes to have someone selected for the position by November 1.
3. Yale Fineman commission. John Druesedow of Duke gave a short recap of Yale's history with SEMLA/Duke and his struggle with cancer. SEMLA and the Atlantic Chapter of MLA co-commissioned a piece from John Mayrose, a doctoral composition student at Duke who knows Yale. As both he and Yale are guitarists, he wrote a solo guitar piece titled Cascada (Cascades). Copies of the score and recording were sent to Yale, and copies can be requested for other libraries (ask John Druesedow).

None.