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No. 87 August 2009


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Annual Meeting Preview
New Orleans, Oct. 8-10, 2009

Alicia Hansen, Loyola University

Marquette Hall at Loyola
Marquette Hall at Loyola (photo: Alicia Hansen)

Get ready for a good time in the Big Easy! New Orleans offers beautiful weather in October, and our conference will be held on Loyola University's campus, in the heart of gorgeous Uptown, October 8-10, 2009. Our airport is the Louis Armstrong International (MSY). With Audubon Park and Audubon Zoo just across the street from Loyola and Tulane's campuses, you're in a great location for sightseeing. The historic streetcar line runs from this area to the French Quarter, and both of our hotels are accessible by streetcar. Tulane University is directly adjacent to Loyola; both campuses are lush, walkable, and overall beautiful, and you'll have the opportunity to visit both. Registration for this year's conference is $30.

Two hotels are booked for our SEMLA/TMLA group, and they are both Hampton Inns. The first is in the Garden District, on St. Charles Ave., midway between the Quarter and Loyola's campus. The other is on Carondelet St., about two blocks off of Canal St., steps from the French Quarter. The rate is $119 + 13% tax, and streetcar rides are $1.25 each, though we will have arrangements for shuttling you all around if you prefer. The rooms are blocked through Sunday, so if you'd like to stay an extra night and enjoy the city, you can take advantage of the conference rate that Saturday night. Gambit Weekly is a great place to view a calendar of live music and other events in New Orleans, and as you probably know, any day/night, almost any time, there is ample entertainment to enjoy!

This year's meeting will kick-off Thursday morning with our second annual pre-conference workshop, Music in Libraries: Just the Basics. Participants will choose between “Cataloging Sound Recordings” and “Music Reference” in the morning, and “Cataloging Videorecordings/DVDs” and “Music Collection Development/Acquisitions” in the afternoon. The workshop will run from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and in keeping with this year's spirit of cooperation, instructors from SEMLA and TMLA will join together to deliver the workshops. Additional details are available on the annual meeting website.

Our opening reception on Thursday evening will be held in our Special Collections Reading Room here in the Monroe Library (October 8, 5:30-8pm). Wine and local beers (Abita) will complement delicious local treats from our favorite caterer, Scottie's Eats.

The banquet Friday night will be held at Palace Café, on Canal St., a gorgeous building with excellent food, which used to be the site of historic Werlein Music. It's right on the French Quarter, accessible by streetcar, and close to all the live music you could want, so a post-banquet stroll to the Quarter will be easy. The banquet cost is set at $40. Your choices for entrée include a 12-oz. ribeye, andouille-crusted fish, or a vegetarian pasta. The appetizer is a chicken and andouille gumbo; the salad is a spinach salad with housemade bacon, red onion, chopped egg, in a sherry cane vinaigrette; and dessert is the Palace Café pecan pie, Louisiana pecans baked inside a rich cane sugar custard topped with whipped cream. Vegetarian versions of the salad and soup will be provided too, don't worry!

A list of suggested tours and activities is posted at the conference website, and I hope you take advantage of some sightseeing while you're here. New Orleans is a fantastic city, offering entertainment of all kinds: music, museums, kids' activities, street performances, architecture, and of course, FOOD! Don't hesitate to ask us for any information you might need before your trip down to the Crescent City. Lenny Bertrand (lennyb@tulane.edu), Jeannette Thompson (jeannett@tulane.edu) Laurie Phillips (phillips@loyno.edu), and I (ahansen@loyno.edu) want you to have a spectacular visit!

.

Monroe Library at Tulane
Monroe Library at Tulane (photo: Alicia Hansen)

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From the Chair

Anna Neal, University of Memphis

The past couple of years have passed so quickly! This is my last From the Chair column, and I will be passing the coveted Plastic Hammer of Despotism to John Druesedow (Duke University, retired) in October. My home will be all the poorer for its loss! John is a LONG time member of SEMLA – a scholar, author, librarian extraordinaire, and good SEMLA friend. The hammer, and SEMLA, will be in excellent hands!

It has been such a pleasure working with SEMLA in this way, and I have many people to thank for making it an easy pleasure.

What to say about the SEMLA Board? Well, they're just the perfect Board - supportive, quick to respond, creative with ideas and suggestions, willing to take on whatever work is needed. Current members are Vice-Chair/Chair Elect John Druesedow, Secretary-Treasurer Scott Phinney (University of South Carolina), and Members-at-Large Chris Durman (University of Tennessee-Knoxville) and Grover Baker (Middle Tennessee State University). On the Board my first year were Past Chair Lynne Jaffe (At Your Service: Library Contract Cataloging) and Member-at-Large Lynn Jacobson (Jacksonville Public Library).

Breve Notes Editor John Leslie (University of Mississippi) regularly turns out interesting, informative, and good looking issues. He's a certified and licensed cat herder and is way more understanding about deadlines, and the difficulties of meeting same, than required or expected. Under the leadership of Web Page Editor Nara Newcomer (East Carolina University), our Web site has moved to the MLA server as host; and Nara recently set up PayPal on our site for those who wish to use that method for dues and conference payments. She and Treasurer Scott Phinney researched several online payment options and worked with PayPal to get us set up. Archivist Ashlie Conway is revamping the archives and working on plans to make the contents more easily accessible.

Some initiatives that are new or fairly new are broadening the scope and influence of SEMLA. Our Educational Outreach Program organized an initial pre-conference in conjunction with the October 2008 meeting at East Carolina University. Since that time, Grover Baker has chaired a committee to explore further development of the program. See elsewhere in this issue for information about the pre-conference in New Orleans. Also following the ECU meeting, Ashlie Conway has chaired a committee to explore PR/Outreach initiatives. Her committee has developed a new brochure, which you can see on our Web site, and launched a SEMLA Facebook presence.

Under the thanks-for-making-us-proud heading are the many SEMLA winners of the Best of Chapters competition. Since I became Vice Chair/Chair Elect in 2006, we've seen Leslie Kamtman and Christia Thomason (both of North Carolina School of the Arts) present at MLA in Pittsburgh in 2007, Grover Baker in Newport in 2008, Jaro Szurek (Samford University) in Chicago in 2009 – and, soon, Holling Smith-Borne (Vanderbilt University) in San Diego in 2010. (And, BTW, the Best of Chapters competition has included a SEMLA winner in eight of the past eleven years.)

Looking to the future, we have another exciting opportunity to host the national conference. MLA accepted our invitation to meet in Nashville in 2014, which seems quite a vote of approval for SEMLA since MLA just met in Memphis in 2006. On the regional front for the future – SEMLA's 40th anniversary will be celebrated in 2010, hosted by the University of South Carolina. After that, we are open to invitations. Please give some thought to how great it would be to have us in your neck of the woods. We'll discuss invitations for future meetings at our Business Meeting in New Orleans.

And speaking of that, we're looking forward to the joint meeting with the Texas chapter. Chris Durman and committee are putting together a terrific program (more information elsewhere in this issue), and Local Arrangements Queen Alicia Hansen (Loyola University) has some very appealing plans under way. You'll see information about the Travel Grant in this issue. Please encourage those in your libraries and schools who are eligible to apply. It's a great opportunity to get started in a very special professional organization.

With talk of New Orleans, I really must stop and welcome Charlotte Mack Hansen, newest SEMLA baby and one very good reason for making it to the meeting. By then, she'll be 3+ months old and ready to play hostess, I'm sure. Congratulations to Alicia and Eric!

So – one final person to thank – someone we all thank in different ways. Pauline Bayne, l—o—n—g time SEMLAite, is retiring this summer after many years at the University of Tennessee. Her contributions to SEMLA and MLA and the profession at large are legion, and her commitment to being mentor and educator has helped launch many careers. I/we thank you, Pauline, for being who you are. Pauline is the very model of a modern li-ber-arian! (Hey, I needed another syllable.)

Hope to see everyone in New Orleans!

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Member News

Harry Eskew has participated in several events related to the bicentennial of William Walker's birth. On January 31 he provided commentary for a Walker Celebration at Converse College in Spartanburg. On March 15 he helped to lead a worship service on Walker's legacy during Singing Billy Walker Day at Morningside Baptist Church in Spartanburg. On June 15 he lectured on Walker at Camp Fasola to a group of over 100 Sacred Harp singers from 26 states, Canada, and the UK. He will also give a Walker presentation at the conference of the Hymn Society at St. Olaf College in July. His bicentennial tribute to Walker is to be published in the August issue of the ACDA Choral Journal.

Alicia Hansen (Loyola) gave birth to Charlotte Mack on June 30th, and mother, father, and baby are doing very well. Charlotte looks forward to meeting everyone at the SEMLA/TMLA conference in October!

Lisa Hooper has joined the Music and Media Center staff of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library of Tulane University to fill the position of head music and media librarian. She will also be presenting her paper "Archives Next: Discovering the Current State of Archival Collections in Music Libraries and Where We Go from Here" at the 2010 annual conference in San Diego.

Renée McBride (UNC-Chapel Hill) published a review of Jeannie Gayle Pool's Peggy Gilbert & Her All-Girl Band (Lanham, MD : Scarecrow Press, 2008) in Music Reference Services Quarterly 12/1-2 (Jan.-June 2009), 63-65.

Jill Shires , Laurie Neuerburg and Renée McBride of UNC-Chapel Hill became participants in the NACO Music Project in Spring 2009.

Holling Smith-Borne (Vanderbilt) has been selected to present his paper, "Collecting on the Edge Redux: Recording the Traditional Music of Uganda," as one of only two Best of Chapters presentations at the MLA annual meeting in San Diego next year.

Paul Wells (Center for Popular Music, MTSU) gave a lecture, "Does Place Matter? Perceptions and Realities of Music in Small Towns," which was the keynote lecture at "'The Train Just Don't Stop Here Anymore': An Interdisciplinary Colloquium on the Soundscapes of Rural and Small-Town America," Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, April 3-4, 2009. He has also recently published two reviews:

Ellen Skerrett and Mary Lesch, eds. Chief O'Neill's Sketchy Recollections of an Eventful Life in Chicago. With Sally K. Sommers Smith. In Irish Literary Supplement 28 (Spring): 26.

CD review: People Take Warning! Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs, 1913-1938. Tompkins Square TSQ1875, 2007. In Journal of the Society for American Music 3 (February): 123-125.

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Annual Meeting Program

SEMLA/TMLA 2009 Joint Annual Meeting
Oct. 8-10, 2009
New Orleans, LA

Thursday, Oct. 8

5:30 – 8:00 pm Reception and Registration in the Special Collections Room of Loyola's Monroe Library

Friday, Oct. 9

8:30 – 9:00 am Registration/Coffee and Refreshments in Loyola's Monroe Library

9:00 – 9:15 am Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:15 – 9:45 am Nouvelles Poésies: An Eighteenth-Century Music Manuscript from New Orleans

Mark McKnight, University of North Texas

9:45 – 10:45 am Fifty Years of Pianists: The Interviews of Robert Dumm, 1959-2008

Jean Wald, Stetson University

10:45 – 11:15 am Break

11:15 – Noon The Amazing J. Lawrence Cook of Tennessee

Alan Wallace, University of Tennessee

Noon – 1:45 pm Lunch on your own

1:45 – 3:00 pm Panel Discussion on the Current State of Music in New Orleans

Bruce Raeburn, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University
Matthew Sakakeeny, Tulane University
Nick Spitzer, Tulane University

3:00 – 3:30 pm Break and Walk to Tulane Library and Hogan Jazz Archive

3:30 – 4:45 pm Tour of the Hogan Jazz Archive and the Tulane Music and Media collections

7:00 pm Banquet at Palace Café, 605 Canal Street, between Chartres and Royal Streets

Saturday, Oct. 10

8:30 – 9:00 am Registration/Coffee and Refreshments in Loyola's Monroe Library

9:00 – 10:00 am Never Waste a Good Crisis, or How the Budgetary Downturn is Greening us All!

Sarah Dorsey, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

10:00-10:30 am A Tale of Two Cities: Continuing Education Librarianship Opportunities for the Graduate Student to the Seasoned Professional

Roberta Chodacki Ford, Columbus State University

10:30–11:00 am Microtonality in the Mountains: The Story of Tui St. George Tucker and Camp Catawba

Gary Boye, Appalachian State University

11:00 – 11:15 am Closing Remarks

11:15 – 11:30 am Break

11:30 am – 12:30 pm Business Meetings

12:30 pm Adjourn

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The Pauline Shaw Bayne Travel Grant

I. The grant supports portions of the expenses related to attending this year's annual chapter meeting in New Orleans, October 8-10, 2009.

The Travel Grant may be awarded for up to $500. Reimbursable expenses include: conference registration; lodging for the two nights of the conference (Thursday and Friday) at one-half of the double occupancy rate; subsistence expenses at the current CONUS rate for one full day (Friday) and two partial days (Thursday and Saturday); travel by car/plane/train/bus, generally by the least expensive method. The request for reimbursement must be submitted by December 31, 2009.

The grant winner is expected to join SEMLA at the appropriate level prior to attending the conference. Dues are only $5 for students and $10 for others.

Supporting our colleagues' involvement in the life of the chapter is a priority! Please note that music library paraprofessionals, support staff, and library school students are eligible for this opportunity and are encouraged to apply.

Applicants must reside at the time of the meeting in one of the states or territories comprising SEMLA (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico), and also be in at least one of the following eligible categories:

a) A graduate library school student (by the time of the conference in October 2009), aspiring to become a music librarian;

b) A recent graduate (within one year of degree) of a graduate program in librarianship who is seeking a professional position as a music librarian;

c) A music librarian (holding a Master of Library Science degree or qualifications granting an equivalent status at her/his employing institution, e.g. a certified archivist with other graduate degree working extensively with music materials) in the first two years of her/his professional career, or;

d) A library paraprofessional/support professional working with music materials as a significant portion of his/her job responsibilities.

Applicants in categories a-c must not have attended more than one prior SEMLA meeting before applying for the grant. This restriction does not apply to paraprofessionals/support professionals.

II. Applicants must submit the following to arrive by August 24, 2009:

1. A letter of application which includes an explanation of the reasons for attending the SEMLA annual meeting, a justification of financial need, and a budget (the single or double room rate in New Orleans, LA is $119 plus 13% tax per night). For those applicants currently working in libraries or archives, justification of financial need must include evidence that one has sought financial support from one's employing institution to attend the meeting and that such a request was either denied or insufficiently met;

2. A current résumé or vita;

3. One letter of support. Where applicable, it should be from a current supervisor. 

Award recipients who are not already members of SEMLA are expected to join prior to attending the October meeting . Join online at the SEMLA website: http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/semla/ . Annual student membership in SEMLA is currently only $5.00; a regular membership is $10.00.

Hotel accommodations will be funded at the double-occupancy rate, i.e., one-half of the $119 plus tax mentioned in II/1, preceding.

Mail application and supporting materials to arrive via U.S. post (priority mail) or electronically (preferred) as

Word attachments by August 24, 2009 to:

John Druesedow
johndruesedow@yahoo.com
2318 Caroline Drive
Durham, NC 27705-2314

If you have any questions, please contact John by email (johndruesedow@yahoo.com) or phone (919-383-0989).

Recipients will be notified no later than September 4, 2009 and announced on SEMLA-L immediately thereafter. Please note that SEMLA may elect to pay directly for travel and hotel expenses on the recipient's behalf and only supply the balance (if any) of an award following the New Orleans meeting. If mileage for a personal vehicle is awarded, it will be paid at the current IRS rate at the time of the conference ($0.55 per mile on 7/21/09).

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Candidate Biographies

 

The 2007 SEMLA Officer Election Ballot is available on page 6 of the pdf version of the newsletter and must be mailed/emailed to Grover Baker by October 1, 2009.

 Members have TWO options for your method of voting:

1) Email your vote to Grover Baker, Nominating Committee Chair, at gbaker@mtsu.edu by October 1, 2009

IMPORTANT!

To be counted, your email must include your full name and the names of the candidates for whom you are voting.

2) or print and return the paper ballot to Grover at the following address:

Grover Baker
Center for Popular Music
P.O. Box 41, MTSU
Murfreesboro, TN 37132

IMPORTANT!

Members must sign the outside of the mailing envelope so that membership status can be verified before the votes are counted. It is suggested that members also write “Ballot” on the envelope to prevent confusion in the event that they need to correspond with the Committee Chair during the balloting process.

Mailed ballots must be postmarked by October 1, 2009 to be counted. Ballots may also be cast in person before the start of the business meeting at New Orleans on October 10, 2009.

You must be a member in good standing or your vote will be discarded.

Candidate Biographies

Secretary-Treasurer

Laurie Neuerburg works as Music Cataloging Assistant at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a B.A. in Music from Iowa State University and an M.S.L.S. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She serves on the Travel Grant Committee for the Southeast Music Library Association. Laurie is a member of the Music Library Association, Music OCLC Users Group, and the North Carolina Library Association. She was a recipient of the Kevin Freeman Travel Grant to attend the Music Library Association annual meeting in 2009. Laurie is a flutist.

Scott Phinney is Music Cataloger at the University of South Carolina, where he has worked since 2005. He holds an A.B. in Music from Davidson College, and an M.S.L.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Music Cataloging Unit. He is currently pursuing an M.M. in History at U.S.C. For the Southeast Music Library Association, he serves on the Music Library Collections Update Committee and also serves as the current Secretary/Treasurer. He has been a member of MLA since 2004 and is involved with the Authorities Subcommittee and the Archives Task Force. Scott is also a member of the Music OCLC Users Group, Online Audiovisual Catalogers, and the South Carolina Library Association. Scott performs on oboe, trombone, bassoon, and hand bells, and his research interests include remote access to music and Scandinavian piano music.

Member-at-Large

Gary R. Boye is Associate Professor and Music Librarian for the Erneston Music Library at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, where he has worked since 2000. He holds degrees in library science (M.S.L.S., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000), musicology (Ph.D., Duke University, 1995), and guitar literature and performance (M.A., B.M., University of Georgia, 1988 and 1986). He has been a member of SEMLA and MLA since 1999, and served as Chair of the MLA Jazz & Popular Music Round Table (2002-2006) and editor of the Members Publications column for the MLA Newsletter (2002-present). Research and performing interests include early music for plucked strings, especially the Baroque guitar and lute, as well as twentieth-century country and bluegrass music. His research has been published in several journals, magazines, essay collections, and Web sites, as well as in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2000 ed.

Greg Johnson has served as Associate Professor and Curator of the Blues Archive in the Department of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Mississippi since 2002. He received his Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2002, where he also received a Bachelor of Music in history and literature in 2000. He has served as president of the Society of Mississippi Archivists and is a member of the Music Library Association, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, and of course SEMLA, where he is currently serving on the Program Committee. In addition to his work in the Archive, Mr. Johnson teaches a course on the role of music in changing society. He has given well over 100 presentations on the blues, civil rights, and other musical traditions. Greg has helped plan a number of programs, such as the University of Mississippi's annual Blues Symposium (2003-present), the Music of the South Conference (2005-2006), the Society of Mississippi Archivists Conference (2006-2008), and the Yocona International Folk Festival (2008-2009). Greg and his wife also perform traditional Irish music.

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Educational Outreach Program

 Interested in joining the illustrious group of instructors that teach music librarianship workshops in the SEMLA Chapter? Follow these easy steps:

1) Contact the coordinator of the Educational Outreach Program (EOP), David King, and fill out a biography/contact information form. Indicate the workshop that you are interested in teaching and your MLA chapter affiliation (SEMLA). Contact: David King kingd@carnegielibrary.org .

2) Become familiar with the learning objectives for the workshop that you'd like to teach. Information is available under "Learning Objectives" for each workshop at http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/employmentanded/workshops/workshops.shtml

3) Attend an EOP "model workshop" that is located centrally near you, given at a SEMLA meeting or at an MLA annual meeting. Fill out the "Workshop Evaluation Form" (available from the coordinator) and submit/discuss it with the EOP coordinator.

4) Attend the EOP instructor meeting at the annual MLA meeting.

Qualifications:

Other information:

Not ready to commit yet or need more information? Attend the SEMLA pre-conference workshop and sit in on a "model" workshop. There is no registration fee for those who would like to observe as a potential instructor. Contact Grover Baker (gbaker@mtsu.edu) with questions or for additional information.

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