Discovery Interfaces and Music: Summon

Presentation given at the Music Library Association Annual Meeting on March 2, 2013 in San Jose, California. This presentation examines the Serials Solutions “Summon” product as a discovery interface for music. It was part of a panel discussion on ”Discovery Interfaces and Music” which examined various discovery interfaces and their success (and challenges) with music materials, particularly in light of the needs outlined in the Music Discovery Requirements (MDR) document.Music Library Associatio

'Summon'-ing Music: A Discovery Tool Journey

Presented at the 2010 Southeast Music Library Association (SEMLA) Annual Meeting in Columbia, SC

Where Do They Look?: Music Information Seeking Behavior in the Digital Age

Presentation given at the Music Library Association annual conference, February 24, 2017, Orlando, Florida. Discovering new musical works is an important activity for musicians. The increasing proliferation of online tools for music discovery has implications for the information seeking behavior of today’s music library users. Many students and faculty have grown accustomed to the ready access provided by websites such as YouTube and the International Music Score Library Project. How does the online environment shape the information seeking behavior of current music library users? How do students and faculty discover new musical works they didn't know about before, and what is the music library’s role in this process? Ms. Newcomer will share the results of her case study investigating factors that shape music students’ source choices. By the end of this session, attendees will have a better sense of the information seeking behaviors of the music library users they work with. Attendees will leave with ideas for ways to respond to these behaviors, which have the potential to impact a wide array of music library services, from collection development and systems support to reference and instruction

Recorded Sound and Discovery Interfaces

Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) 2013 Pre-Conference Workshop “Discovery Access Methods for Sound Recording Collections.” Kansas City, MO. May 15, 2013. Recorded sound professionals know inherently that audio content is different from printed textual material. However, library discovery systems are regularly developed with only books and articles in mind. How, then, can we best serve users seeking recorded sound? In this session, we begin from the ground up, first solidifying our understanding of which attributes are important for discovering recorded sound. Then, with the help of the Music Discovery Requirements and FRBR principles, we will delve into individual specific attributes, exploring how we can create systems that will serve users’ sound recording discovery needs. We will look at specific successful examples, focusing on legacy MARC/AACR2/RDA data, while gaining insight from non-MARC and even non-library successes.Association for Recorded Sound Collection

Google Wave

Presented at the 2010 Music Library Association Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. Presentation is part of a larger presentation: “A Match Made in Heaven: Merging Emerging Technical and Public Services.

Calling All Academic Music Library Reference Desks: A Follow-Up Study

The East Carolina University Music Library established regularly staffed reference desk service and studied whether the presence of a reference desk increased patron comfort level in seeking assistance even when the reference desk was unstaffed. Reference activity statistics and results from a patron survey indicate that the reference desk strengthened reference service during hours the desk was staffed but did not increase patron comfort level at times the desk was unstaffed. This article presents key components of music library reference service highlighted by the survey and makes recommendations for other music libraries considering implementing or continuing reference desk service

UMKC Conservatory Students and Their Work: Research Findings

The initiative for UMKC’s Downtown Campus for the Arts presents a unique opportunity for radical change in Conservatory and Conservatory library spaces and services. To inform planning of the new campus and its library, a UMKC research team harnessed ethnographic methods to research UMKC Conservatory student needs. Ethnographic methods facilitate holistic examination of numerous aspects of the studied population by using open-ended tools to gather qualitative data

Picture the Music: Performing Arts Library Planning with Photo Elicitation

Photo elicitation, a form of ethnographic journaling, provided insights into university music and dance student needs in library and campus spaces and services. In this case study, subjects took a photo for each of twenty prompts related to their daily lives as students and performing artists, then discussed their own photos in a one-hour individual interview. Researchers qualitatively analyzed the gathered data. This article reports findings related to: discovering and obtaining music and dance works, study spaces and sound levels, forces of habit and the implications for student library use, and library-related findings regarding practice rooms and classrooms