National Library of Australia  - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 72 | December 2004


Music in a Digital World:
Directions,Initiatives, Collaborations

The Biennial Conference of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (Australia- New Zealand Branches), held in association with the Australasian Sound Recording Association, Canberra 12–15 September

Welcoming the new Director of ScreenSound Australia at the IAML/ASRA conference are (from left) Pam Saunders (Deputy Director, SSA), Robyn Holmes (Curator of Music, NLA), Dr Paolo Cherchi Usai (Director, SSA), Meg Labrum (Senior Manager Collections Branch, SSA), Jan Fullerton (Director-General, NLA) and Ann Baylis (Senior Manager Access and State Offices, SSA)

Welcoming the new Director of ScreenSound Australia at the
IAML/ASRA conference are (from left) Pam Saunders (Deputy
Director, SSA), Robyn Holmes (Curator of Music, NLA),
Dr Paolo Cherchi Usai (Director, SSA), Meg Labrum (Senior
Manager Collections Branch, SSA), Jan Fullerton (Director-
General, NLA) and Ann Baylis (Senior Manager Access and
State Offices, SSA)
[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

The iconic image of a young man holding in his hand his entire personal music collection in downloads on his iPod is a challenging reminder for music libraries and archives that a rapid—and not so quiet—revolution is taking place in the ways in which music is created, played, produced, heard, represented and documented. Music libraries and archives are confronted not only with a changing information world, but also with some profound shifts in the nature of musical practice and experience. What we collect, and how we collect, preserve, manage and provide access to music in libraries and archives is at stake. Creators, industry and users are driving change as the technology rapidly improves, challenging libraries and archives in a web environment to integrate traditional formats (for example, relating score and audio), support new artistic practices, enrich musical access and widen musical discovery and experience.

How do music libraries and archives begin to plan for and manage such change in this increasingly digital world? This was the focus of the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) Biennial Conference, held in Canberra from 12–15 September, and jointly hosted by the National Library of Australia, Australian National University School of Music and ScreenSound Australia. The conference was distinctive because it was a joint conference of both Australian and New Zealand chapters and the Australasian Sound Recording Association. This created a rich dialogue across disciplines, formats, institutions, sectors, and nations. The conference drew an unexpectedly large number of participants and speakers—representing national and state libraries and archives, specialist performing arts and university libraries, public libraries, broadcasting archives, and the Australian Music Centre—each characterised by a determined spirit to share knowledge and develop expertise for particular institutional needs and benefits.

The conference approached the topic from three perspectives across the three host venues. The first day, held at the National Library of Australia, worked its way through a range of processes underpinning the Library’s function—the preservation, management and delivery of digital music collections. Topics included digital repositories; enabling data sharing; generating digital music collections; preserving and managing digitally created music; online contextual information. Key issues were raised around creating digitised music collections; collecting and storing born digital music; metadata to support harvesting and aggregating music objects; strategies for persistent access to music web resources; ISMNs; and building contextual information about music and musicians. Guest experts posed questions and presented some solutions; each key paper was accompanied by case studies from Australian and New Zealand music organisations of individual or collaborative projects. For example, the Australian Music Centre presented its digital concept for addressing its ‘whole of business’ needs, from information management through to e-commerce delivery of music resources. The state libraries demonstrated how they tackled the issue of creating digitised music collections of unique state materials in very different ways, as part of a national cooperative strategy led by the National Library, and representatives from New Zealand highlighted their recently funded initiatives in digital preservation.

The second day, hosted by the School of Music, Australian National University, addressed the issue of collaboration—from Australian, New Zealand and international perspectives, with IAML’s overarching role highlighted. Visits to AIATSIS and the National Museum of Australia allowed us to consider some cross-sectoral approaches to collections, rights and protocols, and learning objects online. The collaborative PARADISEC project provided a model for managing audiovisual resources and outcomes produced by researchers of living music traditions.

The third day, hosted by ScreenSound Australia, the National Screen and Sound Archive, and held in association with the Australasian Sound Recording Association, specifically focused on a complex range of issues associated with audio collections. Two forums, ‘Is the CD Dead?’ and ‘Whistle While you Work: Intellectual Property and Musicians’, opened up debate on themes which pervaded the conference about the production, preservation and consumption of music in the contemporary context. Case studies on building and managing unique heritage audio collections showed how new technology, developed within a national data sharing strategic framework, can make historical materials more accessible. Finally, a presentation by the Greenstone project from the University of Waikato dazzled us with the potential of music information retrieval to enable querying and access to music collections entirely through musical means.

With a range of institutions contributing to the conference, the opportunity for sharing across sectors was great, producing not only a buzz, but plenty of argument and debate. Somehow, music conferences always take on a musical life as well. The Conference began with a musical event and welcome reception at the National Library to celebrate the distinguished Australian composer, pianist, researcher and teacher Professor Larry Sitsky on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Two of our young librarians, also professional trumpeters, heralded the opening session with some improvised fanfares. The conference dinner at AXIS at the National Museum of Australia proved a veritable feasting experience. But the ‘virtuosi’ of the conference proved to be a forum in which six young professionals discussed their hopes, expectations and experiences in their chosen careers. This group lit up the room with their enthusiasm and optimism. Those in the audience sat up straighter in their chairs, leant forward, and paid attention—the future of music collections, information management and retrieval is in good hands!
—Robyn Holmes, Curator of Music, NLA and Co-convenors Marianna Pikler and Joye Volker, Australian National University

ROBYN HOLMES Curator of Music
National Library of Australia
Parkes Place
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Tel: 02 6262 1529
Fax 02 6273 5081
Email: rholmes@nla.gov.au
www.nla.gov.au

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