Date:         Mon, 23 May 2005 08:32:25 -0500
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Karl Miller <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Cataloging art and popular songs
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On Fri, 20 May 2005, Steven Smolian wrote:

> The needs of private collectors are badly met my professional library
cataloging, no matter how "user friendly" it may be.


> Classical music is poorly served when professional cartaloging has to mee
rules concerning firts publication titles of the printed music rather than
the common-sense ones relating to how they are normally used.  Songs should
not be under Lieder, Gesaenge, Balladen, etc., but grouped alphabetically by
title under Songs.  Same for similar French designations.

For me, I don't see library patrons being all that well served by
professional cataloging. At times, I find it at cross purposes...for
example...while basic information can be included by the use of
additional fields...and I consider things like producer, engineer, etc. to be
basic information for a music recording...it takes quite a bit of time to
formulate a uniform title and to input things like edition information on
printed music, yet I would wager that nobody these days searches via
uniform title. I wonder, can anyone out there, who is not a cataloger,
tell me the last time they searched for a recording of Vesna
sviashchennaia? Perhaps someone fully versed in cataloging can tell me the
rationale for uniform title...in the old days, it kept things filed nicely
in the card catalog, and it does facilitate searching for a
cataloger...but for me, perhaps due to my limited understanding of the
process, it seems to be one of those aspects of the cataloging process
that serves the cataloger more than it serves the patron.

I also wonder about editions...would it be significant to list a pressing
as being a dynaflex pressing...

> There are many more similar examples, but this is a short look at why what
they do simply won't do.  WERM (Worl Encyclopedia of Recorded Music) does a
far better job.

I agree completely.

> Sets of "complete" recordings of a composer's genre come out regularly.
Hyperion has done yeoman service in this regard, with its 37 or so CDs of
Schubert's song output.  The private collector must be given the tools as
part of his catalog to find his way among these.

And speaking of Schubert songs...looking at a typical cataloging record of
the DG set of 6 discs (OCLC 8263081) one finds that not a single song
title is even listed. No doubt it has to do with the limitation of the
number of available fields, or the limitation on the size of the contents
notes, or the time constraints placed on the cataloger. I remember years
ago trying to find recordings of Schubert Songs. I would check the
Grammophone catalog, which had, as I recall, all of the songs listed. I
would see who recorded what and on what disc. I would then check the
online catalog under a combined search for Schubert and the performer. It
seems to me that this is encumbered.

The same would hold true for recordings of early music, for which we would
consult two different guides to recordings of early music. Those books
would provide analytics for the titles and then tie them to specific
discs. I also maintained a manufacturer file (card file) to facilitate
checking to see if we had a specific disc.

While I am on a roll...I am reminded of what we did at the first library I
worked at...the Music Collection at the University of North Texas. In a
practice established by the previous librarian, Anna Harriet Heyer, and
continued by my boss, Morris Martin, we would type cards providing
analytics for all anthologies. We had no online catalog in those days. At
least, in that card catalog, you could find your Machaut work or Schubert
song.

Along these same lines, I wonder about the vendors who supply recordings
to libraries on line. Does anyone know if they have their own cataloging
systems?

I am also reminded of the system we used at the radio station. You could
compile play list in a variety of ways...you could search by duration,
instrumentation (from a limited list of categories), and time period...as
well as by composer and title...they had their own sort of uniform title
which was limited, as I recall, to about 20 possibilities.

Again I keep coming back to the idea of the information being created once
and then being shared.

> I hope to describe various uses of catalogs by private users and explore
what needs to be done to best allow those uses.  Stay tuned.

I will look forward to it.

Karl