July 1, 1994

Contact: Cataloging Distribution Service
(800) 255-3666 or (202) 707-6100

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Library of Congress Announces Release of the Music Catalog on CD-ROM

The Music Division and the Cataloging Distribution Service have just released The Music Catalog on CD-ROM, a single CD-ROM disc containing more than 200,000 music-related bibliographic records. The Music Catalog on CD-ROM will be a useful information source for music librarians, scholars, students, and others in the music industry.

The first issue of The Music Catalog on CD-ROM includes three categories of bibliographic records. The first category comprises all music-related records from the Library of Congress data base of USMARC records. Included are records for 44,000 books, 30,000 scores, 80,000 sound recordings, 4,000 serials, and 1,000 manuscripts. This set of 160,000 records forms a basic music bibliography covering all types of music, music literature, and sound recordings.

The second category is the 11,300 records describing the Albert Schatz Collection of Opera Librettos. The Schatz Collection, one of the largest and richest of its kind, was purchased by the Library of Congress from German businessman Albert Schatz in 1908. The history of opera, from its beginnings (about 1600) to the turn of the 20th century, is well represented. The collection is especially strong in German and Italian texts of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Schatz Collection was cataloged at the University of Virginia as part of the U.S.-RISM Libretto Project. RISM, which stands for International Inventory of Musical Sources, is a publication project sponsored by the International Musicological Society and the International Association of Music Libraries.

The third category consists of 30,000 opera-related records (including librettos, scores, and sound recordings) from the Library of Congress preMARC data base. PreMARC records are not normally distributed by the Library but are included here as a complement to the Schatz Collection. The Music Catalog on CD-ROM contains more than 26,000 records describing librettos for opera and musical comedy and is therefore one of the most comprehensive single sources of its kind.

The Music Catalog on CD-ROM will be fully cumulated and issued semiannually. The price for an annual subscription is $160 (North American orders) or $165 (international orders). A DOS-based IBM PC or compatible and a CD-ROM drive are required. To place an order, or to request a free demonstration diskette, contact the Cataloging Distribution Service. Telephone: (1-800-255-3666 or 202-707-6100); fax: (202-707-1334).

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PR 94-110
7/19/94
ISSN 0731-3527