This is what I envision for LIS 776, Music Librarianship, Fall 2006. I intend to cover the topics music librarians are expected to brush up against: the nature/purpose/history/context of music libraries and collections, the different types of music libraries (and librarians) there are; professional issues; users and the ML community; acquisition and collections; reference, resources, and scholarship within music librarianship and the scholarly apparatus supporting research in music; music cataloging; copyright/intellectual property, and the points of contact with and divergence from other types of librarianship.
However, what I think will
make this different from other music librarianship courses (not to mention any
other libe sci course you
are likely to take) is that I would like to organize the course around musical
"threads" -- that is, real music that will serve as a basis for our
explorations of the different aspects of music librarianship. For
example, we could have "popular" music as a starting point, then look
at the varieties of such music historically, here in the US and elsewhere, what
resources are available for collecting and evaluating it, how printed and
recorded music is cataloged, copyright issues...or we could start with chant
and branch out into the notion of cantus firmus as an
organizing principle in composition (sacred, secular, "classical,"
popular music), and, again, look at how the apparatus of scholarship and
librarianship treats our inquiries. Is there a systematic or at least
rational way to find and study and organize whatever "slice" of music
we look at, or are the current structures oriented toward asking and answering
certain questions or types of inquiry? How do we know? What do we
do about this?
I also would be happy to
focus on topics you want to study, and I'm open to having the course
look quite a bit different than what I described in the previous paragraphs.
This course will be open
to anyone in the program, but ideal preparation would include 701 and
703, or some background working with music in a library. You do NOT have
to be a musician, but any music background you can bring to the course will be
a real plus for us all.
David Lesniaski
CDC 047
College of St. Catherine
2004 Randolph Ave., Mail
Stop 4125
St. Paul, MN 55105
651.690.8723