Job Opening Reference Assistant – Conservatory Library (2 positions)

Description:

- Train for service at the Reference Desk
- Assist with preparation of local    reference tools
- Develop your knowledge of library resources and music    bibliography


Qualifications:

- Financial Aid Eligibility Preferred
- Ability to work with people, to function effectively under pressure, and to work cooperatively as part of a team
- Willingness to continue learning and growing with the job and to accept increasing responsibility
- Reliability, punctuality, and a solid music background

To Apply: 
Submit an application form (http://www.oberlin.edu/library/students/application.pdf)
Leave the application in the box marked “Completed Applications" at the Conservatory Library Circulation Desk.

Deadline:  Sunday  Dec 12, 2010

Paid training  (two-hours per week) to begin February, and the pay rate is $7.50 per hour.  Beginning fall semester, the position will be five hours per week. Contact Person:  Kathy Abromeit, Public Services Librarian:   kathleen.abromeit@oberlin.edu

Oberlin Conservatory Library actively seeks a diverse student staff.    Oberlin College is an Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity employer.

Electronic Dictionary of Musical Themes

By special arrangement with Crown Publishers, The Multimedia Library provides music lovers, music students, and musicologists with a unique new resource — the Dictionary of Musical Themes by Barlow and Morgenstern, now available as Standard MIDI files for computer-based enjoyment, study and analysis. 

This collection of 9,825 musical themes (the works of over 150 composers) from the Barlow-Morgenstern original compilation can be played in any browser using Quicktime. You can search by composer, by category of music or by note (solfeggio) in key-independent fashion.

(Example: eeecdddb will find Beethoven's Fifth.)

Musical America Names 2011 Honorees

NEW YORK -- Musical America has announced its annual award winners, in conjunction with the upcoming publication of the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts, 2011 edition. The winners will be honored in a ceremony at Carnegie Hall on December 13.

Heading the group of five distinguished artists is violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who this season celebrates her 35th anniversary as a performer, more

Oberlin Song Index

Need help finding the music for a song in the Conservatory Library? Take a look at the Oberlin Song Index. The Oberlin Song Index is an index of 48,000+ songs in anthologies held by the Oberlin Conservatory Library.

Schedule a Reference Appointment!

Reference appointments offer you in-depth, one-on-one assistance with identifying locating, and using resources in the Oberlin Conservatory Library.

Kathy Abromeit, Music Reference Librarian

 kathleen.abromeit@oberlin.edu

 or 440/775-5131

Gustav Mahler at 150: Tenth Symphony in Facsimile - On Display!

The Conservatory Library's Special Collections are the focus of the year-long series of exhibits, Bibliorarities. The exhibits are on view in the cases adjacent to the Conservatory Library's Circulation Area during all opening hours.

In May 1911, when Gustav Mahler was on his deathbed, he told his wife Alma that he wanted her to burn the manuscript of the Tenth Symphony. Alma did not destroy the manuscript, but instead kept the sketches under lock and key until 1924. At that point, apparently in financial trouble, she agreed to publish the manuscript in facsimile. The work has since been completed by a variety of composers, including Ernst Krenek, Alma's son-in-law, who created a performance edition of the first and third movements. The mystery, confusion, and controversy around the Tenth Symphony remain.

 

Reference by E-Mail During Fall Break

The Conservatory Library is offering Reference by E-Mail over Fall break!  Send your queries to:

cref@oberlin.edu

Have a lovely break!

New Journal - Journal of Music History Pedagogy

The Journal of Music History Pedagogy is a bi-annual, peer-reviewed, open-access, on-line journal dedicated to the publication of original articles and reviews related to teaching music history of all levels (undergraduate, graduate, or general studies) and disciplines (western, non-western, concert and popular musics). The JMHP holds no single viewpoint on what constitutes good teaching and endorses all types of scholarship on music history pedagogy that are well-researched, objective, and challenging. The JMHP is a publication of the Pedagogy Study Group of the American Musicological Society.

L'Archet on Display in the Conservatory Library

The Conservatory Library's Special Collections are the focus of the year-long series of exhibits, Bibliorarities. The exhibits are on view in the cases adjacent to the Conservatory Library's Circulation Area during all opening hours.

L'Archet

This documentary presentation by Bernard Millant and Jean Francois Raffin, with assistance from Bernard Gaudfroy and Loic Le Canu, provides intricate detail on the design and history of bow- making in France from 1750 to 1950. The work features biographies of 116 bow-makers illustrated with richly detailed photographs of all elements that play a part in the making of the bows for stringed instruments. Correspondence and other records help describe their methods.

In Praise of Music: a Book Arts Sampling from the Frederick R. Selch Collection of American Music History

The Oberlin Conservatory Library announces the opening of an exhibit, “In Praise of Music: a Book Arts Sampling from the Frederick R. Selch Collection of American Music History.” The exhibit will be on display at Oberlin College’s Mudd Center (first floor) from September 20 until December 10, 2010.

Eric Selch the collector is recognized in this exhibition. Featuring a selection of first and early edition books, instruments, paintings and prints representative of his collection, the exhibit depicts the following themes:

Case 1. Monuments on Musical Instruments

Case 2. Book Illustrations

Case 3. No Two Copies of an Early Title are the Same

Case 4. Book Couture

Case 5. The Evolution of Music Printing

Case 6. 16th- and Early 17th-Century Music Theorists

Case 7. Musical Instrument Tutors

Conservatory Library Technical Services Staff

Asha

Have you ever wondered who checks in new library materials, helps with sending them out to the bindery, puts labels on each item, etc.?  Meet the Technical Services Staff!  These seven students handle every new item that is added to the collection.  Approximately 2,000 recordings, 3,300 scores, and 1,400 books are added to the collection each year! 

When you're thinking gratitude, think of Maya, Rachel, Alison, Yada, Jenny, Asha,  and Liz!

Conservatory Library Stacks Maintenance staff

Meet the Conservatory Library Stacks Maintenance staff!  These are the people who shelve all those hundreds of library items you check out.  In addition, they search for your requested items and prepare things from our collection for ILL and OhioLINK requests.  These are your silent heroes.  Tell them "Thank You" when you next see one of them pushing a book truck in the stacks! <3

Back:  Ian, Ryan, Sarah, Jason
Middle: Will, Seth, Katie
Front: Brandon, Charlotte, Bekah, Carter

Conservatory Library Circulation Staff

Meet the Conservatory Library Circulation Staff. They're happy to help you! 
Top - Tom, Kyle, Jesse :  Middle - Graham, Austin, John, Will, Charlotte B., Katie, Charlotte D., Jane, Jacquie, Ryan, Cathy, Glenna, Megan  :  Front - Jonathan, Sarah

Honoring John Coltrane's Birthday Week!

John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, NC on Sept 23rd, 1926. In honor of his birthday, listen to a Coltrane recording this week. We have over 200 recordings in the Conservatory Library collection. Can't come in? Listen to a digital file on Naxos Jazz from your dorm! While you're listening, check out Coltrane's webpage!

Conservatory Library Reference Staff

The reference desk in the Conservatory Library is staffed by six well-trained reference assistants. The reference desk staff are: McKenzie, Brandon, Anne, John, Paul, and Charlotte. Stop by and ask them a question. They're happy to help you!

Theme Time Radio Hour Archive

Bob Dylan's weekly radio show ran from May of two-thousand and six through 'til April of two-thousand and nine and in the course of 100 episodes DJ Dylan explored themes as diverse as Baseball, War and Cats. The entire archive is presented here with each episode as a single ZIP Archive which includes the episode split up into separate MP3 files. Check it out!

Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits

By BENEDICT CAREY

Published: September 6, 2010; New York Times

Psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong.

Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies). Read more

Conservatory Library Tours - Friday, September 3rd!!

Music and Dance Bibliography and Reference

Check out this An online bibliography of music and dance bibliographies and reference sources. At present the bibliography includes approximately 6,500 bibliographies and reference sources (both print and online), approximately 1,600 of which are annotated with critiques on use, coverage, organization, and pros and cons. Many entries also list published reviews for the corresponding sources. The bibliography is growing actively with new sources and critiques added on a regular basis.

Dayton C. Miller Musical Iconography Collection

The Dayton C. Miller Musical Iconography Collection is now available on the Library of Congress' Web site, the Performing Arts Encyclopedia!

Dayton C. Miller (1866-1941), physicist, inventor, flutist, and collector of all materials related to the history of the flute, donated his world-renowned collection of flutes and flute-related materials to the Library of Congress in 1941. This new Web presentation features a selection of about 120 prints from a subset of the Miller Collection, known as the Miller Iconography Collection. The iconography collection refers to works of art on paper that date from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries containing illustrations of flutes and other musical instruments.

Each of the selected prints is accompanied by an essay that includes biographies of artists or authors of illustrated books associated with a particular print. Extensive descriptive information is included in the catalog record for each print. Users will be able to search this online selection of prints by artist, artist's nationality, century, subject, and instrument, as well as by keyword. (The entire iconography collection consists of about 850 prints, and a checklist of the entire collection is also available on the site.) Although his iconography collection primarily features wind instruments, since it complements Dr. Miller's collection of flutes, there are many other musical instruments represented in the prints as well, including stringed, keyboard, and percussion instruments from the Renaissance to the present, ancient Greek or Roman instruments, and instruments indigenous to Asia, India, Africa, and the South Pacific.

Special essays on this Web presentation describe how Dayton C. Miller came to collect the prints in the iconography collection and how he organized the collection; how the musical instruments in the prints were identified; and how this presentation came to be in terms of the research involved, the selection process, and other factors.

The larger Dayton C. Miller Collection consists of 1,700 flutes; 10,000 pieces of music composed for the flute; his library of 3,000 books documenting the history of the flute and flutemaking; his correspondence and ledger books; 2,000 photographs which include hundreds of photos of flutists or composers for the flute; European and American patent trademark catalogues; a small statuary collection; and the iconography collection.

Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age

By TRIP GABRIEL
Published: August 1, 2010 NYTimes

At Rhode Island College, a freshman copied and pasted from a Web site’s frequently asked questions page about homelessness — and did not think he needed to credit a source in his assignment because the page did not include author information. read more

Chillin' out!

While having fun in the sun is a priority, if you need to cool down and relax, peruse our new books or listen to a CD in air-conditioned comfort!

Why The Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might Be Libraries

by Linda Holmes

I realize we're picking the bones from the Old Spice campaign at this point, but when I saw that the Brigham Young University parody of the Old Spice ads had gotten more than 1.2 million views (Old Spicy himself — that's what I'm calling him — did a video for libraries), it got me thinking.

Specifically, it got me thinking about the very enjoyable Librarians Do Gaga video that everyone sent my way after the debut of the NPR Does Gaga video. read more

Be sure you know about peer-to-peer file sharing and HEOA!

July 1, 2010 marks the day that the U.S. Higher Education Opportunity Act (“HEOA”) provisions come into force. Several sections of the HEOA deal with unauthorized file sharing on campus networks, requiring all U.S. colleges and universities to provide the following with respect to copyright policies.

An annual disclosure that explicitly informs students that unauthorized distribution of copyright-protected content, including unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing, may expose the students to civil and criminal liabilities. This should include a summary of those civil and criminal liabilities, and describe copyright and campus policies on violating copyright.
A plan to “combat” piracy by users of its network, including the use of any technology-based deterrents.
A plan to offer alternatives “to the extent possible” to illegal downloading.
Examples of compliance actions include: Cornell University, Reed College, Linfield College,Bard College,Pomona College,Southwestern University, The University of Kansas, and Purdue University.

The HEOA provisions allow each college and university to interpret what the provisions mean to them, and what copyright education means to them within their own philosophies and goals.

Oberlin Conservatory Library featured on the Music Library Association site!*

The Oberlin Conservatory Library is one of three branch libraries on the Oberlin campus, and the only one to offer a complete array of library services. Providing all instructional, reference, circulation, and reserve assistance overseen by head of public services (and MLA member) Kathleen Abromeit, a complete range of technical services including acquisition, cataloging, and preparations overseen by head of technical services (and MLA member) David “Jack” Knapp, and administration as well as collection development overseen by director of the library (and MLA member) Deborah Campana, the “Con Library” also employs a special collections curator, seven permanent administrative assistant staff and approximately 10 FTE student assistant staff. Read More

*Thank you, MLA!

Wendell Logan, Composer of Jazz and Concert Music, Dies at 69

Wendell Logan, a composer of jazz and concert music who more than two decades ago founded the jazz department at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, long a bastion of high-level classical training, died on June 15 in Cleveland. He was 69 and lived in Oberlin, Ohio. read more

We've been shopping! New items in the collection.

Busy, busy, busy - shopping, cataloging, binding. It never stops.

Check out the new items that have been added to our collection!

SCORES -- RECORDINGS -- BOOKS

Want to read this summer?

Here's the deal on borrowing books and scores from the Conservatory Library this summer:

For continuing students, ask for a summer borrowing privilege form at the circulation desk. You must provide us with an Oberlin mailing address. No OCMR numbers are accepted. We also need to know the date you will be leaving Oberlin. That will become the expiration date for your privileges. If you are finishing an incomplete, privileges are extended until the incomplete is due. All items are still subject to recall.

For graduating students, you must go to the main library and register for alumni borrowing, or if you are staying in the area, you can register as a town patron.

Happy summer reading!

Classical Music in the Public Domain

Many libraries are now digitizing classical music that is no longer controlled under copyright and are available to the public domain. Below is a listing of important sites for digitized classical music.

VARIATIONS Prototype: Online Musical Scores from Indiana University

Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music. On the left sidebar, under Collections is a section labeled "Musical Scores." Check out the resources they've digitized from the Sibley Music Library.

Sheet Music and Multi-Media Resources at Harvard If you scroll down on this page, you'll find a lengthy list, including a digital version of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe! Spend some time with this page of resources. It's simply amazing.


International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) the public domain music score library. The IMSLP site has been set up - in a wiki format that allows for multiplecontributors.

Rosa Rio, former Oberlin student and premier theater organists, dies at 107

By MARGALIT FOX
Published: May 14, 2010

On Oct. 6, 1927, the day “The Jazz Singer” splashed noisily across American movie screens, Rosa Rio broke down and wept. Al Jolson was talking, and the very sound of him, she knew, would put her out of business.

But Miss Rio’s fears went unrealized, and for the next eight decades — until her final performance, last year — she built a career as one of the country’s premier theater organists.

Miss Rio was undoubtedly among the very last to have played the silent-picture houses, accompanying the likes of Chaplin, Keaton and Pickford on the Mighty Wurlitzer amid velvet draperies, gilded rococo walls and vaulted ceilings awash in stars. She was also one of the few women to have made her way in a field dominated by men.

Miss Rio died on Thursday, less than three weeks before her 108th birthday. The death, at her home in Sun City Center, Fla., was confirmed by her husband, Bill Yeoman.

For the silents, Miss Rio provided music — often improvised — to set moods that images alone could not: the footsteps of a cat burglar, the sighs of young lovers and the dreadful roar of the oncoming train as the heroine flailed on the tracks. When silents gave way to talkies, she became a ubiquitous presence on the radio; when radio yielded to television, she played for daytime serials. The Queen of the Soaps, the newspapers called her. More

You're almost finished with the semester!! Fabulous! But don't forget to return your library materials!!

All scores and books are due back by May 18th, 2010 . To check your library record, you can view it online, or come in and ask to have it checked at the Circulation Desk. A reminder that scores returned with missing parts will be kept on your record and you will be charged for replacement costs plus fees if they are not turned in.
Any questions about end-of-semester policies and procedures? Contact Alexis Edleman or Faith Hoffman in the Circulation office. They will be glad to help you!

Lincoln Center Fall Festival to Focus on the Spiritual

Published: May 12, 2010 By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Seeking transcendence near Lincoln Center? The area is rich in holy places for Roman Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Protestants and Muslims. Or perhaps you could skip them and worship at the altar of art music.

Lincoln Center on Wednesday announced plans for a fall festival devoted to spiritual expression and the illumination of “our larger interior universe.” Called the White Light Festival, it will run next season from Oct. 28 to Nov. 18. More

Lena Horne, Singer and Actress, Dies at 92

By ALJEAN HARMETZ

Published: May 9, 2010

Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan.

Her death was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley. more

Schermerhorn's $2.5 Million Pipe Organ Severely Damaged by Flooding

From: NashvilleScene.com

One of the city's recently acquired glories — the $2.5 million Schoenstein pipe organ installed in the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in 2007 — is among the latest casualties of the Cumberland's unstoppable flood waters.

The devastating flooding that threatens Lower Broadway's honky-tonks and swirled earlier today inside both the Grand Ole Opry House and the Country Music Hall of Fame has damaged the enormous pipe organ's operating mechanism and console. Both were housed in the Schermerhorn's basement level, which is currently under anywhere from 12 to 14 feet of flood water. MORE

WolframTones: New Kind Of Science : New Kind Of Music

When prominent scientist Stephen Wolfram published A New Kind of Science in 2002, it was immediately hailed as a major intellectual landmark. Today the paradigm shift that Wolfram's work initiated is starting revolutions in a remarkable range of areas of science, technology--and the arts. WolframTones is an experiment in applying Wolfram's discoveries to the creation of music.

At the core of A New Kind of Science is the idea of exploring a new abstract universe: a "computational universe" of simple programs. In A New Kind of Science, Wolfram shows how remarkably simple programs in his "computational universe" capture the essence of the complexity--and beauty--of many systems in nature.

WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, with its own special story--and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition.

It's all original music--fresh from "mining" Wolfram's computational universe. Sometimes it's reminiscent of familiar musical styles; sometimes it's like nothing ever heard before. It's a taste of what it's like to explore the computational universe--and a hint of what's to come...

Study break for Honors 2010-11 Honors students

Wondering how the library might help you with your Honors project next year?

The Library is hosting a study break for all juniors who are definitely (or possibly) doing Honors in 2010-11 ...

Mark your calendars!

Date: Thursday, May 6

Time: 9:30 - 10 pm

Place: Azariah‛s Café, Mudd Academic Commons

Snacks and friendly librarians await you!

"Ohio" -- 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings

"Ohio" is a protest song written and composed by Neil Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970 and performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The record was mastered with the participation of the four principals, rush-released by Atlantic and heard on the radio with only a few weeks delay. In his liner notes for the song on the Decade retrospective, Young reported that "David Crosby cried when we finished this take." Crosby can be heard keening "Four, why? Why did they die?" and "How many more?" in the fade. Listen to it in the Conservatory Library on CD-33796 or listen to in on www.lala.com.

For further information on the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings, take a look at The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: The Search for Historical Accuracy by KSU professors Jerry M. Lewis and Thomas R. Hensley.

Professor Lewis was also interviewed on NPR . Listen

Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music - experience the access, scholarship, and beauty of DIAMM!

From its beginnings in 1998, the purpose of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) was to obtain and archive digital images of European sources of medieval polyphonic music, captured directly from the original document. The purposes were (1) conservation and protection against loss, especially of vulnerable fragments, and (2) to enable libraries to supply the best possible quality of images to scholars. High-quality direct digital capture ensures a level of detail and colour accuracy that is not possible from scans of surrogates such as slides or glossy photographs. In particular, this type of imaging is crucial to detailed study. Normal single-shot digital photography usually captures at a maximum of 7-11 Megapixels. The imaging used by DIAMM captures at a maximum of 144 Megapixels. This extremely high resolution is necessary for digital restoration. Where there is damage that makes these sources difficult to read, detailed restoration of copies of the original images is possible, to improve legibility and scholarly access. Check it out here.

10 Simple Google Search Tricks

Published: April 2, 2010 By SIMON MACKIE of GigaOm

I’m always amazed that more people don’t know the little tricks you can use to get more out of a simple Google search. Here are 10 of my favorites.

1. Use the “site:” operator to limit searches to a particular site. I use this one all the time, and it’s particularly handy because many site’s built-in search tools don’t return the results you’re looking for (and some sites don’t even have a search feature). more

Exclusive tour of jazzy new Kohl Building

Oberlin College is about to open the new Bertram and Judith Kohl Building for jazz studies!

The new facility is a $24 million expansion of the college's renown Conservatory of Music. Read more and watch a video tour with Dean Stull.

iBone - the pocket trombone

iBone - the Pocket Trombone for iPhone or iPod Touch. Play-a-long with music from your iTunes library or with a selection from the iBone Songbook. Watch a demo here.

Classic jazz DVDs

Check out the "Jazz classics collection." It includes 7 DVDs with loads of classic jazz and big band artists, including Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Stan Kenton, the Dorsey Brothers, and many more.

DVD-2844 Jazz and big band classics : classic tracks from the golden era of jazz

DVD-2845 In the mood for love : romantic classics from the golden era of jazz

DVD-2846 The boys are back in town! classic tracks from the gentlemen of jazz

DVD-2847 This joint is jumpin' : stompin' classics from the Big Band era

DVD-2848 Lights, camera, action! : great big bands from the silver screen

DVD-2849 Sleepytime down south : slow and easy tracks from the golden era of jazz

DVD-2850 Duke Ellington : early tracks from the master of swing

lala - Where music plays!

Where music plays.

Take your music and fuse it with a massive licensed catalog to easily play, buy, and share on the web. A music collection for the way you live -- online.

Lala’s catalog includes over 6 million songs which users can play once for free before buying. For as little as 10 cents, users can buy a web song, a new product that gives users the ability to play the song as often as they choose from their web collection. The web song fee can be applied towards the purchase of the DRM-free MP3 version of the same track. MP3s are priced from 89 cents or 99 cents and are eligible for 10 cent store credits based on prior web song purchase. Check it out here!

Real thing or a tourist copy?

The Conservatory Library is pleased to have on display a collection of instruments, curated by Professor Rod Knight. The display consists of pairs of instruments, the real thing and a tourist copy. According to Prof. Knight, "The prize for me is the one in this photo--a block of wood with 3 holes. It was made by a student in my instruments class in 1978, and she just sent it to me to put in the collection. It might be the only one in the USA. The photos of it, on which she based her model, are from 1912, and it was already rare then."

The Roderic C. Knight Musical Instrument Collection is available online and is devoted to organology (the scientific study of musical instruments) as well as the stories about the instruments in the collection. The companion blog for his instrument collection can be seen here

We hope you stop in and take a look at this rare exhibit. Special thanks to Prof. Knight for curating this fabulous exhibit.

NYTimes quotes Oberlin Conservatory Librarian, Deborah Campana!

Music Museum Expands Reach With Archive, Library

CLEVELAND (AP) -- There's always been room at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for the exciting, most popular relics, like Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' jacket and John Lennon's Sgt. Pepper uniform. But most of the not-so-flashy mementos were tucked away in storage.

Visitors will get a chance to see those hidden artifacts beginning later this year, when the museum opens its library and archives in a recently completed high-tech building it shares with Cuyahoga Community College's creative arts programs.

The museum has begun moving photos, recordings, albums and covers, oral histories, scrap books and other packed materials from its iconic glass pyramid overlooking Lake Erie to the new, low-key building two miles away.

The items also include such gems as Jim Morrison's first poem, video from the 1981-82 Rolling Stones tour and personal letters from the Grateful Dead, Whitney Houston, Patti Smith and others. Posters of Alan Freed, the DJ credited with coining the phrase rock 'n' roll, and aging LP records also will find a home in the $12 million building. The records will be digitalized and available for listening.

The library will be the most comprehensive repository of rock history, with materials donated by hall of fame inductees and wannabes who see it as a way to preserve their stories, said Deborah Campana, librarian of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Read More

Music history finds a new home inside Rock Hall's library and archives at Tri-C's Center for Creative Arts

By John Soeder, The Plain Dealer

February 28, 2010, 6:30AM

In the conservation lab, a movie poster for "Love Me Tender" starring Elvis Presley in his big-screen debut ("Mr. Rock 'n' Roll in the story he was born to play!") is unfurled on a table, awaiting inspection. Around the corner, a worker pulls a "We Are the World" album off a stack of LPs as she takes inventory for a computer database. In another room, pallets are piled high with boxes containing everything from David Bowie and Jefferson Starship videos to a vinyl copy of "Gary Puckett &amp;amp;amp;amp; the Union Gap's Greatest Hits" -- a fresh shipment of history, ready to be processed.

Welcome to the attic of rock 'n' roll heaven, otherwise known as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's library and archives.

Rock around the archives

Here's a taste of some of the cool items in the Rock Hall archives:

Buddy Holly's diploma from Lubbock Senior High School in Lubbock, Texas.

Jimi Hendrix's handwritten lyrics to "Purple Haze," originally subtitled "Jesus Saves."

Record mogul Ahmet Ertegun's 1969 appointment book, in which the evening of May 26 is blocked off for an Incredible String Band concert.

Documentation from Alan Freed's 1959 payola trial, including testimony from promotion manager Bernard Friedlander of United Artists, which paid Freed to play its records on his radio show.

Jim Morrison's death certificate, which lists the cause of death as "Unknown, pending Doctor's statement."

The passport of Joseph Vernon Turner, aka Big Joe Turner, the blues singer whose hits included "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Corrina, Corrina."

-- John Soeder

The facility won't open to the public until November or December, but staffers are hard at work there already.

Read More

Oberlin Conservatory is Awarded the 2009 National Medal of Arts

Marci Janas ’91 - Feb. 25, 2010The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a recipient of the 2009 National Medal of Arts, the highest award given by the United States government to artists and arts patrons in recognition of the wealth and depth of their creative expressions. President Barack Obama is presenting the award to Dean of the Conservatory David H. Stull at a White House ceremony
more here

A video of the entire ceremony is available HERE

OBERLIN COLLEGE

CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC LIBRARY

Summer Reference Internship - 2010

Stipend: $2400 Hours: 30 hrs. per week

Dates: June 18 - July 30, 2010

Duties: Share responsibility for summer reference service, research assistance, and scheduled library instruction with the Conservatory Public Services Librarian and one student Reference Assistant.

Qualifications: music library reference desk experience, academic background in music history and music bibliography, familiarity with music library materials and systems of access, some experience in music performance.

Job Description: This position is funded by the Summer Programs Office of the Conservatory of Music specifically to provide reference and research assistance in the Conservatory of Music Library for participants in Oberlin's summer music programs. In 2010 these include:

Oberlin Trumpet Workshop, Baroque Performance Institute, Oberlin Summer Academy for High School Organists, Sonic Arts Workshop: Composing Electronic & Computer Music, Composition Workshop, Oberlin Flute Institute, The Thomas & Evon Cooper Competition, Oberlin Piano Festival, Credo - Chamber Music Program

Participants in summer programs range from musically talented high school students, through accomplished adult students, to practicing professional performers and teachers, totaling some 400 musicians each summer.

Status: This position provides full staff privileges in use of campus facilities, including the libraries, computing center, athletic facilities, and staff discounts on concert and theater events.

To Apply: Send letter of application and resume to Kathy Abromeit (kathleen.abromeit@oberlin.edu)

Closing date: Sunday, March 14, 2010

Stroke Recovery and Music

There have been several articles in BBC News regarding music and stroke recovery. Here's a sampling of the articles:
___________________

Music 'can aid stroke recovery'

Listening to music in the early stages after a stroke can improve a patient's recovery, research suggests.

The researchers compared patients who listened to music for a couple of hours a day, with those who listened only to audio books, or nothing at all. more

-------------------------------

Stroke patient says Kenny Rogers helped brain recovery
By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Mike Pensom loves country and western music, particularly anything by Kenny Rogers. He hates hip hop and rap. But recently Mike found that his musical likes and dislikes also have a profound effect on his brain. Twenty years ago Mike had a stroke which caused problems with the left-hand side of his body and left him missing things in part of his field of vision.

Favourite tunes

But when scientists played him his favourite tunes he has seen more - and when they played the stuff he did not like there was no change. more

------------------------

'Music helped me recover from stroke'
By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Just four days after his wife's funeral following her death from a stroke, Cyril Merle had a massive stroke himself. The 86-year-old was paralysed down the left side of his body and had difficulty speaking and eating. He needed daily physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and gym workouts during the nine months he spent recovering in his local hospital in Horsham, West Sussex, before being allowed home.

Now - aged 91 - Cyril is fully recovered and able to do even more than he was before the stroke. He credits his love of music for helping speed up his recovery. more

Internet Archive Has a Free Music Widget

From ResearchBuzz:

Internet Archive Has a Free Music Widget. The widget is available on Widgetbox here

You can do some customizing of width, height, theme, etc. However the content remains the same; new music as it’s added to the archive.

When I took a look at the widget it included music from bands including The Grateful Dead, Donna the Buffalo, Cracker, and Drive-By Truckers. Now if it had a built in player that would be even more awesome, but alas….

The widget was created by Jeff Kaplan (or at least some user calling themselves “JeffKaplan”) of the Internet Archive. This is the only widget available from this user. Will be perhaps be seeing more on the way?

By the way, if you like this widget, don’t forget to check out Dewey Music, which I covered last month in ResearchBuzz. Great stuff.