- Beggs, J. & D. Thede. (2001). Designing web audio. Sebastopol,
CA: O’Reilly.
- This book is more for the home audio enthusiast
than for the aspiring audio enthusiastic librarian; however, there
is still information to be gleaned from its pages. Chapters like,
"The art of sound design," "Capturing original source
material," and "Interactive sound design with flash and
shockwave" while interesting aren't as practical as those on
optimizing, streaming, and "the science of sound and digital
audio." There are five chapters on specific types of platforms,
i.e. RealAudio, Midi, etc., which are only helpful if one is using
that particular setup. However, the comparison of audio formats
in Appendix B is especially helpful.
- Brylawski, S. (2001).
“Preservation of digitally recorded sound.” In Building
a National Strategy for Preservation: Issues in Digital Media Archiving.
Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, Library
of Congress. Retrieved March 22, 2003 from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/pub106.pdf
- For those interested in an overview of recorded
sound trends and issues, especially copyright, this is a thorough
and fascinating article. One will also learn of the debate over
standards for encoding media and creating metadata for this same
media. The historical breadth of the article offers the reader insights
into the recording industry, its reluctance to archive materials,
and yet the need for collaboration in order to keep these valuable
sound resources available for posterity.
- Cohen, E. (2001). “Preservation of Audio.” In Folk
Heritage Collections in Crisis. Washington, DC: Council on Library
and Information Resources. Retrieved March 22, 2003 from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub96/preservation.html
- Written from a preservationist's point of view,
this article urges the immediate transfer of analog media into the
deigital domain before it's too late. Cohen addresses the people
in the archival community who are waiting for a "Holy Grail
medium that will never decay" and hoping to avoid the upkeep
of computer technology. With amazing statistics on how much more
information is being created and distributed (i.e. terabytes of
garage band music each day) this article reminds one of the challenge
of preservation in the digital era. Sony Music has embarded on a
project to archival their music having 600TB of data on 200,000
cartridges. These cartridges or exabyte tapes as well as optical
disks (like DVDs, CDs, and Magneto-optical disks) are the current
preferred media, yet migration will be necessary as years pass.
In the consumer market, for instance, the lifespan of digital media
is estimated to be five years or or less.
- Copeland, P. (1996). Project Digitise. Information Services &
Use, 16(3/4):199-208. (Electronic Version from EBSCHost Academic
Search Elite)
- This article discusses a major digitization project
of the British Library National Sound Archive's. Focused on preservation,
there is helpful information regarding the types of analog audio
formats most in need of preserving - "acetate" discs,
wax cylinders, and acetate-based magnetic tape - as well as lessons
learned regarding the hardware and software challenges experienced.
As an early digitization it is not suprising that they state the
debugging of computer hardware/software as a main achievement of
the project. If interested in converting analog to digital audio
take a look at this article for implementation stages, issues, and
details to consider.
- Dunn, J. & C. A. Mayer. (1999). VARIATIONS:
A digital music library system at Indiana University. In DL ’99:
Proceedings of the fourth ACM conference on digital libraries, 12-19.
New York: ACM. Retrieved March 22, 2003 from www.music.indiana.edu/variations/VARIATIONS-DL99.pdf
- This article is an update to Fenske and Dunn's
1996 article (see below) and covers project background implementation,
and operation basics, user reactions, and future plans. Details
regarding the hardware and software used for capturing, storing,
and distributing content should be of interest to those planning
such projects of their own. At the end there is mention of Variations
expanding to other information formats, i.e. video, scores, and
also a statement that they see Variations as eventually becoming
"part of a distributed global digital music library with content
contributed by many different libraries and institutions (p. 18)."
- Fenske, D. E. & J. W. Dunn. (June 1996). The VARIATIONS
project at Indiana University’s Music Library. D-Lib Magazine.
Retrieved November 14, 2002 from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june96/variations/06fenske.html
- This article on Indiana University's Variations
Project presents a history of the technological decision making
progress, as well as an overview of the technical process of digitization.
After examining various server, network, and client possibilities
they chose to keep their existing Mac and PC clients going with
an IBM ATM Network in the library and a Novell-based server. IBM
provided financial support and allowed Indiana to try cutting-edge
technology. In creating the digital content and Microsoft wav files
are created and later compressed by batch into MPEG files. The content
is stored on two IBM Servers - one for playback of the audio files
and another for archival purposes - and an in-house application
was developed for playback. The article ends with a discussion of
future goals, including on-demand digitization, video, the wider
distribution of content past the library networks, online scores,
and the creation of an audio database for music character recognition.
- Griscom, R. (March 2003). Distant music:
Delivering audio over the Internet. Notes: Quarterly Journal of
the Music Library Association, 59(3), 521-541.
- Griscom presents the results of a survey he gave
to thirty-nine libraries involved with online audio projects. This
is an excellent article for understanding the basics and quantifying
and qualifying "best practices" in digital music library
initiatives. The information gleaned includes: 1) the types of projects
undertaken (preservation or access, though these lines are arguably
blurred), 2) technological infrastructure chosen, 3) necessary staffing,
4) budget costs, and 5) copyright guidelines followed by each. For
example, survey results show how five different streaming audio
formats were used (67% with RealAudio), twenty-four different software
products for creating audio files, seven different programs for
playback, and various streaming rates. Graphs serve as a helpful
visual aid and a section on future initiatives closes out the article.
- Fonss-Jorgensen, E. (April 1997). JUKEBOX: Final Report. State and
University Library, Aarhus, Denmark. Retrieved May 22, 2003 from http://www.sb.aau.dk/Jukebox/finalrep.html
- Along with Variations and HARMONICA, JUKEBOX was
an early music digitization project. This collaborative effort took
place from 1993 to 1996 and involved the national sound archives
of Denmark, Italy, and the UK with the assistance of the Western
Norway Research Institute. This summary report together with an
earlier report at http://www.sb.aau.dk/Jukebox/edit-report-1.html
offers information about this ambitious project to offer access
to archival audio collections across a large distribution network.
This second report while offering a description of the project focuses
more on an analysis of date regarding user satisfaction and usage
during a three month pilot test period in 1995. Though HARMONIC's
weblink is dead, it and other major European
digitization projects are listed at http://www.cordis.lu/libraries/en/music.html
- Kansas City History in Sound and Image. (March 7, 2003). Digital Projects
by the Department of Special Collections Miller Nichols Library, University
of Missouri-Kansas City. :Retrieved May 22, 2003 at http://www.umkc.edu/lib/spec-col/Expo/expodemo.htm
- Apart from linking to some great online digital
projects that utilize archival sound recordings, this page also
shows the digitization process and equipment used for these projects.
Pictures of the equipment as jpegs help the user understand the
technical aspects and requirements for such projects. Although it
should be kept in mind that there are many options for equipment
other than Real Audio Producer software, which is more expensive
than other packages.
- Maple, A. & T. Henderson. (October
2000). Prelude to a Digital Music Library at the Pennsylvania State
University: Networking Audio for Academic Library Users. Library
Resources & Technical Services, 44(4),190-5.
- This is an informal article about Pennsylvania
State University's digital music initiative in its initial stages(
'prelude') of implementation. Written to help others in their own
planning, developing, and evaluating of audio projects, it is organized
into sections on infrastructure, collections, and staffing. (Griscom
built his survey questions around this basic division.)
- Maslin, J. & E. Lyon. (November 1998). Project PATRON--audio and
video on demand at the University of Surrey. The Journal of Academic
Librarianship, 24(6), 464-8.
- Funded through the Higher Education Funding Council
for England - Electronic Libraries Programme, PATRON is another
successful implementation of digital audio, except in this case
the result was a simple yet integrated interface presenting dance
video, audio and music scores. Image scanning, audio/video conversion,
system components, information structure, access, and user interface
are all discussed. Quality was a prime consideration on all levels
and a picture in the article shows the beauty of their accomplishment.
- Mayer, C. (2002). Variations: Creating a Digital
Music Library at Indiana University. In W. Jones, J. R. Ahronheim &
J. Crawford (Eds.), Cataloging the web: Metadata, AACR, and MARC
21. (pp. 149-154). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
- Being a chapter in a book primarily on current
cataloging practices, this article on Indiana's Variations project
discusses the metadata behind their online audio records. Existing
MARC records in the catalog were kept as the basic metadata structure
for the digital audio object, with the addition of a URL link embedded
in an 865 filed. Also a reserve directory provides access to this
online content with information copied from the basic MARC record,
which links to an "interim screen" with more detailed
track information, the later added without authority control by
student workers. The track listing does however provide a complete
listing of the audio content so that it may be delineated and readily
selected. Once the Variations player opens, metadata is found on
the control panel as well as via a complete track listing.
- Music Library Association. (1996-2002) “Statement on
the Digital Transmission of Electronic Reserves.” Retrieved March
22, 2003 from http://musiclibraryassoc.org/Copyright/ereserves.htm
- The copyright information provided by the Music
Library Association (MLA) is a primary source for the music librarian
in particular. This information is updated, accurate, and extremely
relevant to the issues that libraries are facing today. In addition
to the practical advise regarding guidelines for electronic music
reserves (See copyright page), other
pages will help music educators and musicians in general who are
interested in following the fair use provisions of the copyright
law. There are links to other relevant sources and a list of related
legislative events.
- Smiraglia, R. P. (June 2002). Music works
and information retrieval. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music
Library Association, 58(4), 747-766.
- Smiraglia, a foremost expert on music cataloging
issues, delves into important organizational concepts for those
involved with overseeing the creation of cataloging/metadata records.
Whether one is working on a digital music library or other Music
Information Retrieval (MIR) projects this article can provide some
guidance into details that should be addressed in order to find
the most effective organizational structures. Due to the use of
lingo only known to serious catalogers - i.e. taxomony, derivative
relationship types, and instantation - this article is not for the
fainthearted. However, the issues discussed are pivotal for the
future success of information retrieval in music and therefore someone
at each institution should read it to keep informed and aware of
best practices.
- Willdorf, N. (May 4, 2000). Worcester Polytechnic creates an unusual
online music archive. Chronicle of Higher Education. Online
version retrieved May 13, 2003 from http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi.
- The retelling of why Worcester Polytechnic implemented
an online music library offers a few helpful copyright pointers,
but is mainly a simple introduction to these issues. Left with two
working turntables, they opted to explore technology and made pieces
available for download from a password-protected class website.
Streaming technology is stated to be the better option due to possible
copyright infringements, but cost was a deterrent. Other initiatives
are highlighted and an argument is made against the 10% fair-use
guideline in the case of classical works. "The guidelines don't
really address the situation we're facing today in academe (p. 3)."
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