Ask a Librarian: The Role of Librarians in the Music Information Retrieval
Community
Jenn Riley
Constance A. Mayer
Indiana University
1320 E. 10th St. E170
Bloomington, IN 47405
jenlrile@indiana.edu
University of Maryland
2511 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
College Park, MD 20742
mayer@umd.edu
Abstract
librarians, who have historically managed music
collections and assisted users in finding music information
within them, would participate actively in the conferences,
a review of the ISMIR proceedings from 2000 through
2005 reveals few papers or posters authored by members of
this group. Contributions include overviews of digital
library projects [2][3][3], standards for digital image
capture of musical scores [5] and metadata [6].
Building on the model employed by Futrelle and
Downie, we surveyed the conference programs and primary
publications of two organizations that represent music
librarianship--The Music Library Association [8] and the
International Association of Music Libraries Archives and
Documentation Centres [9]--hoping to identify topics that
both engage music librarians and intersect with the
research agendas of other Music IR scholars. Full-length
articles from Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music
Library Association,[10] and Fontes artis musicae, Journal
of the International Association of Music Libraries,
Archives and Documentation Centres [11] as well as
public presentations from the Music Library Association
Annual Meetings [12][13][14][15][16][17] and the IAML
Annual Conferences [18][19][20][21][22][23] covering the
years 2000—2005 were examined and classified according
to the general topics listed in Table 1.
The results, presented in Tables 2 and 3, are not
particularly surprising. Music librarians, as practitioners,
tend to focus much of their energy on performing the dayto-day duties of their jobs as effectively as possible.
“Librarianship” topics involving library management,
library facilities, and “how we do it well in our library,”
provide core information and a sense of community for the
practicing music librarian.
While these topics, in
themselves, are not appropriate for ISMIR, some
understanding of the difference in focus between those
whose primary focus is research and those whose primary
focus is practice would undoubtedly help to build
necessary bridges between librarians and those from other
disciplines.
Participation from music librarians has been sparse in the
first six ISMIR conferences, despite many potential areas
of mutual interest. This paper makes an argument for the
benefit to both the Music IR and library communities that
can be gained by increased representation of librarians in
ISMIR. An analysis of conference programs and primary
publications of two music library organizations to
determine topics from the library literature relevant to
Music IR research is presented. A discussion follows of
expertise music librarians could potentially contribute to
the Music IR community, including experience with
metadata, in-depth knowledge of a wide variety of musical
genres, ownership and access to vast collections of music
and literature on music, and first-hand relationships with
users of musical materials. The paper concludes with a
summary of ways in which Music IR research could
potentially be used in music libraries.
Keywords: Music librarians, ISMIR.
1. Introduction
Since its inaugural conference in October 2000, ISMIR has
attempted to explore the topic of music information
retrieval from the perspectives of diverse research
communities. In a 2002 review of the proceedings of the
2000 and 2001 ISMIR conferences, Futrelle and Downie
outline several Music IR research communities—computer
science and information retrieval, audio engineering and
digital signal processing, musicology and music theory,
library science, cognitive science, psychology, philosophy,
and law—and point out that dialog among the communities
is both enhanced and impeded by the fact that each
community has its own methodologies, jargon, and
philosophies. [1]
Although common sense suggests that practicing music
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Table 1. Topics in music librarianship
Topics
Repertoire
Descriptions
Research on different types of
Collections
Music History
Printing and
Publishing
Digital
Libraries
Reference
User
Education
Music
Databases
Copyright
Cataloging/
metadata
Library
automation
Librarianship
Other
music including jazz, popular,
world, and classical
Descriptions of collections and
materials in collections
Research in the historical and
cultural aspects of music
Research on and descriptions of
historical publishing
methodologies
Descriptions of digital libraries,
digital collections, digital
preservation
Questions users ask
Collections
How do we teach users to find
music information? How might
that be automated?
What music databases do we
use? How do they work? How
could usability be improved?
How does copyright affect our
ability to create and provide
access to digital collections?
Various schemas for organizing
information
Integrated Library Systems:
what works and what we need
Professional and
methodological issues related
to music librarianship
Cataloging/
metadata
Library
automation
Librarianship
Miscellaneous topics
Not surprisingly, collections are another focal point in
the professional world of music librarians. Descriptions of
collections—general, special, archival, topical—appear as
part of nearly every conference and publication. In addition
to describing and analyzing collections, music librarians
search for better ways to provide access to them, including
digitization and online access. This is clearly an area
where enhanced dialog among the various Music IR
communities could benefit all.
And, surely no one is surprised to find that librarians
continue to show interest in issues surrounding the
organization of information and intellectual access. In our
burgeoning digital world, we could all benefit from
conversations among traditional catalogers, metadata
specialists, and Music IR researchers.
Table 2. Music Library Association
Topics
Repertoire
MLA
Annual
Meetings
12%
Notes
8%
Music History
Printing
and
Publishing
Digital
Libraries
Reference
User Education
Music
Databases
Copyright
Other
16%
31%
5%
0
2%
10%
9%
5%
5%
6%
4%
5%
7%
1%
1%
1%
10%
5%
3%
0
18%
25%
8%
3%
Table 3. International Association of Music Libraries
Archives and Documentation Centres
Topics
Repertoire
Collections
Music History
Printing and
Publishing
Digital
Libraries
Reference
User
Education
Music
Databases
Copyright
Cataloging/
metadata
Library
automation
Librarianship
Other
IAML
Conferences
7%
Fontes artis
musicae
7%
22%
38%
2%
1%
2%
11%
15%
0
less than 1%
0
0
0
13%
0
4%
0
7%
0
less than 1%
3%
19%
40%
8%
0
Somewhat surprisingly, “music information retrieval” as
a main topic seems to be nearly absent from the venues we
explored although it’s implicit in some of the functional
areas like music databases, digital libraries, reference, user
education, and, of course, cataloging and metadata. This
brief survey sheds some light on the challenges inherent in
bringing music librarians and researchers in the field of
music information retrieval together. In the remainder of
this paper, we would like to make some practical
suggestions about ways that music librarians can benefit
the Music IR community and ways in which Music IR can
benefit librarians.
2. What libraries can offer to the Music
Information Retrieval community
2.1 Metadata expertise
Music IR research has historically focused heavily on
content-based retrieval methods. These methods show great
promise for improving access to music; however, they can't
by themselves meet every user's searching need. Instead, it
is likely that a combination of content searching and
"traditional" metadata searching can be used to provide
improve access to music; neither method inherently must
operate in isolation. The Variations2 project at Indiana
University is one proof-of-concept example of how the two
methods might operate in concert. [24]
Libraries have been providing metadata-based searching
for centuries in the form of inventories and card catalogs,
and since the late 1960s using the MARC (MAchine
Readable Cataloging) format. Today library users search
MARC records through Web-based Online Public Access
Catalogs (OPACs).
Libraries have developed a number of techniques to aid
user access to their collections, many of which date from
the days of printed catalog cards. Most of these methods
focus around the idea of "collocation"—grouping together
like materials either on the shelf or in the catalog. One such
technique is called "authority control," which seeks to
describe people, corporations, titles, and subjects with the
same label every time they appear in the library catalog. A
user can then find every item by a given person, all
instances of a given work, or all works on a given subject
with a single search, rather than having to dream up all
possible versions of a name or synonyms for a subject.
Variant names, titles, and synonyms for subjects are then
cross-referenced through the library catalog to the
preferred form that appears in the catalog records.
Subjects, which in library cataloging, include such
important user access points as genre and instrumentation,
are pre-arranged into a hierarchical structure so that users
may broaden or narrow their search as desired. Libraries
have also devoted resources to the classification of their
collections. Classification provides a system for
arrangement of materials on the shelf, but, more
importantly, provides a high-level browsing structure for
users to find relevant materials previously unknown to
them.
Despite the innovations in description libraries have
made, finding materials in libraries is still too difficult for
our users. Our methods for improving retrieval rely on
users becoming expert in these techniques—for example,
to execute the search that retrieves all items by a given
person, instances of a given work, or works on a given
subject, the user must first know what the preferred form of
that name, title or subject is. That form is often chosen
through a set of esoteric cataloging rules that even today
are influenced by the constraints of a printed card catalog,
or is presented in print-only resources a user is unlikely to
know exists, much less consult. This model, if it ever was
completely successful, is becoming increasingly archaic in
the information age.
The ideas behind techniques such as authority control
and classification, however, hold a great deal of promise
for use in 21st-century information systems, and librarians
who work with these techniques on a daily basis can and
should provide expert input on system design to leverage
these techniques in today's environment. Current
technologies provide libraries with unprecedented
opportunities to improve access for our users. It is now
possible, if poorly implemented in today's library systems,
to shift the burden of vocabulary control from the cataloger
and the user to the system, to integrate authority lists and
subject thesauri into cataloging and search systems,
transparently assisting catalogers in assigning appropriate
names, titles, and subjects and users in finding material
described with these terms. Current technologies also show
promise for integrating data from sources outside of
libraries, such as record companies and online music
services, into our library catalogs to more cost-effectively
provide access to our collections. Similarly, taxonomies
and ontologies developed outside of libraries can enhance
and work together with libraries' existing subject heading
lists. Using this raw data as the basis for retrieval together
with library data using traditional authority control can
vastly improve access to library materials for our users.
Music librarians possess the in-depth understanding of
metadata-based searching needed to effectively integrate
these new technologies and data sources into our search
systems.
The library community has recently developed some
new models aimed at more clearly structuring bibliographic
information. The most influential of these models is known
as "FRBR" – a report from the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions entitled Functional
Requirements for Bibliographic Records, which applies
entity-relationship modeling to bibliographic information.
[25] The increased structure of library bibliographic
records that would be achieved by conforming to the
FRBR model, together with modern information retrieval
technology, provide unprecedented opportunities for
advanced user access based on high-quality, structured
metadata. Music librarians have served as integral part of
project teams developing innovative music information
retrieval systems for their users in such high-profile
projects as Variations2 from Indiana Unversity [26], the
British Library Sound Archive [27], and MusicAustralia.
[28]
2.2 Thorough knowledge of the repertoire
Music librarians perform a wide variety of tasks, including
selecting scores, recordings, online music and reference
sources, books on music, and music periodicals for their
collections; answering users' reference questions;
cataloging library materials so that users may find them;
and developing services aimed at helping users more
effectively find and use music for fun, study, or research.
To perform these activities and other job duties, music
librarians must have a broad knowledge of the musical
repertoire and works on the history and analysis of music in
a wide variety of genres.
In academic music libraries in the United States,
Western art music, often referred to as "classical" music, is
the core repertoire most heavily collected and studied.
Academic music librarians frequently hold advanced
degrees in music, and have themselves performed
advanced research in the field. Librarians in academic
libraries, together with the faculty and graduate students
they serve, are among the individuals most expert on this
repertoire. Yet music libraries do not only hold "classical"
music. Undergraduate and graduate music curricula
increasingly cover non-Western musics, jazz, American
popular music, and other genres previously under-studied.
Individual researchers and casual patrons similarly are
more frequently studying music outside of the traditional
canon, including rap, American folk music, and "world"
music. Librarians are actively keeping up with this trend as
well, collecting both music and music research in these
areas. Intimate knowledge of music in a wide variety of
genres is a skill music librarians can uniquely bring to
Music IR research.
2.3 Ownership of content
As we noted from the survey, librarians are generally
involved in acquiring, organizing, and maintaining
collections of intellectual materials including books,
musical scores, and sound and video recordings in a variety
of formats. They can provide access to musical content,
some of it in the public domain and free of copyright
restrictions, for use in music information retrieval research.
Music librarians can also help choose content based on
their experience with user requests for access to the
materials.
2.4 Knowledge of user needs
Librarians interact daily with library users—faculty,
students, performers, and the musically curious general
public—and both understand their needs and show a
willingness to test old assumptions about those needs.
Usability testing, not heavily represented in the music
librarianship literature we examined, is recognized by all
communities as an important research area. Perhaps
librarians can help to frame the issues and provide the
subjects for testing while those more experienced in
usability research can conduct the testing and report the
results.
Reference librarians frequently keep track of frequently
asked questions and would be an excellent resource for
collecting information about the kinds of information
people seek and the difficulties they experience in finding
it. Although the topic of user education does not dominate
the literature, most music librarians in academic music
libraries also engage in user education programs, often in
collaboration with teaching faculty.
Another useful source of information about user needs
would be transaction logs from online catalog searching or
music database searching. Librarians frequently use these
devices to help them understand how users actually use the
resources.
3. How libraries can benefit from Music IR
research
3.1 Integrating Music IR research into digital music
library systems for better end-user discovery
Innovations both in the library environment and in the
more traditional Music IR community provide many
opportunities for digital music library systems to improve
end-user search and discovery. Specific and appropriate
genre, style, and instrumentation terms chosen and
maintained by librarians can be used to provide high-level
browsing of library collections, a method of access that has
historically received little attention. Developing
technologies promise to allow easier integration of
controlled vocabularies for names, titles, and subjects into
search interfaces, shifting the responsibility for knowing
the "right" version of a term in this situation from the user
to the search system. Studies of end-user behavior from the
Music IR community can help librarians to define needed
functionality for digital music library systems. Optical
music recognition could greatly increase the amount of
encoded score content available for our users. Audio
identification algorithms could improve the speed in which
libraries can connect appropriate metadata to digital audio.
Content-based searching algorithms could be added to
systems that previously only used metadata-based
searching to produce more robust and flexible discovery
for our users. Audio similarity measures could be used to
provide suggestion services, a feature largely missing in
libraries today. The possibilities for integration of Music
IR research techniques into digital music library systems
are nearly endless.
A major challenge for libraries today is providing
unified access to materials obtained from a wide variety of
sources. Today, many of these sources are licensed
databases of content, each with their own separate search
and delivery interface, rather than content available for
purchase. Many others are open-access music systems on
the Web, again each with an individual search and delivery
interface. Integration of these disparate materials into some
sort of cohesive discovery mechanism will require a
number of techniques. Some, such as mapping metadata
from one format to another, are techniques in which music
librarians already have expertise. Others, such as
identifying duplicate content among sources, might find
solutions in techniques suggested by Music IR research.
3.2 Software tools for the use of music
Finding music is not an end unto itself. Discovery is the
first and perhaps even least interesting (to him) step a user
takes in his path towards his final goal - putting that music
to use. This use can take a variety of forms. In academic
music libraries, the primary uses of materials from library
collections are classroom assignments, research, and
performance. Tools from the Music IR community for
harmonic and formal analysis, for use with audio, score
images, and encoded scores, can help students complete
classroom assignments and more fully understand
compositional styles. These same tools provide music
researchers with unprecedented methods for performing
quantitative analysis. Automated audio and score alignment
methods, instrument artist identification algorithms, and
many other Music IR techniques can simplify many music
history and theory classroom assignments.
No matter what use a library patron makes of the music
he finds, he must have some method for managing the
materials in which he is interested. Music IR tools
frequently present innovative methods for user interaction
with materials that could supplement existing tools in
libraries.
4. Conclusion
Music librarians can offer valuable perspectives and
expertise to the Music IR community. Librarians' in-depth
knowledge of techniques for effective metadata-based
searching is essential in designing modern music
information retrieval systems. Metadata searching can and
should be used alongside content-based searching for
improved access to music for users. Music librarians' firsthand knowledge the ways in which users search for and use
music materials can further inform Music IR research, by
helping to set research agendas, providing a user base with
which to test retrieval systems, and offering a new
perspective on user needs.
Librarianship and music information retrieval are at a
crossroads. Collaboration, sharing research, and increased
communication between these two communities will be
mutually beneficial, and offers an unprecedented
opportunity to put Music IR research into practice.
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