ALA Annual 2023: yet another trip to Chicago without an attached visit to my hometown of Decatur, IL. Next time I swear I am going to stay an extra couple of days and rent a car. It’s been several years, which is too long, even if Decatur is what it is At “Finding a New... more ›
Eleven-day-old daughter and sleep-deprived wife in tow, I attended the 2014 Charleston Conference flying arguably in the face of reason. I had the advantage of a free place to stay: my parents-in-law live out on James Island, a 15-minute drive to the Francis Marion Hotel where the conference is held. Given this fact and the... more ›
This year’s Music Library Association conference was held in Atlanta. It was a very productive meeting for me: I got a lot of continuing education in RDA, the new cataloging standard; and an opportunity to renew contacts in the area of ethnomusicology (music area studies), having learned just before leaving for MLA that our Music... more ›
I have never actually attended the Charleston Conference, but this year they broadcast a small number of sessions live over the Internet. I tuned in to watch two of those sessions. In a pre-conference segment, Judy Ruttenberg from the Association of Research Libraries spoke about legal issues in providing online resource access for print-disabled patrons.... more ›
I’m back from another Music Library Association conference, held this year in Philadelphia. Some highlights: Libraries, music, and digital dissemination Previous MLA plenary sessions have focused on a disturbing new trend involving the release of new music recordings as digital downloads only, with licenses restricting sale to end users, which effectively prevents libraries either from... more ›
From September to November, I was involved in a self-paced course called “Digital Licensing Online.” The course consisted of 27 lessons that were delivered three times a week via email. The course discussed broad topics like why licensing is important, as well as specific clauses and terms found in licenses. The last several lessons focused... more ›