Online Sheet Music Projects and Metadata from a Public Service Perspective

Abstract

As historic sheet music collections enter the public domain, they are becoming increasingly popular as content for digital library projects. This newfound plethora of sheet music citations and images online has generated many patron inquiries. Patrons often cannot, or do not, distinguish sources that are found in the online catalog from those found through a Google search. To them the results are all "on the web." It is oftentimes the Reference Librarian's job to redirect the patron to the correct citation or even another library. Since library staff members answering reference queries about sheet music may or may not be the same ones involved in creating the online sheet music collections, knowledge of how these online collections are structured and metadata applied can be helpful in addressing reference queries. This article gives an overview of how issues related to patron discovery of and access to both the collections and their contents are directly related to the quantity and quality of the metadata found with the collections.

Because You’re You: factors influencing item selection in a digital sheet music collection

“…Factor 5 -the presence of links to audio versions -did not have a positive influence on item selection at all. Research has shown that most users of music collections, physical or digital, are doing known item searches (Riley and Dalmau, 2007;Dougan, 2004). This may explain why the addition of audio links did not increase page views for those items.…”

“…Ideally, users of any digital collection will find their way to the collection, find what they need, remain there to browse/search for other items and return to the collection later. An easy-to-use interface for both searching and browsing is as important for music collections as it is for other types of digital collections (Wheeler and Venetis, 2005;Riley and Dalmau, 2007;Dougan, 2004;Kulik, 2010;Inskip et al, 2008;Dubnjakovic, 2009). Metadata for music collections should include alternative titles and text versions of lyrics, as users are frequently unfamiliar with the official title of a work and often use a portion of the lyrics when doing a title search (Riley and Dalmau, 2007).…”

Musical score representation and retrieval in digital environments

“…Due to the large amount of information on the Internet, Dougan (2006) points out that queries on search bars can produce an equally large number of results, even with consolidated tools. In addition, netizens often find it difficult to discern between different types of searches, such as a library catalogue, a Google search, the free web or the deep web itself, because if the information has been located via the browser on the Internet, they automatically assume that it is only available on the Web, without further understanding.…”

“…In this sense, musical scores can be considered as an example of a document and information object, as they go through representation processes in order to be retrieved and accessed. When talking about location, Dougan (2006) adds that they are mostly affiliated to universities or cultural institutions, especially historical scores that have not been made available by netizens. Such an affiliation allows the score and its history to be preserved.…”

“…This research is justified on the basis of the investigations mentioned in this context (Dougan, 2006; Dubnjakovic, 2009) and the need to give musical scores adequate descriptive and thematic treatment in digital environments. Oliveira et al (2017: 147) add that the ‘context of digital information production has demanded scientific research on forms of storage and appropriate tools to enable access to and use of information’ by netizens, which demonstrates the need for specific research of this nature.…”