I just realized I never made an official announcement. This blog is ceasing, since both original authors have moved on to non-music-library jobs. Thanks for all the kudos and interest over the months.

It's been a busy week . . .

Buzz of the afternoon . . . Apple + Cingular = Iphone.

It's a plot to make librarians look like music-haters. "This isn't a cellphone!" Assuming it looks more like an Ipod than those pesky MP3 phones . . . (Just jealous because mine was kicked off of the government spouse share plan.)

--- update --

Seems to be some contention surrounding the name -- but the most complete coverage I've seen yet has been from the NYT video blogs -- the archive from 1/11/06 on the main page.

I'll post the link when I get to a computer with Flash capability.

Meeting That Looks Right Up My Alley

Note: Early Registration Deadline is January 19, 2007!

Join the Music OCLC Users Group at their annual meeting to be held 27-28 February 2007 in Pittsburgh, PA. The meeting will be held at the Hilton Pittsburgh, and takes place immediately prior to the joint Music Library Association/Society of American Music annual meeting. Program sessions include "Open WorldCat/WorldCat.org," "OCLC and Outsourced Cataloging Services," "Music Acquisitions Issues and OCLC," and the ever-popular "Ask MOUG" (question and answer period with Jay Weitz and Mela Kircher of OCLC).

Please note that the early registration deadline is January 19, 2007.

The official registration form is included in the December issue of the MOUG Newsletter, as well as in the Music Library Association's conference mailing for those of you who are also members of MLA. It is also available online from the MOUG website: http://www.musicoclcusers.org/regfrm07.htm

Registration Fees:

Personal Member: $95
Non-Member: $110
Student: $45
1st-time Attendee (payable only at the first-ever MOUG annual meeting one attends, regardless of professional or employment status): $50

Late Registration Fee (add to all on-site registrations and to registrations postmarked or paid in-person after January 19, 2007): $35

Conference Hotel information (make reservations directly with the hotel):
Hilton Pittsburgh
600 Commonwealth Place
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
1-800-HILTONS (1-800-445-8667)
(412) 391-4600

Request group rate for "MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION"
Rates: $145 single/double room occupancy, each additional person $20; 14% room tax.

The individual MOUG membership fee is $15, which is payable separately from the meeting registration.

Mary Huismann
OLAC/MOUG Liaison


***************************************************************************
Mary Huismann mailto:huism002@tc.umn.edu
Music Original Cataloger
Univ. of Minnesota (612) 625-6658 (voice)
160/170 Wilson Library (612) 625-3428 (fax)
309 - 19th Ave. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
****************************************************************************

One perk about working where I do is that we get (essentially) a three week vacation break during the holidays. It’s not company policy, per say, but since I can rarely use my vacation during school days, I end up taking most of these three weeks off. My roll-over is January 28^th, so I’ve been frantically using up my personal days before the start of our quarter, that being today.

So, that explains my extended break. I know it’s tradition to warn readers ahead of time about long absences, but I’m happy to report that my weeks of rest have me fired up for daily posts again.

First, a big backup of linkspam . . . Tomorrow, I’ll hit the magazines.

- Here’s me recommending a service I haven’t tried . . . but I fully mean to, because in the sea of music services, it at least has a new pricing model.

Amie Street

(from BoingBoing)

Amie Street is a very interesting music publishing site that offer quality DRM free music for a very reasonable price. Songs start off completely free. As it gets more known the price increases up to about one dollar for a song if it gets really popular. They have also included a nifty recommendation system that gives the user rewards if he or she recommend music that turns out to become popular.

- This next link is vital. You must familiarize yourself with Mashable’s 2006 Social Networking Awards or forever since into the oblivion of obsolescence. Or something equally dramatic.

In all seriousness, Mashable has the best rundown of this year’s Web 2.0 developments, including “editor’s picks”, “popular choice”, and “2007 preview” for each category.

Social Networking Awards - The Top Social Networks of 2006

1. Mainstream and Large Scale Networks

2. Widgets and Add-Ons

3. Social News and Social Bookmarking

4. Sports and Fitness

5. Photo Sharing

6. Video Sharing

7. Startpages

8. Places and Events

9. Music

10. Social Shopping

11. Mobile

12. Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks

- One might be tempted to look outside of the usual year-end reports from Billboard to double-check music purchases for 2006. Here are two options:

ResourceShelf » List & Rankings: Amazon.com Releases Its “Best of 2006 List”

Categories include:

+ Books
+ Music
+ DVD’s
+ Electronics
+ Automotive
+ Toys
+ Many other categories

Also includes:
+ Most-Loved Products
+ Most Wished-For Products
+ Most Popular Gift Products

End of the year charts from Radio and Records

- Totally Sweet Education Tool

History of Rock Visual Timeline

From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . . .

an interactive, animated compendium of rock and popular music history.
Discover unexpected connections between artists. Track the growth of a musical movement. Zoom in on the day the Beatles invaded America, or out to a bird's-eye view of the blues' sweeping influence. It's all here.

- Fun BoingBoing Guitar Tech picture – plus patents – a most librarian-friendly resource . . .

Ironic Sans has a collection of links to patents filed by celebrities, along with the patent illos -- Eddie Van Halen's rock-out guitar-support; Zeppo Marx's cardiac monitor; Penn Gillette's sex-bathtub; Michael Jackson's anti-gravity effect; Jamie-Lee Curtis's baby garment; Hedy Lamar's crypto device and many others

- News tidbit:

Record co's seek $1.65 trillion from AllOfMP3.com

- Iggy Pop: "Godfather of Punk" Interview

The best part of this extended and funny NPR interview is the part where he attributes libraries for his success. Honestly, we should be exploiting the heck out of this quote.

Out sick today and tomorrow, so here's a quick note:

This month's waxpoetics has a fairly comprehensive, provocative article on the history of graffiti called "Graffiti's not hip-hop" . . .

Children as young as seven and eight were racking paint and sneaking into yards, escaping danger at every turn just to make a mark on a society that had turned it's head.

Morgan Wells promotes the viewpoint that hip hop has, "grown out of its own shoes" . . . or gone wayward from its original embodiment of "defiance and creativity." Some of the clearest insights involve the effect of mass media on a grass-roots movement. He quotes one writer . . .

"You can even live your life thinking you're part of a culture without
knowing that it was created by someone in order to sell it to a network. That's how deep the control, the manipulation, and the creation of these false concepts goes."

We (I?) read NME . . .
(Nov 25 and Dec 2)

Hedonism, hedonism, hedonism . . . the NME writers crack me up. Only a UK mag would tag the rock star life-style every single time with a four syllable word that refers to a Hellenic philosophy.

- Looks like we should keep an eye out for The Killers' attempted "Christmas classic" called 'A Great Big Sled.' It says they take inspiration from John Lennon's 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' but the title doesn't exactly convey any world-saving aspirations. Unless America is a great big sled on an icy switchback with hair-pin turns. No idea.

- Hee. An article dedicated to the "MENTAL riders bands are demanding" -- a David Hasselhoff shrine is involved. That's all I need to say. I'm pretty sure that single-handedly put Jamie Frost at #20 on the Cool List.

- Yikes. Just watched the new Gwen Stefani video on NME.com. My hubby adores Gwen Stefani, and this is the first album he hasn't bought on the release day . . . in fact, he hasn't even mentioned it. Neptunes and Gwen, you need to back away from each other slowly. See other people. Yodeling in da club. Word. What?

- Again, NME writers rule.

And while Radiohead continue to shirk that mantle by retreating ever deeper into their own world and Coldplay continue to worry themselves into baldness over whether or not they are actually good, it's left to Muse to have the time of their lives.

It's probably safe to say that the vast majority of professional library literature does not deal with music topics. Not regularly, anyway. As of today, however, this serial has jumped to the top of my request list:

Library Media Connection Magazine

LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION (LMC) is the professional magazine for school library media and technology specialists. Blending the best of THE BOOK REPORT, LIBRARY TALK, and TECHNOLOGY CONNECTION, LMC delivers proven, real-world practical information, professional development, and book and technology reviews by educators seven times each school year

According to some of the articles that were popping up in the Library Lit databases, this magazine feature music website reviews and copyright Q&A. Even if it's geared to elementary schools -- (isn't that what "school library media specialist" usually means?) -- it should offer some interchangeable and state-of-the-art technology updates.

Two websites that it reviewed lately:
- www.NaxosMusicLibrary.com -- a collection of 170k+ classical, jazz, blues and world music songs that you can license for educational purposes.
- www.azlyrics.com -- "We have a large, every day growing universe of lyrics where stars of all genres and ages shine."

I think I mentioned that our library is getting current magazines again, since the subscription provider transition. In case it's helpful to see which I'm getting, here's the title list:

Alternative Press / Big Takeover / Billboard / Blender / CMJ Music Report / Communication Arts / Downbeat / The Economist / Electronic Musician / EQ / Future Music / Game Developer / HOW Magazine / Juxtapoz / Layers Magazine / MacAddict / Magnet / MIX / Modern Drummer / MOJO / Musicians Guide to Touring and Promoting / Newsweek / New Musical Express / No Depression / Paste / Performing Songwriter / Pro Sound News / Re: Up Magazine / Recording / REMIX / RES Magazine / Revolver / Rolling Stone / SCRATCH / Sound & Vision / Sound on Sound / SOURCE / Under the Radar / Variety / VIBE / Wax Poetics / Wire / Wired

I'd love to hear any recommendations of others . . . (We offer entertainment business degrees, as well.)