MLA Annual Meeting, 2009

A couple weeks ago, I attended the annual meeting of the Music Library Association, which was held in Chicago. This was my first time going to MLA, and I’m happy to report that it exceeded all of the excellent hype I have heard about it over the last 15 years. Attendees came from all over the country (with a few international participants), and represented a variety of institutions, from conservatories and large universities to colleges with and without separate music libraries, to special libraries and archives (such as the Chatfield (MN) Brass Band library).

I focused primarily on the sessions related to library instruction and research skills for music courses and the sessions related to users and technology. I have several pages of notes from these five sessions and hope to be able to implement new techniques and assignments in potential work with our music curriculum. (All were panel sessions, and included: The Library and The Classroom, Information Literacy, Users and Technology, No More Paper! An Examination of Online Sheet Music Projects, and An Insane Amount of Music: Music Search Engines and Libraries.)

I also attended the plenary sessions and some special topics, including: Music in Chicago, Copyright: Is There a Chance for Change?, Music and Social Change: Settlement Music Schools to Songs of Protest, the poster session presentations, What’s Next? The Compact Disc as a Viable Format in the Future of Music Libraries, and Hot Topics in Music Librarianship. (I think I forgot to eat lunch one day, there were so many interesting things to attend.) Several themes seemed to run through most or all of the presentations I attended, reflecting the importance of MLA as a support organization to help professionals deal with issues such as copyright and LP recordings, effective use of technology in teaching, etc.

One of our former library interns was there, also as a first-time attendee. There were many networking opportunities for both of us, with mentoring and resume services for those who are starting out in their music library careers. Folks went out of their way to make sure the first-timers were having a good experience. You have to appreciate a group of convention attendees who can provide their own entertainment. The MLA Big Band played over an hour of standards to an enthusiastic audience before the final banquet, and probably could have played longer if they wouldn’t have announced the food! We also managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the Art Institute to see the Edvard Munch exhibit, saw the Joffrey Ballet’s historically accurate performance of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” and ate some wonderful food.