Music Library Association Conference 2020

Shared notes for this session


The Emerging Technologies and Services Committee (ETSC) and Music Library Students & Emerging Professionals Interest Group (MLStEP) are pleased to host MLA TechHub, a drop in session at the MLA Annual Meeting that will incorporate numerous tables at which MLA members can get quick informal tutorials on a variety of current or emerging digital tools, as well as on the spot consultancy about Digital Scholarship / Humanities / Services projects or ideas. Participants can come and go as they please and all tutorials will be offered on demand. TechHub will include five core tables:

Katie Buehner – Wordpress
WordPress is the most popular content management system by market share with over 27 million live websites. With its robust plugin library, both paid and open source, WordPress can be customized to meet the needs of website managers and developers at every level. If you’d like to learn more about how WordPress works, how it manages content, and how to expand its content management beyond pages and posts, stop by for a chat and/or demonstration. Whether you’re interested in building a personal or professional website, managing content on an institutional website, or helping faculty and students with their own website building, WordPress might be the tech solution for you.

Anna Kijas – Music Encoding
Music encoding is a way to make musical documents machine readable. The [Music Encoding Initiative (MEI)]( https://music-encoding.org/) is both a community-driven effort and a set of standards, schemas, and guidelines around encoding music. In this workshop, we’ll look at use cases for music encoding, examine the basic structure of the MEI schema, walk through the process of generating an MEI file from a musical document, and discuss aspects of the MEI metadata header and body. You’ll leave the workshop with a better understanding of how to get started in music encoding, why you might want to encode, and where to find additional resources and examples to help you continue learning about and applying MEI.

Jonathan Manton – AV Access Systems
Jonathan will provide an overview of the current landscape in relation to systems available to libraries to provide access to audiovisual materials. He will focus on two notable options, Avalon Media System (https://www.avalonmediasystem.org) and Aviary (https://www.aviaryplatform.com/). So whether you are already using one of these systems and have questions, or are interested in learning about them for the first time, come along to learn more and discuss.

Anne Shelley – Including music school content in an institutional repository
Anne will discuss adding School of Music content (works by faculty and students, concert programs, festival programs, etc.) to an institutional repository (IR), addressing both born digital content and scanning projects. Anne will show examples from Illinois State University’s IR and usage statistics.

Bonnie Finn – Scalar
Bonnie will demonstrate how Scalar, a digital humanities tool, can be useful as a new method of teaching music classes while incorporating information literacy standards within the projects. Scalar offers a means to structure a book-style work that utilizes formats found in digital content creation, including nested and non-linear materials (for more info on Scalar, visit https://scalar.me/anvc/scalar/).

In addition to these five tables, space will be available for pop up demos for anyone wishing to informally present / discuss a project they are working on, tools they are using, or any other initiative incorporating a technology or digital component. Please bring a laptop if you would like to provide a pop up demo.