ismn newsletter 23 ismn newsletter 21 · one of the music treasures of the library of congress::...

g TWENTY-FIRST INTERNATIONAL g

g ISMN PANEL MEETING g

g WASHINGTON DC, USA g

g 13 SEPTEMBER 2013 g

g PARTICIPANTS

Marcel Barriault, Library and Archives,Canada

Renata Cozonac, National BookChamber of Moldova

Morgan Cundiff, Library of Congress,USA

Saltanat Elemesova, National BookChamber of Kazakhstan

Eva Kathrine Holst, National Libraryof Norway

Irina Ilina, Russian Book Chamber

Antonín Je£ábek, National Library ofthe Czech Republic

Paul Jessop, International ISRCAgency, United Kingdom

Alenka KaniË, National Library ofSlovenia

Eckard Krajewski, Acamar, Germany

Wolfram Krajewski, Acamar, Germany

Bert Lyons, Library of Congress, USA

Sally McCallum, Library of Congress,USA

Renek Mendrun, National Library ofPoland

Iryna Pogorelovs'ka, Book Chamber ofthe Ukraine

Zhanat Seidumanov, National BookChamber of Kazakhstan

Meruyert Seidumanova, National BookChamber of Kazakhstan

Roberta Shaffer, Library of Congress,USA

Dr. Heinz Stroh, DeutscherMusikverleger-Verband, Germany

Carolin Unger, International ISMNAgency

Mai Valtna, National Library of Estonia

Susan Vita, Library of Congress, USA

Dr. Hartmut Walravens, Inter natio nalISMN Agency

Mary Wedgewood, Library ofCongress, USA

Nick Woods, International ISBNAgency, United Kingdom

g AGENDA

g Opening / Welcome addressesg Seventh Annual General Meeting

of the “Internationale ISMN-Agen -tur e.V.”

g Launch of a new concept fordecentralised distribution in practi-cal illustration in the digital sheetmusic market: Technology, advan-tages and future prospects for digi-tal markets (Wolfram Krajewski)

g A walk through the Music Divisionstacks at the Library of Congress(Mary Wedgewood)

NewsletterNovember 2013 ISSN 1022-8667International ISMN Agency Internationale ISMN-Agentur e.V.23

One of the music treasures of the Library of Congress:: Pedro Ocharte (1531/2 - 1592), the first printer to issue music in the Americas:

Graduale Dominicale (Mexico City, 1576)Photo by W. Krajewski

2 | ISMN Newsletter 23 (2013)

g Update on ISBN (Nick Woods)g International ISRC Agency update

(Paul Jessop)g Report of the U.S. ISMN agency

(Mary Wedgewood)g Further contributions

g OPENING

After a tour through the premises ofthe Library of Congress, the meetingwas opened by warm welcome wordsof Roberta Shaffer, Associate Librarianof the Library of Congress. She stressedthat the ISMN project was a majormilestone internationally. The Libraryof Congress was now very happy withthe diversity of countries present forthe AGM and Panel. That reflected thepolicy and aim of the LC to usetechnology helping to cross borders ofall kinds.

Besides fulfilling the tasks of the mostimportant library of the United States,the LC also served the creative class ofthe US and the world by maintainingits copyright office. The intention wasto bring in the cultural heritage of oth-er peoples as well, and not only theUS’. As a consequence the use ofISMN would enable all to bring muchmore and effective access to notated

music and create a system that couldbenefit many people.

Following LC’s policy to collect thewhole field of music and to look at cul-ture as a whole cloth, Ms. Shafferclosed with showing examples of thevariety of scores from the library’sstock.

Susan Vita, Head of the Music Divisionand now the US delegate for ISMN,added that there were 22 million scoresheld at the Library of Congress.

Hartmut Walravens, Chairman of theInternational ISMN Agency, said hewas very pleased to have this meeting atthe LC. It had been a long way to find aUS agency. Now the advantage was thateverything was prepared very carefully.It was a good idea to have the US agen-cy located at the Music Division sinceLC also worked with the commercialsector which was important for such abig music market. At LC, the MusicDivision was an important part of thelibrary activities. There was a bigimpact of being responsible for thenumbering of notated music as well asfor the copyright office. And the USmembership as such also meant a bigimpact for other countries.

Music was not bound to languages. TheISMN was essential for purposes of

bibliographic control. It helped tomake notated music available to the nation speedily and without obstacles.

This year meant the official start of theISMN in the US and also the twentiethbirthday of the ISMN. The Chairmanthanked the management of the library,especially Susan Vita, Jan Lauridsenand Mary Wedgewood, the latter onebeing the heart and soul of the ISMNagency of the US.

g SEVENTH ANNUAL GEN ER AL

MEETING OF THE “INTER NA TIO - NALE ISMN-AGENTUR E.V.”

Chair Person: Dr. Hartmut WalravensRapporteur: Carolin Unger

Participants: Marcel Barriault(Canada), Renata Cozonac (Moldova),Saltanat Elemesova (Kazakhstan), Eva Kathrine Holst (Norway), Irina Ilina (Russia), Antonín Je£ábek(Czech Republic), Alenka KaniË(Slovenia), Eckard Krajewski(Germany), Wolfram Krajewski(Germany), Renek Mendrun (Poland),Iryna Pogorelovs’ka (Ukraine), Zhanat Seidumanov (Kazakhstan),Meruyert Seidumanova (Kazakhstan),Dr. Heinz Stroh (Germany), Carolin Unger (International ISMNAgency), Mai Valtna (Estonia), Susan Vita (USA), Dr. HartmutWalravens (Chairman of the Board,International ISMN Agency, Germany),Mary Wedgewood (USA)

Dr. Bettina von Seyfried and Dr.Joachim Jaenecke had transferred theirvotes to Dr. Hartmut Walravens.Finland had tranferred its vote toSlovenia. So there was a total of 17votes of members of the associationpresent.

Observers attending the AGM asguests: Mr. Morgan Cundiff (Library ofCongress, USA), Paul Jessop(International ISRC Agency, UnitedKingdom), Dr. Jan Lauridsen (Libraryof Congress, USA), Bert Lyons (Libraryof Congress, USA), Sally McCallum(Library of Congress, USA), NickWoods (International ISBN Agency,United Kingdom)

A glance into the reading room of the Library of CongressPhoto by W. Krajewski

ISMN Newsletter 23 (2013) | 3

AGENDA

1. Adoption of the Minutes of theAnnual General Meeting inChisinau, Moldova, 2012

2. Reports of the Board:- Report of the Chairman- Report of the Treasurer

3. Report of the Cash Audit4. Exoneration of the Board5. Donations6. Resolution on membership fees

for 20147. Adoption of the budget for

20148. Miscellaneous

The 7th annual meeting was opened bythe Chairman, Dr. Hartmut Walravens.

TOP 1: ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES OF

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING IN

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA, 2012

The minutes of the 6th AGM had beencirculated in autumn 2012 already andwere now unanimously adopted: 17 yes, 0 against, 0 abstentions.

TOP2: REPORT OF THE BOARD

- Report of the Chairman

AGM 2012The Chairman thanked RenataCozonac and her colleagues for thevery good organization of the 2012AGM in Chisinau, Moldova. He espe-cially emphasized the hospitality theyhad shown to all participants. The 2012meeting had again been aligned withthat of the International ISBN Agency.This made it easier for interested par-ties to join the AGM since travel costsdid not have to be paid twice. We now had 57 member agencies, soISMN was still a small standard mainlydue to the smaller amount of publica-tions as compared to books. The 2014 AGM would be a very specialone since the three standards for mani-festations would hold their meetings inthe same week and at the same place,hosted by the Turkish Ministry ofCulture. The venue would be the

University of the Golden Horn Cam -pus in Istanbul.

MembershipMembership was growing slowly. Thenewest member was Iceland; while thevolume of music publications might besmall it was the quality that counted.Before ISMN, it was often difficult toget publications from these smaller mu-sic-producing countries. ISMN made iteasier to identify such publications.Interest in joining the ISMN associa -tion was expressed by Cambodia,Ethiopia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeriaand Vietnam. In China preparations foractual implementation of the systemwere being made.

The International ISMN Agency wasrepresented at several conferences suchas the CDNL (Conference of Directorsof National Libraries) and the IAMLconference (International Associationof Music Libraries), the ISO TC 46meeting, the Frankfurt Music Fair andthe Frankfurt Book Fair.

- REPORT OF THE TREASURER

Excerpt: „In my responsibility as treasurer, I have to make you awarethat we still have to be careful with anymembership fee reduction. We try tospend the money as reasonable as pos-sible. The AGM in the USA is an expensiveone but since only Dr. Walravens and

Carolin Unger are present, we can savea relevant sum. Still, the extra moneythat could be saved in previous yearswill drop to a sum that we have to saveas ‘security belt’. Nobody knows whatthe next international financial crisiswill be like and with whatconsequences for our agency. We haveto make sure to always be able to payfor our rent and the fixed expenses. Aswe already did for the Indonesianmeeting, we will again try to getsupport for the forthcoming meeting.The cash audit again reported that allour filing and actions are well kept andtransparent.“

Bettina von Seyfried

TOP 3: REPORT OF THE CASH AUDIT

The International ISMN Agency hasthree cash auditors who examine thebook keeping and look at certain cases.They found that everything is alrightand in good order.

TOP 4: EXONERATION OF THE BOARD

Antonín Je£ábek proposed to exoneratethe Board.With 14 yes votes there was unanimousconsent. The three members of theBoard abstained.So the Board was exonerated.

During the meeting, from left to right: Heinz Stroh, Eckard Krajewski,Wolfram Krajewski, Susan Vita, Paul Jessop, Mary Wedgewood, Alenka KaniË


TOP 5: DONATIONS

As ISMN was not a rich association theBoard was willing to contact interestedparties in various countries often with-out compensation of the travel costs.Therefore the Board asked the assem-bly to allow them to file such costs fortax reduction. It would be a require -ment by German law that the associa-tion agreed to this before the fact. Proposal: If the Board undertookefforts in the interest of ISMN but theInternational ISMN Agency was notable to compensate for that, then thetravel costs could be used for the indi-vidual tax reduction of the Board mem-bers.With 14 yes votes there was unanimousconsent. The three members of theBoard abstained.

TOP 6: RESOLUTION ON MEMBERSHIP FEES

FOR 2014

There was no change in the proposedmembership fees for 2014 in compari-son to those for 2013 other than the ad-dition of new members and the factthat Brazil recently canceled its ISMNmembership. As the Chairman explained the case ofthe National Library of Brazil was aspecial one. They had been a long-timemember, had paid their annual fees buthad never worked as an ISMN agency,only as an ISBN agency. We very muchregretted this and the Chairman triedin talks to staff from the Brazilian ISBNagency and in a letter to the librarypresident to explain the importance ofthe ISMN implementation for such alarge and important country like Brazil. Alenka KaniË from Slovenia askedabout the status of Romania whosemembership was listed as beingdormant. The Chairman reported thatthey always were very hopeful to imple-ment the system. But so far the librarynever saw fit for the start because theywere waiting for a grant from the min-istry to prepare the ground. So for thetime being they were not charged.As Zhanat Seidumanov fromKazakhstan pointed out they had a sim-ilar problem. So far, the ISMN agencyin Kazakhstan had not issued any

ISMNs since they did not have the legalauthorization by their government andtherefore could not pay their annualcontribution. But in July 2013 they hadtranslated and accepted the ISMNStandard and the juridical require -ments to establish the agency were nowfulfilled. Therefore they proposed tothe assembly to allow them to start pay-ment of their annual contribution as of2013. With 15 for, 0 against and 1 abstentionthe proposal of the Kazakh agency wasaccepted.

The assembly adopted the membershipfees for 2014. There was unanimousconsent, no against, no abstentions.

TOP 7: ADOPTION OF THE BUDGET FOR

2014

The budget for 2014 had been circulat-ed in advance. We hoped to receive47,225,- Euros in 2014 as fees. The ex-penditures might amount to 55,000Euros, also due to a rent raise and tele -phone costs that would no longer beincluded in the rent. In the discussion concerns were raisedregarding the un balanced budget pro-posal. The deficit had to be eliminatedquickly. The working group on mem-bership fees had to help by a proposalfor adjusted fees, or propose othersources of income.We anticipated that we would go intothe year 2015 with a starting balance of16,000 Euros.

The assembly adopted the budget for2014 with 15 yes, 0 against, 2abstentions.

TOP 8: MISCELLANEOUS

• Membership contributionsHeinz Stroh from the German ISMNagency presented as handout the sug-gestion for a new calculation scheme ofmembership fees. This would be basedsolely on the amount of items ofeditions of notated music per year andthereby make the calculation a lot sim-pler. The minimum fee would stay the

same, but the other bands would partlybe higher than with the currentscheme. See here the proposal:

“Proposal for a new ISMN feestructure

The objective of the following proposalshould be to ensure the financing of theISMN agency in Berlin by the followingmeasures:

- Simplification of the contributiongroups

- The contribution should be basedon the annual number of sheet mu-sic publications in a country. (Theproblem yet to be solved is how todetermine the correct numbers ofthe particular countries.)

- With this proposal, the burden ofcontribution within the lowergroups will either not change or thechanges will be insignificant.

Proposal for a new fee structure:

Group Publication Annual feeof sheet music in Euro

A up to 25 100,00 B up to 50 250,00 C up to 200 500,00 D up to 500 1.000,00 E up to 1.000 2.000,00 F up to 2.000 3.000,00 G up to 5.000 4.000,00 H up to 10.000 5.000,00 I more than

10.000 6.000,00

Additional membership contribution ofthe State Library Berlin (as before)

This proposal with its recognition of thenumber of publications of sheet musicis easier, fairer and more equitable as itdoes not take into account the gross na-tional product of a country. For mostcountries, there will be no difference incomparison to the fees of the previousyears. Using the number of sheet musicpublications in 2012 as a basis, the totalvolume of former years will be obtainedor even exceeded with the new feestructure.

Bonn, September 2013Dr. Heinz Stroh“As the Chairman reminded theaudience, the current membership feecalculation was based on two factors,the amount of items of editions of no-


tated music per year in combinationwith the Gross National Income of acountry. This calculation had been de-cided upon in 2007 since it removed afew weak points of the statistic difficul-ties the evaluation of music publishingin various countries bore. It was enor-mously difficult to get reliable updatesfor these figures whereas the GNI,publicized by the World Bank, was avery reliable figure that enabled inter-national comparison of economicwealth of countries. Also, Spain and theLatin American countries seemed tohave a different method of statistic cal-culation than most other countries.This resulted in higher figures and con-sequently to higher fees, and was there-fore considered unfair.

The Chairman then asked the partici-pants for comments on the twoschemes and whether they were able toget up-to-date and reliable figures. Marcel Barriault from Canada admittedthat it would be very difficult to findout reliable numbers. They had not

supplied CIP for music in the last 15years. Therefore they would be unableto provide a number.Wolfram Krajewski from Germanyasked, since this statistical figure waspart of the current scheme, how thisproblem was solved now. The Chair -man answered that we had found outabout the problem only recently bycomplaints from Spain and the LatinAmerican world. Whatever we did, for

which ever scheme we would decide inthe future, we were in the need of im-proving that.

Heinz Stroh declared that he had putthe GNI out of his proposal becausefor him this meant no relevant data formusic publishing.

Nick Woods from the International IS-BN Agency wanted to know whetherthere would be intention to recalculatethe statistical figures every year. TheChairman conceded that with one indi-cator only it would only be fair tocheck the figures annually.

Alenka KaniË from Slovenia inquiredwhether this proposal was coming justfrom Heinz Stroh or from the workinggroup for fees that had been created atthe Lisbon AGM in 2010 whichconsisted of Heinz Stroh together withMaarit Huttunen from Finland andMontserrat Morato from Spain. TheChairman explained that the proposalcame just from Heinz Stroh since he

came up with it just a few days ago andthere had been no time to discuss it inadvance within the working group.

After discussion the working group wasof course welcome to present the pro-posal for voting at the next AGM.

• AGM 2014The Annual General Meeting 2014would take place on Monday, 15

September 2014, in Istanbul, Turkey. Itwould kindly be hosted by the TurkishMinistry of Culture.

The Chairman thanked the delegatesfor having taken part in this AGM andended the meeting at 15:15 h.

g LAUNCH OF A NEW

CON CEPT FOR DECENTRALISED

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION IN PRAC-TICAL ILLUSTRATION IN THE

DIGITAL SHEET MUSIC MARKET:TECHNOLOGY, ADVANTAGES

AND FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR

DIGITAL MARKETS WITH THE

AODP (AUTOMATIC ORDERING

AND DELIVERY PROTOCOL)STANDARD

Wolfram Krajewski, De-Parcon/Acamar

In June 2009, we already informed youabout the possible changes that couldtake place if a product „goes digital“and suggested to find a new way tosolve the digital sales process throughthe creation of a new communicationsstandard for digital distribution. In2010, in the article “Creating a new fu-ture for the digital distribution of sheetmusic” we introduced the projectNNND as an official project of thesheet music sector.

Today, after almost three years of work,the project will soon be completed andwe are pleased to inform you about thelaunch of the new concept for decen-tralized digital distribution here in theLibrary of Congress, Washington.

I. Background: What the project is allabout

To get an idea of the new concept,imagine the procedure of selling anitem – in this case sheet music: Thereare suppliers (here: publishers), thereare retailers and there are consumers. When it comes to selling an item, a dis-tribution process between publisherand consumer takes place, and for theNNND project, two aspects of this dis-tribution process are of note: First, the

Wolfram Krajewski presenting his distribution concept for digital sheet music


logistics of delivering an item from thesupplier to the consumer, and second,the sales and marketing process to at-tain the consumer (either via intermedi-aries in the channel or directly).

II. How it works in the physical market

In the market of physical items, natu-rally all the details of the distributionprocess are solved perfectly. The order-ing and transportation of the physicalitems are organized. In the end, a lorryliterally delivers the items from thepublishers’ warehouse to a retailer. Inthe sales and marketing process forsheet music, it is the current norm forsuppliers to work with retailers (note:the concept of direct distribution fromthe publisher to the consumer also ex-ists). The retailers are close to the con-sumer and they aggregate a completestock of items produced by differentpublishers, thus the consumer finds aninteresting collection of items in the re-tailers’ shelves as well as new releases,help and further information. In thephysical world, this distribution chan-nel concept has developed over a longperiod of time which indicates to be theproven economical way to work. It isimportant to mention here that this dis-tribution concept functions decen tral -ised, which means that there are manypublishers and many retailers operatingindependently in different locationsand in their own interest and interactfrom time to time in order to run theirbusiness.

III. Todays’ centralized concept for thedigital market

Interestingly, in markets with digitalitems, the distribution concept today ismostly centralized and thereforeremarkably different to the concept ofthe physical market. Which is quite sur-prising, since there is no obvious reasonwhy this has to be. Some reasons forthe development of this centralizedconcept may be found in the early daysof the digital business (e.g. download ofmusic), as the costs for the storage ofall the files and for the internet accesswere very expensive and technicallycomplicated (you can find more anddetailed information on this topic inour article from 2009). So in the begin-

ning it seemed to make sense to cen -tralize this task. Thus, sales platformsfor the download of digital items andtherefore the centralized way to dobusiness were established.

We all know that technically, this cen-tralized concept works and solves manyaspects of the distribution, logistics andthe sales processes. Yet, upon closer in-spection, you will find that the central-ized solution has a deeper impact andthat it changes the character of the col-laboration and thus, the wholebusiness. In order to fill the platforms

with the digital content, the digital mas-ter files of all the different rights own-ers have to be aggregated and centrallystored in the database of each digitalsales platform. Therefore, a licenseagreement from the rights owners isneeded, since the copying of the down-load file for consumers is now operatedby the digital sales platform. Yet, thisconcept is no longer an ordinary„goods for money“ sales concept, butrather a license business. This changesthe individual sales and marketingstrategies and limits the tools that thesupplier normally has at hand when us-ing the sales channel of his intermedi-ary retailers. The centralized platformshave more control and power than anyretailer in the physical world.Furthermore, the centralized platformshave their own strategies and targets

and not all of them may be fully com-patible with the interest of the publish-ers and authors. In the end, thesechanges can lead to contentdevaluation and to a downturn andchange of the whole market. The devel-opment of the music market and indus-try has partly been boosted by these ef-fects and can be seen as an interestingexample of how a change of technologymay lead to new constellations in thevalue chain and in the whole market(see also the economic literature, e.g.Michael Porter: CompetitiveAdvantage).

IV. The future solution of decentralizeddistribution for the digital market

Today, a new solution is possible as da-ta storage and internet access have be-come affordable for everybody. So, thepublisher as a supplier can run his owndigital warehouse and stores his digitalitems on his own server keeping thedigital master files available for down-load. Each publisher can run his owndigital warehouse server. Therefore,these internet based servers have a de-centralized structure. A retailer can of-fer the digital items. To be able to dothis, the retailer does not need the digi-tal master files, because they are avail-able on demand from the warehouse-server of the publisher anytime theretailer sells a digital item to acustomer.

Mary Wedgewood displaying music from all over the world during a tour of the stacks


Regarding the two important aspects ofdistribution – logistics and the salesprocess – logistics appears to be easybecause the“internet“ as a network of-fers various methods to transfer thedigital files between supplier, retailerand customer (download).Furthermore, the internet works com-pletely decentralized as a network.However, not only the transport of thefiles needs to be solved. Anotherimportant aspect is the transaction andcommunication that is necessary andvital for the preparation of the down-load. This transaction between the de-centralized computers of the retailerand publisher has to work instantly andon demand whenever the consumerwants to buy a digital item from aretailer.

This is exactly the aspect that does notcurrently exist and that has now beendeveloped in the course of the NNNDproject.

The new AODP standard (AutomatedOrdering and Delivering Protocol) co-ordinates the transactions between theparties: the publishers’ digitalwarehouse server and the retailers’download shop. The communicationstandard ensures that the digital salesprocess can take place securely and au-tomated. Does this sound too compli-cated at first? It isn’t, because once im-plemented in the software of publishersand retailers, the standard simply coor-dinates the transactions in the backend.Publishers, retailers and customers just„use“ it and they will not even noticethe technical processes and details.

V. Advantages and future prospects

This new concept of decentralized digi-tal distribution has many similarities tothe business processes of the physicalmarket. The publisher as supplier is theonly one who does the copying. The re-tailer is his business partner, the princi-ple „goods for money“ is reinstalled.Thus, the supplier regains several mar-keting tools and the power structurebetween publisher and retailer regainsbalance. Furthermore, it is much easierfor a retailer to offer digital items sincehe does not have to care for the aggre-gation, licensing and storing of the digi-tal data, because he has a direct

connection to the publishers’ ware -house server anytime he needs it in or-der to sell digital items to his custom -ers.

This makes it possible for more retail-ers to offer digital items and even tradi-tional retailers coming from the physi-cal market have the possibility todevelop and offer both items, physicaland digital. The smooth developmentand transition from the traditionalmethod to the new opportunities andservices is made possible. Last but notleast, important economic advantagesare possible and the decentralized con-cept might motivate more market par-ticipants to improve their services andto develop their business. Lastly, all thismay lead to the development of betterproducts and services than in the cen-tralized world, which surely is a benefitfor everyone including the consumersand the authors.

In the course of the NNND project,which will be completed in 2014, De-Parcon will provide a complete techni-cal documentation that contains an ex-act technical description of thetransaction process, as well as a refer-ence system and a test platform fortechnicians. Based on the documenta-tion, technicians can implement AODPin their software. For publishers andretailers, the project partners are cur-rently developing a preparation guide,standards for terms and conditions andother accompanying guidelinedocuments.

The NNND project’s results will pro-vide the basis for working with the newconcept of decentralized digital distri-bution. The project already haspartners, important music publishersand retailers, which have been involvedin the development process of AODP.Furthermore the functional basis, e.g.for metadata services, is soon availablewithin the IDNV system. Of course,the ISMN will also be an important in-strument for the digital sheet musiceditions.

After a successful introduction in thesheet music market, we see no limits foran application of the new concept inany kind of digital goods business.Thus, AODP sets the stage for the sale

of digital goods in a new way and is aparadigm shift in digital business withbenefits for all transaction partners.

After all, the project has the possibilityto be of a cultural significance since itsends out a strong signal to the sheetmusic sector and all other industrieswhich deal in digital goods: There is adifferent solution to handling the chal-lenges that currently emerge with digi-talization.

g A WALK THROUGH THE

MUSIC DIVISION STACKS AT THE

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Text by Mary WedgewoodPhotos by Tom Barrick

The Music Division of the Library ofCongress (LC) contains almost 22 mil-lion items, including rare treasures,composers’ manuscripts, correspon-dence, photographs, posters, scrap-books, and – of special interest to thoseof us in the ISMN world – publishednotated music. By virtue of the 1870federal copyright law, two copies ofeverything published in the U.S. mustbe deposited at the LC, and that in-cludes sheet music. Moreover, theLibrary has always acquired lots of mu-sic from other countries as well, eitherby purchase, gift, or through exchangeprograms.The result is that the MusicDivision oversees an astounding arrayof musical creation – storing, preserv-ing, and making it accessible to the pub-lic.

On the ISMN tour of the MusicDivision stacks, we looked at some ofthe ways this music is organized andstored.

Much of it is laid flat in boxes. An ex-ample of this is single popular songs,grouped by nationality of composer,and then arranged alphabetically bysurname of composer. Most of this isAmericana of course, but there are nu-merous boxes containing popular songsfrom all around the world. The num-ber of boxes is ever growing, as newpublications are inter-filed into boxeswith songs dating back as far as 1840.These are searchable through the LConline catalog.


Another example of music laid flat inboxes is items registered for copyright,which are not subsequently sorted intothe classed collections. These areorganized by copyright number, withthe highest numbers being on musicmost recently received. Included here ismusic of all kinds, in all genres – justwhatever was registered with the U.S.copyright office. Copyrightregistrations are searchable through theCopyright Office online catalog.

Special collections focusing on the livesand works of composers, performers,conductors, critics, etc. are housed inboxes appropriate to the material. Forexample, music in the Jascha Heifetzcollection includes many standard pub-lished scores and parts, extensively ed-ited by the violinist. These are storedlying flat in boxes suitable to the size ofthe publications. A finding aid, listingthe contents of the entire collection(about 17,500 items; 280 boxes; 52 lin-ear feet) is online at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu003008

Most of the music in the Ella Fitzgeraldcollection requires oversized boxes, toaccomodate the complete band parts,scores, composer’s and arranger’s work-ing materials for music she performed.Each jazz arrangement has its own box,and these manuscript materials are notof standard dimensions. A finding aid,listing the contents of the entire collec-tion (about 23,500 items; 285 contain-ers; 176 linear feet) is online at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu010023

The Aaron Copland collection includesmany boxes of correspondence, finan-cial papers, artwork, awards, books, inaddition to published and unpublishedmusical works. Here we see filing box-

es housing paperwork, in upright fold-ers. A finding aid, listing the contentsof the entire collection (about 400,000items; 564 boxes; 306 linear feet) is on-line at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu002006

The complete catalogs of major musicpublishers are arranged by publishernumber. Each piece is housed in anacid-free paper folder. When a part ofthe run is complete, the folders areboxed for off-site storage. This historicmusic is indexed in catalog listingswhich were maintained by the publish-ing houses and which are now are keptat LC. Currently, one must visitWashington, DC to use these catalogs,

as their content has not yet been madeavailable online.

The Theodore Presser/Oliver Ditsoncollection is the oldest, continuing pub-lishing house in the U.S. Before themerger of these two businesses, theOliver Ditson company had bought upearly American music publishing com-panies dating back to the late18th cen-tury. These scores (two semi tractor-trailer loads of them!) are currentlybeing sorted, foldered, and piled neatlyon available shelves while work contin-ues.

The Tams-Witmark collection islikewise a huge two-publisher archive.At one time this was the world’s largeststage-musical-opera publisher, rentingout music materials for Broadwayshows and grand opera. But they alsorented out complete sets and costumes– for example, for a Kern’s Showboator Verdi’s Aida and shipped them allacross the country via railroad box car.

Oversize formats are commonlyproduced for contemporary composi-tions and for conductor scores.Thousands of them, testifying to the vi-tality of modern music, are stackedsideways because they are too large forstandard shelving.

When compact storage openings aresynchronized to allow us to see the“vanishing point vista,” the extent ofthe Music Division stacks from one endto the other becomes apparent.

In the stacks, all is in flux all the time.The holdings of the Music Division cre-ate a dynamic organism which requiresconstant re-working. As new items ar-rive, those least used must be shippedto storage elsewhere. The collection iscontinually expanding, changing, andbeing shifted within boxes, within

Boxes in the stacks

The Aaron Copeland collection

The Theodore Presser/Oliver Ditson collection

Folio range for oversize formats


shelving units, within ranges, andamong buidings.

While the Music Division has manyunique and wonderful items, I thinkthe most interesting thing is the collec-tion as a whole – it’s magnitude, scope,populist bent, legacy systems, and evo-lutionary momentum. Remember thatyou are hearing all this from a technicallibrarian who loves nothing more than“behind the scenes” and the big view.

g UPDATE ON ISBN

Nick Woods (International ISBN Agency)

ISBN is a mature standard with 151 na-tional agencies and is recognised inmore than 200 countries. It is an ISOstandard since 1970.

To the regular activities of the Inter -national ISBN Agency belong

• the PIID, the Publishers’International ISBN Directory- A collection of data from our

national ISBN agencies- In 2013, we received a total of

120 submissions, equating to79% of agencies

- Data from 113 agenciesprocessed for PIID product

- First time submissions from 5agencies

- Process is changing next year.

• Progress report- Statistical information about

the usage of ISBN.- Also collected from national

ISBN agencies.- Helps us understand speed of

use and capacity.- Have received 79 submissions,

though 2013 process is still on-going.

• Meetings- Annual General Meeting 2013

held in New York.Next year we will be inIstanbul with ISMN and ISSN.

- ISBN holds Regional Meetingsof certain groups.Nordic-Baltic, Balkan andCERLALC have all met in2013.

- ISBN also arranges seminarsand training meetings.Training in Oman held inSeptember 2012ISBN Seminar held inSeptember 2013 in New York,involving several agencies wehadn’t previously met.

Current projects and major work are:

• The ISBN Users’ Manual- Latest edition released in early

2012 in English.

- Since then, several translationshave been completed.

• Translations of the Users’ Manual- Currently also available in

Arabic, Dutch, Estonian,French, German, MandarinChinese, Portuguese, Serbian,Spanish.

• Revision of the ISO Standard- ISBN Board has agreed to re-

vise ISBN Standard- June 2013 – ISO Plenary meet-

ing in Paris, FranceResolution by ISO TC46/SC9 torevise ISBNStella Griffiths nominated as con-venor of Working GroupDeadline for working group nomi-nations is 31 Oct 2013

• New website and database:- Major project for 2013- Complete overhaul of public-

facing website and private por-tal including the database

- Working with CINECA – anon profit Consortium, madeup of 67 Italian univer si -ties, and 3 Institutions

- Began in March, due for com-pletion end of 2013.

- Prototype for new modernwebsite now delivered

Vista half mile

Participants at the meeting: Antonin Je£ábek, Nicks Woods, Renek Mendrun, Eva Holst, Marcel Barriault, Zhanat Seidumanov, Renata Cozonac, Irina Ilina


- New database allows efficientassignment of ranges to ouragencies and supports ISBNagencies assigning publisherprefixes

- Ties together prefix records as-signed to a publisher

Questions are welcome at any time to:[email protected]

g THE EVOLUTION OF THE

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD

RECORDING CODE

Paul Jessop (International ISRC Agency)

The ISRC standard was last revised in2001. Since that time it has served themusic sector well but scheduled reviewby the International Organization forStandardization (ISO) provides an op-portunity to revise it. This article out-lines

1) areas where the current standarddoes not take full advantage oftechnology that is now available,

2) the process for revising thestandard and

3) the proposal of the InternationalISRC Agency for a revisedstandard.

• The Current ISRC Standard

The current ISRC system was designedlong before the Internet was availableand therefore does not have a centraldatabase of assigned codes. This meansthat users assign their own codes usinga prefix allocated to them – which doescreate a reasonable expectation ofuniqueness.

However, other users are not able tofind out the assigned codes if they wantto use them and cannot find out whatrecording a code represents.

Also, there is no way to find out if arecording has previously had an ISRCassigned so multiple assignments aretoo common.

• ISRC Standard Revision at ISO

The International ISRC Agency is rec-ommending that ISO revise the ISRCstandard. This will involve the creationof a working group of experts nominat-ed by national standards bodies and in-terested organizations. These expertswill start with a working draft providedby the International ISRC Agency anddevelop this into a draft that they allapprove. This is then voted on by na-tional standards bodies and, dependingon the result of the vote, further reviseduntil it is ready for publication.

• The International ISRC Agency’sProposal

The proposal from the International ISRC Agency is the product of its expe-rience running the ISRC system formany years. It also draws on detaileddiscussions with recording owners(both large and small), their representa-tives and service providers, ISRC userssuch as online services and the registra-tion authorities of other standards. Itfurther takes into consideration theidentification recommendations of theLinked Content Coalition. These rec-ommendations are widely respected.

The proposal is designed to deliver thebenefit of the available technologieswhile causing as little disruption tousers as possible. The code length andstructure will not change – so little orno change to databases storing ISRCwill be needed.

It is planned to introduce a registry thatwill store the ISRC together with justenough metadata to define the track –probably just the title, version title, fea-tured artist, duration and recordingdate. It will not store information aboutrights, ownership, genre or popularityfor instance, but these important class-es of data can be curated and made in-teroperable by others using the ISRC asa foundation. Only by being in the reg-istry would an ISRC be valid under thenew specification.

Existing ISRCs would not change andcan be entered in to the registry. Theregistry would generate most newISRCs – once the recording had beenregistered.

As an exception, some registrants withdemonstrably effective policies to pre-vent duplication would be able toassign their own codes for a limitedtime even under the new system.Indeed, where countries already havesystems in place that ensure that allrecordings with ISRCs are registered,this would be allowed to run alongsidethe new system for a time provided theregistry receives all assigned ISRCs andtheir reference metadata.

The existing network of national ISRCagencies would no longer allocate pre-

Hartmut Walravens during one of the sessionsPhoto by Renata Cozonac


fixes but there would be provision forlocal support and assistance in locallanguages. Existing ISRC Managerswho assign ISRCs on behalf of theirclients would be able to continue butwould need to get their ISRCs from the

central registry rather than assigningthem in-house.

As well as allowing the registration ofrecordings, the registry would offer twofurther services: a resolution servicewould translate ISRCs into their meta-data and a query service would return alist of ISRCs for tracks that match somesearch.

The current system is the least expen-sive media identifier system that hasbeen standardized by ISO. A revisedsystem with a registry will inevitablyhave higher operational costs reflectingthe increased functionality. These willneed to be recovered but the intentionis to keep registration costs as low aspossible so that getting an ISRC is not asignificant part of the cost of creatingmusic.

• Next Steps

Comments on this proposal are wel -come and should be sent [email protected] while anyone with the re-sources to participate in the formal

working group should approach therelevant committee secretary of theirnational standards body to seek nomi-nation.

Existing ISRC system users should con-tinue to use the current system until arevision is complete and implemented.The codes that are assigned will be ableto be registered later and should beused in the meantime.

This article is based on a bulletin post-ed on the ISRC website atwww.ifpi.org/isrc and further informa-tion will appear there in due course.

g REPORT OF THE U.S. ISMNAGENCY

Mary Wedgewood

The Music Division of The Library ofCongress has responsibility for admin-istration of the U.S. ISMN Agency ofthe International ISMN network. Ithas recently launched a website withgeneral information on the ISMN aswell as detailed instructions on its prac-tical application. (www.loc.gov/ismn)

The site contains direct links to onlineregistration forms. While most commu-nication with the publishers takes placevia automated form letters, requiring

no staff intervention, the Agency doeshandle questions by telephone and adedicated ISMN email [email protected]

The online registration forms are ofthree kinds:

• For U.S. music publishers toreceive unique ISMN prefixes

• For others with “read only” inter-est in the online data

• For publishers to register singlepieces of music and receive ISMN

Data provided by publishers for eachpiece of music is automatically format-ted into a catalog record appropriatefor display as an RDA compliantMARC record or in other schemes asdesired (METS, MODS). A permanentpublic archive of these records is main-tained by the Music Division. ISMNare issued free of charge to publishersin exchange for this rich data, which isof value to the Library of Congress forcataloging purposes.

The Music Division also maintains apublic Directory of U.S. Music

Publishers using ISMN, listing thosepublishers who wish the name of theircompany and the URL of their websiteto be made public.

Mary Wedgewood explains the different stack systems. In the background: Iryna Pogorelovs’ka.

Susan Vita, Head of the Music Division at theLibrary of Congress


The site allows publishers to track theirown statistics very easily. It allows theAgency manager to harvest detailed sta-tistics and format them in ways usefulto the Music Division, to the Inter -national Agency, to researchers, etc.

The newly developed online forms willcontinue to be refined as publisherscontribute more feed-back on usingthem, as more cataloging-specific termsare formatted and programmed in, andas the system is made yet more self-suf-ficient – all while a high level of securi-ty continues to be guaranteed.

Collaboration with the U.S. Copyrightoffice is still on the U.S. Agency agen-da. So while the U.S. ISMN Agency iscurrently issuing ISMN to Americanpublishers, there is still much to accom-plish.

g FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS

g REGIONAL MEETING FORBALKAN AGENCIES

For the first time, the InternationalISMN Agency was present at a re-gional meeting of ISBN agencies.This is intended to be continued inthe future.

On 20/21 May 2013 the Inter -national ISMN Agency attended theregional meeting of ISBN andISMN agencies from the Balkan re-gion and around. The event was ex-cellently organized by Emilija Brasicfrom the Serbian ISBN agency and

her colleagues from the NationalLibrary of Serbia in Belgrade.Participants came from Bulgaria,Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia,Slovenia and Srpska.

In a special workshop lively discus-sions brought an overview of musicpublishing in these countries. Thesituation differs a lot, e.g. in somecountries there are only about 10music publishers, in others 100.Also, there is no more than one mu-sic store in Serbia anymore whereasthere are several special musicshops in Slovenia.

ISMN is used by nearly all publish-ers in the Balkan region, due to avery good information policy of theagencies who offered seminars tomusic publishers and explain theISMN system on their libraries'websites.

It was evident that under the preva-lent circumstances of economic de-cline music departments in librariesbecome the more important to giveusers access to sheet music.

For their daily ISMN adminis -tration the agencies use special soft-ware (Cobiss or Aleph) which alsoproduces barcodes for the publica-tions.

Addresses of national ISMN agencies are listed on our website. ISMN agencies are requested to kindly inform us if their address and communication data changed.

Internationale ISMN-Agentur e.V., Schlossstr. 50, 12165 Berlin, Germany Fax: (+49 30) 7974 5254 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://ismn-international.org

From the music treasures displayPhoto by Eva Holst

Participants of the regional meeting for Balkan agencies. On the right: Emilija Brasic.

ismn newsletter 23 ismn newsletter 21 · one of the music treasures of the library of congress::...

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