As announced at the business meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 23, 2019, here are the recipients of the awards given by the Music Library Association.
MLA Diversity Scholarship
This scholarship program offers candidates from underrepresented groups an opportunity to pursue the master’s degree in library and information science (MLIS), with, as one of its goals, increasing the number of underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities within music librarianship by providing support for master’s-level LIS education. The winner of the 2018/2019 Award has received a tuition stipend of $2,400, career guidance provided by the MLA Placement Officer and programs at the MLA Annual Meeting, in addition to the Career Advisory Service, gratis student membership in MLA for one year, gratis registration for the MLA annual conference, and automatic consideration for the MLA Kevin Freeman Travel Grant for possible support for travel to and attendance at an MLA Annual Meeting.
The recipient of the MLA Diversity Scholarship is Ellen Ogihara.
https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/page/DiversityScholarship
Kevin Freeman Travel Grant
The Kevin Freeman Travel Grant is an annual grant to support travel and hotel expenses to attend the Music Library Association annual meeting. Recipients must be students, recent graduates, or in the first three years of their careers.
The Freeman Travel Grant awardees this year include the following:
Jeannie Chen, Andrea Copland, Yuri Shimoda, Zachary Tumlin, and Sarah Ward; and the Diversity Scholarship awardee, Ellen Ogihara.
https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/page/FreemanGrant
Walter Gerboth Award
The Walter Gerboth Award enables MLA to recognize promising work by its newer members and new researchers, to support scholarship in music, music bibliography and librarianship.
Recipients of the Walter Gerboth Award this year are Matthew Vest and Joy Doan.
https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/page/GerbothAward
Dena Epstein Award
The Dena Epstein Award is given to support research in archives or libraries internationally on any aspect of American music.
Recipients of the Dena Epstein Award this year are Kendra Preston Leonard and Sheryl Kaskowitz.
https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/?EpsteinAward
Vincent H. Duckles Award
Vincent H. Duckles Award is given for the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music.
This year the award goes to Inger Sørensen, for her book J.P.E. Hartmann, Thematic-Bibliographic Catalogue of His Works, edited by Birthe Skou. Danish Humanist Texts and Studies, Volume 56 (Copenhagen: Dansk Center for Musikudgivelse, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, 2017).
The Publication Awards Committee wrote:
Representing the first comprehensive thematic catalogue of the complete works of Danish composer J.P.E. Hartmann, Sørensen presents a well-organized and detailed set of entries in two volumes, with text in Danish and English. The works are categorized first by medium and form, and entries are then organized by thematic catalog number (beginning with HartW) followed by opus or other composer-supplied numbers, providing an effective and intuitive experience as a reference and research tool. Each entry includes date of composition, instrumentation, an incipit, sources and publications (including manuscripts, first editions, reprints), and a brief bibliography. Sørensen’s addition of four indexes at the end of Volume 2 includes easy-to-browse lists by title and first line of work, names listed throughout the publication, authors of entries, and a list of works by opus number, further demonstrating the care with which this catalog was constructed to meet the needs of music scholars.
A valuable addition to music research and scholarship, it is a great pleasure to award the Vincent H. Duckles Award to Inger Sørensen.
https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/?DucklesAward
Richard S. Hill Award
The Richard S. Hill Award is given for the best article on music librarianship or article of a music-bibliographic nature.
This year the award goes to Beth Iseminger, Nancy Lorimer, Casey Mullin, and Hermine Vermeij, for the article “Faceted Vocabularies for Music: A New Era in Resource Discovery,” in Notes 73.3 (2017): 409-431.
The committee wrote:
The authors present an excellent article detailing the history of the development of music thesauri, more recently, the Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus for Music (LCMPT) and the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT). These projects demonstrate a responsiveness to advancements in search precision in twenty-first century library catalogs with faceted display systems. The authors effectively present the need for these new Library of Congress music thesauri, the challenges in the developmental process, specific issues encountered, and issues yet to be addressed. The article provides historical context to MLA Cataloging and Metadata Committee’s role and active presence throughout the creation of LCMPT and LCGFT Music Terms. The authors are thorough in their research on the history of music thesauri construction, and carefully avoid excessive jargon so that content is accessible to a wider audience. The authors are recognized and commended for their efforts detailing collaboration between individuals and organizations/institutions needed to build and design new music vocabularies and thesauri for modern-day music information search and retrieval.
It is a pleasure to present the Richard S. Hill award to our very own MLA-ers Beth, Nancy, Casey, and Hermine for their thorough and well-written article “Faceted Vocabularies for Music: A New Era in Resource Discovery.”
https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/?HillAward
Eva Judd O’Meara Award
The Eva Judd O’Meara Award, given for the best review in Notes, this year goes to Derek Stauff for his review of Volumes 1 and 8 of Andreas Hammerschmidt’s Gesamtausgabe, edited by Michael Heinemann, Sven Rössel, and Konstanze Kremtz (Altenburg: Verlag Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad, 2015-) in Notes 74, no. 1 (2017): 125-130.
The Publication Awards Committee wrote:
In his review, Stauff provides a thorough, in-depth analysis of volumes 1 and 8 of the collected works of Andreas Hammerschmidt. With a factual style of reporting and scholarly background in the subject, the reviewer’s writing is easily followed even without score in-hand. Stauff describes the pros and cons of the publication, from printing to verification of sources, and demonstrates that he is extremely knowledgeable in both the works being discussed and relevant sources on similar topics by examining the work in a larger context, particularly the significance of its contribution, and by providing an analysis of content that could be used by the editors for future considerations. The level of research that went into this analysis and the sleuthing of facts within the review goes above and beyond mere reporting of content, and for that reason, it is with great pleasure that we recognize Derek Stauff as the recipient of this year’s Eva Judd O’Meara Award.
https://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/?JuddOMearaAward
MLA Citation
The MLA Citation, The Association’s tribute for lifetime achievement and our highest honor, is awarded in recognition of distinguished service to music librarianship over a career. Citation recipients become Honorary Members of the Music Library Association. This year’s citation recipient is Jay Weitz.
The citation reads as follows:
Throughout his long career, he has made extensive contributions to the music library profession and to the aims of the Music Library Association in ensuring and enhancing intellectual access to music. His breadth of knowledge regarding cataloging practices past and present, OCLC and beyond, is unparalleled. His responses to cataloging-related questions on both MLA-L and MOUG-L consistently display a depth, thoroughness, and generosity of spirit that make the person asking (and everyone reading) feel more informed, His work on OCLC’s Duplicate Detection and Resolution (DDR) program has been even wider-reaching. While his expertise, understated wit, and generosity may be best known in the cataloging world, every researcher, musician, or librarian who has successfully searched for and identified music or media materials in WorldCat has benefited from his incalculable contributions to cataloging and quality control. Recognizing his tireless, persistent, and effective advocacy for users’ needs in all aspects of cataloging, the Music Library Association is pleased to confer upon Jay Weitz the MLA Citation.