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Service Spotlight: Chief Financial Officer
In this column, we continue getting to know our board members and how they serve MLA. Elizabeth Hille Cribbs explains her role below.
MLA’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO, formerly the Administrative Officer (AO)) is, as the name implies, the officer in charge of overseeing the organization’s financial situation. The CFO is a part-time, volunteer position appointed by the MLA Board of Directors. The CFO serves on the MLA Board but does not vote on board-level decisions.
Whenever an MLA project has a monetary component, the CFO works with the people involved to secure the necessary financial infrastructure. To do this effectively, I spend a lot of time researching past MLA Board decisions, projects, and related documents so that the current MLA Board can make informed decisions. I also have many other financial duties for the organization, including dispersing payments for all MLA-related expenses, collaborating with the Fiscal Officer and the Finance Committee to set the budget for the coming fiscal year, working with the MLA Business Office to complete its annual auditing process, and reviewing and signing the organization’s tax forms once they’re completed.
The MLA Chief Financial Officer has a lot of responsibilities, but I think my most important one is reporting the state of MLA’s finances to YOU, dear member. Specifically, three times a year I submit reports that show how our balance sheet looks, how MLA is doing within our overall budget and fiscal plan for the current year, and how MLA’s membership numbers look.
As you might expect, the Chief Financial Officer’s responsibilities take a lot of time and a lot of cooperation! I collaborate extensively with the President and the Fiscal Officer to plan future financial decisions, and I communicate with the MLA Business Office staff to keep them apprised of what is coming our way and figure out how to make the financial and business processes work. I often work in a focused way with other MLA officers to get specific tasks accomplished; recently I worked with the MLA Parliamentarian and the MLA Web Editors to organize the MLA election, and I’m currently working with the Convention Managers to help get the financial aspects of MLA’s 2022 Annual Meeting into place. I couldn’t do what I do without all these wonderful people and without the training, support, and guidance of the previous Administrative Officer (and current Assistant CFO), Tracey Rudnick. Managing MLA’s finances is truly a team effort, and I’m lucky because I have the best teammates any officer could imagine.
Last summer an MLA AO-AAO Task Force evaluated all the responsibilities that the Administrative Officer (AO) and Assistant Administrative Officer (AAO) handled at the time, and they recommended splitting the Administrative Officer and Assistant Administrative Officer duties from two positions into four positions: a Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Chief Financial Officer, and a Membership Management Officer and Assistant Membership Management Officer. We have lots of exciting projects afoot, but that split most likely presents the most change going forward. This means that as the Membership Management Officer team trains up, they will start taking over some of the responsibilities currently held by the Chief Financial Officer, including managing renewals, running membership reports, and assisting with MLA-related membership questions and tasks. We’re just getting started with this process, so we only know a little about how it will work, but I’m very excited to see what the future holds.
You’ve Got Questions, Archivists Have Answers
“An alum just offered my music library their archival papers, including correspondence and programs of their performance history. How do I process these?”
“What are some resources for getting started with digital preservation?”
“How should my library manage access to archival materials that may contain confidential information?”
“My library’s older sheet music is very fragile. How should I store it?”
These are just a few questions that MLA’s new Ask an Archivist service can answer. The Archives and Special Collections Committee launched the service in October 2021 for members of the music library community to request help from an archivist or special collections librarian about any aspect of work in archives or special collections.
The idea for the service grew out of a committee meeting at the 2020 MLA annual meeting in Norfolk. Members of the committee were looking for new ways to share their knowledge of archival work with colleagues who may not be experts, but occasionally work with archives-related projects. The original idea for a no-appointment-necessary help desk at a future MLA meeting had to be put on hold, so the group pivoted to setting up an online submission form that can accept questions year-round. Committee members Matt Testa, Melissa Wertheimer, Jane Cross, and Stacey Krim have offered to respond to any questions within two business days.
The service encourages all music library workers to submit questions on any part of work in archives and special collections or to email the group at askanarchivist@musiclibraryassoc.org. Archivists are standing by!
Photo credit: League of Nations archives in the John D. Rockefeller Jr. League of Nations and UNOG Archives Reading Room in Geneva, Switzerland. UN Photo/Stefan Vukotic.
Digital Collections at Tulane
The personal stories of famous musicians, politicians, industry executives, and community leaders regarding renowned “Queen of Gospel” Mahalia Jackson are now available online via the Tulane University Digital Library. This digitization project, administered by Tulane University Special Collections, is made possible by a 2019 Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The Laurraine Goreau Interviews and Recordings feature Mahalia Jackson, her family members, and others who worked with and knew Jackson, including entertainers Ella Fitzgerald, John Hammond, Della Reese, and Dinah Shore; Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) co-founder Reverend Ralph Abernathy; television host Ed Sullivan; gospel stars J. Robert Bradley, Thomas A. Dorsey, Sallie Martin, and Albertina Walker; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Turkel. These interviews were conducted by Jackson’s biographer and New Orleans States-Item journalist Laurraine Goreau as part of her research for her 1975 authorized biography of Jackson, Just Mahalia, Baby: The Mahalia Jackson Story.
“I’m astounded by the range of interview subjects and topics that Goreau covered. There are even live music excerpts that she captured, such as Mahalia Jackson singing impromptu acapella verses of ‘His Eye is on the Sparrow’ at a 1971 press conference in Tokyo,” says Melissa A. Weber, curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz.
CLIR funding also enabled digitization of interviews conducted in the 1980s by historian Lynn Abbott for his 2013 book, To Do This, You Must Know How: Music Pedagogy in the Black Gospel Quartet Tradition, co-authored by Doug Seroff. The Lynn Abbott interviews feature Black gospel quartet singers and practitioners in the South who both predated and assisted Jackson’s international success. This includes gospel performers such as Mary Thames Coleman, Reverend Paul Exkano, and Bessie Griffin; and New Orleans blues and rhythm & blues artists such as Chuck Carbo and Snooks Eaglin.
“Knowing that people around the world now have access to these recordings, many of which have not been heard for decades, is very exciting,” says, Jillian Cuellar, director of Tulane University Special Collections. “Hearing intimate recollections of Jackson and her musical antecedents firsthand personalizes history for the listener, giving them the opportunity to interpret these stories without mediation.”
For more information about these collections, contact Melissa A. Weber, curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, at mweber3@tulane.edu or 504-247-1807. To learn more about Tulane University Special Collections, visit the TUSC website at library.tulane.edu/tusc, email specialcollections@tulane.edu, and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
Photo caption: Mahalia Jackson singing, accompanied by Thomas A. Dorsey on piano, circa 1960, Laurraine Goreau collection, LGPH0155, Tulane University Special Collections, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. Article and photo submission provided by Melissa A. Weber.
Celebrating Public Domain Day
On January 20, 2022, the Internet Archive and affiliated sponsors hosted a virtual ‘Celebration of Sound’ to recognize Public Domain Day. The event marked changes to United State copyright law passed by the Music Modernization Act of 2018, which have enabled new works to enter the Public Domain each year. Of particular note in 2022 is the entrance of pre-1923 sound recordings into the public domain for the first time in US history. Thus, the Celebration included selections of sound from early jazz and blues, classical, and spoken word recordings reflecting the political and social currents of their time. A full recording of the event and its associated features can be viewed at the Internet Archive website.
MLA member Maria Souliotis (Northeastern State University) kindly shared her reflections upon attending the celebration:
This was my first-ever time attending a Public Domain Day session and it was a blast! While I couldn’t stay for the breakout sessions, I enjoyed learning about some of the works that went into the public domain this year and hearing some great music. For example, I appreciated getting to hear the song “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” for the first time. I had no idea how influential it was on later protest songs, nor how it inspired a multitude of parodies. A description from YouTube states that the song was first recorded in 1915 by the Peerless Quartet. During the presentation, I learned that this song has inspired countless other protest songs and parodies since its release, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Song” and Green Day’s “American Idiot.”
The event also highlighted Citizen DJ, an interactive database of audiovisual materials from the Library of Congress that allows users to create their own mixes of audio files in the public domain. The database and mixing tool was mind blowing–after trying it out myself, I will definitely share it with the aspiring composers I know! I experimented with “The National Jukebox: Folk Music” collection and found myself drawn to clips from “The Devil’s Dream Reel” and “Turkey in the Straw.” I played with both tunes using the remixing tool, which combines the chosen clips with rhythmic patterns from a drum machine. There are thousands of preset combinations to choose from, and adventurous users can also experiment with adjusting clip start/stop times, muting specific tracks, and adjusting the BMP playback rate. You can also record and download your patterns or click the share button to share them with others. Savvy composers, especially those interested in sound mixing and electronic music, would want to check out this resource for some inspiration, or to find new melodic and rhythmic grooves to use in their work.
Finally, although not music-related, I enjoyed a newly-public domain joke: “A man told his friend, ‘I lost my dog.’ The man’s friend said, ‘Why don’t you take out an ad for him?’ The man then said, ‘But my dog can’t read!'”
Thanks, Maria, for your reflections!
Photo credit: Israel-Palacio via Unsplash
Five Questions with Hang Nguyen
Get to know Hang Nguyen, Reference Librarian at the State Historical Society of Iowa!
What’s your musical background?
I was inspired by my family’s and surrounding friends’ musicality growing up, so I decided to take piano lessons in high school. Unsure about a career in music during undergrad, I switched majors four or five times, but couldn’t stay away from music, as I fell in love with Chopin! From there I presented a piano recital and lecture recital with my last two years in undergrad and went for the musicology degree.
What might others be surprised to learn about you?
I enjoy billiards, disc golfing, and dance video games like Dance Central and Just Dance. I recently got into mushroom hunting. The most common mushrooms I’ve found in the Iowa City area and harvested for eating include Chicken of the Woods, Golden Oyster, and Puffballs.
What superpower would you choose for a day, and why?
I would choose the power to fly to see more of the natural beauty around us and travel to parts of the world that are difficult to get to.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
To try something new even if I fail because I’ll still learn something throughout the process or about myself.
What’s your favorite thing about MLA?
I enjoy the camaraderie and the energy. Everyone is friendly and open to workshop ideas with me, and it’s always inspirational to hear what new projects and initiatives colleagues are taking on. I always look forward to (re)connecting with friends and colleagues at MLA meetings.
Did You Know…
…Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise originally contained twelve — not twenty-four — songs?
Based on poems by Wilhelm Müller — which Schubert discovered in the literary periodical Urania — the piece began and ended in the key of D minor, until its composer learned of twelve additional poems while staying with a friend. The autograph manuscript shows ‘Fine’ after the twelfth song, but rather than revise and disrupt its musical structure, Schubert extended his winter wanderer’s journey by adding the additional poems in order (though he did reverse two poems near the end).
Sources:
Youens, Susan. “The Winter of the Spirit” Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey), D. 911″. Liner notes for Franz Schubert: Winterreise. Recorded July 2001. Musica Omnia 108.
Zahn, Robert V. “Müller’s and Schubert’s ‘The Winter’s Journey'”. Liner notes for Winterreise. Recorded November 1989. Chanel Classics 0190.
Photo by Fabrice Villard on Unsplash