Title page
Finding Aid
Stanford University contains Florence Underwood’s written music and research. Finding aids involve the collection of manuscripts that are used for establishing intellectual and administrative control over the repository. Berklee College offers financial aid that contains a huge collection of papers and sources written by famous musicians and artists. Middle Tennessee State University offers a broader collection of Cajun Music and Zydeco records. The Cajun Music and Zydeco record do not contain the work of a single artist that may present some challenges. Such records contain collective work of different artists on different genres. It is difficult for students to retrieve the work based on artists. While Stanford University's shared work of Florence Underwood contains the individual work of the artist. Similarly, Berklee College offers work of different artists on different genres. The Berklee repository has managed to keep work of individual artists only. Middle Tennessee State University has not sorted the work or material according to original artists that makes it difficult for the students to find the work of the required artist. The University of Chicago Library has also maintained a repository that provides access to the work of Bud Freeman.
Florence Underwood's collection available at Stanford University site is important because it is can be used by students for learning about composition. Florence donated the wider collection of music in the written form. The research provided by Florence comprises of original source materials that can assist students in conducting future research. It is also useful for identifying ways of examining music. The University provides wide aids to the students that include manuscripts, articles and written material. The repository is crucial because it provides the exact location for the repository shelves that allow students to access relevant sources. It is defined as “the process of establishing intellectual control over holdings through the preparation of finding aids” CITATION Luc93 \l 1033 (Duranti, 1993).
Berklee college consists of works and writing materials of John LaPorta, Donald Bacon, Alma Berk, Franklin McGinley, Bobby Vince and other popular artists. The wider collection papers and relevant sources can be used by students for literature review and conducting research. The papers available contain original work and provides in-depth knowledge on music, composition and photography. Some of The material offered in finding aid is useful for the students and researchers. They can use a variety of academic journals online. The important part of such repository is that they contain credible and reliable information because the work is presented by renowned artists having experience in the field of music, art and photography.
Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) contains extensive materials and in the Cajun music and Zydeco records. The offered material is important for the students and researchers because it includes papers, publications, manuscripts and articles on music genre and composition. It also includes a photographic gallery of Philips Gould. Cajun music involves the work of the popular artist, Ann Savoy. It also offers other related material such as the traditional food and the performances of Abe Manual Band and Savoy-Doucet Band of Louisiana. These sources are thus important for understanding the nature of music and features of the composition. The collection of the performances are important for the students because they allow them to learn about the genre and how their work in the real world of music. Students who are interested in music get numerous benefits from the repository.
Chicago University holds a collection of the Bud Freeman materials that mainly include papers and manuscripts. The work contains the Chicago style jazz music. The repository is thus important for the students of music and art because it provides adequate materials on this genre. The site explains the history of jazz and the elements that contributed towards its development. The description of the features of jazz music explains the factors that contributed to the development of jazz music. The collection offered by the repository include magazines, articles, newspaper clippings, photographs and transcripts of interviews. All these sources involve original work of Freeman.
Educational institutions like Stanford University hold such collections for providing aid to learn music and composition. The reason is to provide access to the open library where students can search for relevant research materials. Another reason for keeping such collections is to collect aid for the Lutheran mission and churches as demanded by Florence in her life. She offered her collection to the educational institutions for contributing to the Nobel cause of the church. In the same way, Berklee College holds a collection of music paper and composition that provides insights into different music genres. Most of the papers cover the revolutionary music of America including Jazz. The purpose of keeping such material on the repository is to support students in their academic careers and research. The factual information on music and composition allow students to verify facts and learn techniques for conducting research. several research options permit them to widen their research capabilities and scope.
Middle Tennessee State University is an educational institute that holds the collection of Cajun Music and Zydeco records including audio, video and written work on different genres of music. The reason for keeping such records is to provide access to the music students who want to learn different aspects such as composition, history and its relevance with music. The broader collection is used for classifying different genres such as jazz, rock and classic. The sources offer evidence and facts that the students can use for proving their claims. The purpose of such a repository is also to promote research and provide materials for conducting research. The information allows students to clarify their thoughts regarding different genre and features of music CITATION MTS18 \l 1033 (MTSU, 2018).
Educational institutes like Chicago University holds the sources and materials related to music. The purpose is to assist students of music in their research and studies. The content shared by the sites will familiarize students with the jazz age and related aspects. They can learn different aspects of jazz and use them in their research work. The papers are important because they allow students to learn about the research process and investigative methods employed for studying music. The reason for holding such sources is to assist students in developing their own research papers. The repository contains materials that can be used for providing evidentiary support to the claims. Factual information is required for building relevance with the literature.
Stanford University repository provides access to Florence Underwood that fits the collection of music because it contains research work and materials written by her. The students of music and composition can benefit from the extensive database. “The term archival description literally means writing about archival material and embraces the ideas of representation, identification and organization” CITATION Dan97 \l 1033 (Pitti, 1997). The material is stored for providing access to the students who can gain benefit. The Berklee college archive provides access to different sources and papers written by numerous artists. This indicates that the students can access the required sources for music from a single platform.
Middle Tennessee State University provides easy access to the Cajun Music and Zydeco Records. The site has classified the contents such as spring-fed records, American guitar, Hedrick collection, American vernacular music manuscripts and songs of Saint Lucas. This allows students to identify the material and choose the right option. The handwritten music manuscripts provide information on the type of music and its features according to times. It is crucial “to talk about the origin and development of a concept means to trace the rise and progressive evolution of an idea which includes all that is characteristically associated with or suggested by a term” CITATION Luc93 \l 1033 (Duranti, 1993). An appropriate step for accessing the information is to enter the right terms on the search bar.
Chicago University allows students access to the data repository. The site has classified all material into seven series that makes identification of right source easier The seven series include; correspondence, Crazeology, tape transcripts, writings, photographs, Marian ephemera and oversize. Each series provides a description of the material it contains such as Marian Ephemera include a broader collection of work related to the Jazz music. It offers the papers and manuscripts generated by Bid Freeman. It also specifies the dates such as the materials were created between 1991 to 1997. This simplifies the criteria for search and allows students to find immediate access to the required material.
Practical archives are developed and maintained for establishing intellectual controls over the data repository. This prevents the misuse of the material that is freely shared with the users. The archival holdings vary in nature and educational institutes have used different archives for maintaining data repository. The institutes follow different rules for sharing sources and material with the users. “the preparation of descriptions that are related to one another in a part-to-whole relationship and that need complete identification of both parts and the comprehensive whole in multiple descriptive records” CITATION SAA13 \l 1033 (SAA, 2013).
Stanford University does not offer easy access to the users because sources are not available on the archive websites. Stanford University puts restrictions over the use of the database. The students have to request the material or source two days prior to its use. This reflects that immediate access is not offered to the users. However, the website has kept the collection open for the users including students and researchers. The user has to contact the archivist for gaining access to the material. The students intending to use the source on an immediate basis will thus face difficulty. I physically searched the archives for finding aid at the Stanford University website. I had to change course during researching because it required me to contact the archivist and make a request for the material.
The data archive at Berklee college is similar to that of Stanford University. The Berklee college does not allow easy access to the students by making sources available in the archival website. The college archives require that the students create their login id by filling the online form. The repository allows access to the students of Berklee College only. They are required to contact the repository administrator for gaining access to the sources and materials. This reflects that the institute has set restrictions on the repository. The students cannot open the research articles or papers unless they get permission from the administration that grants access later. The site has mentioned the e-mail id where users can request fort using the database. However, the college provides access to the required article or source on the same day that makes it efficient from Stanford University. The students can gain access five days a week from morning till evening. It is mentioned on the portal that the archival information is stored on off-site and users can make a request for using the materials.
The advanced search permit users to enter the details including creator, title, origin and subject of the music. This makes the search simple as the users get the required source or material. The repository of MTSU is different from the Stanford and Berklee because it allows open access to some material including the song analysis of Saint Lucas. This includes the written manuscripts, recordings and description of the music genre. There is no need for contacting the repository administration because most of the material can be accessed. The users have to enter the search terms on the search bar that include the title of the song. This will allow them to find the relevant source material. The site provides immediate access that means the users don't have to wait for days before using the required material. This indicates that the repository is time and cost-effective because it allows students to save time.
The finding aid at Stanford University explains the work contributed by Florence Underwood. It contains a huge collection of Florence's work including research writings and manuscripts on music. I found the core series across the website that reflects that it is the work of the organization. The institute has maintained intellectual controls over the shared material. At Berkeley College repository I found core series across the website indicating that the sources are maintained in an organized manner. The purpose of limiting students or users access is to maintain intellectual control over the shared materials. This is important for keeping the sources safe from theft or misuse. Also, this allows the archivist to monitor the activities going on the website CITATION Ber18 \l 1033 (Berklee, 2018).
The MTSU has permitted users to define the search criteria that makes retrieval of information more efficient. I found core series across the website indicating that the sources are maintained in an organized manner. The archivist has maintained separate categories according to the nature of work such as written manuscripts, songs and artists. This makes it convenient for users to identify the right source. “Archival description is the process of capturing, collating, analyzing, and organizing any information that serves to identify, manage, locate, and interpret the holdings of archival institutions and explain the context and records systems from which those holdings were selected” CITATION Luc93 \l 1033 (Duranti, 1993). Finding aids contain the published and unpublished materials developed by the archival office of the institute and data is kept in the repository for allowing access to the users CITATION Gre03 \l 1033 (Hunter, 2003).
Chicago University has also created the core series that simplifies the process of retrieving the relevant information. The series is classified for manuscripts, papers and recordings that make the search simple and time efficient. However, all sources are not open for the students. Still accessing the material is simple because the student needs to enter the right search terms. The reason for restricting access is to allow the archivist to monitor the activities and confirm that the sources are used for academic purpose only.
The collections are described well at the Standard University repository. A brief description is given about the content that each collection contains such as articles, papers, written compositions and manuscripts. The processing archivist stops at the series level on the repository and it does not go down to the item level. The arrangement and description practices are consistent with the respective finding aid. The archivist is responsible for organizing and describing the papers to the users' who intends to gain access to the repository. They also conduct screening of sensitive and restrictive material. This restricts the students from gaining access to the source or material immediately. This reflects that the archivist is cataloguing a wider range of material in collections. The most visible feature of the Stanford repository is that it is a domain-specific repository. This allows students to retrieve data according to the subjects. This will only open the material that is relevant to the selected subject.
Berklee college has defined the collections appropriately by giving an introduction to the authors of sources. It is different from Stanford University because Berklee college offers detailed biographies, history and contribution of the authors in PDF files. The students can access these files easily because they are open. This permit students to identify the author and the material that they need to use for their research. The description is also useful because it assists them to find the type of composition and music that want to study. This reflects time efficiency because the students don't need to search the whole repository. By limiting the criteria for the search, students will get the right material.
The University of Chicago Library “The objective was to provide central, intellectual access to the nation's primary source materials. The effort initially focused on collection-level summary description rather than on in-depth sub-collection or item-level description” CITATION Dan97 \l 1033 (Pitti, 1997). The sources are maintained in a domain-specific repository that means that the students can access information according to the genre. This saves them for unnecessary searching of sources.
Finding aids involve the collection of manuscripts that are used for establishing intellectual and administrative control over the repository. The comparison of the data repository of the four institutes depicts that they are offering a wider collection of materials for studying music and composition. There are many similarities between the four repositories such as limiting access to maintain intellectual control over the shared materials. There are also some differences because the MTSU and Chicago University allow open access but the Stanford and Berklee demand that the student contacts the archivist.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Duranti, L. (1993). Origin and Development of the Concept of Archival Description. Archivaria.
Hunter, G. S. (2003). Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. Neal-Schuman Publishers Inc.
MTSU. (2018). Cajun Music and Zydeco records. Retrieved 04 13, 2019, from https://www.mtsu.edu/popmusic/record/31/Cajun+Music+and+Zydeco+records
Pitti, D. V. (1997). Encoded Archival Description: The Development of an Encoding Standard for Archival Finding Aids. American Archivist, 60.
SAA. (2013). DESCRIBING A Content Standard Archives. Society of American Archivists.
Yeo, G. (2017). Continuing debates about description. Currents of Archival Thinking.
Berklee. (2018). Finding Aids. Retrieved 04 13, 2019, from https://archives.berklee.edu/research/finding-aids
