Marching into madness (or, the Huey Decimal System)
Months ago, my band director said something to me about becoming one of the new band librarians. Like, I was told this was happening; I wasn't offered a chance to think about it or turn it down. I'm guessing somewhere along the line, the crotchety old librarian perhaps mentioned to him that I'd be a good candidate to help out. Perhaps at some point that was mentioned to me in passing, and I sort of went, yeah, sure, okay, but I'm not entirely sure. After the anointing--of me and another woman--that was it. I heard nothing.
...Until the other day, when I ran into the band manager (who is also the director's daughter), who mentioned I should be expecting an email later that day. See, the band was bequeathed a bunch of music. Hundreds of pieces. Every march that Sousa ever wrote, and then some. It all has to be cataloged. And, well, I was volunteered! Hooray! Sigh. Luckily there are four of us total, plus the director (his daughter claimed it was too much fun for her and is not involved), and we met last night to figure out a game plan. Everyone seems completely competent and willing, so okay, what the heck.
The tough part is just going through it all. It all got stored behind the seating area of the concert center; it's basically one big hallway back there, curving around from one side of the seating area to the other, and the middle section can be locked off with gates for storage. There were two large trolleys back there, covered with music. Off to the side, there was another table filled with music. Off to another side, more music. And then there are the totes...you guessed it, filled with music. A non-musician probably doesn't realize there are different sizes of music; the two main sizes are concert, which are either 8.5"x11" or 9"x12" typically, and march, which might run in the 4"x6" or 5"x7" range. There's a third size that I'm not as familiar with but it falls between them, I think--long and narrow, maybe. I'm sure I'll learn more in the coming weeks. Our goal is to get through the larger songs before tackling the marches, as we're going to sort them by composer and we need room to work. There is very little room currently in the storage area, to the point where when we put down a chair for one of the helpers, the area she was in was only wide enough for the chair itself; she couldn't put her legs down properly. She had to rest them on the trolley in front of her.
The other thing is learning the obscure sorting system used by said crotchety librarian. He claims to have used it in the Army. Each piece of music has three numbers--the first, which sorts it by size; the second, which sorts it by category (think classical, patriotic, pop music, etc.); and the third, which is where it falls in line with the rest of them. Basically, every new piece takes the number following the last one added. There were something like 900+ marches just in the smaller march-size category. And, that's not even including march books, which are a whole separate thing. We managed to find a listing of the various middle categories, since the other two are obvious, and we got copies for everyone; we also copied a page out of the paper database of songs. There is a computer database of sorts we'll eventually put this in, but having a printout helped so that we know what sorts of information are important. We'll likely start off with an Excel-type spreadsheet since there's too much music to move it down to the basement, where the actual band library is; the others will be bringing laptops to work up there. And, we're not necessarily absorbing this music into our library; apparently the director is looking into creating a lending library of sorts. That's way too much for my brain to handle at this time, so I'm not going to worry about it.
What I do know is that I got home and started explaining things to my parents, and my dad went, they don't use the Dewey Decimal System? Well, no, because they're not books...but then I went, it's the Huey Decimal System. I'm not sure what Louie does. Maybe he categorizes artwork or something, if Dewey gets books and I'm claiming that Huey curates music.
...It's been a long week, what can I say.
...Until the other day, when I ran into the band manager (who is also the director's daughter), who mentioned I should be expecting an email later that day. See, the band was bequeathed a bunch of music. Hundreds of pieces. Every march that Sousa ever wrote, and then some. It all has to be cataloged. And, well, I was volunteered! Hooray! Sigh. Luckily there are four of us total, plus the director (his daughter claimed it was too much fun for her and is not involved), and we met last night to figure out a game plan. Everyone seems completely competent and willing, so okay, what the heck.
The tough part is just going through it all. It all got stored behind the seating area of the concert center; it's basically one big hallway back there, curving around from one side of the seating area to the other, and the middle section can be locked off with gates for storage. There were two large trolleys back there, covered with music. Off to the side, there was another table filled with music. Off to another side, more music. And then there are the totes...you guessed it, filled with music. A non-musician probably doesn't realize there are different sizes of music; the two main sizes are concert, which are either 8.5"x11" or 9"x12" typically, and march, which might run in the 4"x6" or 5"x7" range. There's a third size that I'm not as familiar with but it falls between them, I think--long and narrow, maybe. I'm sure I'll learn more in the coming weeks. Our goal is to get through the larger songs before tackling the marches, as we're going to sort them by composer and we need room to work. There is very little room currently in the storage area, to the point where when we put down a chair for one of the helpers, the area she was in was only wide enough for the chair itself; she couldn't put her legs down properly. She had to rest them on the trolley in front of her.
The other thing is learning the obscure sorting system used by said crotchety librarian. He claims to have used it in the Army. Each piece of music has three numbers--the first, which sorts it by size; the second, which sorts it by category (think classical, patriotic, pop music, etc.); and the third, which is where it falls in line with the rest of them. Basically, every new piece takes the number following the last one added. There were something like 900+ marches just in the smaller march-size category. And, that's not even including march books, which are a whole separate thing. We managed to find a listing of the various middle categories, since the other two are obvious, and we got copies for everyone; we also copied a page out of the paper database of songs. There is a computer database of sorts we'll eventually put this in, but having a printout helped so that we know what sorts of information are important. We'll likely start off with an Excel-type spreadsheet since there's too much music to move it down to the basement, where the actual band library is; the others will be bringing laptops to work up there. And, we're not necessarily absorbing this music into our library; apparently the director is looking into creating a lending library of sorts. That's way too much for my brain to handle at this time, so I'm not going to worry about it.
What I do know is that I got home and started explaining things to my parents, and my dad went, they don't use the Dewey Decimal System? Well, no, because they're not books...but then I went, it's the Huey Decimal System. I'm not sure what Louie does. Maybe he categorizes artwork or something, if Dewey gets books and I'm claiming that Huey curates music.
...It's been a long week, what can I say.