I have yet to be able to come up with a query that a librarian wasn’t able to answer. That’s not really a surprise. Librarians are well-educated women and men with excellent research skills and—at least in my experience—an innate desire to figure things out. The librarians I’ve worked with seem to know a wide variety of people, from staff in the museum archives to scientists at the research council to up and coming local musicians
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By day, he’s a 41-year-old working in business development for a London law firm. By night, he’s a music industry crusader %u2013 digging up obscure gems and persuading record labels to make them available online.
Over the last six years, he’s been responsible for 725 releases, including tracks by Sting, Cher and Annie Lennox, with a strong bias for late 90s pop acts such as Billie Piper, S Club and A*Teens.
He’ll admit itis a very strange thing to do, but it gives people a lot of happiness so why not?%u201D he tells the BBC.
Record labels forgot these songs existed. One man rescued them
It’s time yet again to take a look back at the memorable library stories from the past year.
Two themes dominated headlines in 2023: attacks on libraries; and the rising implications of generative artificial intelligence.
Fallout over politicians from both parties mishandling documents continued to make news early in the year.
In a peculiar bid to paint himself the victim of library policies, Kirk Cameron staged conflicts over his right-wing children’s books and related library events.
The ARChive of Contemporary Music, which houses more than 90m songs and is supported by names such as Martin Scorsese, is in need of a new home
The Arc preserves copies of every recording in all known formats. It has electronically catalogued more than 400,000 sound recordings and digitised 200,000 with the Internet Archive – more than any other public university or private library in America. It also contains more than 3m pieces of material including photos, videos, DVDs, books, magazines, press kits, sheet music, ephemera and memorabilia.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/16/archive-of-contemporary-music-new-york
Statement from Brewster Kahle, digital librarian of the Internet Archive:“When people want to listen to music they go to Spotify. When people want to study sound recordings as they were originally created, they go to libraries like the Internet Archive. Both are needed. There shouldn’t be conflict here.”
The Hip Hop Historians Who Are Racing to Preserve Its Story
From vinyl to photos, blogs to music streams, chronicling 50 years of culture involves reckoning with what can and cannot be saved and the tools that can do it.
A New York library acquired a machine that transfers recordings from the fragile format. Then a batch of cylinders from a Met Opera librarian arrived.
Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots
After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, all bets were off for live musicians who played in movie theaters. Thanks to synchronized sound, the use of live musicians was unnecessary — and perhaps a larger sin, old-fashioned. In 1930 the American Federation of Musicians formed a new organization called the Music Defense League and launched a scathing ad campaign to fight the advance of this terrible menace known as recorded sound.
Brent Reidy, the new director of Research Libraries, said he hoped to help democratize the 127-year-old library by reaching a younger generation.
How time flies! Once again we look back at the memorable events of the past year.
10. More Libraries End Late Fines
Libraries continue to make headlines for discontinuing the assessment of financial penalties for returning books late. Not only does this practice help get overdue books returned, it promotes equitable access to library collections.
9. Cape Town Library Damaged by Fire
In April, a fire partially destroyed the main library at the University of Cape Town. Recovery efforts are still underway.
8. Taylor Swift…?
Not one but two copyright stories this year involved Taylor Swift: the dubious practice of the police playing her songs to avoid being live streamed, and the musician having to re-record her hits in order to regain ownership of them.
The Lighter Side: "Library Rap" Raises Eyebrows
All I can say about this story is to watch the video yourself, if you can get through it.
7. University of California Re-Ups with Elsevier
After a long standoff over pricing and author rights, the University of California agreed to again subscribe to the for-profit publisher’s titles.
6. Supply Chain Issues in Publishing
Shipping delays and understaffing hit many economic sectors this year, and the books trade was no exception.
5. "Illegal Aliens" LCSH Retired
After over a decade of controversy, the Library of Congress approved a change to their "Illegal Aliens" subject heading in November, replacing it with the terms "Noncitizens" and "Illegal Immigration," prompting an outcry from Senator Ted Cruz.
Dishonorable Mention: NFTs
Librarians are all too familiar with the contrived scarcity imposed on electronic formats by commercial interests. This year, the hype train that is non-fungible tokens reached fever pitch, causing concerns over their environmental impact.
4. Controlled Digital Lending
Whither libraries in the Internet Age? One answer is the use of metered circulation mechanisms that allow for libraries to "lend" electronic copies of materials. Commercial publishers, unsurprisingly, would prefer to set their own prices.
3. Cancel/Consequence Culture
The publishing industry has always had its fair share of scandals. This year’s controversies involved Josh Hawley, Doctor Seuss, Alex Gino, Alice Sebold, Captain Underpants, and Phillip Roth.
2. Covid Exacerbated by Misinformation
Ahmed Baba describes the situation perfectly: "It’s important to directly state that Republicans and right-wing media have spent this year blatantly sabotaging Biden’s COVID response while simultaneously criticizing him for not getting COVID totally under control. It’s a deliberate strategy and it’s unfortunately working."
1. Book Banning Intensifies
This perennial entry takes the top spot this year due to the drastic rise (or "dramatic uptick," to quote the ALA) in challenges led by conservatives to library books.
What was your favorite library story of 2021?
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