Unravelling the RISM Riddle at the University of Illinois: An Inventory and Analysis

English Abstract

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a large and rich collection of materials totaling over fourteen million volumes. Between its Music and Performing Arts Library (MPAL) and its Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML), it holds over 900 items that are catalogued in RISM. Over the years, the Music and Performing Arts Library has used various means to inventory and describe those holdings appearing in RISM: special card catalogues, binders with inventory lists, and of course, the online library catalogue. However, in practice, when scholars approach the library with questions regarding these holdings, it is sometimes difficult to locate the items on the shelves. In order to improve the experience for both researchers and librarians, an inventory project was initiated to verify and match University of Illinois holdings in the RISM OPAC to the library's own online catalogue. In addition, an analysis of the makeup of the library's RISM holdings was done. This article explains the inventory process, the findings of both the inventory and collection analysis, and outlines future steps needed to update our entries in RISM and in our local catalogue to make these items easier to find for scholars and librarians.

French Abstract

L'Université de l'Illinois à Urbana-Champaign possède une vaste et riche collection de documents totalisant plus de quatorze millions de volumes. Entre la bibliothèque de musique et des arts du spectacle (Music and Performing Arts Library (MPAL)) et la bibliothèque de livres rares et de manuscrits (Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML)), elle contient plus de 900 documents catalogués dans RISM. Au fil des ans, la bibliothèque de musique et des arts du spectacle a utilisé divers moyens pour inventorier et décrire les fonds figurant dans RISM: catalogues de fiches cartonnées, classeurs avec listes d'inventaires et, bien sûr, le catalogue de la bibliothèque en ligne. Cependant, dans la pratique, lorsque les chercheurs viennent à la bibliothèque avec des questions concernant ces fonds, il est parfois difficile de localiser les documents dans les rayons. Afin d'améliorer l'expérience des chercheurs et des bibliothécaires, un projet d'inventaire a été lancé pour vérifier et mettre en correspondance les fonds de l'Université de l'Illinois dans RISM OPAC avec le catalogue en ligne de la bibliothèque. De plus, une analyse de la composition des fonds RISM de la bibliothèque a été effectuée. Cet article explique le processus d'inventaire, les résultats de l'analyse de l'inventaire et de la collection, et décrit les étapes futures nécessaires pour mettre à jour nos entrées dans RISM et dans notre catalogue local, afin de rendre ces articles plus faciles à trouver pour les universitaires et les bibliothécaires.

German Abstract

Die Universität von Illinois in Urbana-Champaign verfügt über eine große und reichhaltige Sammlung von Materialien mit insgesamt über vierzehn Millionen Bänden. In der Music and Performing Arts Library (MPAL) und der Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) befinden sich über 900 Medien, die in RISM katalogisiert sind. Im Laufe der Jahre hat die Music and Performing Arts Library verschiedene Möglichkeiten genutzt, um die in RISM enthaltenen Bestände zu inventarisieren und zu beschreiben: spezielle Zettelkataloge, Ordner mit Inventarlisten und natürlich den Online-katalog. Wenn sich Studenten und Wissenschaftler mit Fragen zu diesen Beständen an die Bibliothek wenden, ist es in der Praxis jedoch manchmal schwierig, gesuchte Medien in den Regalen zu finden. Um die Nutzung sowohl für Forscher als auch für Bibliothekare zu vereinfachen, wurde ein Inventarisierungsprojekt gestartet, bei dem die Bestände der Universität von Illinois im RISMOPAC überprüft und mit dem eigenen Onlinekatalog der Bibliothek abgeglichen werden. Gleichzeitig wurde eine Analyse der Zusammensetzung der RISM-Bestände der Bibliothek durchgeführt. Dieser Artikel erläutert den Inventarisierungsprozess, die Ergebnisse sowohl der Inventarisierungsals auch der Sammlungsanalyse und beschreibt die zukünftig erforderlichen Schritte für die gleichzeitige Aktualisierung unserer Einträge in RISM und im lokalen Katalog, damit diese Medien für Studenten, Wissenschaftler und Bibliothekare leichter zu finden sind.

Introduction

Given the historical trends in the development of American university music curricula up until the first part of the twentieth century, academic music libraries generally focused on European art music and grew by adding many of the same monographic and printed music titles to meet the needs of scholars and students. However, in the mid-twentieth century curricula began shifting into new areas as programmes expanded in response to the globalisation of the field of musicology and an increased focus on popular music and interdisciplinarity. To address this, libraries strove to match their collecting to curricular and scholarly needs at their specific institutions, leaving behind the mindset of collecting broadly with a "just in case" mindset and moving more to a "just in time" framework¹. As a result, while there are many similarities across American music library holdings, no two collections are exactly the same, and it is their rare or special items, especially musical source material, that truly distinguish them from one another. Therefore, it is prudent for librarians to know what items they hold that are of historic importance or otherwise noteworthy or unique. One tool that helps accomplish this is the International Inventory of Musical Sources or Répertoire international des Sources Musicales (RISM), which primarily seeks to inventory musical manuscripts and early printed editions of music².

Unfortunately, more than one reference query seeking the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Music and Performing Arts Library (MPAL) holdings cited in RISM has ended in frustration on the part of the librarians and/or disappointment on the part of the researcher. Sometimes the item takes an inordinate amount of time to find, or ultimately, cannot be identified in the University of Illinois catalogue at all. Given that RISM's motto is "Knowing what exists and where it is kept"³, this is problematic. In an effort to improve the experience for both researchers and librarians, an inventory project was initiated in order to verify and match University of Illinois holdings in the RISM OPAC to the library's own online catalogue. In addition, an analysis of the makeup of the library's RISM holdings was done. This article explains the inventory process, the findings of both the inventory and collection analysis, and outlines future steps needed.

Background

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is the state's flagship campus for the system. With over fourteen million physical volumes, the University Library is the largest public university library in the United States, and second only to Harvard among all university libraries. The Music and Performing Arts Library at UIUC has approximately 440,000 items onsite, including roughly 290,000 in its circulating and reference collections and 150,000 items (which includes its 90,000-item historic sheet music collection)⁴ in its Special Collections location. Thousands more music-related items are held at the high-density library storage facility on campus. All items except those in the historic sheet music collection have records in the online catalogue.

The Music Library at Illinois, founded in 1944, was one of the initial respondents to the 1953 survey calling for contributors to RISM⁵. It changed its name to the Music and Performing Arts Library (MPAL) in 2008 after having incorporated dance and theatre materials over the years⁶. The Directory of Music Research Libraries (RISM C)⁷ describes the University of Illinois music holdings as being several distinct collections scattered across locations. Today RISM materials owned by UIUC are held either in MPAL's Special Collections or in the University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) although all holdings are currently listed in RISM under the siglum US-U.

RISM is divided into sections⁸. Series A/I documents printed music published between 1500 and 1800 that hold the work of a single composer. Its initial publication spans from 1971 to 1981, with four supplements between 1986 and 1999. It was then published on CD-ROM in 2011 and in an OPAC in 2015, with updates ongoing. Series B/I catalogues printed collections of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and was published in two volumes in 1960 and 1964. Series A/II began in 1978 and focuses on music manuscripts created after 1600⁹. At the time of the 2012 U.S. RISM A/II update project, there were 48,000 manuscript entries in U.S. RISM in part A/II¹⁰, with 611 U.S. sigla including seventy-four institutions (many with multiple collection locations with unique sigla), as well as privately held individual collections¹¹. For context and comparison to US-U's current RISM OPAC results of 979 entries (manuscripts and printed editions), other significant RISM collections in Illinois include the private Newberry Library in Chicago (US-Cn) with 5,516 RISM holdings, the University of Chicago's Joseph Regenstein Library Special Collections (US-Cu) with 1,678 entries, and the Northwestern University Music Library (US-Eu) with 389 RISM entries¹². A small sampling of other significant music schools' libraries and their RISM holdings include:

• • William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University (US-BLu): 51 (with an additional 229 at the Indiana University Lilly Library (US-BLl))

• • University of North Texas Music Library (US-DN): 247

• • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Music Library (US-CHH): 751

• • University of Michigan Music Library (US-AAu): 1,995

• • Harvard University: 8,150 entries, representing holdings at the Harvard College Library (US-CA), the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library (US-CAe,), and other Harvard locations, including the Houghton Library (US-CAh)

• • Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library at the University of California at Berkeley (US-BEm): 9,836

• • Yale Music Library (US-NH): 12,759 and an additional 1,365 entries from the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (US-NHub)

In 1951, Bukofzer recognised that "numerous problems have arisen with trying to work out a plan for the cooperation of the United States. Most of these problems arise from a lack of information on the exact scope and nature of the new Inventory . . ."¹³. Additional efforts to increase U.S. RISM holdings occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, including the U.S. RISM Series A/II Project and the U.S. RISM Libretto Project¹⁴. In 2008, a two-year project at Yale and Juilliard resulted in 8,000 records and in 2012 another Series A/II update was instrumental in improving the U.S.'s representation of manuscript holdings in RISM¹⁵.

As indicated earlier, queries regarding items in US-U's RISM holdings occasionally lead to failure. The original reference query that drove the author to begin this inventory project was this:

I am writing to inquire about the possibility of purchasing a microfilm, digital file, or photocopy of a musical manuscript in your collection.

References, from http://opac.RISM.info/ are below:

Composer: Lampe, Johann Friedrich

Title: The Cuckoo. A celebrated concerto: in five parts, viz. traversa, violin I, violin 2, tenor, violencella [!] and bass

Publisher: London, J. Wilcox; RISM A/I: L 508

There is a note in the RISM entry: in: Musica de la Theatro vermutlich kpl. Can you verify that the work is in separate parts and that it is complete?

After being unable to locate this item or the referenced Musica de la Theatro in the University of Illinois' online library catalogue or in our local RISM card file, the author contacted Jennifer Ward at the RISM Central Office in Germany, who admitted an error in the RISM data was possible. This was the proverbial straw that broke the librarian's back and the author vowed to locate each and every one of the items RISM claimed US-U held, as well as to learn more about the makeup of US-U's RISM holdings. The ultimate goal was to identify needed improvements to records in both the library's own catalogue and in the RISM OPAC.

Methods

Several data sources were used in combination to enumerate and verify US-U's RISM holdings. These include:

• • University of Illinois Music and Performing Arts Library RISM card file

• • RISM OPAC and exported spreadsheet of US-U entries

• • PDF of US-U holdings supplied by RISM Central Office¹⁶

• • University of Illinois Library OPAC

Some of the original RISM cataloguing was done with surrogates in addition to bibliographic data submitted on cards¹⁷. Pictures of US-U's local RISM card file are included below (see Figures 1 and 2)—one drawer is for items located in MPAL and one for those held in the University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The drawers are in RISM series order, with cards in author/title order.

There were usually two copies of cards made by libraries, which kept one set and sent the other to the U.S. RISM office or to the central RISM office¹⁸. The card file dates from at least late 1976 based on the card at the front of the first drawer that contains an explanation of the card file's purpose, which seems to mark "the end" of the library's work to contribute to RISM and subsequent supplementary clean-up efforts.

'Cards in this file represent all entries in the published volumes of RISM for items located in the UI Music Library (and RBML). Each card bears the location of the entry in the catalogues in its lower left-hand corner. Entries are arranged in the same fashion as the various published volumes of RISM. Red plastic sleeves identify entries which are currently undergoing recataloguing and should be replaced with permanent cards when they are available [there are still three of those present]'.

At the back of one drawer is a collection of loose cards with handwritten notes with questions or suggestions for action, and it is unclear at this time whether this work was completed and whether all emergent issues were resolved. Comments on these cards include such things as: "Report for supplement" (February 1978), "Here are manuscript music items that can be located, ~25 items, mostly at Rare Book Library" (April 1975), "As

Fig. 1.

US-U RISM Card File.

Fig. 2.

US-U RISM Card File.

far as we know, reported to RISM", and "Don't seem to have A/I/3 G434b but do have these two not listed in RISM"¹⁹.

The first step in the inventory process was to export US-U holdings into an Excel spreadsheet using the save/export function in the RISM OPAC as a basis for record keeping for the project. Empty fields were hidden, and additional fields were created for information locally useful to the project, such as whether or not US-U is the sole holder of the item. Further fields were added to lend redundancy to help match the entries in the RISM OPAC to the other data sources (see Table 1).

Table 1.

Data Points in Project Spreadsheet.

Using this structure as a starting point, a graduate student searched the 925 items one by one in our online catalogue and in our RISM card file, and also compared the spreadsheet entry against the PDF listing of US-U's holdings provided by the RISM office, which also contained 925 entries. The following screenshots do not capture every data point recorded for the items in view but serve as an example of what the data looks like (see Tables 2 and 3).

Table 2.

Screenshot of Project Spreadsheet, Part 1.

Table 3.

Screenshot of Project Spreadsheet, Part 2.

The RISM PDF includes the RISM ID numbers, which originally weren't part of the RISM OPAC export (this has now been fixed). The PDF entries also include all of the sigla associated with each item but do not include the RISM series A/I or A/II numbers²⁰, which are only on the RISM cards and in the RISM OPAC. Whenever an item could not be found in the local catalogue or in the card file, this was indicated in the spreadsheet.

Once this phase was done, in order to collocate all records and identify data gaps in catalogue records, we matched each RISM file card to the relevant printouts from the local catalogue and the RISM OPAC, or in the cases where there were no cards, matched records from the two OPACs. While this task proved to be more challenging than expected due to problems that will be described below, it allowed us to see most clearly what items from our original holdings (the card file) and in RISM's records could not be identified in our current local holdings, and where improvements or changes need to be made in library or RISM catalogue records. Libraries that do not have their original RISM card files will likely find this process to be quicker but will not necessarily have all of the local supporting data to know what their original contributions to RISM were or to resolve questions around particular titles should they arise.

It was through this process and the related research done by the graduate student completing it that we found several of the "missing" items, including the Musica de la Theatro volumes and the Lampe piece from the start of this story. They were located in a section of about 1,000 items in our Special Collections that do not have regular Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal call numbers (our library contains both), and upon further examination, were suppressed from our online catalogue for unknown reasons. While this may seem like a problem unique to UIUC, it was not uncommon for portions of libraries' collections to be missed during the transition from card catalogue to online catalogue, or for catalogue records to become suppressed (or never to have been "published"). Unfortunately, it is very difficult to know what is "lost" without doing a full shelf inventory check against the online catalogue, something we plan to do for the entirety of our special collections holdings. It is very likely that there will be additional items in this group that meet RISM criteria that we have not previously reported.

Inventory Findings

The primary goal of the project was to verify and identify all US-U RISM holdings, while another component of the project was to identify any problems with the records in the RISM OPAC and/or in the library's OPAC so that they can be fixed. In the effort to reconcile the library's records with RISM's, not accounting for the pieces in the previously mentioned Musica de la Theatro set, all but 7 of the 925 RISM entries were matched to holdings in the library's online catalogue. Almost a third, or 292 RISM OPAC entries did not have a match in the RISM card file. In some cases, we found additional copies and/or versions of the printed editions originally reported to RISM. We also found that large bound sets such as Musica de la Theatro included contents that had been overlooked or mis-recorded in our RISM submissions. Of the ninety-one pieces in this set, forty-nine have not been reported as holdings to RISM. To date we have noted approximately 120 additional holdings to report, which is a significant increase over our initial 925 items.

While 366 of our 925 RISM holdings were identified in our catalogue with no need for corrections to our records or to the RISM OPAC, the rest need cataloguing improvements in our catalogue, and approximately three dozen require corrections to their corresponding RISM OPAC records. Through the process of this inventory project we discovered several reasons behind our continued problems with locating RISM holdings in our local catalogue. They fall into a few overlapping categories, including: 1) differences in RISM and library approaches to cataloguing; 2) incomplete or incorrect records in the local catalogue, and 3) changes in local catalogue records over time, without updates having been sent to RISM. The first and third of these are certainly issues that might apply to other library collections, and the second case may also exist at other libraries to different degrees and/or for different reasons.

The first category can be described by understanding one of the chief differences between library and RISM cataloguing approaches. In a library catalogue there is typically just one bibliographic record for each physical item (or set of items), regardless of how many musical or intellectual pieces it may contain, although this practice may vary in rare book libraries to some degree. RISM, on the other hand, has records for physical items as well as each piece contained therein²¹. Therefore, the number of RISM entries ascribed to a library does not represent the number of related physical items on its shelves. For example, a single volume, the Glareani Dōdekachordon (Glareanus, Henricus, 1488–1563. Dōdekachordon. 1547) accounts for 113 of the holdings on the US-U list. In another example, 207 of the entries on the US-U RISM spreadsheet (just over 22 percent) share one call number, which maps to this catalogue record for a six-volume set of English sheet music.

Fig. 3.

English Sheet Music Local Catalogue Record.

Unfortunately, there are no contents notes for this set and no further details that can be seen here, which makes finding specific items contained therein impossible without the help of the RISM card file. After examining the contents of this set, an additional twenty-one items were identified to add to US-U's RISM holdings that had not previously been reported.

The second issue, incomplete or incorrect local catalogue records, can be seen by looking at the records for the piece "The Wanton God" by Thomas Arne, a song from Comus, one of his masques. Figure 4 represents the record in the RISM OPAC²².

Fig. 4.

RISM OPAC Entry for Arne Masques (RISM ID: 992005044).

Figure 5 represents the card from the RISM file for this item, which also includes information about the song title and the work it comes from.

Fig. 5.

RISM Card File Entry for Arne's "The Wanton God".

However, Figure 6, showing the entry in our local OPAC, differs radically from the previous two records in its completeness.

Fig. 6.

UIUC OPAC Entry for Arne's Comus.

There is nothing in the "More details" section except the author entry with dates for Arne. In fact, our OPAC has four records with the title "Comus" and each is for a different item. A patron may or may not supply a RISM citation or information about a larger work a song comes from if relevant. However, if we had tried searching our catalogue and not found "Wanton God", we would then likely check RISM to find the appropriate entry and would then search the library catalogue by Comus, the masque's title. The type of online record seen here (referred to locally as MARCettes), like the earlier example of English Sheet Music, is an artifact of a catalogue conversion project that was done several decades ago in an attempt to automate circulation, which resulted in the creation of brief non-MARC online catalogue records²³. Unfortunately, the consequent retrospective conversion process of these records was never completed. At least 327 of the 925 items on our list have this type of abbreviated record and will need full cataloguing.

In another Arne example, the UIUC OPAC record for "Fly swiftly ye minutes" from Comus has five holdings attached to it, but each of these items is not necessarily identical and therefore have individual entries in the RISM OPAC (see Figure 7).

Fig. 7.

Arne, "Fly Swiftly Ye Minutes".

Ideally these items will be reevaluated, and individual catalogue records will be created as appropriate.

The third recurring problem has to do with RISM items that have been transferred from MPAL to the University Library's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. During a reference inquiry the author discovered that even though the requested item has a local shelfmark in the RISM OPAC record (see Figure 8), it could not be found on MPAL's shelves or in our online catalogue.

Fig. 8.

RISM OPAC Entry for Spogli, Toccatas (RISM ID no.: 000117590).

It does not have a card in our local RISM card file either, so checking there did not help. RISM indicates that this item is part of a collection, and their record specifies that it is known as the "Woodcock" manuscript (see Figure 9).

Fig. 9.

RISM OPAC Entry for 16 Keyboard Pieces (RISM ID no.: 000117580).

This information allowed the author to find the item in our online catalogue (see Figure 10).

Fig. 10.

UIUC OPAC for the Woodcock Manuscript.

Items transferred to RBML frequently get radically enhanced records, including at times new titles and new call numbers. Helpfully, their usual practice is to include any former local shelfmarks in the record, so the author was able to confidently match this record to the RISM citation. While this example is specific to UIUC, it is not unique. Other large libraries with multiple collections have likely transferred materials between collections with resulting changes in cataloguing data and may therefore have similar problems with current catalogue data not matching data initially reported to RISM.

To further complicate matters, even an enhanced local catalogue record will not always contain enough information to identify individual pieces by composer, or, some of the information is different—as in this case where the name is listed as "Spoglia", while in RISM it lacks the final "a" (see Figure 11).

Fig. 11.

Detail of UIUC OPAC Record.

These are just a few examples of the problems we have identified, and we now have sufficient information to send corrections to RISM and correct and improve our own catalogue records once resources to do so become available.

Analysis of Holdings

The third goal of the project was to analyse US-U's RISM holdings as a group and against other RISM participants from a variety of perspectives. This was done for some measures by analysing the data in the project spreadsheet (holdings as of 2016), and in many cases, by using the faceted data in the RISM OPAC (holdings as of 2019). The local location of each item was one of the first things checked since this affects whether librarians in MPAL can walk to the shelf and find the item to respond to a reference query, or whether the item is housed at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and will require referring patrons to them for further assistance (see Table 4).

Table 4.

US-U RISM Holdings by Local Location (2016 data).

More than two-thirds (70 percent) of US-U RISM holdings are in MPAL, while 27.5 percent are in RBML. There are a small percentage of items (2.5 percent) that have copies (or versions) in both MPAL and RBML.

The overall scope of the US-U's RISM holdings was also of interest. They are primarily in the A/I series, followed by B/I, and A/II (see Table 5).

Table 5.

US-U RISM Holdings by Type.

Uniqueness of Holdings and Overlap with Other Libraries

The RISM OPAC facets indicate how many library sigla are associated with each item, which allowed the capture of whether US-U is the sole holder of a manuscript or printed item or one of several holders of a printed item (see Table 6). A fifth (188) of our total RISM holdings are unique to US-U and more than a third (373 or 41 percent) are one copy of between two and fifteen existing copies recorded by RISM.

Table 6.

Uniqueness of US-U Holdings in RISM.

Twenty-three of the unique items are at RBML or have copies in both RBML and MPAL. The remaining exclusively held items will be good candidates for transfer to RBML and digitisation. For reference, Klaus Keil's 2013 description of the new A/I project states that there were 96,821 editions of printed music in A/I with 311,428 copies, for an average of about three copies per edition²⁴.

In the group of 188 items for which US-U has unique holdings, fifty-eight composers are represented, ranging from the well-known (e.g., Händel and Rameau) to the less prominent (e.g., Giardini and Rush; see Table 7).

Table 7.

Sole Holdings Composers.

Items that are not unique to US-U's RISM holdings overlap with at least 100 other libraries, with between 5 percent and 63 percent of US-U's holdings overlapping with each of those libraries. Overlap was calculated by doing a search by siglum for US-U's holdings and then capturing the results in the "Library Siglum" facet (see Figure 12).

Fig. 12.

RISM OPAC Library Siglum Facet (captured July 2019).

In this figure, the 628 items held by the British Library represent a 64 percent overlap of US-U's 979 items. Because the cap for RISM display facet lists is 100 entries it is not easy to determine the full list of overlapping collections without significant effort. Table 8 illustrates libraries where overlap between their holdings and US-U's holdings is 21 percent or more.

Table 8.

Top Institutions Overlapping with US-U (21 percent or more overlap; July 2019).

In cases where US-U is one of only two libraries owning an item based on our 2016 data, overlap occurs with a slightly different subset of libraries (see Table 9).

Table 9.

Libraries with which US-U shares 1 of 2 copies of a title.

Libraries with an asterisk (*) do not appear in the top 100 (with 5 percent or more overlap) libraries that overlap with US-U.

U.S. institutions make up a third (7 of 21) of the institutions that have 21 percent or more overlap with US-U. Table 10 illustrates U.S. libraries with 5 percent or more overlap with US-U's holdings.

Table 10.

U.S. Institution overlap with US-U holdings (5 percent or more overlap; July 2019).

Most of these institutions are not geographically proximate to Urbana, with the exception of the Newberry. The only other Midwest library (University of Michigan) has only a 10 percent overlap with Urbana; all others are on the East or West coasts of the country.

Dates, Publishers, Composers, and Genres

The date metadata in the RISM OPAC is not complete, as the date filters supplied only account for 254 items. 169 of them are as old as or older than 1698 (see Table 11).

Table 11.

Year Range (July 2019).

The majority of US-U's indexed RISM holdings are for early printed editions. The most frequent publishers among our holdings are in Table 12.

Table 12.

Publisher Frequencies.

Composer representation in US-U's RISM holdings is quite diverse, with 261 composers represented in our 925 entries, ranging from one to 110 items each. Only five composers (in bold) in the top 15 of US-U's holdings are represented in the overall list of RISM's top 15 composers in 2019 (see Table 13).

Table 13.

Composer Frequency in US-U RISM Holdings Compared to All of RISM (July 2019).

Thomas Arne is the most frequently occurring composer amongst US-U's holdings, with 110 items, although he does not rank in the top 100 in RISM overall. The inventory process also indicated that we have seven additional Arne holdings that have not yet been reported to RISM and ten additional Händel holdings.

Composers of Manuscript Holdings

US-U's holdings include thirty-seven manuscripts, which were authored by thirteen composers, as found in Table 14. This number is probably slightly larger, given that two of the composers are Anonymous (3) and Collection (2). The former could each indicate additional composers not yet identified, and the latter almost certainly includes additional composers, as "Collection" is used in the composer field when the collection contains multiple composers.

Table 14.

Composers of Manuscript Holdings.

An additional forty-nine unreported manuscript items were discovered in the Musica de la Theatro set. Nineteen other items in this set are already included in the reported manuscript holdings.

A wide number of genres are represented in US-U's RISM holdings, and those with more than ten examples are found in Table 15, with the top genres for RISM as a whole listed for comparison.

Table 15.

Frequency of Genres (July 2019).

Opera is the largest segment of US-U's holdings, with other vocal forms and stage works making up another large component. Music theory texts (including the aforementioned Dodecachordon and its contents) make up a large percentage of our holdings as well (120).

Future Actions

Additional goals of the project include improving our local catalogue records by fixing errors and creating fuller records with contents notes, and to report errors and updates to RISM regarding our records in their catalogue. This may take some time given our limited cataloguing resources. RISM has already proposed the creation of a new sigla (US-Urbml) for RBML's holdings, which, while adding clarity in some ways, will likely create some confusion for researchers working from old citations. Furthermore, we plan to identify which of our holdings might be digitised to enhance scholars' access to these items, as only 242 of US-U's RISM holdings have digital matches according to the RISM OPAC. We will focus first on manuscript and other unique items.

We will also seek to increase the number of holdings we have reported to RISM. In addition to the new items already found through the inventory process that can be reported, two collections held in RBML are especially good candidates for potential future reporting. These are the Fraenkel and Cavagna collections, described in RISM C, both of which contain scores and librettos. The Fraenkel Collection has just over 1,300 items: 1,244 scores dating from 16—to 1927, sixty-three manuscripts, and a few dozen librettos. The Cavagna Collection has 434 librettos dating from 1581 to 1907. Some of the items from the Fraenkel Collection include scores and librettos of Lampe's burlesque opera The Dragon of Wantley and its sequel, Margery, or, A Worse Plague than the Dragon: A Burlesque Opera: Being the Sequel to The Dragon of Wantley, Lampe being the composer from the reference query described earlier. Also discovered in MPAL Special Collections during this project is a box full of ninety-one early imprints of composer Henry Rowley Bishop (1786–1855), some with the composers' stamp. There are 110 entries for Bishop in RISM, none of which are ascribed to US-U. Finally, a thorough review of the materials in our Special Collections location is likely to reveal yet more items that are appropriate for submission to RISM.

One additional source that may yield additional RISM-appropriate holdings is the catalogue "Sampling of important holdings [in the Music Library]" (Jay Allen, 1948, with 1949 and 1952 supplements), which unfortunately lacks call numbers²⁵. The author thought this might have been the nucleus for our RISM submissions, but a quick spot check shows that not all appropriate items in this catalogue are among US-U RISM holdings. The list compiled by Allen also contains another work by Lampe, the Plain and Compendious Method of Thorough Bass (1737) and a few manuscript entries (Perez L'Olimpiade and Tartini 12 Sonatas for Violin), as well as several early printed editions and items listed as "18^th century manuscript".

Discussion and Conclusion

The process of identifying and locating our RISM holdings has been more tedious, time-consuming, fascinating, and valuable than we could have predicted. We have learned a great deal about our collection and identified ways to improve its discoverability. We have also gained useful insight on the makeup of our collection in comparison to other collections in the U.S. and abroad. As a cooperative catalogue RISM offers a unique view into library and bibliographic history. The development of each individual library's collection over time takes different directions and priorities based on local needs and resources for growth, but there are periods when collecting certain composers or genres was driven by forces broader than local requirements. This is evidenced in the overlap in RISM holdings. While uniqueness of ownership is good in one sense—being the only holder of an item comes with some prestige—the Music and Performing Arts Library's significant overlaps with major European and American libraries also shows that Urbana is a premier music collection by at least one measure. Using the linked data sources in RISM could be a rich source for analysis for historians and/or librarians wishing to further explore how libraries' collections are unique and how they come together around various composers and materials.

This project also demonstrated how institutional memory concerning large-scale projects, especially those spanning years or even decades is difficult to document and maintain, even, or especially, at large institutions. It also showed how the evolution of cataloguing standards and local practises can make it challenging for libraries to provide discovery of materials over the long-term. The fact that RISM was begun before libraries in the U.S. had the MARC format for cataloguing or online catalogues, and the frequent use of surrogate cards to submit records to RISM only compounded matters. The inventory process will differ at each institution based on a number of variables, including: how many RISM items they have, how many locations items are held in, how accurate and complete local catalogue records are, whether or not the library has documentation about their initial submissions to RISM, and the amount of resources they can put toward such an inventory and clean-up effort. However, there is great value in undertaking a project such as this, as accurate RISM data helps in both research endeavours and collection development decisions.

Finally, the project specifically illustrated the importance of RISM's detailed metadata and how it can supplement libraries' local catalogues in helping researchers discover materials. However, because RISM's approach to describing pieces and items is inherently different than library catalogues' approach to describing physical items can lead to confusion, there is room to reevaluate how these search and discovery tools can better coexist in the goal of upholding RISM's motto of "Knowing what exists and where it is kept" and for libraries' goals of documenting their collections and enabling researchers to find and access the items therein.