[Menvi-discuss] Joining ABC & Cataloguing

[Jeanie Willis]

Hi All,

 

I just wanted to start a new thread with some info on joining the Accessible
Books Consortium after a few questions recently.  This is such an amazing
resource but I think many are going to have to push their local blind
foundation libraries to open access for them to the members catalogue in
order to effectively find music.  I'll include a few points you can use as
to why this is so necessary to help you advocate for this.

 

Firstly, you can see if your country and library is part of ABC by going to:

www.accessiblebooksconsortium.org <http://www.accessiblebooksconsortium.org>


There is a full list of member countries there that have put in place the
Marrakesh treaty and the library that has joined.

If your library is a member this means you can order through them any titles
held by ABC that have been shared by all the other member libraries.  This
does include NLS and CNIB as two of the biggest.  Unfortunately RNIB is not
a member, so I would encourage anyone in the UK to write to RNIB library and
management and push for this.

 

Some libraries have also joined the members supplementary catalogue which
allows individuals to directly download from ABC after being approved by
your library via a very simple registration form on the ABC website.  To see
if you can join this go to:

www.abcglobalbooks.org <http://www.abcglobalbooks.org> 

Part way down the page you will find a blurb about joining and a link that
says click here to login or register.  Click that and then on the log-in
page scroll down to the create account button.  The simple registration form
includes a drop down box for country and then library.  If your country and
library are there to select you can join, if not it means they are not
members of this supplementary catalogue yet.  Unfortunately NLS & CNIB are
not members of this catalogue.  However, even if you aren't able to log-in
you may be able to search the catalogue so that you can find titles you want
to request via your library.  Some people have had issues with the link not
allowing them on to this site at all, so it is possible there is some
geoblocking of countries who don't have a library currently signed up.  Let
me know if you find the link above doesn't work or if you are able to use
the catalogue even if your library is not a member as I would be interested
to know who can and can't access this catalogue.

 

I think the self access to the catalogue is especially essential for music
files.  So if your library isn't currently signed up to the members
supplementary catalogue I would first suggest writing to the library in
question and then following up through the management and CEO or board of
directors as needed to get this considered.  The specific arguments I would
make as  to why this is so necessary is that music files can be hard for a
non musician library staff to locate as they often have differing titles in
the way they have been catalogued, may have the title in a different
language, May be part of a larger work with a different title, or use
various music specific catalogue things such as Op etc that a non musician
may struggle to find the correct file even if it is there.  The searching
can be complex and time consuming as the usual identifiers of Title and
author will not apply and so it requires multiple searches with different
key words and an ability to sift through and interpret large amounts of
unrefined searches to find the hidden work, this isn't something library
staff will have the time or often ability to do and so simply won't find
what may well be there.  You could site how Apple have just launched Apple
Classical specifically for music because they have come to understand how
the traditional search parameters differ for Classical music.  Secondly,
there are many repertoire books that will simply be labelled things like
"Piano Literature Vol.1" or "Studies & Etudes" and it is going to require
downloading and reading the contents to see if the work being looked for
might be included.  Again this is not practical for library staff and so the
best solution is direct access for individual members.

 

To that end I have decided to widen the personal catalogue I had started and
make a project of over time going through as many of these books and
cataloguing their contents by composer alphabetically and will start today
adding ABC and other catalogue numbers so the books can be easily ordered.
It isn't going to be a fast process, but once I have a reasonable amount
started I will post it to the list and others can suggest further titles to
catalogue.  Ella has offered to help me with some of this as time permits.
I should say that at this stage I am just doing piano works of Grade level
repertoire from English language volumes.

 

Can I also suggest that you ask your local libraries and blind foundations
to promote ABC and what it has available as this is an amazing resource if
everyone is using it.  This is the file sharing of days gone past only
structured and legal for us.

 

Jeanie

 

 

 

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