New DRAM tutorial available

If you’ve been interested in listening to music on DRAM (formerly called the Database of Recorded American Music), but haven’t been quite sure how to get started, check out our new DRAM tutorial.  The guide was created by John Cook, a former ML/SRA employee who did his Kent library school practicum here this summer.

Spring Reserves – Update for Teaching Faculty

While our student and circulation supervisor position is vacant, please submit music reserve requests to Susannah Cleveland (clevels@bgsu.edu or 2-9929).  As soon as we get this position filled, we’ll update you all on contact information for various services, including reserves.  In the meantime, please be patient with us as we try to pick up the slack.

For a refresher on reserves, please see:
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/music/page38767.html

Also, when planning your listening lists, don’t forget that we have two streaming audio databases, Naxos Music Library and DRAM (see http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/music/page37943.html for more information on these).  We can create playlists in Naxos, so that you can link to the playlist from Blackboard and not have to add and update each link for each piece each semester.  Get in touch with Susannah if you are interested in exploring this feature or if you would like more information about either database.

Updated content in DRAM

DRAM, one of our streaming audio databases, is constantly adding and refining content.  In their most recent newsletter, they announce the following additions by label:

Albany Records – 393 New Albums
New World Records – 95 New Albums
Cedille Records – 71 New Albums
Mutable Records – 12 New Albums
Pogus – 19 New Albums
Open Space – 8 New Albums
Mode Records – 7 New Albums

Go hear these and thousands of other albums at:  http://maurice.bgsu.edu/record=e1000230~S0

New DRAM content

DRAM has announced the addition of yet more content, including:

Mode Records: An American new music label with an extensive catalogue of works by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, and Morton Subotnick. 18 new albums with 53 in production.

Lovely Music: Robert Ashley, Roger Reynolds, Lois Svard, Christian Wolff and many more. 39 new albums with 71 more in production.

Open Space: A recording label and publisher of experimental composers including Elaine Barkin, Benjamin Boretz, J. K. Randall, Mary Lee Roberts and others. 12 New Albums with 18 more in production.

BGSU user’s may hear these and other recordings on the DRAM website.

QuickTime bug and DRAM

If you’ve been having technical difficulties accessing DRAM recently, it could be because of a bug in v.7.4.1 of QuickTime. DRAM advises the following update:

A new QuickTime update was released last week (v.7.4.5) which fixes this issue. It can be downloaded here: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime745forwindows.html .

As always, let us know if you encounter difficulties not addressed by this fix.

DRAM and Macs

DRAM has had some reports about Mac users having difficulty with Quicktime and DRAM. If you are a Mac user and find yourself unable to stream music from DRAM, or if your browser crashes after closing the pop-up player window, you might need to download a different version of Quicktime. See DRAM’s announcement for details and fixes for this problem.

Content update for the Database of Recorded American Music

DRAM just issued an update, including a list of the current and pending coverage of content by label. BGSU students, faculty, and staff may listen to this content online at: http://maurice.bgsu.edu/record=e1000230.

DRAM CONTENT TOTAL – CURRENT and PENDING

New World Records – 411 albums (374 albums current, 37 pending)
CRI – 362 albums (342 albums current, plus approximately 20 pending)
Albany – 427 albums (423 albums current)
Cedille – 95 albums (31 albums current, 64 pending)
Pogus – 26 albums (19 albums current, 26 pending)
Mutable – 40 albums (30 albums current, 10 pending)
Deep Listening – 20 albums (14 albums current, 6 pending)
Xi – 25 albums (21 albums current, 4 pending)
Cold Blue – 22 albums
Artifact – 25 albums
Frog Peak- 10 albums
Innova – 118 albums

Questions about this product or any other Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives materials or services should be directed to: mlsra@bgsu.edu.

New Streaming Audio Databases

The University Libraries now subscribe to two separate databases of streamed audio content. Using these resources, BG students, faculty, and staff will be able to listen to streamed versions of recordings without visiting the Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives (although, of course, we still want you to visit to use all of our other resources!). Both of these databases provide the convenience of streamed audio without the risk of copyright infringement.

Naxos Music Library includes all of the Naxos, Marco Polo, and Dacapo catalogues, as well as recordings from several other labels. Altogether, the holdings currently consist of over 150,000 tracks from over 10,000 CDs, with approximately 35 new releases added each month. Users may stream a wide variety of classical, jazz, new age, and world music from on or off campus. You may search the collection or browse by title, genre, or broader categories. The site also includes a reference area with sections such as opera synopses, opera libretti, and a pronunciation guide. See Naxos’s homepage for details on system requirements. Professors may use Naxos to create playlists centered around a course’s content. This feature requires an additional password; please talk to Susannah Cleveland in the ML/SRA for details.

The Database of Recorded American Music (DRAM) is a collection of 1,200 CDs (7,500 compositions) by American composers and artists. Labels include New World, CRI, Albany, Innova, and several others. Genres range “from folk to opera, Native American to jazz, 19th century classical to early rock, musical theater, contemporary, electronic and beyond.” It is possible to find materials by searching or by browsing in nine different categories. Access to this resource is limited to the campus only; the first time you use it on a given computer, you will be asked to indicate that you are a BGSU user, but after that, access should be automatic on that machine. Technical requirements are available on the DRAM website. Reference materials, such as essays, bibliographies, and discographies provide context and starting points for further research. There are plans for a playlist function in the future, but it is not yet available.

Please try these new products and let us know what you think.