New Music Librarian: Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson is the new music librarian at the Music Library. She has been at the SABC Music Library for 2 months.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Music Library?)

I was born and raised in then North West in a small town called Zeerust. I started my schooling in 1997 and matriculated in 2009 from Hoërskool Zeerust. I enrolled at the University of Pretoria (Tukkies) in 2010 doing my Bachelors of Information Science. I completed my degree in 2012 and graduated in record time in 2013. My work experience started with me doing some vacation work in retail stores but for my field of study it has been at the SABC where I started my internship in the Information Library of the SABC in 2013. After completing my internship programme I had a break where I started looking for something more permanent and I successfully landed the job at the Music Library.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

We have a vast amount of material in our collection, where our biggest category is the orchestral collection. We then have some vocal scores, light music, chamber music, choral music and voice and piano. Everything that we have in the library is worth preserving. Some of the material we have is still in the handwriting of the composer and/or we are the only library that still have it.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What material do you give priority to?

My day starts at 08:00 till 16:30. I start by checking emails and if there are any queries. Currently we are looking at importing to a digital platform, so I also do some research on what other music libraries use so that we conform to a standardised form of cataloguing. Our priority now is the orchestral and vocal scores because they get requested more often by clients. We want to start ingesting them into Inmagic as it will save us a lot of time and help us being able respond promptly to clients' requests.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

So far I haven’t really experienced major technical difficulties.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting music or musical instrument, please share it with us.

Getting to learn more about the instruments and even material is something that I cherish. The one story that always comes to mind is the Steinway Piano we have in the M1 studio. I got to learn that the piano actually has a life support system underneath it. The life support system is actually a humidity control system which keeps the piano in tune and prevents damage from climate changes. What happens is water and some form of chemical used for piano life support systems is mixed together and poured into the piano through a pipe which keeps its piano’s tune in place. This was such a fascinating discovery. And that piano is just beautiful!

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

I love that I always learn something new every day. I love music and apart from not being that familiar with the classical music genre I am still very much open to new adventures. I also love what I do because I am able to learn how to play an instrument or two as well. 


Related post:

- The Music Librarian - SABC Media Libraries 

Blog post and questions by Karen du Toit

Interview with the new Junior Record Librarian at the SABC Record Library

Image Sibuyi is a new appointment at the SABC Media Libraries.

This is part of an ongoing series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Record Library, as well as part of a series of blog posts about the SABC Media Libraries. The interviews are generating a better understanding of what we do in the different sections and breaking the silos between us.

The interview this week is with Image Sibuyi, a new Junior Record Librarian in the SABC Record Library, who started to work here on 14 May this year.

The Record Library houses all genres of recorded music. The music is regularly accessed by staff and made available to internal clients.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Record Library)

I was born and raised in Buckbuckridge (Mpumalanga) in the village of Cork Trust, near the town of Hazyview . I started school in 1994 at Mkhumbini Primary School and matriculated in 2005 at Dumisani High School. Due to financial reasons in 2006 I was unable to enroll in a tertiary institution. 
I went to the University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, in 2007 and enrolled for the Bachelor of commerce in Business Management and Human Resource Management which I successfully completed in 2009. 
In 2010 I enrolled for a Higher Diploma in information Studies (HDINF) which I completed the same year. 
During the academic year 2010, as part of a practicum course, I had to attend practicals for four weeks at the Library of my choice. I chose the SABC Media Library in Polokwane. Fortunately during my practicals I could apply for an internship at SABC Mpumalanga.  
 I was successfully appointed as a Record Librarian intern from 01 February 2011 until 31 March 2012. 
During my last week of internship I applied for the Junior Record Library post. I was successful in my application and started to work in May 2012.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the record library.

In the Record Library we believe that music or sound/s never die or expire. We preserve all kinds of physical CD music genres (House, Rock, RNB, Hip Hop, Classic, etc.), from old to the latest, of which are played by all of the SABC Radio Stations. 
Most importantly we require copyright information. 
We also keep mood music and sound effects which are used by radio and television personnel.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What music do you give priority to?

I do the capturing of music which requires the copyright information from SAMRO such as title, performer, record label, composer, and publisher, etc.  I liaise with the other SABC regions to avoid duplications. I also advise clients with regards the registering of copyright information and how to make it visible on the physical CD. I also help out at the front desk service with issuing and returning of CDs.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

The music industry is migrating to digital. The SABC  Record Library are facing challenges in terms of the recording companies who are cutting costs on sampling physical CDs for us, especially of the international music. 
Luckily we have a very reliable computerized library system.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do. 

First of all I love working for the one of the biggest Broadcast Corporations. It comes with pride and joy. 
Ever since I join the SABC I have developed an interest in music. The capturing of music entails listening to music before capturing, so I enjoy “dancing with my head” while doing my work. 
I also enjoy helping artists with the information of registering their music.


Related posts:

Interview with the Manager of the SABC Record Library

Interview with a Record Librarian at the SABC Record Library: Sound effects and moods music

Interview with Aaron Magoro at SABC Radio Archives

Interview with a Systems Administrator at the SABC Record Library



Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Musings in the Music Library #9 - Budgets

by Daniel Neal
Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library


A vignette from the music librarian.

O tempora, O mores!  What we could do if we only had more budget!  

Artscape is now saying they may “renovate” the Library.  Well, they mean the room it’s in.  Considered old, ugly, dissheveled and antiquated (all true), the general upgrade of the entire Artscape Theatre Complex has now noticed another problem to be solved.  Motive?  To make it look modern and impressive, mostly.  

So a budget begins a theoretical dance, beyond my reach; a budget that if given to me would have a very different outcome.  

Like, maybe a full or even part time assistant?  Or lots of new score and parts sets?  

At least I’ve accessed the atmosphere by getting fifty archive boxes with which to re-box all the ballet sets and further to that other outsized local creations (quasi A4 sized parts and scores with huge plastic comb binders…an interesting challenge to fit into any storage facility).  

And look, let’s admit it is wonderful to have real interest in improvements.  

There have been so many retrenchments and closures in the last 18 years that I can drop my suspicious nature for a moment and really be grateful. 

Related posts:

Musings in the Music Library - "Librarians are nice" 

Musings in the music library #7 - Librarian stereotypes

Musings in the Music Library #6 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the music library - "Librarians are nice"

by Daniel Neal
Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Another vignette from the music librarian.

I've got two relations who are very successful professional academic librarians.  They are very nice people.  The nicest person I knew at Eastman School of Music was the head of  Sibley Music Library.  The kid next door where I grew up became a big deal librarian in Indianapolis Public Library system.  He too is a very nice man.  

And every professional librarian I’ve had any communication since becoming Librarian of the CPO has been a very nice person.  

AND… they’re all very smart.  

Interesting that in the early 21st century being nice is almost a curse…certainly taken for a sign of weakness in our oh so competitive world.  

You can imagine the extremes of the Tea Party movement in US politics deriding librarians as blood sucking parasites embedded in the bloated bureaucracy of the civil service.  Generally I guess our reaction would be to smile and ask “and what can I do for you today?”  

What else would we say?  We’re, by nature, nice people!

Related posts:

Musings in the music library #7 - Librarian stereotypes

Musings in the music library #6 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the music library #5 - Copyright

Musings in the Music Library #7 - Librarian stereotypes

Daniel Neal from the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library sent some more vignettes to the SABC Music Library, and gave his kind permission for us to publish.

"In 2004 I was playing for the first SA production of Phantom of the Opera and as such I was privy to lots of comments from the conductor and production team.  They had reservations about one of the girls cast as Christine, the character that is sweet and totally innocent and more than totally devoted to music, but underneath has a sensual and passionate romantic streak.      

They said more than once that this actress didn’t really display the latter, and their repeated comment was “she’s too much like a librarian”.  

I was by then three years the CPO librarian, and I didn’t take that too kindly.  But it is true that librarians, even of the orchestral kind, are subject to an occupational stereotype that is probably universal.  Why?  

Perhaps it is that our occupation is one of almost complete service?  If you consider what we do in general, it’s that we provide, upon request, materials, information and advice, without a transactional fee being attached.  It’s as far removed from sales and marketing as Cape Town is to Alpha Centauri."  

Related post: 

Musings in the Music Library #6 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the Music Library #6 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

The last in a series of vignettes which were sent by a fellow librarian, Daniel Neal from the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library in a mail to the SABC Music Library and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra Library.

"In the old days, orchestra libraries were there first and foremost to supply Their Orchestra with the materials required.  All other orchestras were viewed with deep suspicion and mistrust, and educational and amateur organizations with outright anathema.  

These deep feelings had practical roots beyond personal spites and jealousies: lost parts, horrible indelible markings and long term amnesia regarding return of material do not make life easy nor do they assist in looking after what is a very valuable investment.  

But times change, and the modern age in South Africa has now established a new attitude:  all these libraries were funded by public money and their collections should be open to all worthy users.  That has included the University orchestras and the few and valiant amateur orchestras, but the main benefactors from this Library have been the East Cape Phil in PE and the Free State Symphony in Bloemfontein,, occasional but professional institutions that don’t have libraries at all.  

The rental fee from this Library is unchanged from 20 years ago, and so the cost is within the budgets of our colleagues; without the Library’s assistance live orchestral performance would be even less frequent than it is."

Related posts:

Musings in the Music Library #5: Copyright 

Musings in the Music Library #4 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library


Musings in the Music Library #3 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the Music Library #2 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library 

Musings in the Music Library #1

Musings in the Music Library #5 - Copyright

Another vignette in a series that was sent by a fellow librarian, Daniel Neal from the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library in a mail to the SABC Music Library and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra Library.

"Copyright is for the protection of the creator, an esoteric subdivision of legalities that makes Peace in the Middle East quite straightforward by comparison.  

As an introduction, South Africa and Canada recognize copyright as Death (of the creator, author, composer etc) plus Fifty years.  The European Union is now Death + 70, and the United States, in some applications and from certain dates, is Death + 90.  Even if you are a South African entity (like CPO) and you want to hire something out of copyright in South Africa for performance in South Africa, you may have to pay copyright because the Country of Origen of the Hired Material has a longer post-death law in place.  After this, it gets really complicated.  

For those audience members who despair at the relative lack of “modern” (that is, post 1930) music in concert programmes, I do ask that they judge CPO not too harshly.  

At time of writing the average fee for hiring copyright music is R300 per performance minute plus VAT plus Air Freight (usually from the UK), and that is just too expensive.  

Even if all the composers considered are long passed away, their publishing heirs can price their works right off the concert platform."

Related posts:

Musings in the Music Library #4

Musings in the Music Library #3

Musings in the Music Library #2

Musings in the Music Library #1

Acquisition in the SABC Music Library - Paiste crotales

The SABC Music Librarian, Suzette Lombard, of the SABC Music Library, wrote this short piece on the acquisition of Paiste Crotales in the music library:

The Music Library recently acquired a new set of 30 Paiste crotales, ranging from C6 (8va above middle C) to F8. These swiss-made music instruments are small, chromatically-tuned brass disks which have a clear and sustained, bell-like sound.

Crotales are also known as antique cymbals, as they have been used in some form or other since ancient times, often as smaller finger cymbals struck together by dancers. At present they are usually struck with hard mallets, or played with a bow, which produces an eerie sound similar to a glass-harmonica.


Composers such as Claude Debussy, Joseph Schwantner and Igor Stravinsky have used it to great effect in their compositions. In 1970, Karlheinz Stockhausen used it extensively in his composition Mantra, written for two ring-modulated pianos, wood blocks and two sets of specific crotales. In popular music, Mike Oldfield also uses crotales in Clear Light on his album Tubular Bells ll.

Musings in the Music Library #4 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Fellow librarian, Daniel Neal
- from the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library in a mail to the SABC Music Library and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra Library:

"The standard title of where I work is the CPO Library, although this is for convenience.  What was the CTSO collection is owned by the Cape Orchestra Trust, and what was CAPAB’s still belongs to Artscape.  

The CTSO part is one of the oldest collections in South Africa, dating from 1913 the founding year of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, whereas CAPAB didn’t start their collection until 1971, when the Artscape building was finished.  But the antiquity of the CTSO collection is not just from purchases beginning from 1913.  

There are many score and parts sets that are much older; undocumented and impossible to ever discover their origins, I just speculate on how they ever got here. Even more, for some repertoire, why:  there are works here that never were popular enough to justify purchase.
 
My favorite to date are the Symphony no. 3 and the Cello Concerto of Joachim Raff, both unopened, unmarked and unplayed sets, first editions dating from around 1875.  

The stories of how and why they got from Berlin to Cape Town are long lost now, but nonetheless intriguing."    

Part of a series of posts.



Related posts:

Musings in the Music Library #1

Musings in the Music Library #2 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the Music Library #3 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the Music Library #3 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Another vignette in a series which was sent by  fellow librarian, Daniel Neal from the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library, in a mail to the SABC Music Library and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra Library:

An orchestra library is not a place of research or reference, although it does have certain capacities in that medium.  

I’ll get an email from some unknown in Australia who is looking for data concerning their great grandfather who played double bass in the Cape Town Orchestra in the 20s…or was it the 30s?  Can I provide them with anything?  And I can’t, unfortunately.  

To a lesser extent I will be asked for recordings of certain works, and very rarely some musicological question (although Google and Wikipedia seem to have taken up a lot of this in the last ten years).  

In essence the Library is there to provide scores and parts for specific performances.  

The easy bit is to pull the file boxes off the shelves and load the parts folders.  The hard bit is to find, somehow and with limited budget, musical material that the Library doesn’t have!"

Related posts:


Musing in the Music Library #2 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library 

Musings in the Music Library #1

Musings in the Music Library #2 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

The following vignette was sent by a fellow librarian, Daniel Neal from the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library in a mail to the SABC Music Library and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra Library:

"The CPO Library is a rather complex entity, a partially combined form of what had been the CAPAB Library and the CTSO Library that was a result of the merger in 1997 of the then two orchestras of Cape Town.  

Each collection was (and still is) catalogued in its own manner and wasn’t (and still isn’t) cross-indexed.  

On taking up the post of Orchestra Librarian in April 2001 I was immediately lost and often plagued with questions of availability that I was unable to answer; the worst of these coming from people who wanted to know if I had such and such an aria from such and such opera.  Or worse, often a query stated as “you know, THAT aria, for a tenor, I think… maybe Verdi?”  

As it was not quite Hell, but bordering on it, I thought it appropriate to put up a few lines in the plaque that is on the front door.  In Italian, for the benefit, mostly, of those who need arias by yesterday, the lines are from the Divine Comedy. As Dante passes through the gate of Hell, he sees an inscription, the final line of which is the famous phrase

“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate”, or “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”.  

To date, not one of the opera aria demanding sorts have ever noticed this, let alone considered and commented upon it."

Related post: 
Musings in the music library #1