Next Generation Sheet Music Consortium

Abstract

The Sheet Music Consortium (SMC) was founded in 2001 as a partnership between major universities and cultural heritage institutions, including Indiana University and University of California, Los Angeles, with significant sheet music collections. The initial aim of the Consortium was to demonstrate the application of the OAI-PMH protocol to a specialized set of digital collections, and, more specifically, to build a sheet music service that would provide unified access to those collections. In 2007, in an effort to revitalize the project, the SMC was awarded an IMLS Planning Grant which helped the lead project members, IU and UCLA, identify ways to increase participation by data providers from small and large institutions with little or lots of technical expertise. The planning grant also helped us identify ways in which to improve the end-user interface for the SMC Portal. In 2009, UCLA and IU were awarded a two-year IMLS National Leadership Grant, which has allowed us to actualize the improvements identified as part of the planning grant. Now that we are well into year 2 of the grant, this brown bag presentation will focus on the various improvements we have made from both the data provider and end-user service perspectives in hopes that we have established a stronger foundation upon which we can continue to share resources, and, in turn, foster and grow the larger sheet music community.