Protecting Musical Heritage: Reparative Cataloging of Ukrainian Music Resources at Indiana University

Abstract

The ongoing war of aggression by Russia in Ukraine has brought international attention to the conflation of Ukrainian and Russian cultures and identities. Such conflation exists in various forms, at its most dangerous in weaponized distortions of history and pretexts for violence such as Vladimir Putin’s essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” which served as a preamble to the 2022 invasion. These two distinct cultures can also be misunderstood unintentionally in ways that appear harmless, even in music libraries. However, in any form, failure to identify and appreciate the independence of Ukraine's cultural identity contributes to erasure and the perpetuation of historical and political conflict. Cataloging the Ukrainian music materials contained within the Margarita Mazo Collection at the Cook Music Library at Indiana University has necessitated a thoughtful examination including the historical relationships in general and the influence of the Soviet Union on music publications in particular.

In describing the contents of the Mazo Collection and highlighting the significance of Ukrainian music in libraries, we suggest measures to ensure accurate and inclusive representation. Best practices for catalogers, such as appropriate use of controlled vocabularies and accurate transcription of text, are expanded upon to promote understanding and appreciation of Ukrainian music and to ensure access to users who search in the Ukrainian language—perhaps the users for whom these materials are most vital. Librarians must be critical and well-informed to understand Soviet publications of Ukrainian music, intrinsic to which are state control, censorship, and the manipulation of cultural expression for ideological purposes. The content and language of these resources were always impacted by contradictory demands to which Ukrainian musicians were subject: to conform to Soviet norms while preserving their artistic identity. One form of erasure was the Soviet publication of Ukrainian music resources by Ukrainian creators only in the Russian language. Here lies a crucial opportunity for reparative cataloging, as further research often reveals the original Ukrainian names of individuals, musical works, and even medium of performance terms and genre/form terms, which afford authentic representation in authority records. This presentation will provide insights into the cultural differences between Russia and Ukraine, the complexities of Soviet music publications, and our power as librarians to either defend or hinder the authentic representation of Ukrainian music and creators in library catalogs. Librarians navigating these issues with cultural sensitivity can demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine and contribute to cross-cultural understanding. We hope that the reparative description of these materials might serve as a model to anyone tasked with representing a culture or musical tradition that has been conflated with others in harmful ways.