Digital Library Program Receives Major Grant
The UCLA Digital Library Program, together with its partner the Indiana University (IU) Digital Library Program, has been awarded a leadership planning grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to further develop the Sheet Music Consortium.
Using the Open Archives Initiative protocol, the consortium provides integrated access to digital sheet music collections at UCLA, IU, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, the National Library of Australia, the Maine Music Box, and the Library of Congress.
The vision of the consortium's service from its inception in 2002 was to provide a union catalog for sheet music, pulling together significant collections in one virtual location. However, the service's content and functionality remain largely experimental, and this grant will make possible the planning necessary to develop a more robust, sustainable, and user-centered service.
The grant will fund a one-year project to develop plans for the consortium over the next three to five years. During this time, organizers hope that many more members of the sheet music community will be able to contribute to and benefit from the consortium's work.
