Subject: Follow-up to Périgueux Conference

Date: Monday, September 17, 2001 6:28 PM

From: David A. Day <dad@email.byu.edu>

Dear Colleagues,

I cannot begin my report without first expressing the enormous sorrow I feel for the victims of September 11th. As many of you know I lived in New York for 3 years while attending NYU. I still feel very attached to the city and have many friends living and working near the area that was devastated. While I feel very fortunate in receiving word that all of my friends are OK, I still feel terrible grief for the tragic the loss of life. Last week was difficult, I felt very discouraged. I am trying to get back to normal. Focusing on our IAML project today has helped. I know the work we engage in as music librarians and archivists is a beautiful and positive contribution to the world, even if small and hardly noticed. I am not a husky fireman able to stand in the middle of the search and rescue. I appreciate their bravery. Perhaps the best contribution I can make is to go back to work trying to make a small part of the world better.

First in my report are some enhancements to our web site. Some of you are aware that the web site was down during late August and early September. Our systems support staff shut down the site without consulting me. They have since moved the site to a new server which I hope will prove to be more stable. I have added some important documents to the site (http://music.lib.byu.edu/IDMA/idma.html). I have posted draft copies of the minutes from Périgueux, a copy of the report that was sent for Fontes, a list of archive types sent from Inger Enquist, and the 1993 report of the Working Group on the AMC Format. The 1993 report may be useful anyone interested in learning more about the beginnings of our current working group. I ask that all of those who were present at the Périgueux sessions please review the minutes. They are my revisions to the notes that Chris Banks submitted immediately after each session. There are certain to be some errors and misinterpretations, so please look them over and send my any suggestions and revisions.

The participants' list has also been updated. There are now 75 participants and interested observers. Please look it over. It is an impressive list, but there still may be contacts that should be added.

During the sessions at Périgueux the group set some important goals for the coming year:

By October 1st 2001 we will conduct a poll of computer resources available at participating institutions. The aim is to determine the best location for development of the web database. This goal was made in the context of considerable discussion among the group about the most appropriate and desirable components of a web database. At the meeting I felt that what I could offer at BYU was not optimum and we wanted to see if there is a better location for the database.

By January 2002 the database should be operational and ready for input of sample records. The earlier poll will determine where the database will be developed.

From January to June 2002 we will enter sample data. In the process of entering sample data we will begin developing a style sheet by means of email exchanges and reports.

David Day will coordinate the development of the web guide/bibliography. He should begin to post guidelines during Fall 2001.

Heintz and Enquist will coordinate development of authority and subject access. They will coordinate with other IAML working groups in this area and prepare a report for sessions in 2002.

I am a bit behind schedule, but I think we can still meet the October 1st deadline to conduct the poll of computer resources. I will send this as a separate email to simplify the response process. Since my return to BYU I have come up with a solution that is much better than what I was able to offer at Périgueux. After our discussion we decided that an optimum system should have the following components:

A T1 connection to the Internet

A UNIX server with good memory and storage

Apache Web Server Software

MySQL or Oracle database

PHP as the means of connecting the database to HTML

Some support staff to assist with the programming

I can now offer most of these ingredients at BYU as a possible means of developing the web database. I can set up a Mac G4 (512 MB RAM, 50 GB storage) running OSX 10.1. This is a UNIX system that comes with Apache and PHP preinstalled. I have a colleague here at BYU that will help me install/compile MySQL for the database. The staff support that I will have access to is limited. If down the road we want to migrate to a different UNIX server, all of the Apache, MySQL and PHP code should be portable. I am still waiting for ver. 10.1 of OSX to be released before I make the purchase and begin to build the system. It should be out in the next week or two.

I still think it is appropriate to conduct the poll we talked about in Périgueux. I do not want to monopolize the project and if we can put together a better system elsewhere or can find more staff support at another institution, then great let’s do it. Again, I will send this out as a separate email message and ask that you all respond!

Looking down the road to January and the phase of data entry, I submitted a grant proposal here at BYU. It is a research grant given to help librarians develop creative professional projects. I requested $3,000 to hire a student assistant to help input sample data. I have not yet received any word as to whether I will get the grant, but I thought I would let you know that I am trying. I encourage all of us to look for these types of small local grants that might help us achieve the goal of developing a functional web database with sample records. Every little bit can help.

I have nothing to report at this time concerning the development of the web guide or bibliography of resources that describe music archives. I will send more on that in the near future.

One final note and request: we are hoping to develop better contacts in Latin and South America. If anyone on this list can recommend potential contacts, please let me know!

Thank you all for your interest and participation! Please respond to the questionnaire about computer resources that will follow.

David