Committees, 1931-2015
Dates
- Creation: 1931-2015
Use and Access to Collection
The collection is open for research use. Materials from this collection must be used in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library's Irving and Margery Morgan Lowens Special Collections Room during SCPA’s operating hours. Please contact the curator for an appointment or if you have questions related to digital access of the materials.
Extent
192 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Biographical / Historical
The Music Library Association formed approximately 251 committees between 1930 and the mid-2000s. There are
committees pertaining to business and finance, bibliographic and cataloging standards, organization-related
events, executive decisions, publications, archives and preservation, education, and MLA chapters throughout the
United States, as well as round tables, task forces, and working groups. Committees played a large part in MLA practices as shown through a multitude of correspondence with outside organizations and universities. Committees were
formed to search for and nominate executive positions, discuss copyright law, and confer on bibliographic standards. These are
just a few examples of the committees’ impact on the organization. This record group maps the committees’
documents and their corresponding dates.
Note from MLA Officer and Committee Rosters with Table of Names, 1931-1986, (254-MLA): “The names of these committees sometimes appear in different forms, whether officially changed or not; one should consult the list of committees by title for cross-references. Also, some committees seem to have come into existence, were disbanded (or died of their own accord) and were later reestablished; let the reader use caution in drawing conclusions from missing or unclear information.”
Arrangement
The Committees record group has 11 series. The series are organized in this finding aid by two methods: relevance to internal MLA practices and volume of contents (note: physical arrangement of this record group is not organized in the same way). The record group begins with committee information which gives an overview of committee administration structure. The proceeding series align closely with MLA business and organizational practices and are followed by committees which are either collaborations with other organizations or related to the community and MLA chapters. As a loose guideline, amount of folders decrease with each successional series.
In most cases, this finding aid treats the words "committee," "subcommittee," and "Ad Hoc" as the word "the" and is ignored for alphabetical purposes. Committees differ in where this word is placed within the title. For ease of finding, the subject of the committee itself is used for alphabetized listing. When committees have the same title, they are listed by date (earliest-latest). If there is an instance where the same committee has multiple folders pertaining to the same date but they are housed in different boxes, they are listed by shelf order (starting 54-MLA, ending 258-MLA).
Physical Location
The contents of MLA Committees are currently housed in multiple places throughout the stacks of MLA records. There are over 150 boxes between stacks M3 and N3 which contain folders with records of varying committees. Seeing as committee records live in singular folders within various boxes and throughout different shelves, this finding aid located contents by box number (ex. 131-MLA) and folder title. A user should note that records are not organized succesionally nor alphabetically in the physical arrangement.
Processing Information
Finding aid for this record group was written by Hannah Milillo in fall 2023.
Library Details
Part of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library
University of Maryland Libraries
8270 Alumni Drive
College Park MD 20742 United States
scpa@umd.edu