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Committees, 1931-2015

 Record Group

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.

Related Materials

This finding aid does not focus on names of officers, chairmen, and participants - a user may refer to the following locations to learn more about the members who ran, planned, and played a role in certain committees:

254-MLA, MLA Officer and Committee Rosters with Table of Names, 1931-1986

209-MLA, Committee members, 1962-1963

95-MLA, Administration and committee structure, 1974 April

141-MLA, Volunteers for committees, 1978-1988

92-MLA, Committee structure, 1980-1982

93-MLA, Committee structure, 1981

242-MLA, Roundtable rosters and renewal lists, 1983-1997

238-MLA, Joint Committees list of charimen and participants, 2002-2004

238-MLA, Special Committees chairmen and participant list, 2002-2004

238-MLA, Standing Committees chairmen and particpant list, 2002-2004

239-MLA, Subcommittee reports and rosters, 2003

244-MLA, Membership Activity Roster and committee particpant list, 2007 February 27

Related Materials

Please view the Guide to MLA Acronyms for a list of any abbreviations you may encounter throughout the records.

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

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
8270 Alumni Drive
College Park MD 20742 United States