On November 20th, I had the illuminating opportunity to interview Paul Olivo, a music specialist at San Jose State University! The interview provided an inside look at the workings of a music department's music collection of 14,779 items that Mr. Olivo has cultivated for decades. In this interview, Mr. Olivo reflects on his role as a library services specialist for the school's Music and Dance department.
How did you first get involved in music?
I went to an elementary school called Bowman elementary in Hayward, CA and in the 5th grade, the music teacher would come in the fall and do a demonstration of each of the instruments. Students who were interested would take a card home to their parents to ask for permission to be in the music program. I had a friend in the same grade as me next door, and we decided to play clarinet. When I got home, I couldn’t remember the name, so I said Cornet! (Trumpet).
What instruments do you play?
I play the Bb trumpet, french horn, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, C trumpet, D trumpet, and Eb trumpet. I play the C, D, and Eb trumpets because some trumpet concertos were written specifically for those instruments, like the Vivaldi Trumpet Concerto.
Who are some of your favorite musical artists?
My favorite trumpet artist is Wayne Bergeron, the number one studio musician for trumpet in LA. He’s been hired to play for movies, recording artists, and more! For example, he played the solo for the dance scene in the gym for the new West Side story movie. My favorite conductor is Michael Tilson Thomas, who used to be the primary conductor for the San Francisco Symphony. I like his interpretation a lot, he’s a big interpreter of Mahler’s Symphonies.
Can you describe a day in the life of a music librarian in the music department of a large university?
For me, because I’m here in a Music department, I do a lot of cataloging, which is getting the music and describing it, then adding additional information like what key it’s in, what is it for, then putting down anything from the publisher notes. When I get the music I prepare it for performance by giving it a call number, stamping it, and using the Library of Congress classification. The M series for music, the four other numbers are composer numbers, title numbers, date of compositions. When you put it back in the shelves, it gives it a better way of organizing your music. Also, I do a lot of checking out the music. The master set, or original copy is not checked out to the ensemble but they can make copies of it and use it as a performance set inventory sheet with numbers for each part. Scores are sometimes electronically sent to me, and then I print out the parts and stamp it for processing. I stamp everything in red because that means it’s an original part, and you always have to stamp it in the same spot.
How do students check out items?
The students have music cards that they pay for, and it allows them to check out music, check out a locker, and borrow an instrument if they need to, which is something else I do. Most of the time they check out chamber music, duets, or solo pieces. For the bigger sets for band and orchestra, they aren’t allowed to check out those. Then we have scores, which are separate from the set, and they have to ask permission from the conductor of the band to check those out. Study scores are available to get familiar with the piece, analyze it, if there are introductions, key changes, they learn about the form, and sometimes people get a recording and will follow it, or take it to a concert and follow it. It’s called a "pocket score" or study score. A full score is the same thing, but they put notes to the conductor and it’s easier to read.
Music Resource Center
This is a performance set.
This is a picture of a score.
This is a pocket score, or a study score.
What is your favorite thing about being a music librarian?
It allows me to also use my degree in music education. It allows me to use my knowledge and what I’ve learned through my degree to read music and describe it, to write up the citation. It focuses on one area. I like being surrounded by music, listening to rehearsals, and going to concerts. I never thought of it as something I’d end up doing. Most people going into music want to be a music teacher or a performer, play in the symphony or in a jazz band, be a studio musician, but I never thought about being a specialized librarian. I took courses related to smaller libraries, smaller settings. I love helping students and faculty do research for assignments or presentations in class and being a reference librarian.
What are some challenges in being a music librarian?
Trying to figure out what classification something should go into, because it’s not always cut and dry. Protocol for checking in or out, coordination to make sure you are getting everything back, looking for music to purchase and rent. Some music isn’t available for purchase, but only for rental, requiring an additional process to go through the protocol for renting a piece of music for a future concert.
What kind of training is necessary for this career path?
To be a music librarian, you have to have at least a bachelors in music, also maybe a master’s in music. I didn't take a masters in music. You have to have a background in music, I earned a Master’s in Library Science with a focus on music, but you don’t have to. If I was a librarian for a symphony, I would have to know how to prepare parts, like for string parts, the bowings, and getting music to rent. This is more of an academic setting, where I also do reference work. I also have done some research for outside of the college, for example, if someone is holding a concert, but we don't have enough information to do program notes, I can be of assistance to find that information.
What qualities or attributes should someone pursuing this career path strive to develop?
A lot of times they say librarians who like to work alone make good librarians (catalogers), but I think you have to be very much a people person and like talking with people. I’m not sequestered anywhere, I’m right here and I’m always busy. We are always getting donations which means I’m evaluating what we get. Another important thing is being able to recognize what is appropriate for our library. There aren’t many jobs for music librarians, so once you get the job, you stay there for the rest of your career. In this particular position, I don’t have a real budget, the budget is the ensembles. They get a budget to buy music. If I was in a main library, I would have a budget to assign (collection development) to the music department. Request to purchase if certain areas are deficient. There’s a lot of communication with directors of departments, so you have to be good at communicating effectively such as: ceremonial ensemble music, offering suggestions to the conductors, finding solos for students, and printing out lists to give to their teachers.
How is it all organised?
I can refer to the rules in a big book. Some of the protocol I have memorized, but if needed I have a book I refer to. Then I have a database I have to keep. When I started, we still had a card catalog, which is the listings of a book or score that was on a card, and you went to a drawer to pull it to look for what you’re looking for. I use Filemaker Pro now. Filemaker Pro is not a standard, relational database, but it categorizes the music.I try to put as much info as possible into the database to describe what I’m looking at to help set apart or identify it.
How has music librarianship changed?
When I came here, they had nobody really in charge, so I had to come up with procedures like stamping the music. We are not allowed to keep copied music. What’s changing now is you can get things sent to you electronically so you have to come up with ways to protect the composer. Some music is not readily available to purchase, once you’re done with the rental you have to send it back. If the music is sent to me, I could print it, but it’s still on my computer. If my computer fails, then I lose it. Another thing is we used to have record albums, but we don’t have them anymore, because a lot of students or professors download the music they listen to in the form of mp3s. You have to know the different formats for audios. The numbers stand for how fast it goes around the turntables.
How can students learn more about the profession?
We have MLA, or the Music Library Association which holds a conference annually where we talk about new things coming up, and how to do things or protocol. We've had it in San Jose before, it's always great!
Take a look at the high density shelving for all the material!