Music Catalog for Blind and Visually Impaired Patrons

ABSTRACT

As a national library service providing music materials in braille or audio formats for blind, visually impaired, and print-disabled patrons, it is important to provide a detailed online catalog containing essential information that will help patrons find library materials that meet their needs.

This article describes the library’s music collection, its current services, its bibliographic records used to capture the unique elements of braille music, and the challenges that blind and visually impaired patrons face in using the online catalog. The author discusses the need for a search function upgrade and collaborating with various stakeholders to improve the library’s online catalog and Web-based service to better serve its patrons.

KEYWORDS:

• Blind patrons
• braille music catolog records
• library for blind
• National Library Service

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Rosemary Kavanagh and Beatrice Christensen Skold, eds., “Libraries for the Blind in the Information Age: Guidelines for Development” (IFLA Professional Reports, Nr. 86, 2005) https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED494539 (accessed July 07, 2018).

2. D. Mann, “Adaptive Technologies for Individuals with Visual Impairments: Scholarly and Consumer Perspectives,” Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management 2 (2006): 1–12. http://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/13377 (accessed July 09, 2018).

3. Robert E. Fistick, “Library of Congress Expands Scope of Digital Download Pilot,” NLS Press Release, October 26, 2007. https://www.loc.gov/NLSold/newsreleases/archive/2007-10-26.html (accessed June 12, 2018).

4. K. Golub, “Digital Libraries and the Blind and Visually Impaired” (Proceedings 4th CARNet Users Conference – CUC, Zagreb (Croatia), 2002). http://eprints.rclis.org/4391/ (accessed July 02, 2018).

5. National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, “Orientation to Voyager for Screen-Reader Users,” https://www.loc.gov/NLS/braille-audio-reading-materials/online-catalog-search/orientation-voyager-screen-reader-users/ (accessed June 25, 2018).

6. National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped “NLS Online Catalog Overview,” December 3, 2014. http://www.loc.gov/NLSold/catalog/overview.html (accessed June 25, 2018).

7. Bettye Krolick, “Formats for Braille Music.” in Dictionary of Braille Music Signs, (Washington, DC: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Library of Congress, 1979), 122–42.

8. J. Peter Burkholder, Claude V. Palisca, and Donald Jay Grout, Norton Anthology of Western Music, Vol. 1: Ancient to Baroque, 7th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2014). Transcribed in music braille by Davidson, Christina and Cantrell, Kathleen. 2016.