TIPS ON ACQUIRING MUSIC

BY R. MICHAEL FLING

My mama told me, you better shop around.

Shop Around, Smokey Robinson & Berry Gordy

Automation, e-mail, and the Internet have revolutionized the ways that
music librarians do their work. Reference librarians now engage in inter-
active interviews through live-chat Internet sessions, and answer questions
using online reference databases. Reserve operations offer streamed
audio to students at home as well as in the library, and electronic text re-
serves deliver assigned readings to their desktops. Readers can peruse ar-
ticles in online full-text journals in their homes, and verify the current
availability of a score for checkout without having to trek to the stacks
with call number in hand. Shared cataloging and authority files have re-
lieved catalogers from reinventing the wheel with each new title.
And so it is with acquisitions. Purchase orders that formerly were typed
on three-by-five slips and filed by main entry in banks of catalog drawers
in the bowels of the library can now be located by keywords in the online
public-access catalog, where order and receipt status are visible to staff
and patrons alike. Bibliographic verification, formerly requiring labori-
ous pursuit through multiple printed bibliographies and catalogs, can
now be accomplished in seconds in OCLC WorldCat and publishers and
vendors Web catalogs. And many orders can be submitted to vendors
electronically, saving postage costs and avoiding the paper-cut hazard of
stuffing envelopes.
Some context for my discussion of acquisitions matters may be benefi-
cial. At Indiana University, staff of the William & Gayle Cook Music
Library are responsible for direct ordering and receiving of mono-
graphic materials in all formats, including standing orders for mono-
graphic series and sets. The collection-development and acquisitions
staff add MARC bibliographic records for new titles to the online inte-
grated systemdownloading them from OCLC WorldCat or vendor

R. Michael Fling is librarian emeritus of the William & Gayle Cook Music Library of the Indiana
University Jacobs School of Music, where for three decades he had oversight of collection development
and acquisitions. A version of this paper was presented at MLAs annual conference plenary session
Collection Development: Techniques, Resources, and Perspectives for the Music Librarian, Memphis,
TN, 25 February 2006.

279
280 Notes, December 2006

databases, or keying them in manuallyin many cases adding uniform

titles and LC subject headings, and overlaying unauthorized name and
title headings with authorized ones. Purchase orders are printed offline
for mailing to vendors, or are entered directly into vendors online sys-
tems. Materials are delivered directly to the music library, and, after
check-in, invoices are forwarded to the acquisitions department in the
main library for payment. The main library manages all of the librarys
subscriptions, including ordering, receiving, and cataloging journals,
annuals, memberships, and electronic databases. The Cook Library has
no music approval plans; it does participate in a library-wide plan with
Blackwells Book Services for U.S. and UK trade and scholarly books in
the humanities. A credit card issued by the universitys purchasing de-
partment facilitates many of the music librarys orders.
The ways that acquisitions work interfaces with other library opera-
tions can vary from one institution to another, and music libraries may
follow very different organizational and work-flow models than the one
described above. There seems to be little uniformity in how this work is
accomplished throughout the United Statesthere are no Anglo-
American Acquisitions Rules to followthough this is mere speculation
on the authors part, since no organizations or persons appear to be col-
lecting data on these operations. Characteristically, the 20034 Survey
of Music Collections in the United States, recently posted on the MLA
Web site1 by the associations Statistics Subcommittee, contains data
about locations of music collections, and locations of music cataloging,
repair, and binding operations, but nothing at all about where and how
music acquisitions work is done. Furthermore, only 5 among the 190 ar-
ticles published through the year 2000 that are cited in the Collection
Development and Management chapter of Carol June Bradleys new
bibliography of American music librarianship address music acquisitions
in a meaningful way.2 I seem to be one of the few music librarians to
have written extensively about music acquisitions, in my 2004 book on
Library Acquisition of Music,3 and I salute the MLA Basic Manual Series ed-
itorial board for recognizing the need for such a book, and commission-

1. http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/ (accessed 23 August 2006).

2. Nos. 15, 37, 41, 54, and 116, in American Music Librarianship: A Research and Information Guide,
Routledge Music Bibliographies (New York: Routledge, 2005), 117. My count of five is subjective, based
on the listed books and articles titles, Bradleys annotations, and selective examination by myself, and
these five are not of practical use today because of their age. The Acquisition and Cataloging of Music and
Sound Recordings: A Glossary, by Suzanne E. Thorin and Carole Franklin Vidali, MLA Technical Reports,
11 (Madison, WI: Music Library Association, 1984), is listed by Bradley only in her Cataloguing and
Classification chapter, despite Acquisitions appearing first in the title.
3. Ed. by Peter Munstedt, Music Library Association Basic Manual Series, 4 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow).
Tips on Acquiring Music 281

ing me to write it. There is little science to music library acquisitions, and
consequently the observations that follow are based mostly on personal
experience, trial, and plenty of errors along the way.

PRINTED EDITIONS

Comparison shopping is often a good idea. This recommendation is

applicable on many levels, beginning with vendor selection, and can
apply not only to the general criteria of discounts and so forth to con-
sider in identifying a group of vendors to work with regularly for music
purchases, but also to choices among those vendors when deciding where
to order a particular title. It has long been a guiding principle among ac-
quisitions librarians to use a vendor in an editions country of publica-
tion, if at all possible: buy Italian editions from Italy, Spanish editions
from Spain, and so forth. The expectation is that list prices will be lower
in the country of origin, free of the markups that U.S. distributors typi-
cally add to the editions that they import. For an example of this, visit
the G. Henle Verlag Web site at http://www.henle.de/, and convert to
dollars the euro price of just about any of that publishers editions; then,
click the U.S. flag icon to be transferred to the Henle USA Web site, and
prepare for sticker shock. List prices for U.S. customers are commonly
50 percent higher than for the same editions if purchased from
Germany, even taking into account the current poor eurodollar ex-
change rate.
There can be exceptions to this precept. While doing some online
price comparisons recently, I found that several Ricordi opera scores
listed at the Web site of Hal Leonard Corporation,4 which is Ricordis dis-
tributor in this country, cost 15 percent less than the converted euro
prices posted at the Casa Ricordi site in Italy.5 This is a case where order-
ing Italian editions from a U.S. vendor results in savings of a few dollars.
When acquiring foreign editions, therefore, it can be instructive to do
some preliminary checking to discover general pricing trends of the
European publisher and its U.S. distributor, if it has one. Attempting to
compare prices on every foreign edition, though, would be counterpro-
ductive due to the time required, and in many cases impossible, since
publishers often lag by months in adding new publications to their on-
line catalogs. But if a new European edition is being offered at a discon-
certingly high price, comparing prices of U.S. and European vendors
can result in significant savings.

4. http://www.halleonard.com/ (accessed 23 August 2006).

5. http://www.ricordi.com/ (accessed 23 August 2006).
282 Notes, December 2006

Another consideration regarding European publishers with exclu-

sive distribution in the United States relates to order fulfillment rates.
Returning to Hal Leonard and Ricordi: a standard work such as a Verdi
vocal score will probably be listed at the Hal Leonard Web site, be in
stock in its warehouse, and ready for harvesting by a U.S. vendor for de-
livery to your library. But Hal Leonard will not have in stock every one of
Ricordis in-print publications, and a score by a lesser-known composer
may present a problem. Ricordis online catalog, for example, lists
twenty works by the twentieth-century Italian composer Niccol Castigli-
oni that are available for purchase; only six of those twenty have found
their way into Hal Leonards field of view, and several of those six are de-
scribed as special imports. And what of the other fourteen works?
Though Limbo, like obligatory meatless Fridays, has been relegated to
the ecclesiastical trash heap, perhaps lexicographers will allow us to
continue using the term for a place or state of neglect or oblivion, 6 for
that seems to be where Hal Leonard has sent them. Orders for these
titles may well be returned marked not available, since U.S. agents,
who sometimes lack a well-developed ethic of customer service, might
find it inconvenient to import a single copy of an in-print edition it al-
ready has determined to be unworthy of space in its warehouse. Should
the library receive such a response, it may not necessarily be for the rea-
son I have described; editions do, after all, go out of print, temporarily
and permanently. But redirecting that order to an Italian vendor may
take only seconds, and can result in a filled order.
For American editions, the music vendors who exhibit at MLA and
other music- and library-organization conferences do very well in terms
of all aspects of their services. But it is difficult to ignore online stores
like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com when you are really in a
hurry for something; their Web sites often tell you at a glance how many
copies currently are in stock, and you can select among multiple ship-
ping options. For U.S. trade books, I turn increasingly to Amazon.com,
with which Cook Music Library has a corporate account. Many of these
books are sold by Amazon at 35 percent discount, and delivery of orders
over $25 usually is free with its Super Saver Shipping option.

RECORDINGS

How much the library pays for a recording can vary considerably, de-
pending upon where the order is sent. Comparison of costs for eight re-
cent releases in the online databases of eight different online stores and

6. Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003).

Tips on Acquiring Music 283

library vendors revealed discounts ranging from 0 percent to 38 percent.

While none of these eight dealers beat their competitors prices every
time, the two vendors surveyed who distribute only recordings, and who
attend MLA conferences to discuss their services with music librarians,
had the lowest prices overall: Music Library Service Company, and the
A-V Source/Compact Disc Source.7 At the other end of the spectrum
were two all-purpose online stores: Amazon.com charges full price for
many classical labels, and the few discounts that are given are far less
than the discounts given on the books it sells. Barnes & Noble charges
full price for most recordings, but gives 10 percent off to fee-paying
members. In the mid-range of discounts were several online audio
video stores: TowerRecords.com, CDuniverse.com, and CDconnection
.com, which discount most titles in the 1215 percent range. The excep-
tion among online recordings stores was ArkivMusic.com, which sells
only classical recordings; Arkivs online catalog is a useful resource for
verifying recordings discographic details and for program notes, but
Arkiv charges full price for just about everything.
For in-store shopping, Borders Books & Music offers a Corporate &
Educational Sales Card for use in any Borders store; it cannot be used
for online purchases, or for DVDs. The card is good for 20 percent off
the list price of individual purchases of books and compact discs up to
$1,000, and 25 percent off purchases above $1,000, including special or-
ders. The card can be used in conjunction with a credit card, or the li-
brary can arrange to be billed monthly.

PURCHASE ORDERS

How the librarys music purchase-orders are prepared can impact ac-
curacy of order fulfillment. Back when Indianas music library was work-
ing through the central acquisitions department, orders usually were
prepared and mailed by musical illiterates, far removed from possibility
of editorial review by the music bibliographer. Careful as we might have
been to provide full bibliographic and descriptive details, the central de-
partment felt obliged to re-verify our work, and would sometimes select
for purchase-order creation from among multiple, similar OCLC records
one containing, for example, the apparently benign term partitur
(score, in several languages), which would be mistaken by the acquisi-
tions clerk for the parts that we specified. Thus: wrong edition or-
dered, wrong edition received. And the incorrect edition invariably

7. http://www.mlscmusic.com/; http://www.cdsourceinc.com/CDLIBWeb/Index.htm (both accessed

23 August 2006).
284 Notes, December 2006

would be property-stamped before being sent over to the music library.

This sort of thing happened frequently enough that, before we declared
our independence, the head of the acquisitions department was per-
suaded to cease re-verifying musics order requests, and to accept them
at face value, using only the OCLC record whose number we supplied, or
typing exactly the text provided on our purchase request forms. As with
all aspects of music library work, acquisition requires trained musicians
to do preorder searching and bibliographic verification, and check-in of
received orders. On-the-job training cannot substitute for the knowledge
of terminology, publication formats, and repertoire gained from years
spent in the music studio and ensemble.8
There are additional steps that can be taken to assure that complete
and correct information gets to the vendor. With todays integrated sys-
tems, purchase orders typically are printed from MARC records that are
captured from OCLC WorldCat, or downloaded from vendors data-
bases. These MARC records usually contain all of the information that
the vendor requires to identify and supply the correct version or edition.
The trick is to ensure that all of it gets printed on the orders. Out-of-the-
box acquisitions modules of library integrated systems typically print
only bare-minimum information on purchase orders: author, title, publi-
cation data, and ISBN and ISSN numbers, if present. These systems are
designed for book and serials people, and for anything beyond these
basics, they need to be tweaked.
In February 2000, MLAs Subcommittee on Automation posted revised
Automation Requirements for Music Materials on the MLA Web site.
Most of that document relates to indexing and searching requirements,
bibliographic display, cataloging and authority control, and circulation.
Only two sentences describe acquisitions needs. The subcommittee rec-
ommended that, in addition to basic bibliographic elements (MARC
fields 1xx, 245, and 260), the system allow entry and printing on pur-
chase orders of multiple 02xs (standard numbers and music publisher
numbers), 240 (uniform title), and 300 (physical description). In addi-
tion to the fields advocated by the committee, the following ones also are
relevant to music purchase orders: 4xx (series statement: essential also
for nonmusic titles that are part of a series), 511 (participant or per-
former note for audio and video recordings); and 25x (edition and musi-
cal presentation statements). Missionary work was required to get these
fields added to Indianas purchase-order printing standard, since any
such enhancements would affect the orders produced in the university li-

8. For more on the perils of preorder searching, see the chapters Preorder Searching and Preorder
Verification, in Fling, 8293, 95113.
Tips on Acquiring Music 285

braries system-wide: nine campuses throughout the state. Library man-

agement recognized that the printing of series statements and physical
descriptions would benefit everybody, and that 028s (music publisher
number), uniform titles, and participant or performer notes would gen-
erally affect only music orders, and the printing of all of these fields was
quickly approved. Though this sometimes makes for dense-appearing
purchase orders, especially for recordings with numerous participants,
the possibility of vendors mistaking the particular edition wanted is sub-
stantially reduced.
When using MARC records created by others, such as those down-
loaded from OCLC or a vendor database, local adjustments sometimes
are necessary before orders are printed. This occurs most often with the
028 publishers numbers, which will not display in the OPAC or print on
purchase orders unless the second indicator is 1 or 2. MARC records
taken from Harrassowitzs OttoEditions database always have a second
indicator of 0, as do many of those found in OCLC if the cataloger has
put the publishers numbers in a 500 note. At Indiana, these second-
indicator zeros in 028s are routinely changed to 2 for purposes of
printing orders. In addition, vendor records often have incorrect
forms of names and series titles, requiring overlay of authorized ones
from the local authority file, so that online-catalog users (including pre-
order searchers) will have a better chance of finding these editions until
the bibliographic records are ultimately touched by catalogers.

CREDIT CARDS

Credit cards have become essential accessories for library acquisitions.

(Purchasing card is more accurate, since payment typically is made in
full each monthly billing cycle, and no interest charges accrue.) Most
Web vendors and some music publishers have designed their sites for
credit-card purchases, and a few have made it nearly impossible to pur-
chase without a credit card. A credit card also obviates the need to create
new vendor records and to write many small checks for the boutique
music publishers whose editions may be ordered seldom, and in small
quantities. If the music library orders direct, and the institution offers
purchasing-card privileges, move heaven and earth to get one! I cannot
now imagine doing acquisitions work without my treasured MasterCard.
If not possible to obtain a card solely for music acquisitions, the central
acquisitions department almost certainly has one that can be piggy-
backed when necessary. Although these card accounts typically require
more paperwork and, consequently, higher administrative costs than tra-
ditional library purchasing transactions, they are well worth it for the fast
286 Notes, December 2006

turnaround times achieved to acquire rush materials. Obtaining a par-

ticular recording in a matter of days for the faculty member who ne-
glected to turn in her reserves list on time will cement the librarians rep-
utation as a miracle worker. The occasional horror story of, say, the
Pentagon official taking his girlfriend to the Bahamas on a U.S. Defense
Department Visa card may have spooked some administrators into deny-
ing the use of plastic for library purchases. In practice, the music librar-
ian will find it impossible to pull off a similar trip if proper safeguards
are in place.
ORDERING DIRECT FROM PUBLISHERS

Ordering direct from a publisher is rarely a good idea, unless it is one

that is set up for e-commerce, and the library has ready use of a credit
card. Editions from just about all publishers usually can be acquired
through regular library vendors. But if speed is important, ordering di-
rect from the publisher may save time, since your vendor probably will
not have the item in stock, and will be able to provide it to you quickly
only with supplemental delivery charges.
Ordering direct from the long-established print publishers may have
liabilities. Few of them have a tradition of selling directly to customers,
and some refuse to do it at all. Of those who do sell direct, each will have
its own policies and procedures for distribution and billing, making it
difficult for the library to anticipate how much the library actually will
pay, how the item will be shipped, whether the invoice will contain the
information required by the library, and so forth. Hal Leonard Corpora-
tion is one publisher that does not sell direct, and its How to Order
Web link leads merely to a listing of several dozen online music stores
that can supply its editions. Other large publishers have entered e-
commerce, perhaps reluctantly and because they think they must, and
with mixed results. Until recently, C. F. Peters required direct customers
to e-mail for price information before it would accept an order online. I
actually fell for this once, and never got a reply of any kind. Boosey &
Hawkes offers online shopping from its London site, and this can be
handy for its custom-print editions of titles that formerly were available
only on rental. Booseys record of delivery, however, is erratic. One
Boosey print-on-demand title was delivered in one months time; an-
other ordered in September 2005 was acknowledged by return e-mail,
but as of June 2006 had not yet been delivered.
OUT-OF-PRINT AND USED MATERIALS

It is wise to be skeptical of declarations of out of print or not avail-

able, as mentioned above in relation to European editions handled by
Tips on Acquiring Music 287

U.S. agents. Time and again an order has been returned with a cancella-
tion notice for such a reason, only for the item to be found readily avail-
able new or used, or both, from Amazon.com or some other online re-
source. This occurs most often with recordings, but has been true also
for books, less so for printed music, for which there are far fewer sources
of supply. But even for scores, redirecting the order to a different vendor
sometimes results in a filled order. Even if books and recordings truly are
out of printsometimes as determined by checking the publishers or
record labels Web catalogsthey often can be found listed at bargain-
basement prices on the Web sites of out-of-print dealer aggregators such
as Bookfinder.com and UsedBookSearch.com for books, Global Elec-
tronic Music Marketplace (gemm.com) or Berkshire Record Outlet
(berkshirerecordoutlet.com) for deleted or cutout recordings, or Alibris
.com for books and recordings. Such resources have often relieved the
profound sense of grief that can arise from going through a long list of
titles that the librarys circulation department has reported to be lost,
missing, or mutilated.
Many libraries maintain a desiderata or want-list database of out-of-
print titles that are being sought. These typically are compiled from a va-
riety of sources, including items lost or missing; titles in frequent circula-
tion for which added copies are needed; replacements for popular
printed editions that have literally been used up; titles from bibliogra-
phies and repertoire lists that are wanted to fill gaps in the collection;
and so forth. In the old days, it was customary to print these titles on
three-by-five cards, and send them to dealers who would search for
copies on the librarys behalf. While that is still a legitimate procedure,
the rise of online dealers in used stuff has greatly improved the ability to
acquire fugitive editions. Indianas desiderata database (maintained in
the askSam free-form database system) is searched every few months
against several out-of-print dealer aggregators, including those named
above, usually with some positive results. At Alibris.com, this procedure
can be automated: after exporting the database as a delimited list, it is
uploaded into Alibriss want-list matching system, where it is searched
continually against the entire Alibris dynamic database of more than fifty
million new and out-of-print books and recordings, and matches are
flagged on the librarys list when there are hits. Conveniently, the
Alibris for Libraries section permits libraries to create online accounts
for invoicing each sale, without the need to pay by credit card.
BUDGETING

Chances are, the music librarian has little control or influence on the
materials budget allocation process. Libraries may have separate budget
288 Notes, December 2006

lines for books, scores, audio, video, journals, collected works and
Denkmler, and electronic resources; or these may be combined or fur-
ther divided in interesting and irrational ways. And some librarians must
go begging to a general funding source whenever a new journal sub-
scription or collected-edition standing order is needed. At Indiana
University libraries, all subject funds have only two budget lines to con-
tend with: monographs and serials. From the monograph line are or-
dered all monographic series and other multipart sets, Denkmler,
collected editions, as well as single-order books, scores, and recordings.
On the serials line are ordered all titles that are renewed on an annual
basis. And bibliographers have the capability to shift funds from mono-
graphs to serials and back if their budgets go unexpectedly out of whack
during the fiscal year. The greatest flexibility in library budgeting and ac-
quisitions is achieved with the fewest discrete budget lines. While the
music librarian may feel helpless to influence this allocation process, the
local bean counters might be persuaded that the fewer columns they
must tally and balance can be to their benefit as well.

ON SHOPPING

Not every librarian is born with the shopping gene. I myself enter shoe
and appliance stores hesitantly, usually with a goal of exiting as soon as
possible. Shopping in publishers and vendors lists for music and books
is an entirely different experience. In addition to the pleasure of daily
discovery of new repertoire, editions, and performances, it is gratifying
to be able to bring them to the attention of the librarys readers and lis-
teners, enhancing their intellectual and musical knowledge.