IMSLP link in university web offerings

[Robertgardner]

The library'ls database web page at my university (U-Mass/Amherst)
gives members of the U-Mass community access to the library's e-subscriptions by department.
E.g., the music dept. page gives acess to Naxos Sheet Music to its offerings, but
does NOT have a link to IMSLP database. I will suggest that the U-Mass library add an
IMSLP link to its music database web page, as this seems to be a glaring omission
in their offerings.

Naxos e-versions (which include both *.pdf and *.mid formats) and related services
(e.g. virtualSheetMusic) are copyrighted, but they provide no documentation about the
source of their e-versions. As their offerings get progressively sparcer for more recent composers, I suspect they
copy printed editions that are in the public domain. Whether this is done by some
editor manually copying the music into a program like Rosegarden or Lilypond, or by
a technology that can produce digital scores from scanned *.pdf versions, I don't know,'
but I'd be skeptical about the accuracy of either process. On top of that, one doesn't know
the edition that they started out with. It seems to me that IMSLP is not only much more
extensive than Naxos, but it provides important documentation about the original
publication date, the publishing house, and the editor that is not present in the Naxos
version. The IMSLP version is of much higher quality (from a librarian's perspective)
because of the documentation provided along with the music files. And also (this should
warm the heart of even the most budget-challenged ibrarian), IMSLP is free.

I also think IMSLP would have much to gain in terms of new members and exposure.
Universities often have high concentrations of both professional and amateur
musicians (I fall into the latter category), who are also frequently familiar with
computer technology and the process of creating pdf files of scanned material.
Last but not least, we can borrow volumes from library's printed music collections.
Many universities maintain special authoritative, comprehensive collections
of the most important composers. These are often kept apart from the main collection and have
limited borrowing privileges, but you're usually able to take them out for a few days to make
copies. These editions are likely to be older and in the public domain. Even in the regular
collection, there are many old editions on library shelves that are likely to be suitable for IMSLP.