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American choral music of the present day reflects the variety of styles found in vocal and instrumental music throughout the Western world during the twentieth century. However, the majority of choral music is more conservative in form and tonality than is instrumental music, due probably to the heritage of American choral music. Approximately the first two hundred years of choral singing in America were based on religious texts and simple tunes. Choral music in America did not “flower” until the nineteenth century, when composers began to write in a variety of styles, using secular as well as sacred texts.

This article aims to help music librarians and other information professionals effectively understand and support communities of choral directors and other groups dependent on networking and serendipitous information encounters. In addition, through discussion and comparison of theories of information behavior, research articles and analysis of events and experiences, the article encourages thoughtful and practical applications of information behavior research.

This conceptual paper uses different theories of information behavior to outline three distinct modes of learning and knowing within communities of choral directors: individual searching, community expertise and serendipitous encounters.

The choral directing community is one that benefits not only from information support systems that emphasize individual information seeking, but also collaborative networking and serendipitous encounters with other community members. Librarians and other information professionals can best help this group discover new repertoire, plan concert programs, improve rehearsals and support other relevant activities through understanding and helping to provide access to professional music networks and being creative in providing opportunities for serendipitous information discovery.

Little information behavior research and discussion have focused specifically on the information practices of choral directors and how the format and schedule of a professional choral conference illuminate such practices and needs.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the classification of musical medium, which is a critical part of music classification. It considers how musical medium is currently classified, provides a theoretical understanding of what is currently problematic, and proposes a model which rethinks the classification of medium and resolves these issues.

The analysis is drawn from existing classification schemes, additionally using musicological and knowledge organization literature where relevant. The paper culminates in the design of a model of musical medium.

The analysis elicits sub-facets, orders and categorizations of medium: there is a strict categorization between vocal and instrumental music, a categorization based on broad size, and important sub-facets for multiples, accompaniment and arrangement. Problematically, there is a mismatch between the definitiveness of library and information science vocal/instrumental categorization and the blurred nature of real musical works; arrangements and accompaniments are limited by other categorizations; multiple voices and groups are not accommodated. So, a model with a radical new structure is proposed which resolves these classification issues.

The results could be used to further understanding of music classification generally, for Western art music and other types of music.

The resulting model could be used to improve and design new classification schemes and to improve understanding of music retrieval.

Deep theoretical analysis of music classification is rare, so this paper’s approach is original. Furthermore, the paper’s value lies in studying a vital area of music classification which is not currently understood, and providing explanations and solutions. The proposed model is novel in structure and concept, and its original structure could be adapted for other knotty subjects.

It is no surprise that artists rely closely on their senses to create, develop, and perform their art. Musicians rely on what they hear, dancers rely on their proprioceptive sense and sense of movement, and painters rely on their vision. They rely on these senses to make decisions during creation and performance. At the same time their art can be seen as an exploration of what humans can experience through the senses. Developing the capacity to sense is an integral part of art education that is valued as highly as learning technical skills, such as the musician’s mastery of the instrument, the dancer’s mastery of the body, and the painter’s mastery of color and brush techniques.

In management education, things are different. Relevant techniques are taught, but no special attention is given to developing the ability to sense. There is an implied assumption that managers already know how to do this. However, on a two-day MBA course, it became clear that not only is this assumption wrong, but moreover the traditional pedagogical formats used seem to actively limit the participants ability to sense. The result is leaders who know techniques for enacting leadership, but due to their underdeveloped ability to sense, are unable to apply these techniques appropriately in practical settings.

Although none of the new music reference books of the past year totally replaces the old stand‐bys, some significant works did appear, especially in the areas of contemporary music, opera, and classical music discography.

I can think of no better way of beginning this paper than by defining a Fine Arts Library; and no better definition of a Fine Arts Library than that given by Mr. Wheen in describing the Victoria and Albert Museum Library. It is, he says, a library for the study of the history, philosophy, technique and appreciation of the arts. The arts referred to are of course what are generally known as the Fine Arts, and those, for the purposes of this paper, are in three main classes: Painting, which includes sculpture, drawing and applied fine art; Architecture, which includes town planning; and Music, with which we may include the dance, the drama, and other entertainment arts developing from them.

I HAVE sometimes been asked whether I am conscious, as the present editor of THE LIBRARY WORLD, of the spirit and influence of its founder, James Duff Brown, and of his editorial successors, who included J. D. Stewart and W. C. Berwick Sayers. The answer is that of course I am—how could it be otherwise?

SINCE the year 1940, there have appeared two major reports on the Public Library system in Great Britain. The first, “The public library system of Great Britain: a report on its present condition, with proposals for post‐war re‐organisation” by Lionel R. McColvin, appeared in 1942. It suggested sweeping changes in the organisation of the public library system, more radical and far‐reaching than those embodied in the recent recommendations of the Library Association for local government reform. On library co‐operation, the report was equally radical, though certain similarities with the recommendations of the second report are apparent.

The aim of this study is to explore the benefits of choral singing for mental wellbeing and health as perceived by a cross‐national sample of amateur choral singers.

Data consisted of written responses to open‐ended questions. These were derived from 169 participants selected from a larger dataset reporting high and low levels of emotional wellbeing on the WHOQOL‐BREF questionnaire. A majority of participants were female and aged over 50. A thematic analysis was followed by a content analysis and Pearson chi square analyses. Comparisons were made between different ages, genders and nationalities and participants with high and low reported emotional wellbeing.

The analysis revealed multiple themes covering perceived benefits in social, emotional, physical, and cognitive domains. There were no significant differences in frequency of themes across any of the participant sociodemographic and wellbeing categories. The results indicate that benefits of singing may be experienced similarly irrespective of age, gender, nationality or wellbeing status.

Implications for further research include future use of validated instruments to measure outcomes and research into the benefits of singing in other cultures. The results of this study suggest that choral singing could be used to promote mental health and treat mental illness.

This study examines a cross‐national sample which is larger than previous studies in this area. These findings contribute to understanding of the complex and interacting factors which might contribute to wellbeing and health, as well as specific benefits of singing.

A series of studies was performed in late 1978 and early 1979 by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources Special Project staff and consultants to discover how ERIC online searchers were using free and controlled vocabulary in their search statements. Over 40 experienced ERIC online searchers were interviewed and more than half of these volunteered to show us their activity online. Over 650 search traces from 18 different ERIC online searchers using three different retrieval systems were analyzed. Findings show that controlled vocabulary terms are used in 68% of ERIC searches. Controlled vocabulary searching is higher if only terms which resulted in offline printed output are considered. The use of free text was more carefully scrutinized to see if we could discover ways to improve the ERIC database and its online access, since free text searchers have few online search aids besides the basic index with postings information. The vocabulary in 165 free text search statements was analyzed to determine whether ERIC descriptors and identifiers were incapable of representing these concepts. Information for every free text statement was sought on the following questions: (1) Is it a descriptor? (2) Is it cross‐referenced to an accepted term? (3) Is it a variant of a descriptor? (4) Is it expressible using descriptors? (5) Is it expressible using identifiers? (6) Is it only expressible using free text? Five tables summarize the output results of our comparative analysis of free text and controlled vocabulary searching. Six categories of search concepts were discovered for which searchers could only input free text terms or phrases. Online searching tests comparing free and controlled vocabulary were performed using six search topics. The free text search formulations had higher recall and controlled vocabulary formulations had higher precision. Search objective (high recall or high precision), we concluded, should dictate which formulation to use. All our findings helped point to the need for new searching aids for online ERIC searchers. Four displays exhibit what these might be; for example, an on‐line rotated descriptor or identifier display, and some linkage between free text and the Thesaurus. Responsible agents for effecting changes in searching ERIC online are identified and suggestions for improvements are addressed to these three agents.