Job Opening at UVa
Member Mary Prendergast sends word that the University of Virginia is seeking a Head of the Music Library at UVa in Charlottesville, VA. The job ad is currently available on the UVa Libraries website.
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January 20, 2006
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Music Library makes the Albert R. Casavant Collection Available
For nearly twenty years, the IUP Music Library has had a special collection of marching band and drill team materials donated by Albert R. Casavant. This collection has finally been cataloged and is available for public use.
Casavant (1917-2002) was a highly acclaimed marching band educator and clinician. In the 1950s, he was the driving force behind the development of precision drill, a style of marching where the band would create intricate formations using lines and small groups. This style became the standard for marching bands at football game halftime shows. Precision drill was also the immediate precursor to the drum corps style of marching today.
Casavant did extensive research to develop precision drill. His collection contains materials on military tactics, drills, uniforms and marching. He authored more than 150 instructional books showing band directors how to create precision drills and many of his published works are found in our collection. There are also some rare works not found in any other library, including several dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Three of the five Casavant children became university professors or researchers, working in fields that Casavant studied. A.R’s son Charles Casavant was a Professor of Music and Director of “The Legend” the IUP Marching Band from 1976 to 2001.
--Carl Rahkonen, Music Librarian & Professor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Member Featured at MOUG
ATMLA member Howard Jaffe, a sound recordings cataloger at the Library of Congress, will be presenting a workshop at the 2006 Music OCLC Users Group conference in Memphis, Tenn. The workshop will cover the details of cataloging non-music sound recordings and will be geared to the interests of music catalogers and reference librarians. The session will take place Wednesday, February 22, from 8:00 - 9:20 am.