News & Events
IU Harmonizes in New Partnership to Digitize Sheet Music
11/05/2004
Indiana University Harmonizes in New Partnership:
Hoosier Libraries and Museums Awarded Federal Grant to Digitize Sheet Music
The Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, partnering with the Indiana State Museum, the Indiana Historical Society, and the Indiana State Library, received a grant of $393,000 to create an online sheet music collection that will showcase the works of Indiana composers and musicians.
IU and its partners will digitize about 10,000 pieces of sheet music from their combined collections, including works by well-known composers such as George M. Cohan, Cole Porter, Al Jolson, and Jerome Kern. The collections also include many of the published works of Albert and Harry Von Tilzer, brothers born in Indianapolis who composed memorable favorites such as "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "...Apple Blossom Time."
In the three-year project, IU and its partners will also demonstrate how statewide cultural institutions can join forces to provide online access to the important regional collections.
"This project will make an immensely popular collection of sheet music freely available online," says project leader Kristine Brancolini and head of IU's Digital Library Program. "But perhaps more importantly, it provides an opportunity to offer solutions to other libraries and museums, not only here in Indiana, but across the country."
Cover designs and lyrics offer glimpses of American history and culture. The Indiana music in this project includes a wide variety of sources: "booster" songs promoting a particular city or railroad stop; centennial songs from state-wide, county, and city celebrations; and songs based on the literary works of well-known Indiana authors such as James Whitcomb Riley.
The grant is one of 19 awarded nationwide by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to partnerships of libraries and museums. In July, IMLS awarded the IU Libraries, in partnership with IU's School of Library and Information Sciences and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a grant of $939,000 to educate librarians for work in digital library programs.
