MUSICat

Just a brief note about the thing that stuck in my mind the most from ALA Midwinter. It is called MUSICat (i.e. “Music @” as well as Music Catalog, a logical name for what it is). They had a booth across from ours, and I chatted with Kelly Hiser about their service.

What they do is work with an area’s local musicians and local libraries to put them together, so that the local music is licensed and available for free to local library patrons. They provide an interface that libraries can us, and provide assistance to libraries in setting up license agreements with the musicians. The musicians get more local exposure, and library patrons get their local culture more easily. I haven’t seen it in action, but they have a service with the Madison Public Library (Madison, Wisconsin, where MUSICat is based), and they are working to get something launched with the Edmonton Public Library in a couple of months.

If you think this idea would work for your library, you should get in touch with them, via www.musicat.co.