Towson University’s Outreach Blog

As I foray into my very first blog I type with some trepidation, what do we do that others would and should want to hear about?  Luckily as DECO launches into the blogosphere, RESI ISS has begun hosting the Répertoire international de la presse musicale /Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals or as it is known around the office “RIPM.” RESI ISS is most noted for hosting state agencies sites; this one is definitely not government but is non-profit. As with our other sites, we are hosting this site using a virtual environment consisting of a web front end and SQL backend.

There is so much information that can be learned from RIPM’s site.  Everything from who has attended a performance, to how a performance was received at that time or how a composer was revered by his peers can be found on their web pages.  RIPM is the brainchild of Dr. H. Robert Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Maryland, College Park.

RIPM’s focus is music periodicals published from approximately 1800 to 1950.  Anything written about music in periodicals and published in Europe and the Americas is being archived and indexed at RIPM.  To date, RIPM’s database (index) contains over 550,000 annotated records in thirteen languages. Libraries and private collectors are sending their precious documents to RIPM’s office in Baltimore where these documents are digitized, indexed, returned to their original owner and become part of an international site hosted by RESI ISS.

How will people use this site?

• Graduate students will be able to access information for their dissertations without traveling to foreign libraries.
• Authors will be able to include pages from early music journals in their publications.
• Who knows in years to come they may even digitize and index “Rolling Stone” magazine or other currently produced music periodicals.
• Future generations will come to understand the allure of Marilyn Manson, Green Day or even the social impact of U2 just as we now study Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn.

With modern day technology our past is no longer relegated to a dusty basement archive of a library where only a handful of students and historians have access, it is brought to life and presented for the whole world to appreciate. Who knows, our next great composer may be just lurking behind a computer screen searching through RIPM’s unique archive of music periodicals.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Entrepreneurship, IT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.