
Michelle Rivera (she/her/ella) is the Music Library Specialist at the University of Notre Dame. She received her BM and MM from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her MLIS through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
ASN: What is a typical day for you, as a music librarian? What are your favorite aspects of the job?
MR: I’m what you consider an academic music librarian—a music librarian who works in a higher education institution. Though this describes a particular flavor of music librarianship, what that looks like can vary greatly between institutions. Some universities and colleges have a section of their main library devoted to music studies while others have a separate location or branch for music related resources; meanwhile, conservatories have a different landscape to their liberal arts counterparts.
At the University of Notre Dame, I work in a branch location where the Music Library is embedded in the same building that houses the Departments of Music and Sacred Music. There are many tasks that require me to be in communication with our main library, Hesburgh Library; tasks like coordinating interlibrary loans, acquisitions, and transferring materials as well as learning any new procedures that might affect my location. But because I work at a branch, we have to make sure we are a full-service library like our friends at Hesburgh, albeit with less staff and a smaller (yet specialized) collection. So a typical day for me looks like a little bit of everything!
What does that entail? Most of my work is devoted to handling the circulation portion of our library by hiring and managing student workers. Beyond checking out books and shelving them, the student workers help me with aiding patrons, stacks management, hold requests, general customer service, and many other projects. They are the frontline and face to our library—I really wouldn’t be able to do my work without them!
Then there are a set of duties that require my specific expertise: processing and maintaining course reserves, digitizing audio for streaming, collection development, reference, doing library instruction sessions for classes and individual patrons, cataloging, processing new acquisitions, technical support, facility operations, communicating with our Music and Sacred Music faculty, giving tours, keeping up to date with current affairs within my field, and helping patrons from all sorts of disciplines with their questions. I also have weekly meetings at the main library for various committees where I turn my focus to a scope larger than the Music branch; this can mean discussions about library-wide or campus-wide initiatives.
My favorite aspect of my job is working with my students! I love being a confidant they can reach out to that isn’t their parents or someone who grades them. I’ve had students who’ve come to me for so many different reasons: to celebrate winning a grant, call for help during a crisis, share photos from studying abroad, work through a grad school rejection, regale me with a silly story about a bug funeral, and so much more. It’s incredibly rewarding to see them succeed and see how their stint at the library helped mature not only their work ethic, but also themselves as human beings. Though my role in their lives isn’t strictly being a librarian, the essence of librarianship is there: helping people find what they need.
ASN: Can you tell me about your path from musician to librarian?
MR: The thought of pursuing music librarianship often occurs when you’re in the middle of some sort of music degree (citation: tons of anecdotes). That’s usually because people don’t become aware of this specialized type of librarianship until they are in music school. For me, I was an undergrad horn performance major when I was introduced to this notion. I was working for the Music and Performing Arts Library at the University of Illinois as a student assistant. The duties of the job were so intuitive to me, more innate than trying to progress through auditions in my horn life. I had two great mentors (shoutout to Marlys and John) who humored my curiosity, provided a great learning environment, and introduced me to music librarianship as a career path.
ASN: You recently completed your MLIS (while working full-time!)—can you give me an overview of the program? What were your favorite classes?
MR: Through my degree program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, there were four core classes that were required for a general MLIS. Core classes were altered slightly for those in more specialized tracks, like MLIS with an Archives Concentration or School Media Specialization. These foundational classes covered the broader topics of Information: creation, organization, retrieval, consumption, learning, interpretation, use and misuse, dissemination, evaluation, etc. My favorite from those was Information Organization—basically a whole class on taxonomies. I like visualizing where certain subjects or terms nest under certain categories, and it also helps with Information Architecture (how to structure classifications in ways that make sense).
We also had to take a variety of electives within the School of Information Science to fulfill the rest of our credits. I took classes in metadata, archives, library management, and a specified course for Music Librarianship. While that last one was my favorite, I must mention that I also created my own independent study on Music Cataloging—a topic that was only slightly covered in the Music Librarianship class. I saw that there weren’t any courses devoted to this, so I worked with a professor to make a curriculum that satisfied my needs and would set me up well professionally. For those who don’t know, music cataloging is very different from general cataloging in other subjects, requires extensive knowledge in music, deals with a ton of various formats, and has many idiosyncrasies to remember. I’m really grateful for thinking of this workaround because I need to catalog a bunch for my job. I definitely recommend students do something similar if they notice a gap in their program’s curriculum.
ASN: What tips do you have for someone who might be interested in pursuing this career?
MR: Most positions require an advanced degree in music in addition to the Master’s in Library Science; depending on where you are in your academic career, consider library schools that offer a dual degree program or those that require less credit hours for degree completion.
If you’re currently attending college, befriend your institution’s music librarian(s) and ask them questions and maybe shadow them.
Make time to work or volunteer at any kind of library, even for just a few hours every week. Basic jobs like shelving or helping with storytime give you a sense of the general flow and environment of what happens behind the scenes. Admissions and recruiters want to see practical library experience reflected in your resume.
If finances allow, consider joining the Music Library Association (MLA), our national professional organization. There are various membership rates, including student, paraprofessional, and one for emergency circumstances. MLA has a breadth of resources available to members as well as an active listserv where you can connect with all sorts of music librarians.
If finances do not allow, there is an interest group under MLA called Music Library Students & Emerging Professionals (MLStEP); membership to this subgroup is free and meant for not only students and early career folks, but also transient populations (like people who are somewhat interested in music librarianship but don’t want to spend money on membership dues). MLStEP can provide some resources and community as you are figuring out if music librarianship is part of your path. MLStEP is also a good stepping stone to MLA once you feel comfortable and committed to learning more about the profession.
ASN: What do you like to do outside of work? How do you unwind?
MR: I dote on my two senior cats, watch tv series and video essays with my spouse, and- recently- trying to learn accordion.