Advertise on ChoralNet
Choral Music Database/LibraryDate: June 12, 2009 by Tina Schwahn
 I am looking to consolidate the high school choral music libraries in our district into some sort of online database. Any suggestions on what software programs there are out there or other ideas on where to start would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks! Tina Replies (5): Threaded | Chronological
Tom Tropp on June 12, 2009 12:53pm
When I was teaching high school, we subscribed to the Charms system (www.charmsmusic.com), and I absolutely loved it. I highly recommend checking them out.
Tom Tropp
Northwestern University
Tina Schwahn on June 12, 2009 5:28pm
Thanks Tom. I just found them when I was doing some digging, and it looks really great. However, in contacting the head of music for our district, I just found out that our administration is coming up with a district-wide home grown solution, so I'm off the hook.
Thanks for your input though.
Tina
John Howell on June 13, 2009 11:17am
Hi, Tina. Just a couple of questions.
First, when you say "online database," is that what you really mean, rather than just a "computerized database"? It seems to me that storing your data somewhere out there in cyberspace is putting yourself in the hands of someone who may or may not still be in business in a year, a month, or an hour!
Second, be careful about any "all-purpose" district-wide solution, since it's all too likely to turn out to be a simple (or complicated!) inventory system that will not give you the specific fields you'll want to have in order to manage and really USE a choral library database. Anything promoted as "all-purpose," whether it's a particular microphone or a cafegymatoranasium, usually means that it is actually ideal for NO purpose!
Our Music Department adopted Filemaker Pro many years ago for our choral, instrumental, and musical instrument inventories. The disadvantage to a generic database is that you have to set it up and customize it for your own use. The advantage is that you CAN customize it!
And there's also the inevitable problem of losing access to your data in case of a change of platform (Mac or Windows) or a change or major upgrade of your program. That's something that might be less a problem in a school, but has been a major problem for community ensembles when one librarian tries to turn over the database to the next librarian--who has entirely different hardware and software.
The bottom line is that in SOME CASES you may be better off building your own private database, unless you have very generous technical help available to help you deal with a districtl-wide program.
John
on October 21, 2009 8:52am
Hi - I've written a web-based sheet-music cataloguing system which is currently used by a number of groups around the world. The system is designed to be entirely flexible so you can use for sheet music for any type of ensemble. So far it's mostly being used by bands and orchestras, but it would work fine with choral parts too. The largest user is an Area Music Authority in Britain - they have over 2,500 pieces listed.
I'm happy to offer this service free of charge to any choir that would like to make use of it and offer me some advice on how it might be best configured for use by choirs too (my musical background is as band / orchestral player). If anyone's interested, please contact me through the email link on the website : www.musiclibrarian.net You can also download the userguide from there if you want to find out more details about the system.
on November 3, 2010 1:38pm
Chris,
Can you help me? I am taking database 110 and need to do a project on church choir music database. It is causing me a lot of stress because I don't know how to do it. Can you provide me with some information about your database - entities, relationships, etc. My database doesn't have to be a large one, but it is specific to church choir music.
Many thanks for any help.
Regards,
Lyn Merritt
North Carolina
|
Help support ChoralNet by buying via these links
|
