Where Do They Look?: Music Information Seeking Behavior in the Digital Age

Abstract

Presentation given at the Music Library Association annual conference, February 24, 2017, Orlando, Florida. Discovering new musical works is an important activity for musicians. The increasing proliferation of online tools for music discovery has implications for the information seeking behavior of today’s music library users. Many students and faculty have grown accustomed to the ready access provided by websites such as YouTube and the International Music Score Library Project. How does the online environment shape the information seeking behavior of current music library users? How do students and faculty discover new musical works they didn't know about before, and what is the music library’s role in this process? Ms. Newcomer will share the results of her case study investigating factors that shape music students’ source choices. By the end of this session, attendees will have a better sense of the information seeking behaviors of the music library users they work with. Attendees will leave with ideas for ways to respond to these behaviors, which have the potential to impact a wide array of music library services, from collection development and systems support to reference and instruction.