USING THE SPIRITUALS DATABASE A Presentation by Randye Jones American Music Roundtable Music Library Association Conference March 5, 2016

■Launched in March, 2015, using Omeka open source web-publishing platform ■Searchable access to recorded track information for over 4,000 (as of 2/27/16) Negro Spiritual settings performed by solo Classical vocalists – URL ■Tracks from commercially produced compact discs, long-playing (33 1/3 rpm) albums, 78 rpm records, 45 rpm discs and audio cassettes, as well as demonstration recordings from musical score collections of Spirituals. Does not include tracks available solely electronically ■Primarily for singers/teachers/accompanists with a wide range of knowledge--from beginner to expert--about Spirituals and searching

Opening Page Basic and Advanced Search access Links to additional information/contact pages Images of albums with tracks in database

Pages on Site Direct link to advanced search Description of simple and advanced search options Explanation of what site is about, features of the site, and info about site creator Historical information about development of Spiritual art song Print and online resources Contact form

Searching for the record using dialect Decide what terms to input ■My Lord what a morning ■Ma Lawd whata mo’nin’ ■O Law’ wha ta morn’

The initial results are formatted in a list showing the number of items found on how many pages, the song titles and pictures of the album covers, if they are available in the database:

Results detail song title, song’s composer(s) [i.e., creator], singer(s) [i.e., contributor] and singer’s voice type, album (alternative) title, publisher, release date, recording format, accompanying forces, image of recording cover or label and citation. Each link searchable

Advanced Search Options One option for a more advanced search is the “Search Item Facets” list located near the bottom of each individual item record. Check beside one or more elements listed to conduct a new search, check those selections and click “Find:”

The results can be sorted by title, creator (composer), or date added to database ■Started adding tags with seasonal or Old and New Testament Biblical books ■Discontinued temporarily

Select tabs at the top of the form to "Browse All," "Browse by Tag" or “Search Item” in the database. The "Browse by Tag" tab leads to a display of links for all tags currently in use.

Another advanced search option is available from this screen by clicking the "Search Items" tab. The keyword search can be narrowed to specific fields and further qualified or filtered by selecting from several options and clicking the "Search for items" button at the bottom of the screen.

To the left of this and the other advanced search screens is a search box that allows keyword, Boolean, and exact match searches. Above that box is a link to browse all of the items in the database, and the "Home" link to return to The Spiritual Database's opening page

Link to the NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) Hall Johnson Spirituals Competition Repertoire collection

Challenges Encountered in Development of Site ■Had to learn how to use Omeka (ongoing process), including which features perform the different search and display operations desired ■Continuously evaluate whether a feature is potentially beneficial to intended constituency to be worth effort to bring feature “online” ■Find new sources for tracks that meet the site’s criteria and discover new ways of searching old sources for information and images previously not found in earlier searches

Plans for continuing development of The Spirituals Database ■Still learning how to work with Omeka ■Add new entries to the database ■Listen to recordings to assess usage of dialect ■Listen to recordings to identify composers where not indicated ■Develop discography for print publication

Questions? Randye Jones PO Box 281, Grinnell, IA Phone: