Andrew Hankinson

Introduction to SIMSSA (Single Interface for Music Score Searching and Analysis)

Musical scores are the central resource for musicological research. Our project, Single Interface for Music Score Searching and Analysis (SIMSSA), targets digitized music scores to design a global infrastructure for searching and analyzing music scores. Specifically, we seek to provide researchers, musicians, and others to access the contents and metadata of a large number of scores in a searchable, digital format. During the project, we will be developing prototypes for processing and accessing the scores by consulting closely music researchers and librarians.

Creating a large-scale searchable digital collection from printed music materials

In this paper we present our work towards developing a large-scale web application for digitizing, recognizing (via optical music recognition), correcting, displaying, and searching printed music texts. We present the results of a recently completed prototype implementation of our workflow process, from document capture to presentation on the web. We discuss a number of lessons learned from this prototype. Finally, we present some open-source Web 2.0 tools developed to provide essential infrastructure components for making searchable printed music collections available online. Our hope is that these experiences and tools will help in creating next-generation globally accessible digital music libraries.

Digital preservation and access strategies for musical heritage: the Swiss RISM experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a new web‐based cataloguing system for the global music bibliography project, Repertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), and discuss the implications for the manipulation and discovery of musical heritage materials.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is designed to illustrate the workflow and tools used in creating a global musical catalogue, and to present the experiences of the Swiss RISM working group in developing new tools and re‐thinking traditional music bibliography tools.Findings – The new tools developed present a further decrease in latency between source cataloguing and availability to users by integrating both the cataloguing and exploration interfaces into a single web application.Research limitations/implications – For music researchers, the opportunity to search and manipulate a global musical source database opens up new possibilities for data‐driven computational musicology and analysis.Originality/value – This paper repor...