The RILM International Center in New York City serves as the organizational hub for the world’s largest music bibliography. One of its strengths is its diverse team of experts, representing various disciplines, languages, and geographic regions. The staff includes music specialists from countries across the globe, many of whom hold doctoral degrees, and are multilingual and are actively involved in a wide range of musical activities.
Bibliographic records are received at the International Center in various formats. Some are entered directly by international committee members into RILM’s custom-built bibliographic database, iBis (Internet Bibliographic Indexing System), or sent in other forms, such as paper, specially tagged digital flat files, or MARC-formatted records downloaded from library catalogs. In some cases, authors can also submit records for their publications via RILM’s online submission forms. RILM also has access to several hundred music journals, either through print copies delivered to the International Center or via online repositories. The journals are reviewed at the office, and relevant materials are accessed into the bibliographic database.
RILM’s editorial staff consists of Assistant Editors and Editors. Assistant Editors are responsible for verifying the accuracy of bibliographic information in records created by RILM committees and submitted by authors. They also enter new records from journals and books sent to the office. Editors focus on bibliographic records that have already been accessed, writing abstracts when necessary, translating abstracts received in other languages, and adding appropriate indexing. Both Assistant Editors and Editors adhere to highly detailed standards, ensuring a thorough verification process for all names, institutions, dates, and concepts included in the records.
About one-third of the records are submitted by RILM’s national committees and authors, while two-thirds are produced at the International Center. The largest musicological outputs come from China, the U.S., Germany, and Russia. Chinese and Russian records are especially complex due to the need for bilingual information and varying transliterations of personal and institutional names in non-Roman scripts.
