The Northeast Ohio Music Initiative:
Building a Regional Music Collection
for the Hiram College Library

The Northeast Ohio Music Initiative is a fancy name for a project begun in 2006, with support from the Friends of the Hiram College Library, to develop a significant collection of local and regional music for the Hiram College Library.  We hope to make it a continuous and permanent part of our efforts to strengthen our music collection and our ties to the surrounding community.  Our goal is to have one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Northeast Ohio recordings available.

There are many purposes behind NEOMI:

• To highlight the importance of the region for American music by making more Northeast Ohio artists available to our students, faculty, and staff, for study and pleasure listening
• To collect materials that may go otherwise uncollected by other libraries, and make them available to our campus and the wider OhioLINK community
• To heighten awareness among students of the musical heritage and contemporary musical landscape of Northeast Ohio
• To use music to reduce the perception students often have of being isolated from the various "music scenes" around us
• To support the curriculum of the Music Department, and strengthen Hiram's regional studies capabilities
• To heighten awareness of Hiram College in the Northeast Ohio music community

All genres of music are collected under the NEOMI umbrella, including classical, jazz, pop, rock, hip-hop, folk, country, bluegrass, blues, gospel, polka, choral, and any other style one might contemplate.  These recordings are integrated into the regular Music CD collection, organized by broad genres, but NEOMI CDs are identifiable through their designation in the Library's catalog (Click here for a complete listing of NEOMI CDs in the collection.)

Funding
NEOMI was started as a one-year funded project through the Hiram College Friends of the Library, which allocated $2,500 for purchases.  This has subsequently been supplemented by a promotional plan to trade Northeast Ohio musicians their CDs for Hiram College t-shirts.  This project was funded through the office of the Vice President for Institutional Advancement.  We are currently exploring additional avenues for funding.  In addition, any CD donations that have come to the Library that fall within the NEOMI sphere have been added to the collection.

The Hiram College Library is inviting Northeast Ohio musicians and fans the chance to swap a Hiram College t-shirt for their CD. We are trying to increase our collection of local music in all styles, including bluegrass, country, rock, pop, folk, jazz, gospel, blues, polka, and just about anything else you can think of. Everybody wins, because you get a t-shirt and a chance to tap a new audience, while we get to grow our collection. Interested? Contact Jeff Wanser at the Hiram College Library, wanserjc@hiram.edu, or at MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/wanserjc.

Initial results for the project have been quite positive.  Students have been surprised and please to find local music in our collection.  Also, several Northeast Ohio musicians have commented enthusiastically about our efforts to support local music.  We have a presence on MySpace, with which we network with area musicians and music-related organizations, and are exploring other avenues for promotion and support.

Donations of either funds to support this project, or music CDs are gratefully appreciated.  Please contact Jeff Wanser, wanserjc@hiram.edu for further details.