About

Digital Libraries for Musicology – DLfM – exists most obviously at the intersection of digital library and musicology research, but also encompasses computer science, library and information science, digital humanities, Music Information Retrieval, alongside digital practice in music collections of cultural institutions. It was established as a workshop by Kevin Page and Ben Fields following their work on interdisciplinary approaches to digital musicology during the AHRC-funded Transforming Musicology project. The first event was co-located with the 2014 Digital Libraries conference in London (itself a joint Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) and Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries  (TPDL) event!). After the success of the initial edition confirmed community interest and support for such an event, DLfM continued as a workshop associated with JCDL in 2015, before co-locating with the International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) from 2016. As contributions matured and the programme became more oriented around presented papers, DLfM transitioned to become a single-day conference in 2018, when it also began publishing Open Access proceedings. In response to community feedback, and to remain true to its interdisciplinary roots, in 2021 the DLfM Steering Committee decided to alternate co-location between ISMIR and the conference of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML).

DLfM is a conference of modest size, run each year by a core triumvirate of General Chair, Programme Chair, and Local Chair. DLfM operates a relatively unusual two-year period of service, where each year a new Programme Chair is appointed and guided by a General Chair, who was themself Programme Chair in the previous year. This arrangement is intended to provide reassurance to the new Programme Chair that institutional knowledge and experience is available and will be passed on; and to allow DLfM to support early career researchers as Programme Chairs.

DLfM has a website, hosted at the University of Oxford, and available at: https://dlfm.web.ox.ac.uk/
The website includes an archive of past editions, including the CfPs and programmes. Editing access to this site is given to the Programme Chair and Proceedings Chair; it is expected this website will continue to host future editions of DLfM.

General Chair

The General Chair position is expected to be filled by the previous year’s Programme Chair in normal circumstances. Responsibilities of the General Chair include:

• Appointing the Programme Chair, in consultation with the Steering Committee
• Identifying the conference venue and appointing the Local Chair, in consultation with the Programme Chair
• Selecting the conference date and setting the conference organisational timetable accordingly, in consultation with the Programme Chair
• Assist the Programme Chair and Local Chair in finalising the conference budget and setting registration fees

Programme Chair

The Programme Chair is the primary position of responsibility in organising DLfM. The Programme Chair should be chosen from the community, and be a well represented author in previous DLfM proceedings. The position is, in effect, a two year commitment, since the Programme Chair is expected to serve as the General Chair in the subsequent year. This arrangement provides continuity in the running of the conference, while encouraging the emergence of new leadership from within the community. Responsibilities of the Programme Chair include:

• Identifying the conference venue and appointing the Local Chair, in consultation with the General Chair
• Selecting the conference date and setting the conference organisational timetable accordingly, in consultation with the General Chair
• Appointing the Proceedings Chair
• Applying to the proceedings publisher (e.g. ACM for ICPS)
• Appointing the Programme Committee
• Write the Call for Papers
• Apply for a submission management system (e.g. easychair)
• Configure the submission management system (e.g. easychair) and open it for submissions
• Offer a deadline extension as required and fairly: universally to all authors; with sufficient warning to be helpful (~5 days before published deadline)
• Allocate members of the Programme Committee as reviewers of submitted papers
• Manage the review process and submission of review by the Programme Committee, including management of late and ‘emergency’ reviews
• Ultimate responsibility for acceptance decisions based on reviews and according to time available in the conference schedule
• Notify authors of acceptance or rejection
• In consultation with the Local Chair and General Chair, and with knowledge of the number of acceptances, finalise the conference budget and set registration fees
• Allocate papers to thematic sessions and timetable the conference programme for publication
• Write the Chair’s Welcome for the proceedings
• Assign session chairs for the conference day

The Programme Chair is not expected to author any peer-reviewed submissions to the conference in the year for which they are Programme Chair. There is no expectation of this restriction applying to any of the other organisational roles (Local Chair, Proceedings Chair, General Chair) submitting papers to the conference, since they should not be given privileged access to the chosen submission management system.

Local Chair

The Local Chair (or Chairs) are to be appointed by the General Chair and Programme Chair to manage the local organisation of the conference, including the venue, registration, and catering. Responsibilities of the Local Chair include:

• Arrange a physical venue for the DLfM conference
• Arrange any virtual or hybrid provision for the DLfM conference event
• In consultation with the Programme Chair and General Chair, finalise the conference budget and set registration fees
• Operate registration for the conference (unless the Programme Chair wishes to make alternative arrangements)
• Arranging catering and name badges for conference attendees
• Timely payment of publisher fees using registrations (coordinated by Proceedings Chair)

Proceedings Chair

The Proceedings Chair is appointed by the Programme Chair to manage publicity, distribution of the CfP, and production of the conference proceedings (in close co-operation with the Programme Chair). Responsibilities of the Proceedings Chair include:

• Circulating and publicising the Call for Papers (multiple calls)
• Manage the submission of camera ready versions of accepted papers (e.g. via  easychair)
• Publish the conference programme and details of registration on the DLfM website
• Quality assurance of camera ready submissions, liaising with the publisher (e.g. ACM) for final upload of proceedings including preparation of front matter (table of contents etc.) and copyright assignments from authors
• Checking all papers have at least one registered author before inclusion in the proceedings
• Coordinate payment of fees to publisher for on-time production of proceedings (fees paid from registrations collected by the Local Chair)

Steering Committee

Membership of the DLfM Steering Committee is open to all previous General Chairs (who wish to remain Steering Committee members). The Steering Committee are consulted in selection of the Programme Chair, and remain on hand to offer advice and experience to the Programme Chair, General Chair, and Local Chair.

Current (2023) members of the DLfM Steering Committee are:

• Claire Arthur (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• David Lewis (Goldsmiths University of London)
• Kevin Page (University of Oxford)
• David Rizo (Universidad de Alicante)

Programme Committee

The Programme Committee is appointed by the Programme Chair to review the submissions, and should be of sufficient size to peer review the expected number of submissions (e,g, 30 full and short submissions in 2018, plus challenge papers and posters). The Programme Committee should be formed of community members who have actively engaged with DLfM as authors and/or attendees. Programme Committee members should be expected to review 3-4 papers each, and should be given a minimum of 1 month to complete their reviews. It is recommended that this period be extended if it falls over a holiday period. The Programme Chair and General Chair are not expected to act directly as reviewers. The Local Chair and Proceedings Chair may be members of the Programme Committee.