Experiences of Managing Indigenous Australian Music Metadata in Large Institutional Collections

Library and archival staff in Australia face issues when managing the metadata of their Indigenous music collections. Common standards such as MARC and Dublin Core struggle to accommodate the complexities inherent in describing and making accessible Indigenous music material. This risks losing interoperability with other systems, which can also influence a collection’s accessibility. This article explores contemporary issues faced by Australian collection staff when managing the metadata of their Indigenous music material. It suggests that no single metadata or transmission standard currently in existence can appropriately describe all Indigenous music material, and a collection manager’s choice of standard(s) is often informed by the held material. The choice of standard(s) also affects a collection’s accessibility and interoperability. This article identifies current challenges that will need to be addressed by the libraries and archives sector to improve the accessibility of Indigenous music material, including appropriate description of Indigenous languages, cultural sensitivities and access protocols. These challenges present obstacles for Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC) in libraries and question whether UBC is compatible with certain types of Indigenous cultural heritage material. In doing so, it contributes to the intersections of musicology/ethnomusicology, Australian Indigenous studies, library and information science and archival studies.