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Flourish Music Metadata Solutions


History

Flourish Music Contract Cataloging was founded in Tucson, Arizona in 1997 by Fern Hieb. She has degrees from Simmons College, Boston (MSLIS 1990, with emphasis on music cataloging) and from Washington University, St. Louis (M.M. in organ performance, 1970). In addition to an ongoing career as a professional organist, Ms. Hieb has held professional library positions at the University of Arizona Music Library, Winthrop University, and the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University.

In 2015, Hieb handed off the reins of the company to Music Metadata Solutions LLC, a partnership of three long-time Flourish catalogers. In 2017, they rebranded the company as Flourish Music Metadata Solutions, in recognition of both their tradition of high-quality service and their dedication to serving clients' needs with both current and emerging metadata formats.

  • Casey Mullin, Managing Partner
    • Casey Mullin holds an MLS from Indiana University-Bloomington and a BMus in viola performance from Western Washington University. He served as chair of the Music Library Association's Vocabularies Subcommittee and as a member of its Genre/Form Task Force. His work in these endeavors has included contributions to the music portion of the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials (LCGFT), the Library of Congress Thesaurus of Medium of Performance Terms (LCMPT), and best practices documents for both thesauri. He was also chair of the MLA RDA Music Implementation Task Force, which authored the document Best Practices for Music Cataloging Using RDA and MARC21. Casey also served as the Chair of the Music OCLC Users Group. Casey has been a Flourish cataloger since 2011, and also currently serves as Head of Cataloging and Metadata Services at Western Washington University. Previously, he was Music Cataloger for the New York Public Library and Head of the Data Control Unit in the Metadata Department of the Stanford University Libraries.
  • Wendy Schlegel
    • Wendy Schlegel, MLS, is Principal Catalog Librarian at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri where she catalogs in all formats with an emphasis on music materials. She is a NACO librarian and OCLC Enhance participant in the sound recording format. Before coming to Webster University she worked at St. Louis Public Library and Washington University in St. Louis' main and music libraries. She has been with Flourish since 2007. Off the clock, Wendy enjoys St. Louis' culinary scene and hiking.
  • Terry Simpkins
    • Terry Simpkins has been a music cataloger for almost 20 years, and is currently Director of Discovery and Access Services at Middlebury College in Vermont. He holds a MLS from the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana, a MM in organ performance from Westminster Choir College, and a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to organ, Terry is an active drummer and ragtime/novelty pianist.

The subcontractors engaged by Flourish all have substantial music cataloging experience. They are carefully recruited, with an emphasis on music cataloging education/experience, language skills, and work efficiency.

Client Portfolio Includes

  • Arizona State University
  • Baylor University Libraries
  • Colby College
  • Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University
  • Emory University
  • Greenwich Library
  • Illinois State University
  • King County Library System
  • Saint Louis Public Library
  • Stanford University Music Library
  • Tufts University
  • Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University
  • University of Arizona
  • University of Nevada Las Vegas
  • University of North Texas
  • University of Utah
  • Vanderbilt University
  • Washington University in Saint Louis

Client Testimonials

"I highly value the solid reliability that Flourish has given in top-notch cataloging and excellent service."

Jeannette Thompson, Assistant Head of Cataloging and Metadata (retired)
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University

"You all have done an incredible, exemplary job of cataloging the Spencer Sheet Music Collection! I don’t think in our wildest dreams when we were contemplating outsourcing the cataloging of the collection that the quality of the cataloging by whoever we chose would be as high as it has been with you all."

Bruce Evans, Assistant Director for Library Collections Services (Cataloging & Metadata)
Baylor University Libraries