This is the second post in a series offering advice on the practice of knowledge management. In each post, I answer questions posed to me as if I were a mentor. If you would like to submit questions for me to answer in this series, please send them to stangarfield@gmail.com.
The Scenario: Building a Library and KM Program for a Music Festival
I received the following message:
“I just graduated with my MLS and have a one-year paid internship with a seasonal music festival. The Executive Director comes from a management consulting background and believes that having a library and a KM program would be a valuable differentiator for us. I was hired to get things started.
He wants me to develop something that can be replicated by other music festivals, thus building our reputation. I’ve only got one year to get this done, so I would like to know:
- Where do I start?
- What should I prioritize?
- What kind of support do I need and from whom?”
Recommendations for Starting a Music Festival KM Program
Here is my advice for a new music festival librarian looking to build a KM program from the ground up.
Where Should I Start?
You already know something about libraries, so start by learning about music festivals and how knowledge management has been used to support them. Ask a GenAI tool such as Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude to recommend relevant sites, publications, and other content. Read as much as possible.
Using the resources listed in the appendix below, search for others doing work similar to yours. Talk to them about what they are doing, what has worked, and what they recommend avoiding. When you find someone who has done good work, is generous about sharing their experience with you, and with whom you click, ask them to be your mentor.
Reflect on what you have read and heard, and then apply your own thinking. What should you attempt to replicate? What would you like to try that is new and innovative? What is your vision for what you would like to achieve by the end of your internship?
Create a list of three initial projects and review it with the Executive Director. Tweak it as necessary and then develop an implementation plan.
What Should I Prioritize?
Select projects that:
- have succeeded at other music festivals or comparable cultural organizations
- are feasible given your resources, budget, and time constraints
- you feel confident in implementing successfully
The projects you select should positively impact your festival’s:
- long-term brand
- cultural legacy
- value to researchers
Projects to consider include:
- curating institutional memory
- annotating performances
- preserving repertoire history
- storing production documentation
- digitizing past performances
What Kind of Support Do I Need, and From Whom?
In addition to the support of your Executive Director, you should develop strong working relationships with the colleagues and teams responsible for:
- Music and Artistic Programming: Provide background on performers, composers, and works; help annotate performances; and advise on what to preserve.
- Booking and Scheduling: Keep you informed about who will be performing and when they will perform.
- Marketing and Social Media: Provide content to you and use the materials you curate.
- Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence: Acquire, develop, and integrate software.
- Audiovisual and Production: Provide recordings and documentation.
- Legal and Information Security: Help secure digital rights and advise on legal and security matters.
Seek opportunities to collaborate with universities, music academies, national archives, museums, digital preservation labs, and other festivals. Professional communities, online discussions, conference contacts, and mentors can also provide ongoing guidance, examples, and practical support.
Most importantly, identify internal champions who understand the program’s value and can help secure cooperation from across the festival. A KM initiative will be difficult to sustain if employees view it solely as the librarian’s responsibility.
Opportunities and Challenges for Music Festival Knowledge Management
Music festivals generate valuable cultural, operational, and historical knowledge, but much of it is temporary, dispersed, or difficult to preserve. The following issues should inform the design of a festival library and KM program.
1. Capturing Ephemeral Knowledge
Music festivals generate large volumes of temporary content, including:
- setlists
- posters
- schedules
- livestreams
- social media posts
- backstage documents
- artist interviews
- fan-created media
- production notes
Much of this material can disappear quickly after the event ends. Festival librarians must determine how to preserve materials before they vanish, collect undocumented cultural moments, and decide what is historically valuable.
A basic collecting policy can help define what the festival will preserve, who is responsible for submitting materials, and when those transfers should occur.
2. Navigating Copyright and Licensing Complexity
Festival-related content often involves overlapping rights, including:
- music publishing
- live performance rights
- photography rights
- broadcast rights
- sponsor ownership
- artist contracts
- fan-generated content
For example, a music festival librarian may not legally be able to archive or share recorded performances, rehearsal footage, livestreams, or artist materials.
Work closely with legal advisors and festival leadership to document ownership, permissions, restrictions, and retention requirements.
3. Preserving Born-Digital Materials
Many festival assets are born digital and fragile:
- cloud files
- files created with proprietary production software
- social media content
- ticketing databases
- livestream recordings
- digital photographs
Challenges include:
- format obsolescence
- corrupted media
- disappearing platforms
- metadata inconsistency
- storage costs for large video and audio files
A sustainable program will need documented file-transfer procedures, backup practices, retention schedules, format guidance, and clearly assigned responsibilities.
4. Improving Metadata and Discoverability
Music festivals produce chaotic information that spans many departments and systems. Different teams may use inconsistent naming conventions for:
- artists
- stages
- performances
- recordings
- schedules
As a result, music festival librarians may need to devote significant effort to metadata cleanup, taxonomy design, linked data, and standardization.
Begin with a manageable metadata framework that reflects how festival employees and researchers are likely to search. Consistency and usability are more important than creating an overly complex schema that staff cannot maintain.
5. Preserving Cultural Context
A festival is more than a collection of performances. Librarians increasingly also preserve:
- community experiences
- activism
- fashion
- fan culture
- visual identity
- oral histories
- social impact
Preserving this wider context can make the collection more useful to researchers and provide a fuller account of the festival’s significance.
6. Managing AI-Generated Content and Authenticity
Festivals increasingly use AI for a growing range of purposes, including:
- promotional artwork
- synthetic visuals
- automated recaps
- voice cloning
- AI-generated music collaborations
- translations and captions
Librarians now face questions like:
- What counts as an “authentic” performance artifact?
- How should AI-generated material be labeled?
- Should synthetic artist performances be archived differently?
- How do you verify provenance?
Develop policies for identifying AI-generated or AI-assisted materials and documenting how they were created. Preserving provenance will be essential for future interpretation and research.
7. Supporting Real-Time Information Management During Events
Some festival librarians also support live operational knowledge. They may manage:
- internal documentation
- production records
- artist schedules
- emergency information
- historical operational data
- vendor and venue information
Challenges include:
- rapidly changing schedules
- inconsistent communication systems
- coordinating across many vendors and teams
- maintaining access during fast-moving or emergency situations
Separate operational information that must be kept current from archival records preserved for long-term use. Version control, ownership, and reliable communication channels are particularly important during an active festival.
8. Building Community Trust Through Ethical Archiving
Not every artist or community wants permanent preservation. Librarians must navigate:
- consent
- cultural sensitivity
- artist control
- fan privacy
- access restrictions
Questions include:
- Should all fan content be archived?
- Should undocumented backstage materials become public?
- Who owns oral histories from community participants?
Establish transparent consent, access, and takedown practices, and consult the people and communities represented in the collection whenever possible.
9. Scale of Multimedia Collections
Music festivals produce enormous audiovisual collections:
- multitrack recordings
- drone footage
- stage visuals
- 4K/8K video
- immersive AR/VR content
- spatial audio
Managing these collections requires high-performance storage, indexing systems, transcoding workflows, and long-term digital preservation infrastructure.
Because preserving everything is unlikely to be feasible, establish selection criteria based on historical significance, uniqueness, rights, expected use, and preservation cost.
10. Strengthening the Festival’s Brand and Legacy
A well-designed library and KM program can turn archival knowledge into an enduring organizational asset. Historical materials can support:
- anniversary campaigns
- exhibitions and publications
- educational programming
- artist and audience engagement
- fundraising and sponsorship
- research partnerships
- documentaries and media projects
- future festival planning
Treat archival knowledge as part of the festival’s long-term brand, creating a cultural legacy and valuable content for research.
Appendix: Professional Resources
The following organizations, communities, discussion groups, and conferences may help you connect with music librarians, archivists, audiovisual specialists, and knowledge management practitioners.
Professional Communities
- MOLA: An Association of Music Performance Librarians
- MLA: Music Library Association (national)
- IAML: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres
- SAA: Society of American Archivists
- AMIA: Association of Moving Image Archivists
- SIKM Leaders Community (knowledge management)
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