Marion Carnegie Library recently had a large collection of scores, plays, operas, and more donated by a former local choir director to the library. The items range from the complete score for the musical Cats to Heigh-Ho Holly, seen below, a Christmas operetta from the 1940s. They contacted the Cataloging Maintenance Center (CMC) to catalog this special collection and began sending boxes of items shortly after.

An example of an item cataloged for Marion Carnegie Library includes the score for the song Fifty Nifty United States, seen below, which was published in 1962 by Shawnee Press. When I saw this item come across my desk, I had a lot of elementary school nostalgia surface and was excited to find out that I still remember all the words!

Some of the more recent items cataloged include Christmas plays and operettas like Merry Christmas, shown to the right, which was published by C.C. Birchard & Co. in 1937. This operetta not only includes a script for the actors but also notated music for the songs that would be sung by either a soloist or the ensemble. We at the CMC are excited to see other items that we will be cataloging for this collection in the future!

Do you have a special collection that you need cataloged? Contact the Cataloging Maintenance Center about this free service and see if your items qualify at cmc@illinoisheartland.org!