Rebecca Belford

  • Head of Technical Services, Conservatory Library

Education

  • MA, musicology, University at Buffalo, 2008
  • MLS, University at Buffalo, 2007
  • AB, philosophy, Vassar College, 2001

Biography

Rebecca Belford joined the Oberlin College Libraries in 2018 as technical services librarian in the Conservatory Library. Current responsibilities include music cataloging and authorities work, leading the team responsible for cataloging and materials processing, and working to improve discovery and access to library resources in partnership with colleagues in public services and throughout the Oberlin College Libraries. Immediately prior, she was head of shared cataloging and special formats metadata at Brown University. From 2010 to 2017, Rebecca was music  cataloger/reference librarian at the music library at the University at Buffalo, where she also served as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Library and Information Studies.

Professional service includes chairing the vocabularies subcommittee of the Cataloging and Metadata Committee in the Music Library Association, and serving as the reference, discovery, and collections coordinator for MOUG (Music OCLC Users Group). Additional accomplishments include serving on MLA’s Music Discovery Requirements Task Force and the 2015-16 joint MLA-MOUG OCLC Search and Discovery Task Force. Closer to home, she has served on the board of NOTSL (Northern Ohio Technical Services Librarians). She has presented on music cataloging, music in library discovery tools, collection development, and music librarianship education regionally and nationally including at MLA, MOUG, and NASIG, with publications appearing in Notes, College Music Symposium, and Library Resources & Technical Services.