Mission Statement
The mission of the Rock & Roll Library is to find, document, preserve and
archive any and all relevant and correct information about popular music and
its components - including performing artists, writers, song lyrics, social
significance, subject and popularity - beginning with the 20th Century, as well
as promote music education and the use of popular music in the classroom.
The information gathered by the Rock & Roll Library is available free of
charge and housed at www.Rocklibrary.com. This is made possible by the generous
contributions of member and sponsor donations as well as the time, effort and
skills of numerous volunteers and college interns.
Who
The Rock & Roll Library is a non-profit organization working to build the
world's largest music information archive while promoting the use of popular
music in education. The Rock & Roll Library is an interactive resource
created by and for all music fans to access information on any artist. The
official Web site of the Rock & Roll Library, www.Rocklibrary.com, will
serve as a free resource and home to our Internet community, Teacher Resource
Center, Musc Archive Database and Fundraising/Membership Center.
What
Everyday, the Rock & Roll Library works with its community partners to help
provide the public with the necessary educational information, tools and
resources about popular music.
This includes the Rock & Roll Library Music Archive Database. The Music
Archive Database allows music fans the ability to look up a multitude of
information about any artist. This information includes but is not limited to
biographies, discographies, album liner notes, complete album track listings
and song lyrics, as well as artistic endeavors, foundations and charities
supported by the artist, and books and movies both by and about artists and the
music industry.
The Music Archive Database will serve as the most accurate and comprehensive
music information reference on the world wide web providing consistent and
reliable music information to a global audience as well as function as a
valuable resource to the entire music industry, RRL education programs, music
education, music history research as well as enhance the Rock & Roll
Library brand. The RRL continues to pursue corporate sponsors and strategic
partners (corporations or educational institutions) to complete construction of
the Music Archive database.
The Rock & Roll Library is dedicated to integrating popular music and
education. The Rock & Roll Library focuses on supplying teachers with the
educational accouterments to integrate popular music into the classroom. The
Official Web site, www.Rocklibrary.com provides these resources to educators.
They include free lesson plans, free research and reference email service for
educators using popular music in the classroom, the Songs Index(c) a powerful
tool for educators which sorts songs by subject and topic and provides a brief
description of the issues addressd by the lyrics, book and movie references,
links to other educational sites, and message boards.
The Education Department also holds two different original lesson plan contests
to generate new lessons for Rocklibrary.com. The Annual Lesson Contest is an
open contest accepting lessons that integrate any song into any academic area
of study on any topic (ie: English Poetry, History Civil War, Health Alcohol
Abuse, Math Rapping with (Rhythm of) Fractions). The Song Lesson Contest is
based on a RRL selected theme song and accepts lesson on any subject and topic
but must include the selected theme song. The theme of the first contest is
"Scarecrow" by Melissa Etheridge. The winner will receive a school visit from
the RRL and Melissa Etheridge Spring 2002.The Song Lesson Contest is based on a
RRL selected theme song and accepts lessons on any subject and topic but must
include the theme song.
The selected theme of the first Song Lesson Contest was "Scarecrow" by Melissa
Etheridge, a piece about the death of gay Wyoming college student, Matthew
Shepard. Lessons were received from all over the country and Grand Prize
winner, teacher Laura Stegmuller of Thomas O. Hopkins Middle School in
Burlington, NJ, was chosen for her poetry explication of "Scarecrow" in
December of 2001. Laura received a $1,000 cash prize and a visit to her school
from Melissa Etheridge.
The Grand Prize Visit of the "Scarecrow" Song Lesson Contest took place on April
11, 2002, and consisted of a discussion panel on tolerance featuring Melissa
Etheridge, Laura, Michael Heflin of Amnesty International's OutFront program,
and A. Widney Brown of Human Rights Watch. National outreach organization,
SHiNE, also coordinated a student Speak-Out on tolerance for Ms. Stegmuller's
eighth grade classes.
An audience of over two-hundred and fifty students, teachers, and parents
attended the event, which featured Melissa's reflections on the creation of her
song and each of the panelist's thoughts on how to achieve tolerance in the
global classroom and why the campaign for human rights is still relevant today.
In honor of the evening's events, Governor James E. McGreevey proclaimed April
11 to be "Tolerance Day" in the State of New Jersey. In addition, a lesson book
of the winning lessons, including Laura's, was published featuring a letter
from Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard and the executive director of
the Matthew Shepard Foundation. The lessons are also available for free
download at www.Rocklibrary.com.
In addition to these national contests, the Rock & Roll Library is heavily
involved in local outreach in the Greater Boston community. The RRL celebrated
a year long Public Arts Initiative for Boston created in celebration of John
Lennon's 60th Birthday. "The Imagine Mural Project" is also the first original
piece of curriculum offered by the RRL. As part of the RRL's commitment to
community outreach and making our programs available in all venues, the RRL
invited three organizations including Children's Hospital Boston to participate
in our first Public Arts Initiative as a free program.
Three Imagine murals were created in Boston in 2001, based on original poems
created by students after listening to John Lennon's song "Imagine." In
recognition of the mural project Mayor Thomas Menino proclaimed October 9, 2001
"Imagine Day" in the City of Boston, as did the Boston City Council. City
Councilor Brian Honan delivered this proclamation at the James Garfield
Elementary School in Allston where the Rock & Roll Library was celebrating
the newest Imagine Mural and the debut of the Imagine Mural Gallery at
Rocklibrary.com with a full school assembly and concert by Boston Beatles cover
band, Not the Beatles.
In addition, the Rock & Roll Library has developed a forum at the official
Web site to foster the development and enthusiasm of popular music as a field
of study and to create an environment for shared learning.
Where
Based in Boston, the Rock & Roll Library provides information about popular
music to people throughout the world via the Internet. The official Web site of
the Rock & Roll Library is www.Rocklibrary.com. The Web site houses all the
information necessary to music fans and educators.
Why
Popular music is enmeshed in our lives and the Rock & Roll Library is
working to give music fans and educators the access and information they are
looking for.
How
The Rock & Roll Library uses a plethora of resources - such as the Internet,
books, television, radio, magazines, newspaper and other media - to gather
information about popular music for the general public. In gathering this
information, the Rock & Roll Library does its best to make sure all the
information provided by outside sources is both accurate and fair.
How to Help
The Rock & Roll Library relies on the generous contributions of individual's
time, skills and money to provide information about popular music to the
general public.
To make a financial contribution to the Rock & Roll Library, credit card
donations may be made online through our secure Internet site by clicking on
Membership
Donations made by check should be made payable to the Rock & Roll Library
and forwarded to:
Rock & Roll Library
Fundraising
P.O. Box 15621
Boston, MA 02215
An Individual Member can join for just $25. Benefits include an annual
subscription to Feedback, the quarterly member newsletter, an official Rock
& Roll Library T-shirt and an official www.Rocklibrary.com decal. You will
also be helping to build the world's largest free music information archive and
your contribution is tax-deductible.
Please address questions to emailus@rocklibrary.com.
We exist because of your contributions.
FACTS AT-A-GLANCE
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