Casey Mullin has become a household name for folks involved with library cataloging. Beginning with a Master of Library Science degree specializing in music librarianship from Indiana University, Casey hit the ground running, working on the Variations3 Digital Music Library project to describe streaming media while studying under the tutelage of 2005 Distinguished Service Award recipient, A. Ralph Papakhian.
Casey began his career at Stanford University Libraries as Discovery Metadata Librarian, advancing to become Head of the Data Control Unit in the Metadata Department. While at Stanford, he began working as a Cataloger with Flourish Music Contract Cataloging. After moving on to the position of Music Cataloger with the New York Public Library, Casey became a Managing Partner of Flourish Music Metadata Solutions. Currently he is Head of Cataloging and Metadata Services for his alma mater, Western Washington University, from which he received a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance. Throughout all of this, Casey has been and remains an avid and active violist!
In nominating Casey, Marguerite Iskenderian noted his “tireless leadership and contributions to technical services and music cataloging,” including his contributions to MOUG-L and reviews in the Music Library Association’s journal, Notes. His work with Gary Strawn, 2019 Distinguished Service Award winner, to develop the Music Toolkit has been noted by music catalogers throughout the field.
Casey’s professional activity is widespread. He has served on the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS) Subject Analysis Committee to develop the Library of Congress’ faceted vocabularies, and as a participant and reviewer for the OCLC Member Merge Project. As Chair of the MLA Cataloging and Metadata Committee’s Vocabularies Subcommittee, he has been instrumental in developing the Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus (LCMPT) and the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT) for music. He is now the Coordinator for the Program of Cooperative Cataloging’s (PCC) BIBCO Music Funnel. And, of course, we in MOUG know him for his record-setting eight years of continuous service on the MOUG Executive Board, first in the Treasurer cycle and then in the Chair cycle.
Casey is a co-recipient, with Beth Iseminger, Nancy Lorimer, and Hermine Vermeij, of MLA’s Richard S. Hill Award for their article, “Faceted Vocabularies for Music: A New Era in Resource Discovery,” which appeared in the March 2017 issue of Notes (v. 73, no. 3). He is also the 2019 recipient of the Esther J. Piercy Award from ALCTS.
In closing, consider how Casey is ALSO known on a personal level by our colleagues. Bruce Evans admires “his massive intellect and level of talent,” and has “come to appreciate his generous heart, friendliness, positivity, humility . . . and notable intellectual curiosity.” Hermine Vermeij is “amazed by how much Casey can do (and do well!) . . . wondering how the heck he finds the time to do that on top of everything else.” Please join us in admiration of Casey Mullin for his distinguished service to the profession and to all who have benefitted from that service.