Publications
Standards & Best Practice Documents
Sewald, Ronda L. “Rivers, Valleys, Watersheds, etc., Proposal Checklist,” SACO Resources website. Library of Congress, Program for Cooperative Cataloging, released Apr. 2025. https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/rivers-checklist.html
Sewald, Ronda L., et al. “Parks, Reserves, National Monuments, etc., Proposal Checklist. SACO Resources website. Library of Congress, Program for Cooperative Cataloging, released Oct. 2024. https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/parks-reserves-monuments-checklist.html
Sewald, Ronda L., et al. “Geographic Names Proposal Checklist,” SACO Resources website. Library of Congress, Program for Cooperative Cataloging, released Oct. 2024. https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/documents/Geographic%20Names%20Proposal%20Checklist.pdf
Parks, Reserves, National Monuments, etc. Proposal Checklist. Program for Cooperative Cataloging SACO website. October 2024. https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/documents/Parks%20Reserves%20National%20Monuments%20etc%20Proposal%20Checklist
Geographic Names Server (GNS) for Catalogers. On YouTube under Maps4Everyone. Series of seven tutorials. Released October 2023. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKpezkpZIDi0Yfd05wosSK5nq0Yti3zZa&si=HIEoSj7nDWGjtVJo
Peer-Reviewd Publications
“Forced Listening: The Contested Use of Loudspeakers for Commercial and Ideological Messages in the Public Soundscape,” American Quarterly (Sept. 2011). https://www.jstor.org/stable/41237575
“The Untidy Reality of Complaints about Music: Reexamining the Power Relations of Sonic Disputes” Anthropology News, 51:9 (2010). https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1556-3502.2010.51908.x
Editorial and Compilation Work
Liner Notes [editor and contributor] nos. 13-15 (2009-2011) [AAAMC annual newsletter]. https://aaamc.indiana.edu/Publications/Liner-Notes
“Current Discographies.” Ethnomusicology [compiler] 53:1-3 (2009-2010): Society for Ethnomusicology.
MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures. Vol. 5, Folklore [field bibliographer]. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America (2001-2003).
Thesis & Dissertation
“The Darker Side of Sound: Conflicts over the Use of Soundscapes for Musical Performances.” Thesis (Ph.D.)—Indiana University, Bloomington (2009). https://wisdomlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The_darker_side_of_sound_Conf.pdf.
“Back to the Armchair: Sound Recordings as Information Sources in Ethnomusicological Research.” M.A. Thesis, Indiana University, Bloomington (2004). https://wisdomlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/rsewald_BackToTheArmchair_2004_MAThesis_IU.pdf
Other
“Things I Forgot to Tell You: The Forgotten Legacy of Phil Moore,” Black Camera, 9:1 (Fall 2017). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.9.1.15
“Archival Spotlight: Regeneration in Digital Contexts: Early Black Film.” Black Camera, 6:2 (Spring 2015). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.6.2.252
Indiana University PCC Non-MARC Authorities Issues Group [collaborator]. “Brief on the Future of Non-MARC Authority.” 2013. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/18401
“Descriptive Challenges of Audio Archiving,” Recorded Sound (Spring 2012). PDF: http://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/2012_Spring_RecordedSoundNewsletter.pdf
“Sound Recordings and Ethnomusicology: Theoretical Barriers to the Use of Archival Collections.” ReSOUND 24:1-4 (2005). PDF (no. 1-2): https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21439/resound-2005-01.pdf; PDF (no. 3-4): https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21440/resound-2005-07.pdf
Selected Presentations
Sewald, Ronda L. “SACO Submissions for Non-SACO Members.” SACO Office Hours. LC-PCC Volunteer SACO Trainers’ Work Group. Virtual. 10 July 2026. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/38466
Sewald, Ronda L. “Beyond Item-Level: Using DACS to Unlock Artificial Collections in Academic Research Libraries.” The Power of DACS lightning talk presented at the membership meeting of the Technical Subcommittee on Describing Archives: A Content Standard, Society for American Archivists. 12 May 2026. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/34841
Sewald, Ronda L. “Geographic Splits, Mergers, and Reorganizations.” SACO Office Hours. LC-PCC Volunteer SACO Trainers’ Work Group. Virtual. 12 Dec. 2025. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/34682
Sewald, Ronda L. “Behind the Curtain: How Library of Congress Vocabulary Terms Are Created and Maintained.” Conference of the American Folklore Society. Atlanta, Georgia. 21 Oct. 2025. ttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/34185
“‘The Limits of My Language Means the Limits of My World’: Assessing and Triaging Cataloging Backlogs for Materials in Non-Latin Scripts.” Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarian Conference, Dublin Ohio, May 24, 2024. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/29914
“Phil Moore: Portland’s Forgotten Groomer of the Stars and Musical Genius.” Annual Conference of the Association for Record Sound Collections. Portland, Oregon. 10 May 2019. [Viewable through ARSC YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGTwZoL6eTE]
“The Music of Hoagy Carmichael and Phil Moore.” Collaborative presentation hosted by the Archives of Traditional Music (February 27, 2019).
“The Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking Collection.” Invited presentation to History of Media and Culture (MSCH-F 311) course (October 30, 2018). PowerPoint: https://wisdomlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/RichardENorman_Caddo_20181030.pptx
“Phil Moore and the Film Industry.” Invited presentation to Music for Film (MUS-Z 315) course (September 17, 2018). PDF (original PowerPoint with media clips available upon request): https://wisdomlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Phil-Moore-and-the-Film-Industry.pdf
“How to Work with an Archivist/Special Collections Librarian” [co-presenter]. Invited keynote presentation at the IUB Libraries’ Primary Source Immersion Program (July 25, 2018). PowerPoint: https://wisdomlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/BFCAIDSlide_PrimarySourceImmersion_2017August.pptx
Noon curator talk [co-presenter] for “The Wunderkammer: The Curiosities in Indiana University Collections,” Indiana University Grunwald Art Gallery, Nov. 18, 2015.
“Bang the Drum for Jesus: Civilian Uprisings against the Use of Musical Warfare by the Early Salvation Army.” Conference paper presented at the IU Cultural Studies Conference, Indiana, Bloomington, April 13, 2013. PowerPoint: https://wisdomlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Bang-the-Drum-for-Jesus_final.pptx
“Sound Reasoning? Conceptualizations of Aural Documents and their Relation to Reality in Ethnomusicology.” Conference paper presented at the 39th World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, Vienna, Austria, July 4-11, 2007. PDF: https://wisdomlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Sewald_2007_SoundReasoning_ICTMVienna.pdf
“Preservation Workflow: The Sound Directions Project at Indiana University,” A Workshop on the Preservation of Audio in the Digital Domain. Panel co-presented with George Blood, Mike Casey, Jon Dunn, and Paul Mahern at the 41st Annual ARSC Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 2-5, 2007.
“Back to the Armchair: Reinstating Sound Recordings as Information Sources in Ethnomusicology.” Conference paper presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Atlanta, Georgia, November 16-21, 2005.
Sample Blog Posts
“Dan Burley and Phil Moore’s Bebop Christmas Classic, ‘Blink before Christmas,’” Black Film Center/Archive, December 19, 2017. https://blackfilmcenterarchive.wordpress.com/2017/12/19/dan-burley-and-phil-moores-bebop-christmas-classic-blink-before-christmas/
“BFC/A’S Josef Gugler Collection at Image Collections Online,” Black Film Center/Archive, December 6, 2017. https://blackfilmcenterarchive.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/bfc-as-josef-gugler-collection-at-image-collections-online/
“Supporting Archival Donations and Donors,” Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative Blog, June 15, 2017. http://blogs.iu.edu/mdpi/2017/06/15/supporting-archival-donations-and-donors/
“Deen You Know” [review], Black Grooves, March 6, 2009. http://blackgrooves.org/deen-you-know/