Bill Schurk, sound recordings archivist, and Patricia Falk, special collections cataloguer, display the library's 100,000th recording, none other than the King himself—Elvis Presley.

Elvis is No. 100,000 on BGSU charts

Jan. 8 was Elvis Presley's birthday, but William Schurk had his own celebration with Elvis the day before
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Schurk, sound recordings archivist at Jerome Library, made "Elvis 2nd to None," a two-record set of Presley classics and previously unreleased material, the 100,000th recording in the online catalog of BGSU's Sound Recordings Archives.

"Knowing we could control it, I wanted something cool to be the 100,000th recording," said Schurk, a 1966 BGSU graduate who has been expanding the collection since its inception the following year.

The holdings in the nation's largest academic library of recorded popular music are actually closing in on 1 million recordings, he noted. But most-roughly 250,000 seven-inch 45s, for example-aren't accessible online yet, he said, explaining that the cataloging part of his job, while important, has had to share time spent over the years with acquisition.

The five formats tallied toward the 100,000 mark were 10- and 12-inch LPs and 45s, as well as compact discs, Schurk said. The recording, however, "had to be vinyl," he said. "I had picked a piece that was going to be appropriate"-a 10-disc, LP set of material from country music's Carter family, reissued in 1974 and obtained from Cliff Warnken, a friend and former BGSU graduate student.

But the Carters were moved to No. 99,999 when the King came along. "It would really be great to have this as the (100,000th) album," Schurk recalled thinking, and Elvis became part of yet another music milestone.

Schurk purchased the Presley compilation at Bowling Green's Madhatter Music Co., where he also bought No. 100,001-"Let It Be…Naked," the original cuts recorded by the Beatles before post-production work by Phil Spector created what was issued as "Let It Be" in 1969.

Record stores are only one of his haunts in pursuing an avocation that turned into his vocation as well. Record shows, flea markets and garage sales are also among the sources of additions to the collection, along with donations and purchases from his University budget for acquisition of recordings, periodicals and other related materials. Helping supplement the budget are proceeds from periodic record sales.

Donations have come from private collectors and from institutions, including a number of "vinyl dumps" from libraries, Schurk said. To avoid losing any possible gems forever, his approach is to "take everything now; we'll sort it out later"-a task that also falls to Patricia Falk, the special collections cataloger at Jerome Library.

Although the pace of acquisition activity far outpaces time for cataloging, that effort is also ongoing, he said. He got behind in his work about 1969, he said, grinning, "and I never, ever got caught up."

The massive collection has been used not only by students and scholars, but also by Time-Life Music for its "Greatest Hits" of the decades series and by filmmakers and television producers seeking background music. It's accessible online via BGLink, the library's Web-based catalog site.

"My life is music, and music is my life," Schurk admitted. And his most prized possession? "Right there, for now," he said with a smile, patting the Presley compilation atop one of two tall stacks of LPs on his office floor.