Melanie Zeck

Musicologist and public reseacher

Melanie Zeck, PhD, MLIS, is a reference librarian at the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center with nearly two decades of experience in providing extensive informational support to researchers in the humanities. Previously, she served as a reference librarian at the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) in Chicago, where she was also Managing Editor of the Black Music Research Journal.

Her co-authored monograph, The Transformation of Black Music (with CBMR founder, the late Samuel A. Floyd Jr.) was published by Oxford University Press, and her recent scholarship on black music historiography and legacy preservation has been published by ABC-CLIO, A-R Editions, and W.W. Norton. Her collaborative research initiatives have been featured on BBC3 (with Tom Service), WVON, and the OUPBlog and in VAN magazine, the San Francisco Classical Voice, and STATE Magazine.