
Online Searchable Catalog of Archival Holdings
GemeinKat is on Worldcat.org
This online searchable database contains the catalog of most of MMF’s archival, reference, and in-print holdings and offerings.
The entire catalog resides online as a subset of WorldCat.org but may also appear in a general Google and other search engine results.
Further Definition of “GemeinKat”

The Moravian Music Foundation provides free online access to the GemeinKat catalog of collections, which allows scholars and musicians to locate items within the extensive holdings of the Moravian Music Foundation and other libraries.
About the GemeinKat Cataloging Project:
Since the catalog includes the collections of the Moravian communities from the 18th through the 21st centuries, the name GemeinKat is reflective of that purpose (Gemein- from the German word for community or fellowship, and Kat for catalog).
.
GemeinKat: the Voyage Home
a video about the cataloging project and the collections
GemeinKat is the project to upload a new and enhanced digital records to the OCLC and RISM databases. GemeinKat is available to the public, on the internet, at moravianmusic.on.worldcat.org and is a WorldCat Discovery catalog, developed by OCLC, a nonprofit organization that provides services to thousands of libraries worldwide. Through WorldCat, users have the potential to access more than 1.8 billion items in libraries around the world.
Please visit our Researching at MMF page for more information about doing scholarly research within these unique collections at the Moravian Music Foundation.
Update on GemeinKat (10/28/2021)
Those of you who’ve been following the Moravian Music Foundation for some time will be aware of the ongoing GemeinKat project – converting the more-than-50,000 cards in our card catalog to electronic, online records accessible world-wide! We actually started planning this project and doing some work “in the background” almost 15 years ago, but it was only 7 years ago that we were able to move “full-speed-ahead” with the project.
It was fall of 2014 when Barbara Strauss and Dave Blum joined our staff to tackle this project, and they are in the throes of completing some large collections, updating and enhancing the information through research as they go. Dave and Barbara have been able to identify a great many pieces that were previously listed as “anonymous” or “unidentified”; they’ve moved a few things around to get all the parts to a piece together; and all in all the project has greatly enhanced the body of knowledge about Moravian music! – (3/1/2021)
Below, are the full reports in PDF for 10/28/2021:
Current Project Status
GemeinKat-status3Project Timeline
GemeinKat-status4Remaining Steps to Completion
GemeinKat-status5GemeinKat is Integral to MMF’s Mission & Vision
GemeinKat-status1MMF’s Catalog is Important to Music History
GemeinKat-status2A lecture by Barbara Strauss:
GemeinKat Catalog Project
BLOG – GemeinKat: Keeping Track of the Details, by Barbara Strauss, Project Manager

Keeping Track of Details
A BLOG about cataloging the collection
by Barbara Strauss,
Cataloging Project Manager
https://moravianmusic.on.worldcat.org/discovery
EXAMPLE – Opening Search Page of Gemeinkat


Searching Tool Kit
Searching, Researching, Finding Moravian Music
About GEMEINKAT
About RISM
About FINDING AIDS
About ARCHIVEGRID
Type a keyword, composer, title, etc.
to begin your search…
Collection Catalogs in Print
- Salem Congregation Collection – Available for sale on our Books page
- Lititz Congregation Collection – Available for sale on our Books page
- Johannes Herbst Collection – Available for sale on our Books page
Peter Memorial Moravian Reference Library
The Moravian Music Foundation and Moravian Archives Research Library (the books in the reference stacks) have been physically combined, integrated, and classified according to Library of Congress. These and other physical items (monographs, journals, and scores) have been cataloged in the OCLC WorldCat bibliographic database (a resource of nearly 1.8 billion records from over 10,000 libraries).
Please visit our Researching at MMF page for more information about doing scholarly research within these unique collections at the Moravian Music Foundation.
