IN 1996, RETIRED Maryland professor and popular music collector Hugo Keesing made his first gift to the University of Maryland Libraries.

He gave generously: The gift consisted of 2,708 books, 1,529 journals and 175 linear feet in paper and memorabilia items. It has grown into the Hugo Keesing Collection of Popular Music, housed in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, or MSPAL, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The books, serials, recordings, sheet music, auction lists, clippings and memorabilia span the 1910s to the 1990s. While the collection is comprehensive, a significant amount of material is related to Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Fats Domino and Roy Orbison. The collection recently opened to the public, with new resources available to guide amateur and expert researchers.

"Recordings are essential for understanding rock music," says Vincent Novara, curator for Special Collections in Performing Arts within MSPAL, "and Keesing has given us thousands." From the primary source materials in this collection, researchers gain access to more than the music of former generations; they gain access to the history of 20th century America. Says Novara, "I'm always surprised to see younger students researching the artists their grandparents listened to."

Unfortunately, the sources that cultural and music historians rely on are often dismissed by some scholars and may be in danger of not being preserved, says Professor Andrew Kellett, who received his doctorate in history from Maryland in 2008. "The sources I found in the Keesing Collection, like interviews with Pete Townshend of The Who and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin in the '70s fanzine Zig Zag, brought my research to life." They proved crucial to Kellett's analysis of the British appropriation of American blues music in the creation of "classic" rock. "It's so commendable that collections like the Keesing Collection exist," he says.

The study of music strikes a personal chord for Novara. "My earliest childhood memory is of listening to 'Hey Bulldog' by the Beatles over and over again. Ever since then I have been hooked, and I look forward to helping students utilize the sources Keesing assembled over decades." -RR

The '60s album "Sands of Time" from Jay and the Americans that has never been reissued on CD or iTunes