IAML International Association of Music Libraries

In the period between September 1996 and June 1997 two remarkable events took place in the IAML Polish National Branch. The first was the ninth General Meeting of Polish Music Librarians on 23-25 September 1996, organized in the National Library in Warsaw for the first time since the Second World War. At the meeting there were 68 participants present among them 55 music librarians from different regions of the country, musicologists, and other persons interested in problems of music librarianship. The program encompassed three themes:

1. historical: music collections in some Polish libraries and archives, and Polish music publications and booksellers' shops in the nineteenth and in the first half of the twentieth century;
2. cataloguing and documentation: preparation of annotated catalogues for print, and their future publication;
3. the automation of music libraries professional functions: computer programs showing systems now used in some libraries, for instance the system OPUS created individually in the Music Academy Main Library in Gdánsk; reports about current data bases, access of some Polish libraries to the Internet, etc.

In conclusion, the lack of one uniform computer program hampers the introduction of the automatic system by most music libraries. Many of these attempt to solve the problem independently using the experience of other libraries or creating their own systems with professional help. The Format and Model Card Files Center recently organized in the University Library in Warsaw has just prepared the format USMARC for the bibliographic record for music prints.

The meeting ended with the election of new board of the IAML Polish National Branch: Andrzej Spóz, president; Włodzimierz Pigła, vice-president; Maria Prokopowicz, vice-president; Irena Czamecka, secretary; Dr. Barbara Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk, chairman of the Polish RILM Committee.

Another achievement was the Polish-German Seminar of Research Music Libraries at Poznań University Library on 30-31 May 1997 under the title: The Contemporary Music Library - Its Collections and Problems. This common meeting continued the first Polish-German professional contacts established in 1994 with the invitation of the representative of the IAML Polish Branch to participate in the Annual Meeting of the German Music Libraries in Düsseldorf on 21-23 September 1994. Twenty three music librarians took part in the Poznań Meeting, six German and seventeen Polish, who represented six German and seven Polish institutions. Fifteen reports dealt with particular problems specific to music librarianship as well as with general activities.

A fundamental general problem was treated by Dr. Erwin Hardeck, Hochschulbibliothekszentrum, Köln, in his report "Katalogsverbünde in Deutschland" in which he characterized in a precise manner the team work and gradual application of computer systems to academic and other research libraries in former West Germany. This automation program established in the 1970s is now realized throughout the Bundesrepublik Deutschland; its technical level is ever higher and modernized. The future inclusion of the specific music academy libraries in the Katalogsverbünde action can be achieved only on the basis of close cooperation of these music libraries with the above-mentioned procedures.

Other reports about the automation of catalogues and documentation concerned music collections exclusively. There were the following items: Maria Burchard, University Library, Warszawa, "Centralna baza kartotek haseł wzorcowych bibliotek uczelnianych w Polsce" (The Central Base of Standard Entry Files used in Academic Libraries in Poland); Jolanta Byczkowska-Sztaba (National Library, Warszawa): "Dawne rękopisy muzyczne w Polsce - ich rejestracja w katalogach RISM i zabezpieczanie w zbiorze mikrofilmów Biblioteki Narodowej" (Old music manuscripts in Poland, their inclusion in RISM catalogues and microfilming in the National Library); Elżbieta Wojnowska (National Library, Warszawa): "Problemy opisywania starych druków muzycznych w świetle formatów RISM i USMARC" (Problems of old music prints recording in formats RISM and USMARC).

The registration of early music prints in RISM was also a subject of the report delivered by Dr. Klaus Keil of the RISM Zentral Redaction Frankfurt a/M: "Die Musikdrucke bei RISM. Vergangenheit - Ausblick".

The cooperation of Polish music libraries with the international bibliographies RILM and RIPM was described by Dr. Barbara Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk (University Library, Poznań) in the lecture "Centralne prace bibliograficzne RILM i RIPM w Polsce" (The central bibliographic activities in Poland-cooperation with RILM and RIPM) .

Plans and achievements of the registration of music sources, among them of many unknown documents, in the East-, Middle- and Southeast-Europe were the subjects of the report of Dr. Lucian Schiwietz (Institut für Deutsche Musik im Osten, Bergisch Gladbach): "Projekte des Instituts für Deutsche Musik im Osten zur Sicherung und Verzeichnung musikalischer Quellen in Südost-, Mittel- und Osteuropa".

A report by Andrzej Spóz (Music Society Warsaw, Warszawa) under the title "Wainiejsze zbiory polskich druków muzycznych z XIX wieku w Polsce" (Important collections of Polish music prints of the 19th century in Poland) also contained information about the catalogues now prepared for printing and prospective publication.

Two important archival collections: Archiwum Polskich Kompozytorów XX wieku w Bibliotece Uniwersytechiej w Warszawie (Polish Composers of the 20th Century Archives in the University Library in Warsaw) and Archiwum Sląskiej Kultury Muzycznej przy Bibliotece Głównej Akademii Muzycznej w Katowicach (Archives of Music Culture in the Music Academy Main Library in Katowice) were characterized by the chiefs of these two institutions: Elżbieta Jasińska-Jędrosz (Warszawa) and Lilianna Moll (Katowice).

The whole range of problems concerning the conservation of music manuscripts and prints was surveyed in the report of Dr. Joachim Jaenecke (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) entitled "Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Bericht über Schaden an Beständen der Musikabteilung".

Three lectures were devoted to the specifics and documentation of non-book materials, among others sound recordings and audiovisual media. Dr. Bettina von Seyfried (Das Deutsche Musikarchiv der Deutschen Bibliothek, Berlin): "Das Deutsche Musikarchiv der Deutschen Bibliothek", Petra Wagenknecht (Hochschule der Künste, Berlin): "Behandlung von AV-Medien in wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken", and Dr. Katarzyna Janczewska-Sołomko (National Library, Warszawa): "Polonika fonograficzne do roku 1918 w powiązaniu z kulturą niemiecką" (Phonographic Polonica till 1918 in relation to German Culture).

Such reciprocal acquaintance and common consideration of professional problems and current activities seems to be useful for both countries and encourages the maintenance of the Polish-German cooperation in the field of music librarianship.

Andrzej Spóz,
President

• More reports for 1997