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Denmark, report 1993

The 1993 season in Denmark was, of course, dominated by preparations for the forthcoming 1995 IAML congress in Elsinore. A group of eleven national members attended the Helsinki congress in order to listen and learn, to find praise and protest (very little to protest, indeed).

A Committee of Honour has been appointed, and arrangements were made with a professional team to facilitate the efforts of raising congress money and maintaining a lot of the practical work ahead. Expenses in Denmark are high, and a message we received from the Secretary General would increase them, since the national branch had to cover not only the conference fee for three IAML board members, but hotel stays as well far two of them. This decision was discussed in Council, and was finally changed to cover conference fees only. Yet other fees exist among Danish libraries. We sent material on such fees plus a letter of support far the Czech branch, which is fighting the record manufacturers over a ban on lending.

The Danish Copyright Act is to undergo revisions in 1994 in order to match other European uniformity endeavours. Danish record manufacturers made a proposal to the Minister of Culture that newly issued records were to be withheld far six months before being lent. We sent a letter on this matter as well as one on fees. It might be interesting to do research on the way music loans have an influence on music sales.

Due to history and culture the relations between the Nordic and the Baltic countries have been close. After their independence, we have tried to strengthen the connections made with representatives in Helsinki. We plan to arrange state subsidized visits to Denmark for two librarians from each of the three countries, thus allowing them to study Danish music librarianship as well as selecting surplus for the Deposit Library. (The final sponsorship was not agreed to by the state until May 1994). We hope in 1994 also to find a way far the free transportation of the selected library materials.

In 1993 we decided that the Danish IAML magazine, MUS'en, should be issued jointly from 1994 with the magazine issued by the Music section of the Danish Library Association. We wil1 make this attempt far one year in order to create a better magazine and in order to make it better known in a wider group of readers. The new joint name wil1 be: Libretto.

The State Music Council asked all members to formulate their most urgent matters for the years to come. Ours are:

  1. Copyright Act with the possibility of offering all kinds of material for lending.
  2. Free lending of music materials.
  3. Statutory delivery of non-book materials, at present non-existing.
  4. Common information on recorded music through a broader cooperation between organizations with the same informational needs (i.e., libraries, radio stations, copyright organizations and holders, producers, etc.)

The future will show whether some points can be dropped from this listing.

Erling Dujardin
for the Danish IAML group