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Denmark, report 2004

Annual Report 2003-2004 - A period of transition

This was my first year as chairman of the Danish IAML branch. It has been an exiting task with many challenges. In 2003/2004 the Danish IAML has had an increase in membership of around 10%, to a total of 170 members by June 2004. I regard this as sign of recognition from Danish music libraries and librarians that they support the work that has been carried out by the branch.

During the past year the Board has begun a discussion about priorities and goals. It is of the utmost importance that this discussion continues in the year to come. For example, in Denmark all the public libraries now have a legislative obligation to communicate music materials to the borrowers. At the same time many libraries have closed their specialist music departments and focus on the integration of music in the rest of the library. The consequences of this development have to be addressed and discussed by the Danish IAML – we simply might have to change the focus of our initiatives.

Another hot topic is the continued marketing of music libraries and what they stand for. It's a fact that we still have to deal with prejudices and misunderstandings that we thought were long gone about music libraries and their role. We therefore have to do much better when it comes to information and communicating the basic idea of what music libraries should be for in modern society.

The Board has been in close contact and discussion with the Ministry of Culture and Cultural Affairs regarding upcoming legislation that concerns a waiting period for compact discs in music libraries. We think that this waiting period, if implemented, will have a very negative impact on a wide span of areas of library work, and we have tried to communicate this to the Minister. As an optimistic person I still have the hope that it will be possible to prevent the waiting period from becoming a reality. The Danish IAML is still discussing new ideas for action and would like to hear from colleagues who have knowledge and experience with waiting periods and their impact on libraries.

Danish music libraries are rapidly moving into the world of communicating digital music on the Internet. September 1st marks the starting point of a new service with the name Bibliotekernes netmusik (Danish libraries music on the Internet). At this moment more than 80 research and public libraries have joined the project (more to come before September) and these libraries will give their borrowers the opportunity to lend (download for a period of time) a total of more than 30,000 individual tracks – a number that will be rising to around 60,000 – at home on the borrower’s own personal computers. The service will be free of charge for the borrower and the only demand is a valid library card to the local public library in the borough where he or she lives. It will be very exiting to see what consequences the service will have on other areas of music library work such as acquisition, communication etc. I will be happy to answer questions regarding this new service during and after the conference.

Another exiting project is taking place in one of the largest music libraries in Denmark, Odense Music Library, in 2004/2005. The main topic of the project is to develop totally new ways of organizing and communicating materials and services in a modern music library. The library is collaborating with a number of partners from outside the library world thus hoping to get refreshing new ideas. And I think they have. You can follow the project on the library's web site -and if you come to Denmark, Odense Music Library will be worth a visit.

The Nordic collaboration between AIML branches now seems to be revitalized. We aim to have a meeting during this conference and hope to present a schema for future closer collaboration across the borders.

I'll end my report with a few comments on the international collaboration within IAML. The board of the Danish IAML will join the discussion to develop IAML into a vivid and modern organization. It is, in our opinion, a very essential period of transition for the organisation, and this Autumn we aim to make a list of proposals to the international board and we expect, and look forward to, an upcoming dialogue with the international board regarding these proposals.

Ole Bisbjerg
President, IAML (Denmark)