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Finland, report 1995

At the end of 1995, the Finnish Branch had 68 members, 47 representing different institutions and 21 as individual members. This was a loss of only one member since 1994. Financial balance was again attained during the year, thanks to the publishing activities.

The Board members in 1995 were: Chair, Heikki Poroila (Vantaa City Library); Vice-chair Risto Korhonen (Finnish Music Information Centre); Secretary and Treasurer Maija Suhonen (Helsinki University Library); Seija Lappalainen (University of Helsinki, Department of Musicology), Annika Puruskainen-Jalkanen (Jyväskylä University Library), Leena Pärssinen (Helsinki University Library), Kyösti Mäkelä (Jyväskylä City Library), Irmeli Koskimies (Library of Sibelius Academy), Elina Rauhala (Kangasala Public Library), Eeva-Liisa Sankola (Finnish Broadcasting Company, Record Library), Jukka Tammilehto (Library Service Ltd), Kristiina Asp (Espoo City Library), and Pirjo Hakuni (Tampere City Library). The board held six meetings during 1995. The annual meeting was held at the biggest Finnish music publisher Fazer. To be honest, no longer a Finnish publisher, since Warner/Chappell bought Fazer just before our visit.

Information was provided to the members by the branch's journal Intervalli (ISSN 0785-2843). Four issues (all in Finnish) were published (total number of pages was 166, and about 230 copies of each were printed and circulated). The editors of Intervalli were Maarit Koskela (chief) and Heikki Poroila. Among the topics in 1995 were: Music libraries in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvija, Finnish music bibliography 1994, Indexing of music, How to market public music library services, Helsingør Special, Jean Sibelius as a stage music composer, and Copyright in music libraries (especially since Finland has now become a member of the European Union).

Five titles, all in Finnish (titles given are rough translations), were published in the series Suomen musiikkikirjastoyhdistyksen julkaisusarja (ISSN 0780-0322, ISBN 951- 8903). The editor of the series was Heikki Poroila. The publications were:

  • 20. Difficult musical names (a national list of standardized names of composers etc.).
  • 34. Recorded Zappa-annotated discography 1961-1995 by Heikki Poroila & Heikki Karjalainen.
  • 47. Catalogue 0f works with uniform titles - Antonín Dvořák by Heikki Poroila.
  • 48. Catalogue of works with uniform titles - Edvard Grieg by Heikki Poroila.
  • 49. Catalogue of works with uniform titles - G. P. Telemann (part 2, instrumental music) by Jaakko Tuohiniemi.

International activities of the Branch outside the annual meeting in Denmark focused on continuing cooperation with the Estonian Branch. Pirjo Hakuni, our Outreach officer, spent almost two months working in Estonian music libraries. The branch also helped Aurika Gergeležiu to attend a study meeting for music cataloguers in Tampere, Finland. The branch also initiated plans for a Baltic Sea music library meeting in the near future.

On a national level the Finnish Branch continued to support the National Group for Cataloguing and Classification of Music. A new handbook for music cataloguers using the FINMARC format will be published in 1996, thanks to this group's hard work.

The branch started working with the Internet toward the end of 1995. The Finnish Branch home page will be completed during 1996; if you want to contact the Branch via e-mail, click here.

The Finnish Library Association has established a national working group for copyright issues. IAML Finnish Branch Chair Heikki Poroila has been nominated as Secretary of this Copyright Group.

An annual Music Library Award was granted for the first time in 1995 to professor and composer Erkki Salmenhaara, and to provincial library inspector Raija Haapsaari, one of the pioneers of music librarianship in Finland.

Heikki Poroila
Chair, Finnish Branch