IAML International Association of Music Libraries

There were two sessions arranged by Public Libraries branch this year at the Warsaw Conference 2005. Kirsten Husted, Vejle Bibliotek, Denmark was Chair.

Ole Bisbjerg, State Library, Denmark, introduced the national project "Bibliotekernes Netmusik" which makes it possible as a patron to download free and legal music tracks from your local Library system.
The majority of the music comes from the digital preservation centre at the State and University Library in Aarhus. The greatest achievement of the project is by far the unique collaboration between the major record companies, copyright organizations, and the public libraries in Denmark which stands behind the project.

Another online project was presented by Jonathan Irons from SheetMusicNow.com.
Libraries enjoy attractive flat-rate subscription licenses to the great and growing catalogue of digital sheet music editions to download and print from the patrons home PC.

"Warum Mozart aus den Wolken fiel?" Verena Funtenberger from the music library of Essen, Germany presented a programme of introducing children at the age of 7 to 10 to the music library.
In a playful way, the young visitors become familiar with the music library and it's media. Mozart comes back to earth for one day. He lands in the music library where he meets the children and discovers with them the media that in this form didn't exist in his time.
Mozart's well-known preference of turning words, using codes and joking with rhymes is integrated into the role.
The introduction programme consists of two parts. Each part takes about 30 minutes. Part one is a kind of guided tour through the music library realized as a little theatre play, in part two the children have to work independently with the media and the catalogue.

"Between oeuvre and mediation" is a vision for the modern music library as it will develop in the period 2005-2015. Charlotte Pedersen head of Odense Music Library presented the framework of the project.
The vision chooses as its concrete starting point the Music Library (housing the largest music collection for public use in Scandinavia) which is centrally placed in Odense (third largest city in Denmark) next to the Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik (exhibition space for modern art), the cultural forum of the city.
The goal is a relaunch the Music Library in 2007 with a view to creating a comprehensive and progressive proposal for a music library.
The present digitisation of the collections also poses some urgent questions to the immediate future: How will the role of the physical music library be affected when the user can download the music which previously had to be picked up physically? The suggested solution is developed with a keen eye to the existing building, and the objective has been that all elements are future-orientated
as well as immediately realisable.

The project consists of three principal elements:

1. Relaunching and modernization of the physical music library.
2. Mediation of music on the net.
3. Coherence between the physical music library and mediation on the net.

The project was offered funding from The National Library Authority's Development pool for public and school libraries.

Kaie Viigipuu gave at presentation on the research they have made this year in Estonia. There are 552 public libraries in Estonia at the moment, but only twelve of them have a well-provided music collection.
At the end of the year 2004 a decision was made to carry out a research into the music departments of the public libraries under the leadership of the Estonian Music Library Association with the aim to record the general state of the services given by the libraries and to define the goals for the future. The research was carried out during the first half-year of 2005. It included both the library staff and the users. One of the conclusions of the research was that it's time to set up new perspectives for the future and we all hope that Estonia will have many new music libraries in the future!

The Working group on the IAML Toolbox had two meetings this year in order to make a good start with the activities for the IAML Toolbox. Gabriele Gamba gave instructions on the eGroupware program and Christel Rosenborg agreed to act as webmaster. Various tasks will be undertaken during the following months to get the Toolbox on its way.

Public Libraries Branch:
Hanneke Kuiper (The Netherlands, chair)
Kirsten Husted (Denmark, vicechair)
Corinne Brun (France, secretary)