IAML International Association of Music Libraries

Our General Assembly was held on 17 March 2006 at Lyngby Public Library. As of 31 December 2005, the Dansk Musikbiblioteks Forening (DMBF) had 158 members. That is almost the same amount of members as last year. They are distributed as follows: IA: 43, IB: 56, PA: 36, PB: 23, including three students and seven foreign institutions. We are still experiencing a positive interest in joining the DMBF.

Important assignments during the past year

In 2005 the work of the board had been centered on many interesting assignments. Karenstiden¹ has been one of our greatest concerns. We continue to see the waiting time as a major setback for the Danish Library model. But the first experiences show that our users do not see the matter in the same way. In January 2006, the BS made a questionnaire investigation to cover the libraries experiences. The results have not yet been published. The effort to change the waiting has not ended yet. That is way the DMBF will follow this matter closely in 2007 and try to influence the decision makers in the right direction. The Jubilee publication for the first 40 years of the Music libraries had been a fairly big issue in the work of the board. DMBF continues to have a representative in Denmark's Council of Music and thereby we gain a good network in the Danish music community. The state and counties transition to electronic invoicing had also been an obstacle for the DMBF. We continue to prioritize marketing and visibility, and try to make our point of views clear, both in traditional and untraditional coherences.

Initiatives for 2006

We are working to improve our visibility in the 96 new counties. The goal in 2007 is to distribute Musikbib² to at least 95% of the counties. In cooperation with BS and SB we will try to carry through a professional investigation of the coherence between loan, sales, and downloading of music. An investigation like that has, to our knowledge, never been carried through before it will be tremendously relevant for the Music business and the libraries.

We are focusing on library students and are planning several initiatives in 2007 in connection with this. A lot of students are involved in Net music and many considerations could be interesting for the libraries promotion of music on the internet. In 2007 DMBF will work to improve the possibility of their result to contribute to the libraries. In all six board meetings have been held since the last general assembly.

Courses/ supplementary training

In October 2005 we held Music Professional Days at Nyborg Strand. To plan and hold these days were took a lot of work but the support was equally great. There were many highlights: a summary of the conference can be read on Musikbib online.

We are considering holding a single project-day in the fall - the issue addressed will be the promotion of music in the new counties. We request to ideas and issues to be addressed at following conventions.

Musikbib and the DMBF at this time

Musikbib is an interesting journal with a great layout. Musikbib online has by far generates the most hits on DMBF at this time. The journal is published three times in 2006. We are working with changing editors to divide the work among the board. We have also been discussing to change to electronic publishing but we have not yet reach any conclusions regarding this issue. Therefore the journal will be published on paper in 2006. The Music list is still the music librarians' favorite platform for professional ideas online.

Economy

As the account states the association's economy is continually improving. We are now experiencing surplus in the balance. This is also due to our successful project days last fall. Furthermore we have looked over out budget and tried to cut down expenses wherever we could.

International cooperation / IAML

In 2005 the DMBF has had a vice-chair (Kirsten Husted) in the Public Libraries Branch.  Together with the Norwegian branch DMBF are working on proposals regarding the annual conferences and other matters concerning the international cooperation in IAML. The proposals will hopefully be presented by late fall 2006.


Ole Bisbjerg

 Notes:

1 The term for the 4-month period that libraries  have to wait to loan a CD.

2 The Danish journal for music libraries.

• More reports for 2006