IAML International Association of Music Libraries

Minutes of Council Meeting held 6 and 11 of July 2003 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Participants (in both sessions unless marked by I or II)

Kathy Adamson, Observer; Tsuneko Arakawa, President, Japanese Branch; Chris Banks, Chair, Working Group on Hofmeister XIX; André Balog, Observer; Georgina Binns, President, Australian Branch; Maria Calderisi, Observer; Jim Cassaro, Observer; Richard Chesser, Chair, Constitution Committee; Inger Johanne Christiansen, President, Norwegian Branch; Leonora Davydova, Observer; Elizabeth Davis, Observer; David Day, Chair, Working Group for IRMA; Stefan Domes, Observer; Johan Eeckeloo, Belgian representative; Inger Enquist, IAML Archivist; Gert Floor, President, Dutch Branch; Roger Flury, Secretary General designate, IAML; Massimo Gentili-Tedeschi, Chair, Information Technology Committee, Chair Working Group on UNIMARC; Aurika Gergeležiu, President, Estonian Branch; Julianna Gócza, Representative, Hungarian Branch; Antony Gordon, Chair, Audio Visual Commission; Jane Gottlieb, President, US Branch; Nina, Griaznova, Observer; Bernhard Günther, observer; Alison Hall, Secretary General IAML, Chair, Cataloguing Commission, Editor, Electronic Newsletter; Dominique Hausfater, Vice-President, IAML, Chair, Publications Committee; Veslemöy Heintz, Past Past-President, IAML, President, Swedish Branch; Ruth Hellen, Vice-President, IAML, Chair, Outreach Committee; Stanislas Hrabia, Representative, Polish Branch; Kirsten Husted, Chair, Public Libraries Branch; Kimiko Inoue, Observer; Joachim Jaenecke, Chair, Research Libraries Branch; Inger Jullander, Observer; Avo Kartul, Observer; Olga Kouzina, Observer; Wolfgang Krueger, Chair, Commission on Service and Training, President, German Branch; Laurence Languin, President, French branch; Thomas Leibniz, President, Austrian Branch; Anne Le Lay, Chair, Copyright Committee, Chair, Libraries in Music Teaching Institutions Branch; Barbara Dobbs Mackenzie, RILM; Catherine Massip, Observer; Irina Medvedeva, Observer; Sara Meyerhöffer, Observer; Brenda Muir, Chair, Working Group on the Exchange of Authority Data, representative, Canadian Branch; Gulo Nahatakyan, Observer; Jürg Obrecht, Observer; Pio Pellizzari, President, Swiss Branch; Emilia Rassina, President, Russian Branch; Rupert Ridgewell, Chair, Working Group on Indexing Musical Performances; Federica Riva, Vice-President, IAML, President, Italian Branch; John H. Roberts, President, IAML; Aleksandra Rodimkina, Observer; Carsten Schmidt, Observer; Martie Severt, Treasurer, IAML; Susanne Staral, Chair, Bibliography Commission; Natalia Tartakovskaia, Observer; Pam Thompson, Past-President, IAML, Chair, Programme Committee; Judy Tsou, Chair, Archives and Documentation Centres Branch; Yasuko Todo, Observer; Ruzan Tonoyan, Observer; Kirsten Voss-Eliasson, Vice-Presdent, IAML; Susi Woodhouse, President, UK & Irl Branch.

The President, John Roberts opened the meeting by expressing his pleasure at being in Tallinn, and at the most efficient arrangements for the conference. He asked Council for permission for observers to speak, which was granted.

1. Minutes of the previous meeting

The Minutes of the meeting in Berkeley 2002 were approved.

2. President's Report (John H. Roberts)

IAML acts as an advisory or sponsoring body for the R-projects, which are joint projects in which both the International Musicological Society (IMS) and IAML are involved. Coordination of activities has not always been at its best, so it is therefore excellent news that David Fallows, President of the IMS, joins us today, and will stay until Wednesday. This will create an opportunity for us to get to know him better, and for him to meet those involved in the R-projects, also to signify the beginning of a new era of communications between IAML and IMS, and a desire on David's part to become more involved with these joint projects. John reported on the New Grove Dictionary, which had changed publishers, and the concerns existing about it being maintained in the way in which we would like it to be, which it had not been under the previous publisher. More editorial time is needed to maintain scholarly standards. As a result, seven presidents of music associations (IMS, IAML, ICTM, MLA, AMS, RMS, and the Society of Ethnomusicology) had signed a letter written to OUP, expressing these concerns. A reply had been received which seemed to take these seriously, and as Laura Macy, the editor of Grove, will be here in Tallinn, there will be an opportunity to continue a dialogue about Grove's future, and we will probably be able to ensure that we get the sort of service that we want. For this to happen Laura needs our support. The President then congratulated Thomas Leibnitz on the formation of an Austrian branch at last, and went on to mention the advertisement for a new editor for the IAML electronic newsletter, originally created by Alison Hall, which had been sent out on IAML-L and MLA-L recently. This is an exciting and important post, with a central and creative role, and it is hoped a new incumbent will take on the post not later than the end of 2003, and perhaps sooner, if the right person is found.

Nominations for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections have been sought, and the names received thus far are: President: Massimo Gentili-Tedeschi; Vice-Presidents: Jim Cassaro, Alison Hall, Dominique Hausfater, Ruth Hellen, and Federica Riva. The name of Thomas Leibnitz for Vice-President was subsequently received. The President then said that the Board had examined the Rules of Procedure, and found that in Rule VI, I it is apparently specified that additional nominations can only be accepted up to the end of the first Council meeting. However, this clause does need to be examined, and either clarified, or changed, if we wish to extend the period for receipt of nominations. John asked if there were any questions about this procedure, but there were none. This election will be conducted by mail ballot only, so that the results will be known sooner, before the next IAML meeting.

3. Secretary General's Report (Alison Hall)

Alison reported that the Board had held its mid-year meeting in Paris, and again, all members were present.They were hospitably entertained by Dominique Hausfater. However, after insisting that everyone arrive in good time for the meeting at the prearranged rendezvous at the Conservatoire, the Secretary General herself managed to be fifteen minutes late, for absolutely no good reason whatsoever, a sure sign that it is definitely time to hand over the job to someone else.

This is indeed, what is about to happen. All files (hopefully) have been sent to the successor, Roger Flury, who will take office after this meeting. Roger and Alison spent some extra time in Paris to discuss the transfer of power (or is this regime change?!) and it is expected that all will go smoothly.

The Board was delighted to get the good news that an Austrian branch, under the leadership of Thomas Leibnitz, is now a reality. They have a constitution, and are in the process of making arrangements with the IAML Treasurer regarding switching payments from him to their own branch; there will be more news in Thomas's national report. After a rather long wait, the Board heard that the RIdIM Rules of Order had been discussed by the IMS, who suggested some cosmetic alterations, and after an even longer wait, managed to get their hands on this document.

The Treasurer will be reporting fully on our finances. The Board discussed the effects of the decrease in our reserves, and also the possibility of combining the two outreach funds, as this would increase the amount of money available for travel, and it does cost quite a lot to assign any meaningful amount. Outreach Fund 1 is not called upon very much. Ruth Hellen presented us with a description of the duties of the recently struck Outreach Committee, plus guidelines for the use of both Outreach funds. John Roberts felt that some sort of mechanism for defining the roles of Committees should be factored into the Rules of Procedure.

IAML received overtures from both ProQuest (IIMP) and NISC to make an electronic version of Fontes available (IAML currently has agreements with Ebsco and Wilson), but wondered if this availability might undermine the print Fontes, and consequentially, the membership of the Association, in the light of the fact that we know that some libraries have a policy to cancel the print version of a journal if they subscribe to an electronic version. It was decided not to take up these two offers at this time.

As already mentioned, the Board is inviting applications for the position of editor of the Electronic Newsletter, as it is about time we had someone in the job who can devote more time to it than Alison can. It is a really interesting job, which she can highly recommend. The job description has been written, and applications are invited from interested parties.

The usual newsletters have been received from national branches, and documentation from IFLA, the IMC and ICA. In the process of exploring the IFLA web site, Alison mentioned discovering that they have a very interesting FAQ, which tells the reader something about the Association itself, and also provided information about IFLA conferences, which would be very useful to first time attendees. It would perhaps be a useful thing to have on the IAML website. She has also been working with the Estonian group over the year for this meeting, and said how impressed she was by their cool, calm efficiency.

Alison then thanked all the IAML officers and members who had contributed to making her eight years as Secretary General such an enjoyable time. The President then thanked Alison for her work over the years.

4. Treasurer's Report (Martie Severt)

Martie Severt presented the accounts for the year, plus the three year budget, and the list of membership by country. Regarding income, most of it comes from dues from national branches and individual members, plus miscellaneous items such as mailing labels and advertisements in Fontes, and some from the PULMAN project. Most of the expenditure goes on Fontes, plus honoraria, the List of Members, travel expenses, membership fees, bank charges, plus unfortunately a loss again on our investments, which produced an 8% loss. Part of the investments were sold and the money transferred. The majority is now invested in Capital Secured Growth Funds. It is unlikely that we will face future losses, however, we cannot expect to receive returns in the future as we benefited from in the 1990s. The summary is expressed in three currencies, showing the money available at the beginning and end of the year, and the budget for 2003-2005 is expressed only in euros. In total, we took in 68,887 euros, and spent 108,934 euros, so we spent more than we received. Income and expenditure are both as anticipated, however it can been seen by looking at the statement of reserves at the end of the year, that they are gradually shrinking, and will continue to do so, as expenditure will now continue to exceed income. Reserves at the end of the year are 94,996 euros. It is considered advisable to have in hand one year's running costs for the Association. Looking at the membership by country, numbers are down a bit, however they will probably increase, as there are still some members who have not paid. Outreach fund 1 has received no donations, and Outreach fund 2 has no interest. Outreach fund 1 was scarcely used in 2002. Outreach fund 2 was started with 30,000 DM, and now stands at 15,339 euros. As there was no income from investments, only 667 euros is available for next year's conference. The Board examined the set up of the two funds, and if they were to be combined, income would come from the annual subvention of 2.5%, and from donations. This could increase the amount available for conference attendance, which it is suggested should be set at a guaranteed 1,500 euros minimum. It is proposed therefore that the two funds be merged.

In the light of the financial position, a future increase of dues of 10% is proposed for 2005. This would raise the institutional dues from 50-55 euros, and individual from 30-33 euros, and would yield a reserve at the end of the year of 25,000 euros. The General Assembly has already given its approval for an interim increase if required. There is also a need to know now, so that national branches have time to implement the increase. The previous increase in dues before the increase in was in 1997. We will vote separately on the two issues of the Outreach funds and the dues increase. Veslemöy Heintz asked if perhaps the increase should be more. Martie said that we may have to propose another increase in 2006, however, due to the strength of the Euro and a reduction in the costs of Fontes, it may not be necessary. Chris Banks how much of our income is taken up by Fontes, and are the costs artificially high, to which the answer was no. The figures for Fontes are based on the number of issues estimated to be produced in that year. Next year we will have a new three-year budget. The motion to raise the dues by 10% was put to the vote, and all were in favour. The proposal to merge the two Outreach funds was put to the vote, and all were in favour. In closing, Martie mentioned that some branches are traditionally late in paying their dues, and urged everyone to pay up earlier, also to be sure to send in changes of address.

5. Fontes Artis Musicae report (John Wagstaff)

John Wagstaff hoped that everyone had been receiving, reading and enjoying Fontes.

The following issues of Fontes have appeared since the Berkeley conference in August 2002: 48/3 (Oct. 2002); 48/4 (Spring 2003); 49/1-2 (April 2003) (In memoriam Imogen Fellinger); 49/3 (June 2003). 49/4, covering Oct.-Dec. 2002 will appear Sept. 2003. He said he had hoped to publish 6 issues in the period since Berkeley, but various delays meant that this was not possible. 50/1 will be sent off soon to A-R, and 50/2-3 will probably be a double issue. When this is out, we will be only 6 months behind. We will need to produce six issues a year in order to catch up completely. The good news is that there is currently a lot of material waiting for publication. There are still some staffing problems. The death of Leslie Troutman (an obit. will appear in Fontes as soon as possible), means finding a replacement for her, to do reviews for the US and Canada, Kathleen McMorrow wants to step down after she has indexed vols. 47 and 48, and Chris Walton has just said that he wishes to step down as European reviews editor, due to pressure of work. The job of reviews editor means finding people to write reviews, not to have to write them yourself. John said he was also looking for people who were interested in writing reviews.

Statistically, v. 49(2002) will be 308 pages long, as opposed to 47 (438 pages) and 48 (457 pages). John's aim is for each issue to have approx. 80 pages, or 320 per year. 49 will contain 12 articles and 12 reviews, and includes only 1 article and 2 reviews in French, and 3 articles and 2 reviews in German. More contributions in these languages are invited, however, there is no 'quota' system; if an article or review is good, it will get into Fontes, whatever the language. There has also been discussion about developing a pool of translators, to translate reviews from languages other than English French and German, so John would be interested in hearing from anyone possessing useful and interesting linguistic skills.

John finally invited anyone who was interested to come to the Fontes meeting the next day, and John Roberts then said that we was immensely grateful to John Wagstaff for his superhuman and heroic efforts.

6. IAML Publications

1. IAML-L (Anders Lönn)

   No report

2. IAML Home Page (Massimo Gentili-Tedeschi)

   Massimo brought the good news that two weeks ago a volunteer was found to help with the web site, and the results can be seen tomorrow on the new version. He hopes that a lot of interesting work can be done in the near future, especially with national branch home pages.

3. IAML Newsletter

   Alison said that she welcomed the search for a real editor, as she feels she has not been able to devote as much time to the newsletter as she would have liked.

7. Obituaries

John Roberts mentioned the following members who have died during the past year: Tony Hodges, Yves Lenoir, Leslie Troutman.

8. IAML's relationships with other organisations

1. International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA)

   IAML has received all the usual IFLA publications, plus the ballot for their executive elections. Richard Chesser said there had been nothing of a musical nature on the copyright front. At their meeting this year in Berlin, IFLA will vote on whether to meet in Quebec City or Rome in 2008. If the latter, then it is hoped that some kind of joint session can be arranged.

2. International Music Council (IMC)

   The IMC went through a transition in administration after the death of their Secretary General, Guy Huot, who has been succeeded by Damien Pwono. They have taken to re-examining their priorities, about which we will be responding to a questionnaire. The next General Assembly, held every two years, will be in Montevideo, and John Roberts will attend on behalf of IAML. He hopes to be able to make some Latin American connections.

3. International Council on Archives (ICA) (Inger Enquist)

   Inger reported that she had received publications of ICA. This year they are having a Round Table meeting in Cape Town, with the theme: Archives and human rights. Next year there will be the big conference in Vienna. She has hopes for closer cooperation with ICA. The inventory to the IAML Archive has been updated, and a link has been made to the home page, and Inger reminded us that this is a good source of information for old material. She is happy to receive any relevant materials for the archive, the most recent being from Mrs Mercedes Reis Pequeno from Brazil, which relate to the beginnings of IAML. She hopes to download the IAML home page to a CD. She has a collection of colour photographs of IAML conferences, and will digitise a selection, for which IAML will pay the costs.

4. International Association of Sound Archives (IASA)

   Inger Johanne Christiansen reported that IASA will join IAML for a joint conference in Oslo next year. She attended their annual meeting in Aarhus; their new president is Kurt Deggeller.

5. International Standards Organisation (Lenore Coral)

   No report.

6. European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Associations (Eblida) (Richard Chesser)

   Eblida lobbies for library interests in the EU, such as legal protection, database use, directives to fight piracy, lending rights, and digital rights management. There is a delay, due to the activity of the music industry, in the implementation of the copyright directive legislation. When this happens, Eblida may have more of a role to play. It was suggested that any interesting documentation could be reported in the IAML Newsletter.

7. International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC) (Bernhard Günther)

   Bernhard said he brings the regards of Peter Rantasa, the IAMIC Secretary General, to IAML. IAMIC Austria is presently involved in two big European projects, the European Music Navigator, and the Music Network, which should prove a valuable resource to music libraries. More information about these will be heard during the week.

8. PULMAN (Pam Thompson)

   The project is finished, and had its closing conference in Lisbon in early March, and was a long project. There were two categories, social and technical, and the social one included a reasonable account of access to music and non-print materials, which is with what she was involved. It eventually spread from the confines of the EU to surrounding European countries. It didn't end up exactly as she wanted, as the PULMAN Board played around with it quite a lot, and gives the impression that you can get everything you want from the web, which is their idea, not hers. Within the music guidelines there is a lot of good information which we can all use if necessary to persuade managers and institutions that more work is necessary for music, especially for sound recordings. It was essentially a public libraries project, but has useful information for libraries in all sectors. The guidelines have been translated into the languages of all the countries that were involved, and can be found on their website www.pulmanweb.org. We should ensure that everyone looks at these in their own languages. A manifesto was produced to indicate where public libraries should be going and what they should be doing for the next ten years, which can also be found on the web site. IAML has not yet been paid all the money due, but we know how much we will get. In conclusion, this has been an interesting but infuriating project.

9. International Standard Music Number (ISMN) (Joachim Jaenecke)

   Joachim Jaenecke attended the annual ISMN meeting in Ljubliana, from which the big news is that the US is now a member. The President expressed his joy at this move of the US towards international cooperation.

9. Publications Committee (Dominique Hausfater)

Dominique explained that the duties of the Publications Committee are to oversee and coordinate IAML publications in any format, i.e. both print and electronic, which include Fontes, the Home page, the Newsletter, the brochure, IRMA, and RISM Series C. With regard to the latter, two more volumes are on the way. A questionnaire has been sent out in Italy by Massimo Gentili-Tedeschi, the results of which now need to be analysed, while Eastern Europe, under Pam Thompson, is still a project in mind. It should prove a good opportunity to meet people from eastern Europe. Additionally, IRMA, which is still a working group, might evolve into a publication of some kind. The Board has discussed the brochure to determine whether we still needed a printed version, and it was agreed that it would still be useful to have one to hand out on certain occasions, and to draw attention to IAML activities, but that it would be smaller than the present iteration, with information that goes rapidly out of date removed, such as names of officers, and information that is available from the web site. The Committee's aim is to coordinate the various avenues of information, and determine what kind of information should be in which publication, also to take into account and to examine the different formats, bearing in mind that not all members have access to online information.

10. Outreach Committee (Ruth Hellen)

At the 2002 Conference in Berkeley 5 delegates were supported by the Outreach Fund last year. The countries represented were Chile, China, Lithuania, Mexico and Peru. Support was also offered to a Cuban delegate but he was unfortunately not able to get a visa. The total amount spent was $5000. The surplus, rounded up to $2000, was passed to the Tallinn conference. A summary of the aims of the Outreach Committee has been sent to Council members. The Board recommends that the 2 outreach funds are merged to allow for greater flexibility. Until now, the donations fund has not been fully used, but there is always great demand for conference support. Having one fund will make it easier to prioritise from one year to the next. Reports from branches are as follows:

• In Canada Gilles St-Laurent of the Library and Archives of Canada (National Library of Canada) travelled to the Gramophone Records Museum and Research Centre in Cape Coast, Ghana for two weeks in March 2003. He was the technical advisor, purchaser, installer and educator to a small group of Ghanaians who received a $50,000 grant from the Montréal-based arts and technology benefactor Daniel Langlois Foundation to organize, catalogue, digitally restore and put online nearly 20, 000 records of its collection.
• Suzanne Meyers-Sawa at the University of Toronto is collecting material for the Faculty of Music at Klaipeda University in Lithuania.
• In France Donations of music have been sent to: the Bucharest Academy of Music, Romania, Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, Moscow, the Almaty Kurmangazy Conservatory, Kazakhstan, and the Conservatory of Kirghistan.
• In Hungary there is as yet no organised activity in the field of outreach. Many Hungarian libraries have direct connections with foreign libraries and when a request occurs they try to help or forward the request to a relevant library, though last year they had no major events in this field. This autumn the Hungarian branch is planning to send a questionnaire to music libraries and hoping to have more information next year.
  A problem often faced in Hungary, as in other countries, is the difficulty of getting funding for participation in conferences. As the salaries are relatively low in Hungary, the personal financing of the total cost of participation is not to be expected. Information about IAML support can only be available at the last minute, so there is no sure financial support. Therefore the Hungarian branch asks the Outreach Committee to look into this problem.
• In Japan, Yumiko Hasegawa (secretary of the Japanese branch & Librarian of Kunitachi College of Music Library) visited the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Library in China in October 2002, and met with the new library director Professor Sun. Yumiko spoke about IAML and strongly recommended that the director should consider participating in an international meeting. The problem of SARS has prevented any further contact this year, but if other opportunities arise, the Japanese branch will try to encourage him to participate. The professor spoke about his strong desire to correspond with libraries outside Shanghai, and exchange information and data. More positive library activities are anticipated under the leadership of this new director; however, to support such activities, better methods of dealing with library data, and proper education and training of librarians are urgently needed.
  In August 2002, Mr.Zhao, an associate professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, asked the Japanese branch for help in compiling a list of material to be housed in the Chinese-Japanese Music Research Institute within the Shanghai Conservatory. Purchases of a wide range of materials concerning Japanese and western music will be subsidised by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Relations.
  The Japanese branch has appointed an outreach liaison officer. Hitoshi Matsushita, who was the chief librarian of Kunitachi College of Music Library, is the key person for almost all Japanese outreach activities in the music library field.
• The National Library of Lithuania was very grateful to receive donations via the US Donated Materials Program. The libraries sending the donations were: Curtis Institute of Music, University of Pennsylvania music library, George Sherman Dickinson Music Library & Stanford University Braun Music Center.
  During 2002-2003, the Vilnius Music and Art Library received some very important donations. 160 items came from Yale University Music Library. These included $1000 worth of new books and scores. The University also sent 25 volumes of music by H.Schutz and 15 volumes of Schubert complete works.
  More donations were received from the library of Aalborg University in Denmark, the University of Pennsylvania and the Music Library of the Northwestern University Library, Evanston Illinois. 5 boxes of books were received via the US Donated Materials Program; these were very important because the library has very little music theory literature. Egle Stalnioniene wishes to express her thanks for this support. In return she has sent a collection of modern Lithuanian music on CD to the Music Library of Yale University.
  She also reports on a particularly serious problem: there are no special training programmes for music libraries in Lithuania. She asks about the possibility of IAML colleagues delivering training, perhaps with the support of foreign Embassies in Lithuania. IAML specialists would be very welcome.
• The Polish National Branch Council has discussed issues related to outreach activities and the guidelines sent by Outreach Committee. A call will be sent to Polish IAML members to collect information about Polish institutions in need. One music librarian [Stanislaw Hrabia] has received financial support to attend the IAML conference in Tallinn.
• For several years in Sweden, funding has been available to pay for a librarian from the Baltic states to participate in the Swedish annual meeting. This funding has now been withdrawn, as the government department concerned has the view that if the Baltic states are financially able to join the EU, they must be able to fund attendance at conferences.
• In July 2002, 4 boxes of books, scores & CDs were sent from the UK & Irl Branch to the Lithuanian Academy of Music via the Lithuanian Embassy. Later that month, the Branch received confirmation that the consignment of 24 boxes of books mentioned in last year's report had arrived safely in Harare for the Academy of Music and Dance.
  In early August 2002, another request was received from the Harare Academy for books with particular reference to music education, western music, ethno-musicology, jazz, Western pop music, and Music series to use in primary and secondary schools. The specific need was for about 400 books from around 1993 and later, to assist with course accreditation. So early March 2003 saw the second shipment of 13 boxes of books and music begin the journey to Harare, & by the start of June the consignment had reached the Zimbabwe border for Customs clearance.
  100 kg of books were sent in September 2002 to Albania by Rosemary Dooley, a bookseller & IAML member. These were gratefully received by Professor Sokol Shupo at the Documentation and Communications Centre for Regional Music in Tirana.
  In November 2002 a donation of 250 items of clarinet music was sent from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama to the Lithuanian Academy of Music in Vilnius. These items were a bequest from a customer who wished them to go to a suitable institution.
• IAML-US has continued to provide help to libraries through the excellent Donated Materials Program.

11. Programme Committee (Pam Thompson)

Pam reported that this last year, the Committee did not achieve as much as had been hoped, partly because she had been very busy; however, it is hoped to make up for lost time this week. Sadly a computer crash had resulted in the loss of any ideas that had been previously sent to her, including the plan for the introductory session, and all the emails she had received about this, so she hoped that no one would be left out. The Committee will have a working lunch on Monday, and there will be a planning lunch for Oslo on Tuesday for the Committee, and the various Chairs. She asked members to let her have any programme ideas that have occurred during the week, such as joint sessions with IASA, as we want to present the best possible paper on the best possible subjects. She is aware, also, that it can be difficult for some people to get funding to come to meetings unless they are giving a paper. Somehow we have to strike a balance. John Roberts mentioned the transformation in the redesign of the IAML programme, ensuring that we address issues of concern to our members, therefore we need to know both about ideas for topics, and also what topics are of interest to members.

12. Constitution Committee (Richard Chesser)

A number of issues have arisen that require discussion by the Constitution Committee, and progress will be made on three major issues. Firstly, a small proposed amendment has been made to the Constitution to allow for the creation of branches comprising more than country, for example, the UK and Ireland Branch, which already exists. Secondly, there has been the creation of several new committees recently, and provision needs to be made to make sure these groups are mentioned in the Constitution, and thirdly, following the examples of the Publications and Outreach Committees, a model remit will be constructed to ensure that each group has a current charge.

13. RIdIM (Veslemöy Heintz)

RIdIM is one of the IAML projects, and deals with musical iconography, and has been fairly dormant on the international level for a number of years, though work has been going on at the national level. A while ago, efforts were begun to get it back into action again, and we were lucky enough to get the help of Alan Green to set up a database at Ohio State University with the help of Stephen Westman. All the R-projects have an international centre, and RIdIM originally had one in New York, which subsequently died out. In 1999, talks were held with our French colleagues, regarding a proposed new institute in Paris, Institut national de l'histoire d'art, which is now firmly established and seemed interested in the possibility of making a new home for RIdIM. In November, a small working group met in Paris, with members from Switzerland, France and Germany, to work out how to proceed. There are existing RIdIM databases at the national level, especially in France, Germany, and Italy, but these are mostly research databases. There are many institutions that have collections of iconography, but don't have much time or money to spend on cataloguing, therefore IAML would like to establish a cataloguing database, which would be much more simple, and which Alan and Stephen have probably achieved. Several countries are interested in this idea. At a working meeting on Thursday and an open meeting on Friday, the database will be demonstrated. All R-projects are run by a Commission Mixte, and IAML has appointed its members for the one for RIdIM, as has CIMCIM, and last week the IMS appointed Tilman Seebass (Innsbrück), Antonio Baldassare (Zürich) and Armind Brinzing (München).

14. Proposal for a new working group (Kirsten Voss Eliasson)

Kirsten posed the question as to what IAML can do for Public Libraries and librarians? It can be difficult for them to attend conferences, in order to meet their colleagues, and it is hard to get funding. Thanks to the internet, and inspired by the Danish toolbox project, she would like to propose that a working group be created to work on a similar international resource for IAML. She will speak more about it at the information session on Monday, and there is a session on the Danish toolbox on Tuesday. On Wednesday there will be a visit to Tallinn Public Library, and a meeting will take place afterwards. She suggested that the first task should be to find out and examine what work has already been done, such as PULMAN and Harmonica, as a starting point. If public library administrators see evidence of a useful web resource, they might be more sympathetic to supporting conference attendance. The name, to begin with, will be the IAML Toolbox, and it would deal with issues such as copyright, legislation, how to handle CDs, and many other aspects of music materials. She did not feel that it would be confined to public libraries only, as probably everyone could benefit from such a product. Pam Thompson said she thought this was a wonderful initiative, and hoped that it would be picked up by every branch. There are many people working in isolation, or dealing with music, who don't know how to handle it. The Council was in favour of establishing a working group; the Chair will be determined by the Public Libraries Branch.

15. National Branch Reports

• Armenia

  Gulo Nahatakyan (Musicological Library of Armenia)
  The Music Library of Armenia is forty years old, and the only Music library of the countries of the southern Caucasus. It holds 200,000 music items, of which 20,000 are sound recordings. It has a rich collection of works of world wide composers since the 17th century, consisting mainly of works of German composers. There are many large and small music libraries in Armenia, which is a musical republic, and this year is the year of the Armenian composer Aram Khachachurian. They would like to organise an association of music libraries, and hope that IAML will be able to help them.

  Ruzan Tonoyan (National Children's Library, Khnko-Aper)
  The National Children's Library has one million items, of which 30,000 are music items. There is an annual readership of 20,000. In October 2003 they celebrate their 70th anniversary and invite everyone to celebrate with them.

  Leonora Davydova (Komi National Library)
  The National Library of the Komi Republic is situated in Siberia in the far north of Russia. She has come here with the purpose of learning how to organise a network, and a digital library in the republic, and to disseminate music worldwide.

  John Roberts thanked them for their reports and said that IAML would do what it could to help.

• Australia (Georgina Binns)

  The Australian branch held its biennial conference in Perth last September entitled Ad infinitum; Preserving Australia's musical culture, with an attendance of 30 people. It is hoped to strengthen the connection between librarians and researchers. Activities included a visit to a Benedictine monastery music archive located in an isolated bush area at New Norcia, which includes original manuscripts by Benedictine monks, and which needs some assistance to help with preservation matters. Some constitutional changes were ratified. Membership stands at 35 individuals and 25 institutions. The journal Continuo appears annually, and the newsletter Intermezzo, available on the web, four times a year. An outreach programme is developing slowly with a library in Kenya, and an Outreach coodinator has been appointed. Next year there will be a joint conference in Canberra with the IAML New Zealand colleagues. A supporting session was presented at the IMS Symposium in Melbourne. The National Library of Australia has secured the archive of Peter Sculthorpe, which is very exciting. The Music Australia project continues to proceed, and funds have been made available to digitise sheet music.

• Austria (Thomas Leibnitz)

  Last year in Berkeley Thomas had promised an Austrian national branch, and this now exists. In December 2002, a meeting of music librarians was held at the Austrian National Library, and the decision was made to form a branch. This has taken quite a while. Helped by Wolfgang Krueger, a constitution was established, and harmonised with Austrian legislation that governs the creation of societies, and the branch is now registered as a society. A bank account is being established, after which the branch will collect its own dues to send to the Treasurer. The President is Thomas Leibnitz, Vice-President Bernhard Günther. They plan to hold two meetings a year at different locations, in order to get information on the different libraries in Vienna, and aim to create a web site, with the help of Bernhard Günther. There are a lot of new members, including the Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde, the MICA, Vienna Public Library, the Archive of the Vienna Konzerthaus, the City Library of Linz, the Vienna Schoenberg Centre, and The Klagenfurt Conservatory. Thomas commented that IAML is responsible for the creation of this branch, as he became tired of being asked the question as to when there will be an Austrian branch. It seems that this will now be replaced by the question When will we be invited to meet in Austria!

• Belgium (Johan Eeckeloo)

  No report.

• Canada (Brenda Muir for Diane Peters)

  CAML has had a busy year. The branch had its annual meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with 26 participants. Membership stands at 105 in total, mainly from academic and research libraries. There are not many members from public libraries. Board elections were held, and Diane Peters is the new President. CAML awarded its first ever travel grant of $500 CAD, and also money to fund a special project, for sheet music in British Columbia, researched by Terry Horner. Future plans are to hire someone to make the web site completely bilingual, to review the Constitution and the Board procedures manual, and to put the whole of the CAML Review on the web site. At present, only the reviews are found there. The next conference will be held in Lethbridge, Alberta, and in 2005, CAML will meet with MLA in Vancouver.

• Czech Republic (Pam Thompson for Zusanna Petráskova)

  A plenary meeting in the form of a seminar on public music libraries and multimedia databases was held in November 2002. CD ROMS of each library's database were demonstrated, and copyright regulations were discussed. RidIM, RISM and RILM work continues, with some RIPM activities. The library in Brno organised a seminar on contemporary music. The Branch continues to publish in the music libraries section of Narodny Knihovna. In November the branch will meet in Zlin. It is sad to report that Blanka Cervinkova died in October 2002.

• Denmark (Ole Bisberg)

  Danish music libraries are in a state of transition; as as a result of legislation that came into effect on January 1 2003, all Danish Public Libraries must now stock music materials. By 2004 new organisation will be in place, and it is hoped that there will be cooperation between libraries. The ILL system will be reorganised by the appointment of four public libraries, and the Danish State Library to be in charge of a superstructure. At the same time, there is also a project for digital communication on the internet. The Digital Phonofile will be launched in the autumn, set up to meet new challenges facing the Danish music industry in terms of the distribution and management of music in digital form. Collaboration makes access to the Danish music repertoire possible. A pilot project for sheet music is up on the web, which grants Danish music libraries free access to over 10,000 pieces of music. The Danish branch has 155 members.

• Estonia (Aurika Gergeležiu)

  Aurika expected that we would notice that there has been no activity in the Estonian branch apart from organising the IAML conference. They have been very lucky, and very glad for assistance from IAML, and from the US branch for Outreach money. It has been possible to give full or partial assistance to ten people from, amongst other places, Poland, Chile, Croatia, Armenia, Russia and Karelia.

• Finland (Jaako Tuohienemi)

  The Finnish branch publications, which are approaching one hundred in number, are changing to make them more and more available on the internet. The branch is collaborating with public libraries to establish a discussion forum.

• France (Laurence Languin)

  Membership of the French branch is about 112, the same as last year. There have been 13 new members, 8 institutions and 5 individuals, mainly from public libraries, which is a new development for the French group, and is probably as a result of an association with ACIM, which is now a federation of different organisations dealing with musical documentation. The journal Ecoutez voir comes out three times a year. The new issue contains reports of meetings, the IAML meeting in Berkeley, Dominique Hausfater's report on her visit to four experimental establishments in musical documentation in New York and its environs, professional training, subject headings, FRBR, and cataloguing in the MARC format. The group would like to publish translations of foreign articles, such as the President's report, working group reports, RILM annual report. This year there will be a special issue of the Bulletin dealing with musicology. As President of the French branch, Laurence attended the meeting of a committee appointed to deal with conference organisation in Grenoble, entitled Music and memory. Many participants were IAML members. The web site has changed its structure. The annual meeting was held in Lyons at the end of April, at which there were three working groups, on the musical bibliography handbook, the evolution of the MARC format, and professional training. Patrick Leboeuf has been invited to talk about FRBR. Next year the conference will be in Grenoble. Six catalogues will be published in October

• Germany (Wolfgang Krueger)

  The membership of the German branch stands at 227 members, which is down a bit; there is a certain stagnation in membership. Although Germany is not a poor country, music libraries are having problems with staffing and money. Their journal Forum Musikbibliothek is in its 24th year. The former bibliography Zeitschrift und Dienstmusik does not exist any more, but it is hoped that it will be integrated as an electronic bibliography when the Bibliographie des Musikschrifttums goes online. The electronic discussion list has 140 subscribers, and is most successful, and helpful. At the University of Stuttgart the music postgraduate study came to an end, and the MA began, based on the Euro credit system. It will cover topics such as music libraries, music publishing, radio stations, and event management, and will require part time study for five terms. The next annual meeting will be in Rostock in September 2003, and will include local collections, new technology, offers of new services, the project of a new German internet library, and the lending of files on the internet. A new Board will be elected.

• Hungary (Julianna Gócza)

  Hungary has started to found the proper Hungarian National Branch but this will be a long process. There are 17 colleagues who belong to the Hungarian National Branch, but only 8 of them are subscribers to Fontes. According to the Hungarian legislation there must be 10 members to form an association. Firstly the branch will do everything it can to find another 2 subscribers to be able to form a proper Hungarian branch. If there is no chance for that, then they will become part of the Hungarian Library Association. Presently the financial issues of the National group are being arranged by the Music Section of this organisation.
  Due to the regulation about librarian training - issued by the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage - libraries have to support their staff in a further compulsory training program every 7 years. Three special training courses are provided for musicians and basic music education courses for librarians.
  There are some developments in Hungary on information technology. Some international databases will be freely accessed by the Library Department of the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage. The Hungarian National Branch has made great efforts in order to get access to the RILM Abstract online version for next year and hopes that the request will be accepted.
  The branch is working in additional new special areas, for example: they will take part in the workshop of the digitalisation project for the Hungarian Cultural Public Property/Heritage.

• Italy (Federica Riva for Agostina Zecca Laterza)

  During 2003 the Italian branch of IAML was officially appointed by the Italian national cataloguing agency (ICCU) to cooperate with the permanent commission on the revision of the Italian cataloguing code. A working group was established, chaired by Fiorella Pomponi, former music librarian at the Milano central public library 'Sormani', with the aim to revise the 1979 music code Manuale di catalogazione musicale according to the evolution of the Italian library network. In autumn 2003 the separate music database SBN-Musica is going to be merged into the National cataloguing system, as prototype of any special meterials.
  On 9 April 2003 the copyright law n. 68 was approved in application of the European directive 2001/29/CE. The loan of copyrighted music in Italy has been forbidden since 1994, and the law unfortunately introduces a new exception for music. The general rules states that it is possible to xerocopy protected printed materials up to 15% of any volume (or an issue of periodical) but it expressely excludes printed music. The Italian branch thanks IAML for the approval of the Statement of principles on copyright and thanks Anne Le Lay and Richard Chesser who participated in the copyright session on music at the national conference of the Italian Library Association in October 2002. Other initiatives on the copyright issue are in progress. During another session of the same conference the issue of Total Quality in music libraries was approached for the first time in Italy.
  A third event took place during the year which is going to change much in music libraries life, i.e. the implementation of the Conservatory reform. According to the reform each Conservatory is going to write, by Sepember 2003, its own constitution, and there is some expectation that the role of libraries will be better recognized. To help this process the board of the Italian Branch of IAML prepared and published on the national website recommendations and guidelines to be adopted by each Conservatory.
  A proposal of cooperation was presented to the Italian Library Association in case the IFLA conference 2008 will be held in Rome, while the IAML conference is going to be held in Naples in the same year. The branch had elections during the annual assembly held in May at the Conservatory in Naples. Officers for 2003-2006 are: Agostina Zecca Laterza, president; Federica Riva, vice-president; Marcello Eynard, secretary; Patrizia Salvi, treasurer.

• Japan (Tsuneko Arakawa)

  The Japanese branch now has 64 personal members, and 22 institutional. The annual meeting was held in Tokyo on June 6 2003. Seminars were held on Reference in the music library, the Koizumi Fumio Memorial Archives, and Netherlands songs sung in Japan during the Edo period. Three issues of the Newsletter have appeared, and the branch now has its own domain for their home page (www.iaml.jp). For the last four years, the branch has made funds available to enable young librarians to attend the international conference, but no one was eligible this year. In order to facilitate cooperation with other branches, Hitoshi Matsushita has been appointed outreach officer. The Music Libraries Association of Japan has published a survey of music collections in Japan to commemorate its 30th anniversary. It contains details of 2002 collections in 64 institutions.; the International Kuhlau Society, Tokyo, is participating in the study and propagation of the works of Kuhlau, and the Japapese version of the New Grove Dictionary is being put online.

• Netherlands (Gert Floor)

  During the year, the Dutch national branch has developed several activities for its still growing number of members. Most of the actual work is being done by committee-members. The national board coordinates, keeps control, develops new initiatives and tries to make the members interested. The Program-committee organised two meetings, one about collection management and one introducing four music genres: contemporary music, New Age, Jazz, and today's pop music. Here the Program committee liaised with the Education committee, which twice last year organised an introductory course in World Music, attended by about 50 people from all over the country. At the annual meeting the education committee proposed a choice between a course in one of the four music genres: jazz, and an elementary course in music theory. This elementary course, which won the support, is meant for staff working in the front office of the music department of a public library. In the Netherlands, the situation has become such, that people working at information desks, often lack musical training. Staff trained as music librarians are declared specialists and are placed in the back office or in a more managerial function.
  The Interlibrary Loan-committee has to cope with other problems. Last year this committee recommended a system for a more efficient interlibrary loan of printed music. This was received cordially by the large public libraries in the country, but practical realization of the proposals is not in their hands. Lobbying and diplomatic deliberations will be necessary, as will be fundraising. Strongly connected with an efficient interlibrary loan system are developments in ICT. Several new initiatives made it necessary for the branch to appoint a coordinator for this field. The input of music-related subjects in larger national ICT- initiatives like “bibliotheek.nl” (library. nl) and a national “information desk” for public libraries (aladin.nl) have become more important over the last year. The website has just moved to a new address and will be built on and kept up to date by members of yet another committee: the editorial staff of the Newsletter. We hope that in the new virtual surroundings discussion between members will flourish. The high costs of the printed and mailed version prompted the editorial staff to search for possibilities of an attractive electronic version of the newsletter. The branch is looking forward to the 2009 conference in the Netherlands, and are trying to raise more involvement among our members with IAML topics, and what is going on at the conferences. So far it has been a little abstract to some of our members. As always: much work to do, but it is worthwhile!

• New Zealand (Roger Flury for Joan Clayton)

  The 20th branch annual meeting and seminars were held in Wellington in November 2002. A new executive was elected, with Joan Clayton as President There were several trips to places of interest, and several presentations, including a book about The Pollards: a family and its child and adult opera companies in New Zealand Australia 1880-1910, which gave an interesting insight into their economic situation. It was interesting to find that material in private collections is better than that in public ones. There was also a presentation about New Zealand published sheet music, and a visit to SOUNZ, the New Zealand MIC. Branch membership stands at 31, and a membership drive is in progress. RILM contributions continue, and a grant has been made available for a biography of Douglas Lilburn. There will be a joint meeting with the Australian branch in Canberra. Changes have been made to legal deposit provisions, and depositories will now receive sound recordings and non-print materials. New Zealand and Australia have a joint email list.

• Norway (Inger Johanne Christiansen)

  The Norwegian IAML Branch is busy planning next year's Congress, a joint Congress for IAML and IASA. A lot of work has been done so far, but there is still a long way to go. In November the branch celebrated its 30th anniversary. It was a successful event, with champagne, a wonderful dinner and a lecture on the famous composer Harald Saeverud, given by a famous Norwegian radio and TV reporter. The composer Arne Nordheim was invited to the annual meeting in April, to introduce himself and his music. He is also part of the arranging Comittee for next years Congress.
  A similar publication to the UK's "Music for the terrified" by was published in 1990.
  This is outdated and work is being done on a new edition which will be completed this autumn. It is interesting that the original publication says nothing about computer, databases or Internet. Close contact is maintained with the Library School, teaching librarianship. Attempts have been made to improve the education during the last years, and they were successful in finding a new teacher in cataloguing and reference work last year. Many students are interested in the special courses in music librarianship.
  The Library Center, selling services and equipment to the libraries in Norway, offers CDs fully catalogued. They nearly shut down their services for the music libraries last year, but were convinced to continue and improve them. The homepage had been neglected for many years, so a new one is being designed, which will appear very soon, hopefully by the end of September. There will also be an English version. Next years Congress has its own homepage: http://www.IAML-IASA-2004.musikk.no

• Poland (Jolanta Byczkowska-Staba)

  During the last year the Polish branch has been concentrating on international activities, and their Board meetings have been directed towards planning for the IAML conference in 2005. Contact with Joachim Jaenecke has been made with regard to this. A meeting was held in May for music librarians and representative Polish composers at the National Library, and in October, a meeting for sound librarians and music librarians was held in Warsaw at the National Library and the University Library. Copyright and subject headings were discussed. Work on RISM and RIPM continues. Help has been received from other libraries for describing music manuscripts and prints. Maria Prokopovic has donated her archive to the branch. Dates for the IAML meeting are July 10-15 2005, and post conference tours to Gdansk and Krakow, amongst other places, are planned. There is a link from the IAML website to the Polish website, which contains useful information about Warsaw.

• Portugal (Alda Goes)

  Alda Goes works at the Lisbon City Fonoteca, which was created in 1994, and occupies 200 square metres in a shopping centre. It has a small budget, and ten staff, of which only one has music skills. The opening hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. All kinds of materials are catalogued, including DVDs, CDs, and CD-ROMs. The library holds about 20,000 titles, of which 1,070 are printed items. Listening facilities are available, and information is also provided by email to everyone, especially to Ph.D students, and particularly about Portuguese music of all kinds. A website has been available since 1995. There are some pedagogical programmes, such as What is a music library? Concerts, conferences and workshops are offered, and support is given to commercial recording companies.
  The national library of Portugal has a music department, which deals especially with printed and manuscript materials, but they are not able to lend their sound recordings. A lot of material is received on legal deposit, and it would be nice if this were catalogued and available to the general public. Many of the universities have music departments, such as Lisbon, Oporto, and Averroes. The Fonoteca was asked to advise Averroes University on the organisaton of a donation of sound recordings they had received. The department of music at Lisbon University has various projects, including iconography at the Ethnomusicological Institute. They have a sound recording archive of student fieldwork, and the sociology and aesthetics of music, but it is not open to the public. Portugal has many public libraries, and there are about twenty in Lisbon. In general they have very small music sections, consisting mainly of audio-visual materials, for lending. Unfortunately, Portugal does not have training available for music librarians, and does not have a Music Information Centre. Alda would like to learn from IAML how to improve the situation in Portugal.

• Russia (Emilia Rassina)

  A database is being constructed of about 500 special libraries in theatres, music sections, public libraries, etc. This is only part of the project, which will require more work. The Russian branch participates in the work of the Russian Library Association. Groups of Russian libraries presented a programme of exchanges and training on rare books and manuscripts, which resulted in an interesting project on the training of specialists, lectures, exchanges with France.

• Spain (Jose Carlos Gosálves)

  The Spanish branch has new officers. It has presented two courses on manuscript music cataloguing, cataloguing printed music and sound recordings, and one on authority control, also a round table on intellectual property. The Branch is working towards celebrating its second national conference next fall. There have been several publications produced, including the third volume of BIME, a Model for libraries, conservatories and schools of music, and are preparing a thematic catalogue of the works of Gaetano Brunelli. A facsimile of important Spanish musical sources is also in preparation, together with the Spanish Musicological society. The branch has 192 members, and is full of ideas and energy.

• Sweden (Veslemöy Heinz)

  The Swedish branch has a stable membership, and their main task this year has been the celebration of their 50th anniversary, which was done with champagne. A meeting was held at a public music library, which is unique in Sweden. A lecture was presented by the President of IAMIC. The Minister of Trade believes that the survival of Sweden us due to its music exports. A second meeting about cataloguing is planned for the autumn.

• Switzerland (Pio Pellizzari)

  This has been a quiet year for the Swiss branch, during which reorganisation has been discussed. Elections have taken place, so that now there is a complete Board. A working group has been created for the new music librarians in teaching institutions, which will look for solutions to common problems, which are at very different levels, and try to harmonise things. The Swiss national sound archive is developing a service centre, and will integrate into IAML Switzerland.

• United Kingdom and Ireland (Susi Woodhouse)

  The branch has been very active. Highlights of the year include its first year as the UK & Irl Branch. There are two representatives from Ireland. 2003 was also its Golden Jubilee, and a Festschrift was produced on Music Librarianship in the UK. Work is being done on the building of a strategic jigsaw for music. A further grant was received to continue the work for Encore and Cecilia. The latter provides a good starting point, and has attracted much attention. Katherine Hogg is now the Cecilia project manager. They are looking for finance to turn collection descriptions into. Encore now includes 50,000 titles, and recognition of its worth was made by the government at the launch, by Baroness Blackstone, and in November 2002 Malcolm Jones was presented with a CILIP award for lifetime achievement in Information Technology. The branch is also working on a toolbox similar to the Danish product. The Music LIP was revitalised for a new strategic plan, and an enormous amount of work was done by Pam Thompson and Malcolm Lewis. There has been much discussion about this and funding was secured to enable a move forward. Contributions were made to the NMU and the PULMAN project, and the web site has been redesigned. There continues to be pressure on music resources including the Library of the University of Edinburgh. Thanks are due to all who contributed, in particular, Liz Hart, Education Officer, and Kathy Adamson, who has just completed five years as Treasurer, and is now President-Elect.

• USA (Jane Gottlieb)

  The US branch is breathing a sigh of relief after the Berkeley meeting, and thanks are due to all who were involved in this, especially John Roberts and Lenore Coral. The web site has been newly designed. They are negotiating with A-R Eds to take over their management, which will make life easier. $2000 USD was forwarded on to the conference in Estonia, which was originally part of the money given to the US by the UK. The branch is aiming to get tax- exempt status, and with an MLA task force established by Jim Cassaro is exploring a long term endowment for US RILM. The donated materials programme continues to flourish under Marjorie Hassen, and it is with sadness that the death of Leslie Troutman on May 18 2003 is mentioned.

Reports of the R-Projects were deferred until the Closing Session.

16. Constitutional matters (Richard Chesser)

Changes to the Constitution and to the Rules of Procedure have been proposed in order to allow for branches to be formed with members from more than one country. The Council is in a position to vote here on the changes to the Rules of Procedure, but can also wait until the Oslo Council meeting to vote on them. Changes to the Constitution cannot be made today, as they must be sent to the entire membership for voting six months in advance of the date of the next General Assembly in Oslo. The Constitution Committee has formulated the appropriate changes both to the Rules of Procedure and the Constitution, which is simply the addition of the word 'multi-national' in places where the phrase 'national branch' is used. There are no other changes, and the relationship of a branch to the parent organisation stays the same. Copies of the amendments to the two documents have been circulated to the Council. Richard asked if everyone could get within sight of one of the copies.

Proposed amendments to the Constitution are as follows:

• Article V, 2) a) Any national or multi-national branch, or country having at least ten members enrolled in the Association shall have a delegate on the Council. …

• Article VI. National and Multi-National Branches

  The principle purpose of the National and Multi-national branches shall be to accomplish at the branch level such tasks as the Association undertakes internationally and to collaborate in all the activities that the Association deems necessary, as well as to serve national needs in areas that concern the Association.

  National and Multi-National Branches shall submit their constitutions to the Association. They shall not conflict with that of the Association.

  It shall be the duty of the National and Multi-national Branches to designate the representative of their country branches to the Council. Individual countries within Multi-national branches shall not be entitled to separate representation on Council. The National and Multi-national Branches shall be required to submit an annual report of their activities to the Association.

Proposed changes to the Rules of Procedure are as follows:

• Rule I, 2 Honorary members shall be elected by the General Assembly on proposal of the Council. National and Multi-national Branches may elect their own honorary members, who do not, however, thereby become honorary members of the Association.

• Rule II, 5. In countries where a National or Multi-national Branch of the Association exists, members shall pay their dues to the Treasurer or Secretary of the Branch, unless the Branch prefers another arrangement. 20% of the dues may be retained by the Branch; the remainder shall be remitted to the Treasurer of the Association.

  The National or Multi-national Branch may use its share of the dues at its own discretion. The Branch shall be entitled to assess additional dues upon its members and shall have the sole right of disposal if such funds as well as of revenue from any other sources. Members of countries without a National or Multi-national Branch shall remit their dues to the Treasurer of the Association, either directly or through an intermediary designated for this purpose.

• Rule II, 6. Honorary members of the Association shall be exempt from dues. This does not apply to honorary members of a National or Multi-national Branch; however, the Branch may pay the dues of such members.

• Rule IV, 1 The names of national delegates from National and Multi-national branches to the Council shall be communicated to the Secretary General.

• Rule VIII, 2 The organisation of meetings or congresses shall normally be assigned to a National or Multi-national Branch at the invitation of the Branch which shall be in charge of local arrangements. Responsibility for the professional programme shall rest with the Association (cf. Rule V, 2).

In article VI of the Constitution, national level was changed to branch level.

John Roberts thanked Richard for drafting these changes at short notice, and pointed out that it was the intention to broaden the definition of 'branch' in order to assist countries that were unable to form a branch on their own, to do so in collaboration with other countries. When the matter was first discussed, the term 'regional' was suggested, but it was subsequently thought that this could be interpreted as meaning a region within a country forming a branch, which is something we would not encourage, so that is why the rather 'heavy' term 'multi-national' has been used.

It was pointed out that this situation actually has existed in the past, and exists now, in the UK & Irl Branch. The proposal to amend the Constitution and Rules of Procedure was made by Richard Chesser and seconded by Pam Thompson. John Roberts suggested that we vote first on the Constitution, as it is the larger document, and the changes in it are simpler.

There was discussion as to whether or not the Rules of Procedure should be changed before the Constitution, as they would then be at variance with the Constitution for a short period of time, and if we could tolerate the contradiction that would briefly exist. Changes to the Constitution have to be approved by both the General Assembly and the Council. We could wait until next year to vote on the Rules of Procedure, by which time the Constitutional change would have been approved. Richard Chesser was in favour of Council approving changes to both documents now, even though the Constitutional change could not be officially effected until a vote is taken by the entire Association. The President then reminded Council who in entitled to vote, viz. The President, Vice-Presidents, the two immediate Past Presidents, Chairs of Branches and Commissions, branch representatives of branches with more than ten members, national representatives as approved by Council. The Treasurer and Secretary General, the Editor of Fontes, Chairs of Joint Commissions and Working Groups, and observers, do not have votes.

At this point, Gert Floor said that he had not had the opportunity to read the proposed changes and did not know on what the Council was voting, and requested that the vote be delayed. The need to get this change approved was then stressed, so as to avoid having to take the issue back to the Council again in Oslo. This is not in any way a substantial change, as all we are doing is adding the expression 'multi-national' to 'national' . Ruth Hellen then pointed out that this matter had been discussed in Council last year, at which point the Constitution Committee had been directed to come up with an amendment, which they have done. She urged closure to the matter, as it would be nice to feel that existing multi-national branches had legal status.

Wolfgang Krueger asked if the vote on the Rules of Procedure had to be taken today, as some members may wish to have more time to think about the matter. John Roberts said that if the proposal of the Constitutional amendment was sent out to the membership for voting, and was approved, and the Council was to change it subsequently, we would have to wait another six months before sending out a vote to the General Assembly, and even longer if we only have a General Assembly every three years. Pam Thompson asked if everyone who was going to vote understood about what they were voting, as it would be best if we could arrive at a decision today.

John Wagstaff asked if a branch could be both a national branch and a member of a multi-national branch. Richard Chesser thought this would be unlikely to happen. John Roberts said it was not suggested that branches should merge, but simply that a country that was unable to form a branch on its own could do so in collaboration with another country. He cited the precedent of IAMLANZ, the joint Australian/New Zealand branch.

In response to the suggestion that a descriptive paper be written about the matter, it was pointed out that this was hardly a new concept, as it had been discussed at every Council meeting since the meeting in Périgueux. The changes are not restricting in any way, but more enabling. The President finally called the question to vote on the proposed constitutional changes. The votes were 29 for, 3 opposed, and 2 abstentions.

Voting on the amendments to the Rules of Procedure was deferred.

17. Copyright Committee (Anne Le Lay)

Anne Le Lay, appointed as Chair of the Committee in 1996, expressed he wish to stand down from the position, as she felt six years in the job was long enough. Last year, the Committee was expanded to include a Secretary, and geographic representatives from Northern, Southern, and Eastern Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and the Southern hemisphere. She proposed Federica Riva , the representative for Southern Europe, as her successor, and she herself will take on Federica's responsibilities. The Council approved the appointment. The President thanked Anne for her hard work on tricky copyright situations.

18. IRMA (Judy Tsou)

In consultation with the Archives and Documentation Centres Branch, Judy Tsou proposed an Interim Committee of three people to govern IRMA, consisting of one Board member, the Chair of the Commission of Archives and Documentation Centres Branch, and one other person appointed by the Board. This would not take the place of the Working Group itself. It is hoped to move the direction of the Working Group to have future cooperation with other international organisations. The Council approved.

19. Structure of annual conferences (John Roberts)

1. National reports

   The Board has been trying to find a better way to deal with national reports, and to give them more importance. Therefore, it is suggested that there be one Council session on the Sunday morning, and in the afternoon, have an open session for all, at which national reports would be presented. As they would then no longer be part of the Council meeting, they could no longer be carried over to the second Council session. The Board would like to establish a tradition of written reports that would appear in the Newsletter and Fontes, as it feels that it is important for all members to hear and to read them, especially those unable to attend the conference. Branch presidents who cannot attend can send their report in via a colleague. A shorter version of the written report can be presented verbally at this session. It was stressed that if at all possible, these reports should be available in machine-readable form, which probably replaces Suki Sommer's mantra of 'double spaced'.

2. General Assemblies

   The Board would like to propose having a General Assembly every year, merging it with the Closing Session. The Constitution prescribes a General Assembly at least every three years, so in the past, constitutional amendments which can only be ratified by the General Assembly have been tied to this three year cycle. We could avoid this delay by having an assembly each year. Next year we must have one, so initially it will not be too much of a change.

20. Future conferences (Alison Hall)

• 2004. Oslo, August 8-13
• 2005. Warsaw, July 10-15
• 2006. Gothenburg
• 2007. Sydney
• 2008. Naples
• 2009. Amsterdam
• 2010. ?
• 2011. Dublin

he President was presented with an official invitation from The Netherlands, to meet probably in Amsterdam, late June/early July.

21. Other business

The President thanked the Estonian branch for their magnificent conference organisation, and said how much we appreciate all they have done to make things work so smoothly.
He then thanked the retiring Secretary General for her work over the past eight years.

The meeting was adjourned.