Public Record Libraries in the NetherlandsAuthor(s): HUIB DEETMANSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 21, No. 3, DUTCH ISSUE (1974 September-Dezember), pp.111-115Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23506779 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 21:16

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML) is collaboratingwith JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fontes Artis Musicae.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.28 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:16:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

H. DEETMAN: PUBLIC RECORD LIBRARIES IN THE NETHERLANDS 111

The Volksliedarchief has a small, specialist library, but also has the institute library (approx. 45,000 books and 200 periodicals) at its disposal. Since it has to resort to

several disciplines of the type of folklore and folksong study, the library bears that

stamp: linguistics and literature, history, musicology and, especially in recent years,

social science. We do not loan to private people as a rule, but provide ample facilities

for study.

The Volksliedarchief has not as yet any publications in its own name. Articles and

other smaller pieces of information can be placed in the Belgian-Dutch magazine

Volkskunde, which the institute co-edits. Two large-scale projects are being prepared:

the Dutch contribution to the Typenindex der europäischen Volksballade, and, also in

connection with international projects, a bibliography and edition of the melodies of

the Dutch hymn before 1800.

HUIB DEETMAN (AMSTERDAM)*

Public Record Libraries in the Netherlands

Public libraries started working with gramophone records after World War Two.

The first library to open a record department was at Zwolle in 1958, and now, as the

survey in this issue shows, record libraries are fairly well distributed. For those

working as record librarians the distribution is not as dense as they would like;

several large and medium-sized cities are still deprived of this form of musical

information. This, incidentally, is the motto under which the work of the record

libraries, and in fact of music libraries too, is approached today. An essential change

of mentality is the basis for this.

Mentality

The tradition in Dutch public libraries—often prompted by their straitened financial

circumstances—was, up to about ten years ago, highly educational, more or less

moralistic and (as social reformers tend to put it) more or less value-establishing.

A strong expansion of library work with young, frequently well-trained professionals,

in conjunction with what was often a sensational expansion of county libraries, has

obviously contributed to the fact that various concepts which had always operated

started being operated in a more relative manner. Library work has thus acquired a—

recognized—recreative task; light reading matter and pornography are no longer

rude words. The same sort of thing could be observed in the budding history of the

record libraries. They emerged as a section of the music libraries, and were all tackled

in more or less the same fashion at the beginning, for music libraries had an approach

which was clearly of a preservative nature: there was hardly any simple practice

literature, or none at all (recorder, guitar), no popularizing biographies, no popular

music, let alone pop, songbooks and jazz. The same applied to the early days of the

record libraries: no pop, no light music, only 'historically valuable' jazz. This situation

* Huib Deetman, Chief Librarian, Public Music/Record Library, Amsterdam (Chairman of the Study

Centre 1972-).

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.28 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:16:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

112 H. DEETMAN: PUBLIC RECORD LIBRARIES IN THE NETHERLANDS

has drastically changed, and the change was rapidly accomplished, in three or four

years' time. It is no mere figure of speech to say that record libraries have had a

threshold-reducing influence, definitely where they are integrated with music libraries.

Study Centre

In view of these developments it is understandable that the record libraries—because

of their numerical majority too—have an important voice in the Study Centre for

Music and Record Libraries. This ultimately resulted in a number of activities, inspired

by the Study Centre, with practical consequences, which are listed below.

1. Uniform cataloguing rules

Rules for cataloguing music already existed, and the need soon arose for a similar

uniformity in cataloguing gramophone records. The principle of 'unit entry' was

selected, i. e. a record is always considered as a whole, and not as separate works.

The catalogue entries are found by underlined data. This means that for a record

with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on one side and Mozart's Fortieth on the other,

one title card, containing all the bibliographic data plus data on the performers and

record company, is made and duplicated twice afterwards (Beethoven once, Mozart

once) for any form of catalogue in use.

There were repercussions to these rules in print, entitled The Cataloguing and

Classification of Gramophone Records, The Hague 1970. After some years of

experience it appeared that the rules were probably too perfectionist in their detail, and in practice too time-consuming in the case of gramophone records of short

circulation. They would definitely have to be abridged for computer processing, about

which whispers have been heard recently.

2. Central information service

The outcome of this uniform system was the establishment of a national central

information service. An agreement was made with a big record library, the one in Amsterdam. Briefly, the effect is that Amsterdam gives notice of all (approx. 5,000) new long-playing records coming out in the Netherlands each year. This is done first

by means of acquisition lists, secondly by means of catalogue cards provided with a

brief assessment of the quality (+ =

recommended, ± = average,

— = not

recommended). The various local record libraries can subscribe to this central in

formation and thus be provided with information about the new material and also

with the catalogue cards. In practice, no problems were involved in obtaining in

formation about classical records, but there were big problems with non-classical

records, chiefly because of the necessity for quick information in this category, which

is subject to rapid changes of taste.

3. Report of the record libraries

A special work-group was concerned with the situation of record libraries in the

Netherlands, resulting in the publication of Ter Discussie, nr. 3. Rapport Diskotheken, The Hague 1973. Roughly, the contents of this report are:

(a) minimum standardization (b) description of the task of staff and staff training (c) budget (d) central service facilities

(e) questionnaire

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.28 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:16:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

H. DEETMAN: PUBLIC RECORD LIBRARIES IN THE NETHERLANDS 113

(a) standardization is important within the framework of a new Public Libraries Act,

under which all libraries will be subsidized. The idea is to start with a minimum

collection of 3,000 records (applicable to small areas with 5,000 inhabitants), gradual

ly increasing to facilities for the largest cities with 15,000 records. This latter figure

applies to a central municipal record library, and in large cities the inevitable branch

libraries have to be taken into account too. Seen in this light, Amsterdam (approx.

700,000 inhabitants) would soon have to make about 100,000 records accessible if

the proposed standardization were optimally applied. The financing of this record

library distribution is based on a kind of formula which is to be used in relation to

staff structure:

actual no. of discs + target no. according to standardization = no. of staff.

4000

The same standardization contains the relationships between the number of discs

in a collection and the available space, deletions, etc.

(b) The task descriptions in the report appeared to be necessary because record library work is done in practice by three separate categories, also separate in relation to the

training involved.

Training is now in the form of a special course lasting a year at the Amsterdam

Library School, following in principle a general librarianship course of two years (see

article on Training).

(c) The initial budget of a municipal record library is strongly affected by the situation in the Netherlands, in which calculations are based on an average record price of

£ 2 and staffing costs of approximately £ 350 a month for the most highly qualified

(and trained) members of the staff.

(d) The section on central service facilities is perhaps the most important one in the

report. Following the example of an already existing national information service,

national service facilities will start operating at the beginning of 1975—if the

proposals made in February 1974 are accepted. This service will provide material

(discs completely ready for lending, i. e. complete with indications, sleeves, lending

card, etc.), and catalogue cards. The concept is based on a processing cost of approx.

50 pence per disc and proceeds from the said basic price, obtained by subtracting the

usual 31°/o discount given by importers. This service will probably only be able to pay

its way if at least about 40,000 discs a year can be guaranteed to be disposed of by the

participating libraries. Quite a number of practical nuts still have to be cracked,

since a definitive choice of a uniform classification system is a conditio sine qua non

for this type of central service facilities. Roughly speaking, two classification systems

are in vogue at present:

I. a less detailed system—e. g. four sections of classical music: chamber, vocal,

orchestral music, opera—in which the discs are arranged alphabetically in the

appropriate sections according to the performers' names (non-classical) or com

posers' names (classical) or the country (folk music) ; consequently all recordings

of Beethoven's symphonies, for example, can be found in one place in the

orchestral section.

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.28 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:16:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

114 H. DEETMAN: PUBLIC RECORD LIBRARIES IN THE NETHERLANDS

II. a more detailed system—e. g. 35 sections of classical music—in which the discs

are arranged in the order of their arrival and processing; consequently all

recordings of Beethoven's violin sonatas, for example, are in different places in

the violin sonata section because of their different processing numbers.

(e) Questionnaire A supplement to the Report was a questionnaire distributed in November 1973 at two

dozen record libraries all over the country. The idea was to investigate the users of

record libraries, their motives, backgrounds etc. 1,500 users were asked 34 questions, and the processed answers give a good picture of the situation, especially since big, medium-sized and small record libraries participated. A few striking results follow.

The age-group between 18 and 25 was far in the majority with 44°/o, followed by the

under-18 group (19°/o) and the 25—30 group (15°/o). These data naturally had a

strong effect on the answers to the various other questions. The number of wage-earners and non-workers were fairly evenly balanced, 41°/o and

45°/o respectively. The number of users still pursuing their studies was about 56% in

total, a noteworthy percentage of whom (31%) were attending college or university, and somewhat fewer (25%) secondary schools. This combined information im

mediately legitimizes the question as to whether record libraries have really succeed

ed in popularizing music. Observation of the public in record libraries often leads

to a negative impression; young working people in particular do not participate

(yet) in the acquisition of free general musical information. There is evidently a

threshold which is related to the educational level.

The number of those questioned who were visiting a record library for the first time

was considerable (14%), which bears out libraries' experience that there is a strong fall-off in membership. No investigations were carried out as to whether this is

because members have soon seen all there is to see in the collection or because

they are disappointed in the quality of the material. A good 37% were frustrated because the records they had come to borrow were frequently out, a figure that

speaks for itself, but only 2.5% of them subsequently bought the records them

selves.

The distribution of the preferences for a particular genre were almost predictable in

view of the age-structure of the users :

32% pop 10% light music (easy listening) 18°/» cabaret and chanson

17% classic

6% jazz 3% folk music (including ethnic)

It was interesting to find out that users prefer records to be arranged alphabetically according to the name of the composer or performer instead of a strict classi

fication, which fewer than 10% wanted. A marginal remark must be made here: most of the record libraries involved in the inquiry are using a strict classification

system in arranging their records.

A question about the use of the catalogue elicited the saddening reply that 35.5%

(probably) had no idea of how to use it. Radio and TV influence appeared to be

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.28 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:16:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A. MEIJER: CONSERVATORY LIBRARIES IN THE NETHERLANDS 115

fairly strong: 18.3°/o; but gramophone record magazines consulted by users had

less influence: 40°/o of those questioned made no use of this facility provided by Dutch magazines, 70#/o making just as little use of foreign ones.

33°/o of the motivated users went by the performers, and only 3.3°/o by the

appearance of the sleeve.

Three-quarters of those questioned felt that listening facilities ought to be in the record library, and 61°/o would have liked to be able to borrow musicassettes.

The extent to which musical background plays a part in motivating people to

use public record libraries can perhaps be seen from the following data:

16.3% never attend concerts

40.8% attend once a year 22.2% attend once a month

16.7% attend more than once a month.

A number of figures stand out with relation to preferences for particular kinds of

concerts:

28.4% for pop concerts

20.1% for classical orchestral concerts

8.4% for chamber music

6.7% for opera.

Record library users were also asked about their musical skill. 44 % of them played an instrument, the piano (29%), guitar (25%) and recorder (17%) heading the list.

Finally a point that might be important from the viewpoint of gramophone record

sellers: 50% of the users found that they had bought fewer records since joining the record library. This has to be taken with a pinch of salt though, because 43%

of them still buy six records a year and 19% more than 12 records a year for their

private collections.

AXEL ME/JER (UTRECHT)*

Conservatory Libraries in the Netherlands

Since August 1st 1968, art education and consequently professional music training have been under the authority of the Advanced Education Act. In spite of considerable

differences in previous education, entrance conditions and ultimate goals, this type of training is closely related to the sort that is given at (non-university) professional

training colleges. It does not include musicology, which can be studied at the universities

of Utrecht, Amsterdam, Groningen and Nijmegen.

Various institutions exist in the Netherlands for professional musical education:

conservatories, music lyceums, music colleges with professional training facilities (Hil versum and Haarlem), a music teachers' training academy (Leeuwarden), the Institute

for Catholic Church Music (Utrecht) and the Netherlands Carillon School (Amers foort).

* Axel Meijer, Librarian at the Utrecht Conservatory (now Deputy Director).

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.28 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:16:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions