PUBLIC LIBRARIES COMMISSIONAuthor(s): Eric CooperSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1978 Januar-März), pp. 81-82Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23506232 .

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Commission Reports and Papers given at their Meetings 81

PUBLIC LIBRARIES COMMISSION

The Commission held a total of five meetings, excluding the combined meeting with the Record Libraries Commission which will be referred to below. In addition, representatives of the Commission attended numerous other sessions dealing with matters of equal concern to Public Librarians. The

problem for the President and Secretary was to decide which of the many sessions it was possible to attend and which to miss. The decisions were always difficult and sometimes impossible to make.

Inevitably a few meetings of other commissions were missed altogether. The meetings opened with a Plenary Session on Monday the 12th of September. The president

surveyed the work done in Bergen and during the months that followed. Despite his firm warning in

Norway not to lightly volunteer to undertake projects or work, delegates there had volunteered, given undertakings to the committee and then submerged as in past years without trace, and probably would

not be seen again. He noted that the most eager of these were absent from Mainz. It was a pattern that

had been repeated over the years. Indeed it seemed to be a constant problem that only a few stalwarts attended every year to keep the wheels turning. Too few new regular attenders seemed to be ap

pearing. No doubt the worldwide economic crisis accounted for part of the problem, but the diffi

culties had been apparent long before. Conference euphoria seemed to be the reason for an eagerness that overlooks the realities and demands of an ongoing programme. Perhaps next year would produce another group of eager shining faces in Lisbon to elect a new committee and all would fail to appear in 1979. The President ended on this sombre note with an added warning to be realistic and effective.

The meeting of the Subcommission on Public Music Collecting followed immediately. Chairwoman Charlotte van der Pot reported on the Subcommission's publication Basic List of Literature on Music and the reviews it had received. It was to be regretted that too few professional periodicals had noted its existence or reviewed it, but reviews so far had been favourable and it was to be hoped that more would appear in the coming months. Discussion followed regarding the updating of its contents and the publication of supplements in Fontes. The next project discussed was "The Annotated Basic List

of Professional Literature on Music Librarianship". Following the decision in Bergen to proceed with

collecting information this work was now in progress and members of the subcommission were

assembling titles for eventual publication. Next the delegates examined the work carried out by Karl-Ludwig Nicol (Freiburg/Brsg.) in com

piling a list of Musica Practica. Herr Nicol surveyed his work to date. Apart from an International List he had also assembled a number of national lists of titles, and this might well indicate the content and

scope of the final list. A number of countries had supplied material but he looked forward to contributions from members in any country to help in this massive task. He was anxious to make contact with possible contributors particularly in America, France and Great Britain. The committee welcomed his efforts so far but felt the project needed to be examined by other members as it

progressed. This had been proposed in Bergen by Dr. Ott but was not followed through. It was left to Herr Nicol and Hermann WaUner of Stuttgart to form a small group to edit the work. Due to the unavoidable absence of Elisabeth Strandbygaard (Denmark), discussion on her Systematic Index of Music Publishers Catalogues was postponed until 1978.

The next main session was devoted to the relationship between Music Libraries and Music Pub lishers, perhaps the most successful session for the Public Libraries Commission. The agenda was carefully prepared by Miss van der Pot who put a series of questions and points to Peter Hanser Strecker (a director of Schott) and Alan Pope (Blackwells of Oxford). The questions were expertly answered and were the subject of much debate. The session was of such interest that a detailed report follows below.

At the meeting of the Subcommission on References and Community Services Chairman Hans Vetterlein announced his retirement from the post. For his work in past years, the President thanked Dr. Vetterlein, who gave a detailed report on the material about Music Libraries gathered and pub lished during 1976 and 1977 in the periodical Musibibliothek Aktuel; it is issued as a Bulletin for the

subcommission, and available from the Berlin Deutscher Bibliotheksverband. This report was followed

by a paper given by Heinz Werner on public relations and extension activities of Music Libraries in the DDR. It was a clear concise survey showing the similarities and differences to practise in other countries. The session ended with Thor Wood's follow up to the statement on the protection of standards in Music Libraries throughout the world. The statement was devised by delegates in Bergen in 1976, approved by Council and sent by IAML President Harald Heckmann to the International

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82 Commission Reports and Papers given at their Meetings

Music Council, which gave it full approval at their next conference. Thor Wood's theme was that, whilst it was quite correct to appeal to Governments throughout the world, we should also be seen as

organisations prepared to help themselves. He gave as an example the plight of Music Libraries in New York and cited the various ways in which expenditure had been carefully assessed, how projects to raise funds had been successfully launched and how public support had been lobbied. He concluded by

saying that he quite realised that conditions varied from country to country and that what could be done in one was impossible in another. But he felt that with a little ingenuity ways and means could be found to raise the level of any service and the finance required. The delegates warmly approved his

paper, which gave much encouragement to members whose profession was being hit hard by the current world recession.

The Public Libraries Commission had one joint meeting with the Record Libraries Commission and I.A.S.A. Discussion centred on the preservation and storage of sound carriers. The meeting will be

fully reported by the Record Libraries Commission. The findings pointed to the need for research into the differing types of usage in various kinds of library and for an updated version of Pickett and Lemcoe based on the latest results from that research.

At the Public Libraries Commission's final meeting, President Eric Cooper reported on the work of the Disabled Living Foundation, a British organisation based in London. Under grants from the

Vaughan Williams Trust and other organisations, the Foundation has concluded a three-year investiga tion into music for the physically handicapped. Music Libraries throughout the U.K. played a major part in assembling material for the report. Daphne Kennard, the Foundation's researcher, had agreed to address the Commission in Mainz on aspects of her report (to be published in 1978), but was

prevented from attending at the very last moment through personal reasons beyond her control. The President read her paper and this will be submitted to Fontes in due course.

The President ended with a short survey of the meetings over the preceding five days and reiterated his comments from the opening session regarding the need to keep promises made about work, during the months leading to the 1978 meetings in Lisbon. The agenda for those meetings could only be built on promises made. Evelyn van Kaam (N.B.L.C. Holland) proposed that all delegates should com municate with their national secretaries on returning home and submit reports. National Secretaries

might then be able to contact members proposing to come to Lisbon and prime them on current

projects. National groups could then act on information and make proposals through their delegates. The members present generally approved of the suggestion, which was endorsed by the President, who asked that conference papers should be in Miss van der Pot's possession long before the July meeting, particularly as the outline agenda has to be ready by March, 1978.

Eric Cooper, President

MUSIC LIBRARIES AND MUSIC PUBLISHERS, A REPORT

One meeting of the Public Libraries Commission was devoted to the relation between music libraries and music publishers. The Commission invited a representative of the famous publishing house of B. Schott's Söhne (founded in 1770) to take part in a discussion on various problems relating to the

publication and availability of music, and also to answer questions which might arise from the partici pants at this session. Peter Hanser-Strecker, one of Schott's managing directors, was found willing to attend the meeting and answer possible questions. So were Alan Pope of Blackwell's (Oxford) and S. P. Pinning of Cramer's Music Publishers and Suppliers (London), who both happened to be taking part in the Congress. Four discussion items were prepared by the undersigned (no. 3 and 4 having been sug gested by Huib Deetman) and these were dealt with in detail. Those present were invited to raise

questions, which were all answered in a clear and sensible way. This first meeting between music librarians and music publishers/dealers was very much appreciated

by those present. It is hoped that the meeting will result in a better understanding between music librarians and publishers, and also that more meetings of this kind will be possible in the near future. Since a lengthy report in full detail would be impossible, I have selected a number of questions from music librarians and answers from music publishers and dealers, without mentioning names of the persons involved.

Discussion item 1: The offering of "standard" musical works which often prove to be unavilable. Experience in ordering music directly from publishers abroad (as happens in the Amsterdam Public

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