The following letter was sent (15 February) to the Swedish Minister of Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth from our President, Roger Flury in support of the Music and Theatre Library of Sweden.
"Dear Minister,
On behalf of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML), I am writing to express, in the strongest possible terms, our opposition to the proposed changes to the Music and Theatre Library of Sweden.
In difficult economic times, it is a proven fact that people turn in large numbers to the arts for inspiration, encouragment, stimulation and refuge. It is where the spirit can be consoled and refreshed. Yet, time and time again, the arts are seen by govenrments as a ‘soft’ target that saves money with seemingly little obvious damage.
However, a country is ultimately defined not by its politics, but by its culture. The calibre of that culture, as well as its health and prosperity, is dependent on reliable and ongoing funding from the state. Only in that way can there be the freedom to experiment, to expand horizons, to establish standards and to educate both present and future generations of musicians and audiences. National funding supports the national good.
A major foundation of a thriving culture is the music library, so often the unsung hero and vulnerable heart of the music profession. As any musician will tell you, without a solid library foundation and the professional services that it provides, the platform will collapse. One cannot survive without the other. The nation that gave the world Alfvén, Berwald, Stenhammer, Pettersson, Björling, Birgit and Christina Nilsson, Gedda, Blomstedt, von Otter, Hagegård, Lindberg, ABBA and a host of traditional, popular and jazz musicians, should not shy away from supporting such a world-class facility as the Music and Theatre Library of Sweden.
Such a library brings enormous credit to the country and its people. It is a showcase of the very finest aspects of Swedish musical life. Underming the viability of such a library, which has been built up over more than two centuries years with dedication and expertise, will inevitably be seen as an act of cultural terrorism. This must not be allowed to happen. It takes many years to build a library of this calibre, but only a second to thoughtlessly destroy it.
On behalf of our members around the world, I urge you to reconsider your decisions.
Yours sincerely,
Roger Flury
President
International Association of Music Libraries (IAML)"
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