IAML Council meeting Edinburgh

A summary

The President, Pam Thompson, welcomed delegates to Edinburgh. She reported on a very exciting year, including visits to the Baltic-Nordic conference in Tallinn, also to Tartu, and Vilnius, IMC meetings in Petra and Amsterdam, and national and international meetings in Moscow.

She thanked the national branches for all their news and IAML activity during the year. The Secretary General, Alison Hall, said that she would have liked to have heard more from national branches, and urged them to keep in touch. Quite a number of inquiries about IAML membership have been received, mostly from countries without a national branch. Arranging the professional programme this year was more than usually tricky, but everything was squeezed in in the end. A search committee will shortly be struck to find a successor for her job, to take over after the conference in 2003. The Treasurer, Martie Severt, reported that income for 1999 was higher than anticipated, as all national branches paid up for 1988 and 1999. Offshore investments again yielded an excellent return of 34%, and expenditure was lower than anticipated, due to fewer issues of Fontes appearing. Overall, income exceeded expenditure by DEM 81.815.00. The robust interest on Outreach Fund 2 (Travel) means that DEM 10.200.00 will be available for the 2001 Congress in Perigueux. Part of the money in the offshore account is in the process of being transferred to a guaranteed capital investment account, for greater security. The Treasurer has created a new database of members, which has made the production of the List of Members easier and more flexible. The Council agreed to an increase in honoraria for the Treasure, Secretary General and Editor of Fontes from DEM 3000.00 to DEM 3500.00.

The Editor of Fontes, Susan T. Sommer, apologised for delays in the appearance of Fontes, due to circumstances beyond her control. The publication schedule is now as follows: 1999 has two double issues; no. 1 has just been mailed out, and no. 2 is at the second proof stage. It contains papers, reports, etc. from San Sebastian. 2000/1 is at the first proof stage, containing articles about the UK, and 2001/2, containing the Wellington reports and minutes, will soon go to the printer. 2000/3 will be a Russian issue. The Editor welcomed the advent of the new editor, John Wagstaff "Nun komm der heiden Heiland!" and thanked co-editors Dominique Hausfater, Gertraut Haberkamp and Maureen Buja. Regarding negotiations with H.W. Wilson about full-text Fontes in electronic form, after some discussion, Council agreed that IAML should take up the offer. It will appear in the Library Literature and Information Science database, and in Omnifile. This is a non-exclusive contract, so we are free to deal with other aggregators, and either party can cancel at ninety days notice. There is no charge to IAML, and we will receive 30% of income derived from the use of Fontes. Two trial issues of the electonic newsletter were sent out during the year, and seem to have been a success, so it seems a good idea to continue. The Secretary General agreed to act as Editor for the time being.

IAML-L now has 380 subscribers. The President suggested having written instructions about joining, etc. available at conferences, for participants to take away. Listowner Anders Lönn issued a minatory warning about setting nomail, and sending in changes of email address. Webmaster Massimo Gentili-Tedeschi requested national branches to inform him of any changes of officers for the Home Page, and proposed having a form for a call for papers, which could be sent to a Board member when completed, and then forwarded to the appropriate chairperson.

Contacts with various other international organisations, such as IFLA, IMC, IAMIC, and IASA, continue, and we hope to have representatives from as many as possible attending out congress in Perigueux, IAML's 50^th birthday, where each will be asked to speak briefly about their plans for the future. We do hope to be involved in some way with IFLA in 2002, when it meets in Glasgow. The President spoke encouraging words about the IMC, who seem to be making serious attempts to change for the better, and to pay down their deficit. Their aim is to concentrate energies on issues of global importance, such as technology, copyright, and education. Inger Enquist will attend the ICA congress in Seville, Spain this year, and we have finally achieved liaison status for the Library Statistics Working Group, with Lenore Coral as our representative. In 2004, we will meet jointly with IASA in Oslo.

National Branch Reports

In Austria, cooperation amongst music libraries is demonstrated initiatives such as a meeting of cataloguers, and Infonet Austria, via which institutional holdings are made available on the web. It is not impossible that a national branch might emerge in a few years time. Canada has produced its first Directory of Music Collections, and will be participating in a mega conference of music associations in Toronto in November. The Czech Republic held a seminar on education of music librarians, and specialists. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden all participated in a Baltic-Nordic conference in Tallinn last year, which was an unqualified success. In addition, Denmark has a new journal and a new library law, which mandates free public library services, and enjoins all libraries to hold music materials. Estonian activities were essentially devoted to the Baltic-Nordic conference, while Finland celebrated its 20^th anniversary with a special meeting. Lithuania, in spite of economic problems is going ahead with automation plans, and hopes to have more libraries joining IAML. In Norway, the saga of the opera house continues: an architect has been selected, and a site chosen, next to a fjord. The national music collection has moved into temporary quarters, while the National Library is extended and rebuilt.

The primary activity of the French group has been, of course, preparations for 2001, though they found time to have a fruitful meeting in Alsace. Hungary has a new Board of Directors, and is preparing a Home page. The branch is playing a role on music library training in higher education, and the entire Hungarian musical community if involved in an exhibition of 1000 years of Hungarian musical history. In Italy, Agostina Zecca Laterza has just begun to catalogue the library of the Naples conservatory, and Japan has started a fund to support attendance of IAMl conferences, which it is hoped will benefit younger members. The Netherlands plans to get public libraries more involved in IAML, and was fortunate enough to receive a grant from the Dutch Library Association to assist with their activities. New Zealand, recovering from last years efforts, have revamped their journal and their web page, a spin off from the conference, flourishes.

The creation of the Russian branch has acted a a great stimulus to Russian music libraries, and a Russian issue of Fontes is in preparation. An international conference on Russian and foreign archives was held at the Taneyev Library, Moscow. In Slovakia there are problems with staff and budget reductions, so IAML work depends on personal activities. RILM and RISM work continues. Conferences were held on the Documentation of historical musical sources, Musical lives of famous people in Slovakia, and The art of folk music and its access. The Latvian representative expressed her gratitude to IAML for funding to attend the conference, and spoke about the three main music libraries; the National Library, the Latvian Academy of Music, and the Public Library. Their Assocation of Music Librarians meets every month - would we could all meet so frequently! The Polich delegate also thanked IAML-UK for financial support, and reported on the successful guide to music collections in Polish libraries, and their RILM involvement.

Australia had the laudable opportunity to develop a proposal for the post of music librarian at their National Library, and has been involved in outreach to East Timor. In Belgium, sadly, a project for cooperative cataloguing failed, due to lack of funding, however, a new information centre for Flemich music has been established, also a centre for the study of Flemich music. We heard a description of music libraries in Croatia, where a catalogue of the National Library is on the internet. Germany is very active, as usual, with an annual meeting coming up in Leipzig, two publications appearing on music librarianship and an index of Nachlasse, and setting up an email discussion list. Spain, also a very active branch, continues to produce publications, and to hold working group sessions on bibliography, archives, cataloguing etc. Sweden is thinking about a directory of Swedish music libraries, and mentioned that most music libraries are now cataloguing on the national union catalogue. Switzerland's account of a joint parachute jump of German Swiss libraries into using the Aleph system has to be read in full to be appreciated (I trust it will appear in Fontes!) and is about to launch a Home page. I need hardly mention what the UK branch has been up to, additionally they were delighted to receive funding for both the Ensemble project for retrospective cataloguing, and Encore, a project for performing sets. The US have, as usual, been commendably active with their donated music materials programme - 86 institutions in 34 countries - and are working hard towards the 2002 meeting in Berkeley.

Lenore Coral and Richard Andrewes, retiring members of the RILM Commission Mixte, were thanked, Susanne Staral, Teresa Abejon, and Veslemöy Heintz are continuing members, and Chris Banks and Massimo Gentili-Tedeschi were welcomed as new members. Anders Lönn, retiring Chair of the Constitution Committee, was also thanked, and Richard Chesser appointed as his successor, with Geraldine Ostrove as a new member, and Catherine Massip and Wolfgang Krueger as continuing members.