IAML 2022 Praha

Chair: Blanka Ellederová (Municipal Library of Prague)

Elections

Jiří Slabihoudek (Municipal Library of Prague)
Music instruments lending services across the world. How and why libraries do it

Markéta Dvořáková (Municipal Library of Prague)
Music Department of Municipal Library of Prague: reflections on century-long existence

Pieter Johannes Michael Goossen (Gelderland Library, Arnhem)
Revival of the rubble: music performance in times of corona inspired by rediscovered local music heritage


Abstracts:

Jiří Slabihoudek (Municipal Library of Prague) Music instruments lending services across the world. How and why libraries do it

In a mood for playing a bass guitar tonight? Well, maybe you are a lucky person and your local library provide their patrons with music instruments lending services. No need to pay, just register, pick your instrument usually for about three weeks lending period and have fun with it! If you get bored, you can get some violin, steel drum or marimba next time. Options are numerous. Don’t get your hopes high for saxophone though (or any mouthpiece instruments for that matter) because that’s little risky hygiene wise, so libraries don’t do it. Prague, from where I come from, this service is not yet available in the library network. In order to do so one day, I am doing a little research. As of writing this paper in late January, I get seven replies from libraries from Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Kitchener), USA (Brooklyn NY, Pittsburgh, Northampton MA) or Australia (Sydney). I was talking about this service also with a librarian from Dresden, Germany and did research on other German libraries (music lending services are beside Dresden available in Berlin, Cologne, Essen, Halle, Reutlingen, or Ulm). Next step is to send out a questionnaire to those libraries and then look into other European countries. The task of my paper would be to explore and examine the pros and cons of such services. From those initial seven response it seems that these services are usually very popular among patrons and bring new people in the library. At the same time, it is hard to maintain these services in good condition both in the terms of finance and manpower. Without some external cashflow and workers it is not an easy task. So… how and why libraries do it and should it be done by the rest of us?

Marketa Dvorakova (Municipal Library of Prague) Music Department of Municipal Library of Prague: reflections on century-long existence

Intentions to build music collection in the Municipal Library of Prague extend as far as very beginning of its existence. Idea to collect and offer music scores to the public was quite progressive in 1891, when the library was opened. Since then Municipal Library of Prague became a library with the biggest public music collection in the Czech Republic. The significant expansion of music books and scores in 1919 was related to establishing of the Czechoslovak Republic and its first public libraries act. Several years later in 1924, the music department of Municipal library was renamed in honor of Bedřich Smetana, one of the most prominent Czech composers. More than century long existence of the music library shows its capability to meet the needs of its users, while its persistence illustrates ability to adapt to different political, social and cultural climates during the 20th century. The aim of this paper is to explore and present history and development of the music department of Municipal Library of Prague, as well as to bring to attention its founders and librarians who participated in shaping its music collection and other library services during the past century. Further intention of the paper is to reflect various cultural and educational activities which were organized by those librarians and therefore to show significance and necessity of the music library for music education and cultural life of Prague.

Pieter Goossen (Gelderland Library, Arnhem) Revival of the rubble: music performance in times of corona inspired by rediscovered local music heritage

My name is Pieter Goossen and I live in Arnhem in the Netherlands. I have been involved in a project for the last three years which combines my specialism as a music librarian and my current function as a heritage librarian at the heritage center. The Rozet Heritage Centre is a collaboration of The Heritage Museum Arnhem and the specialized provincial Gelderland department of The Public Library Arnhem. The original mass-play Op het puin (On the rubble) from 1946 was a perfect symbioses of music and play: music and text enforced each other. The music got lost after the performances in 1946, but the play, situated on and before the ruins of the Eusebius church in the center of Arnhem, was never forgotten and now and again it became mentioned in books and articles. The content of the play was interesting: the allegory tells us about the Dictator, the rise of a fragile Peace and the Reconstruction of the town. And it was really inclusive because all youths of Arnhem had to be part of the play, no matter what religion or conviction they had. I was curious about the music, and when I found the lost score we wanted to re-enact the music and the play. Together with Muziektheater de Plaats we made that happen. The original music was published, performed and recorded (in times of corona!) so the music is available for everyone now. I was especially interested in the music, its composer Robert de Roos and the connection to the text so I gathered and connected information from three Dutch archives who have material about this play. A new play with new music, both inspired by the 1946 play, was performed in May 2021 by Muziektheater de Plaats in a streaming version and in 2022 live. In Rozet we had a peripheral programming with lectures, exhibitions etc. A lot to tell about and I think a lot is interesting for my fellow music librarians, documentalists and archivists too. I can tell a lot about this project: performing in times of corona, how to deal with royalties, working with art and dance students, raising funds, etc. By the way: a lot about this project can be found in Dutch on www.ophetpuin.nl.