The Austrian public music librariesAuthor(s): HANS RUPPESource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1957), pp. 14-15Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23504253 .

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14 HANS RUPPE: THE AUSTRIAN PUBLIC MUSIC LIBRARIES

ment d'actifs alliés parmi d'autres groupements locaux: ils peuvent nouer d'utiles rapports

avec les hot-clubs, les clubs de disques, etc. Beaucoup d'entre eux ont paru d'autre part dé

cidés à faire leur profit d'une suggestion implicitement contenue dans le questionnaire de

1955: développer les associations d'«Amis de la bibliothèque», au besoin en créer une, y

faire entrer les personnalités de la ville qui s'intéressent à la musique, c'est — en fait — se

donner la possibilité d'organiser aisément une audition commentée, ce qui présente indirecte

ment l'avantage de servir la publicité de la bibliothèque.

Le disque «littéraire» actuellement représenté en France par d'excellentes collections,

comme 1'« Encyclopédie sonore » de Hachette, doit trouver désormais, dans nos bibliothèques,

une place que personne ne peut songer à lui refuser. Collectionnant des enregistrements de

textes littéraires commentés, le bibliothécaire sera amené à conserver également les micro

sillons musicaux et à les prêter, soit aux organismes, soit aux particuliers.

Ce n'est là qu'une étape et c'est au prêt de partitions qu'il faut en venir. Reprenant une

suggestion présentée par M. Vladimir Fédorov, nous indiquerons simplement que si, en

France, les bibliothèques publiques sont à l'heure actuelle trop pauvres pour acquérir des

oeuvres musicales et les mettre à la disposition de leurs lecteurs, une bibliothèque nationale

centrale de prêt de documents musicaux est parfaitement concevable, et une telle création

marquerait un sérieux progrès .

Contribuer à former le goût des lecteurs devenus « auditeurs », c'est sans doute pour le bi

bliothécaire une vive satisfaction, mais aider au développement de la pratique musicale, c'est

une tâche à laquelle beaucoup d'entre nous se consacreraient avec joie si les moyens leur en

étaient donnés.

(An inquiry which was made in 195 5 by the Direction of French Libraries brought to light the

fact that even the municipal libraries which have rich musical sources are generally speaking not in a

position to increase their possessions nor to put what they have at the disposition of their readers; it was also found that there was very seldom any collaboration between these libraries and those of

the conservatories and that record libraries are still, for the most part, only in a planning stage. Since this inquiry was made, a serious effort has been undertaken in certain libraries to acquire

recordings and to arrange for record concerts accompanied by commentary. The city libraries of Blois

and Périgueux have created record libraries. The mobile libraries ("bibliobus") of the central lending libraries of the Marne and Hérault districts distribute to the persons in charge of the local centres cer

tain quantities of books for rural readers and records which enable authorities to organize record con

certs, with commentary, in various villages. The Direction of Libraries is taking steps to encourage the creation of new centres. And a greater

effort will be made to develop cooperation between centres and to encourage the lending of scores.)

HANS RUPPE (SALZBURG)

The Austrian public music libraries

Two years ago, when the division for public music libraries was founded in Paris, I had

an opportunity to speak about the respective situation in Austria. This survey was published in the second issue auf "Fontes" (1954) and can, therefore, be considered familiar to the

readers. Compared to the high standard that music has reached as a practised art, as illustrat

ed in my last report, music libraries have not been able to keep the pace. Not more than two

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HANS RUPPE: THE AUSTRIAN PUBLIC MUSIC LIBRARIES 15

technically sufficiently organized institutions have been established, namely: the Upper

Austrian HM library at Mondsee and the music department of the Salzburg Public Library.

We have not been able to increase the number of libraries in the meantime. With pleasure,

however, it can be said that both of these libraries report an increase in the number of both

subscribers and circulation and that there is a genuine demand for material among music

lovers.

Let me, in the following, give a short survey of plans designed to promote our work:

1. Following the example of the Upper Austrian HM Library, we are going to try to set up

similar institutions in other Austrian provinces and to gain a subsidy from the Federal Minis

try of Education. Since this institution seems to be of interest to all countries, represented

here, I should like to give you more details about it. In the province of Upper Austria

there is the so-called "Bildungswerk", a federation of all organisations dealing with adult

education, among which is the "home music scheme", headed by a state official for adult

education. The home music scheme aims at the promotion of home music in its true sense.

Towns or districts appoint interested people and organizers whose task it is to help amateur

musicians, give advice on how to select their material, and provide the scores through the

home music library of the respective province. In Upper Austria there are 21 music schools

which have together 168 Instrument classes with 1611 pupils. Beside them, there are 9 dis

trict schemes and 19 local advising offices, which help 100 home music groups in 79 different

places and 41 schools. Last year, the music library had 5088 volumes in circulation. The

entire work is done on a voluntary basis. The music library itself goes back to a private

collection of scores owned by a schoolmaster who made it available to the public. Today

the expansion work is done by the "home music scheme" itself and federal subsidies.

2. I have already stated in my first report that naturaly in all conservatories and also in

elementary and secondary schools, collections of scores are made available to students. These

collections whose size and contents are not known in detail so far are now to be catalogued.

3. Many times questions have been raised about the administration of scores and music,

which as you know, is even more difficult than that of books. Efforts will be made to work

out basic directions for cataloguing and classifying music material, designed to assist the

custodian of a music library in this work.

The goals we have set ourselves are not extraordinarily difficult to achieve, but mention

should be made of the fact that any artistic efforts cannot be decisively influenced by

organizational measures, at the most they can be promoted. — The quality of a music library

is not to be judged only by the figures of circulation and amount of material it owns, but by

its intensity of work and the response of the public. However when dealing with organiza

tional and technical problems, it seems to me of decisive importance not to forget our main

task which is: to assist the individual seeking, through active participation, the nourishing

force and rich satisfaction of music.

(L'auteur du compte-rendu renvoie à son rapport de 1954 publié dans Fontes. Une subvention du

Ministère de l'éducation nationale autrichien permettra, il l'espère, de créer, en plus des deux biblio

thèques musicales publiques et des bibliothèques des conservatoires, un réseau provincial de ces bib

liothèques. La publication d'un code de catalogage pour la musique autrichien est en vue.)

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