This summer 20 music librarians from all over Denmark asked the question: “How did we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of one of the biggest rock festivals of Europe, trying to recruit new patrons of the digital music library on a rainy, muddy July summers morning at 4 o’clock?”

The explanation is that the two biggest
national music library services in Denmark,
musikbibliotek.dk (musiclibrary.
dk) and netmusik.dk (net music of
the libraries) last year decided that we
would set a new agenda for the marketing
and branding of the digital music
library.

On-the-Spot Music Library

The idea was to meet the music audience
wherever possible and relevant.
The service that we specifically wanted
to expose was the netmusik.dk service;
from this site all Danish patrons can
borrow music tracks from all genres.
The music tracks are delivered online
and they are available for seven days.
The repertoire represents the most well
known international labels, the major
part of the Danish record companies
and to some degree the independent
companies. Today the number of tracks
available is about 950,000.
Besides we create a national website,
musikbibliotek.dk, with articles, recommendations,
biographies, music
curiosities, discographies and a Music
Magazine (named MusicMag).

In order to let all the ‘good stuff ’ find
their users and patrons, we suggested
that we should:

• Create access from the single record
of the OPAC to the online tracks of
netmusic.dk

• Make links from all possible virtual
festival programmes (e.g. Roskilde
Festival, Tønder Festival, Copenhagen
Jazz Festival), concert hall programmes
and lists of recommendations
to the net music, so that whenever
a user wants to check out a
music programme he or she would
immediately – thanks to the library
service – get the possibility to listen
to what’s on right now

• Literally ‘get out in the field’ and
bring the music library environment
to the music audience at major festivals
and events.
The two first dots demand development
and testing new ways of using the
OPAC, creating web services and RSSfeeds.
Examples of the results are
available at the OPAC e.g. of the State
and University Library, musikbibliotek.
dk and examples of linking to the
work from a concert programme are
available at odensesymfoni.dk.
The third dot demands that the music
librarians leave the offices and the
libraries, and the challenge was to some
extent to build a listening lounge /
library environment in a few days.

Getting into YourSpace

The idea was that we wanted to reach
the typical music patron and / or music
consumer where he or she would
typically go to hear concerts or investigate
new or well-known music.

One of the very good spots for meeting
thousands of dedicated music lovers is
the Roskilde Festival. The challenge was
to meet the music audience in ‘the
right way’. Anyone can hand out some
flyers and posters about the library, but
in our experience it’s no use.

At the Roskilde Festival there’s an area
called YourSpace dedicated to relaxing,
chilling out, eating, talking etc. between
the concerts. From 2007 the board and
the project manager of the music library
site (musikbibliotek.dk) are cooperating
with the Roskilde Festival about
the setup of this area.

To become an integrated and natural
inhabitant of YourSpace we made a
chill-out area beside the coffee lounge
and beside the areas of the Musicians
Union and the music magazine Sound-
Venue. The interior of the chill-out
area of the music library contained
computers, headphones, chill-out
furniture, music literature and music
magazines.

Realizing that there might be either lots
of mud or dust we designed a special
table with a built-in monitor – so that
the user could chill out, study the music
sites and drink coffee or beer at the
same time.

Beside the possibility to investigate the
music sites, the online music tracks of
the performers and bands playing at
Roskilde, the guest at Roskilde could
learn how to load tracks from the legal
sites to their mobile music player (e.g.
Zen Creative). The Musiclibrary site
(musikbibliotek.dk) made a site for
uploading pictures from the festival.
The music library chill-out area was
open 24 hours a day from the first
Sunday where the audience arrived and
until the following Sunday when the
Festival closed.

There were professional music librarians
helping, demonstrating and
guiding the users all through the week
– 24 hours a day.

Report from the Festival

The Roskilde Festival in the summer
2007 was the rainiest ever since the first
festival took place in 1971. On the fifth
day of the festival it rained and rained
all night and all day, with the result
that everything got covered with 30 cm
of mud.
Lots of people went to YourSpace to
find a dry spot, at the same time
learning about the facilities of the modern
music library. Apart from finding
a dry place in the rain the guests of
Roskilde got the possibility to be a part
of all the activities going on ‘around’
the concerts, some of them experiencing
new facets of music information.
Others taking active part in the production
of websites about the Festival
– loading their pictures etc.

The music librarians learned a lot
about the audience/the users – about
guiding and helping in heavy weather
conditions, and they got lots of interesting
new partners and valuable networks
with the representatives of the
music industry. The fact that the music
library area was full of people, some of
them staying for hours, made it worth
the hard work.

Evaluation

The overall impression of the music
library chill-out / listening lounge was
that the audience really liked it, people
found out that a modern library is
useful in so many ways - and we have
only just started to bring the new
music library services on the stage.

The virtual and digital music services
provided by the libraries is a unique
possibility to bring the music to the
right audience – and a unique possibility
to facilitate the active co-production
of music recommendations – not
only from reporters and librarians to
the users. But to a very great extent also
from user to user.

At the Roskilde Festival the music
librarians learned that with the right
services at the right time they have the
opportunity to play a serious role in
the event- and experience economy,
where the activities ‘around’ the actual
concerts are considered at least as
important as the concert.

FACTS

The first public music library in Denmark
opened in 1965 in Lyngby

From 2000 the Danish library act, the Act
Regarding Library Services, demanded that
the objective of the public libraries is to
promote information, education and cultural
activity by making available, among other
materials, recorded music and electronic
information resources, including Internet and
multimedia.

musikbibliotek.dk (www.musikbibliotek.dk)
The Music Library site was launched in 2000

netmusic (www.netmusik.dk)
In Denmark the netmusic.dk site (Bibliotekernes
Netmusik) was launched in 2004.

Links
www.netmusik.dk, www.musikbibliotek.dk
new.statsbiblioteket.dk, www.odensesymfoni.
dk
www.bs.dk/publikationer/english/act/
index.htm
www.roskilde-festival.dk

Charlotte C. Pedersen
Master of Library and
Information Science
Head of Odense Music Library /
Odense Central Library

ckp@odense.dk