Computer Aids in Music Libraries and ArchivesAuthor(s): HARALD HECKMANNSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1979 April-Juni), pp. 100-101Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23505698 .

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100 IAML Annual Conference 1978 in Lisbon

HARALD HECKMANN (FRANKFUR T a.M.)

Computer Aids in Music Libraries and Archives'

It is almost exactly thirteen years since Electronic Data Processing was officially intro

duced to IAML. In 1965 at the IAML congress in Dijon a round-table discussion was

held on the subject of "utilization of data-processing techniques in music documentation".

Reading now the report of that congress in Fontes, one has the impression of going back

to the stone age of data processing. Nevertheless, the names of two participants in that

stone-age symposium will be found again on today's list of participants. To a certain

extent one could say they are the fossils of our present meeting: one of them is Barry S.

Brook, not fossilized indeed; I feel inhibited by my acquired modesty to characterize the

other one in this way. On the second of July 1965 we thought we had to break a lance for a new, generally

unknown and untried method. And I think we had to do so. We talked about what all

these marvellous machines, the computers (which by the way in the report of that

congress are permanently described wrongly, so unkown were they at that time), those miraculous metal boxes, could achieve. I quote:

A computer's minute of time is like an eternity; its operations are measured in microseconds ... In half a second the modern computer can execute around 100,000 instructions! A computer-driven satellite printer of recent vintage can print out its results at a relatively slow speed of 1600 lines per minute; this means that at, say, 40 lines per ordinary book page, 40 pages can be printed in one minute and a 400-page volume in ten minutes. . . (Fontes 12 [1965], p. 113).

We talked about whether these machines, invented in fact for natural and mathematical sciences or for administrative purposes, could under certain conditions be used in the

field of the so-called humanistic sciences or arts as well. This assertion was illustrated by some examples which are even today quite fascinating to look at: for example, a report on "Data Processing Applied to Byzantine Chant" or an essay called "Utilisation des calculatrices électroniques pour la comparaison interne du répertoire des basses danses du

quinzième siècle". These are two very good, very interesting and very characteristic essays which show how then, and in principle even today, a special task can be solved rationally with the help of a computer. It may be that the technique to solve such problems has become more refined; it may be that the apparatus has become more exact and faster; but the principal methods of solving such statistical problems have changed very little up to now.

In the meantime the development of the use of computers in all areas was determined

by two major trends, which were then either nearly unknown or to be seen only in

rudimentary form. Firstly there is the trend towards the data bank, that is, towards a

storage system for all data belonging to a related greater field or subject, in one or several

storage areas that are directly accessible, while at the same time it should be possible to

bring the data up to date; at any time, with the help of special programs one should be able to use them jointly for the most varied purposes and combine them as well with data from outside; last but not least, the storage space should be used as economically as

possible. Secondly there is the rapid development of data communication, which enables

* The session of papers and discussion held under this title on 25 July 1978, was chaired by Harald Heckmann. Speakers included Garrett Bowles, Helmut Rösing, and Anders Askenfelt, whose papers follow immediately below, as well as Barry S. Brook and Philip Drummond.

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I A ML Annual Conference 1978 in Lisbon 101

us to transport electronically-processed information in the quickest ways to distant places and to combine them with other data.

I don't think I exaggerate if I claim that these trends belong to the most decisive

characteristics of our time. It would be a miracle if our field of work remained unaffected

by it. I assume that today's meeting will show us examples of the solution of special tasks

or problems in a rather traditional way, as well as examples of these new trends I have

just tried to describe.

But our conference today will suffer similar shortcomings to the one thirteen years

ago: the preparation for this meeting had to be done by letter, the time at our disposal here is very short, and the different lectures could not be coordinated properly with each

other. In this respect we have the same situation as existed at Dijon. But in one point our

situation is totally different from then: while in 1965 we had difficulty in finding experts with a little experience and certain promising forward-looking ideas, today we have diffi

culty in choosing from the wealth of computer use in our field the most characteristic

examples which could best describe the wide use of computer technique. At the Dijon conference mainly promises of a quite nebulous future were presented. What you will

hear today is a small, but hopefully characteristic choice from among a number of already

approved methods, which have been proved at least partly successful in daily work at the

different music information centres, radio archives and libraries. Something else has also

changed: the topics presented to the audience at the Dijon meeting were in general new

territory for it; today on the contrary you are much better prepared for all that you will

hear.

We have talked at many other meetings since Dijon about electronic data processing; all of you know RILM, which could not have been achieved without the help of EDP. At

last year's IASA conference our late colleague Van Dalfsen lectured on the EDP-based

record catalogue of Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (see also the discussions by H.M. Van

Werkhoven and Miriam Miller of the automation plans of their respective broadcasting libraries in Fontes 24 [1977], p. 12-15). Here in Lisbon at another session, Bibi Kjaer will give us an account of new far-reaching computer systems worked out by Danmarks

Radio, while at the EBU symposium of the radio sound archives you have heard about

similar activities of the Swedish and German radio.

It seems quite likely that the time is not so far away when a computer will no longer be a fascinating prodigy, but an everyday article comparable in utility to a typewriter. We

have not yet come so far, because if we had we would not need to plan such a conference

as this one on computers and their use, just as we do not need one on the subject of

"typewriter aids in music libraries and archives". But I am sure that will be if not tomor

row's future, then the future of after-tomorrow.

Introduction d'un colloque sur "l'aide offerte par l'ordinateur aux bibliothèques et aux archives musicales", tenant compte des activités concernant l'ordinateur déployées au sein de l'AIBM, laquelle a traité ce sujet pour la première fois au cours du congrès de 1965 à Dijon. Brève description des tendances nouvelles dans ce domaine, déterminées par l'évolution vers une banque de données et vers une télécommunication utilisant l'ordinateur.

Einleitung eines Symposiums über „Computerhilfen in Musikbibliotheken und -archiven", mit einem Rückblick auf die dem Computer gewidmeten Aktivitäten innerhalb der AIBM, die sich 1965 beim Kongress in Dijon zum ersten Mal mit diesem Thema befaßt hat. Kurze Skizze der neueren Ten denzen auf diesem Gebiete, die bestimmt werden durch die Entwicklung hin auf die Datenbank und die Telekommunikation mit Hilfe des Computers.

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