M. Niemelä
The Lappish Music Library as a Part of the Cultural Landscape. Nordic Dimension
This presentation is the result of some five years of working in a Lappish music library
since January 2001. The reasons for choosing subject of discourse are both ethnomusicological
and professional. Although I’m a music librarian, my educational background is in
ethnomusicology. This anthropological study is culture-based music research, which in principle
covers all traditions of music. In Finnish ethnomusicology, special emphasis is put on different
manifestations of popular music. Ethnomusicologists try to understand the human by analysing
him through his music, musical phenomena and socio-economic factors which are related to
music. Thus, in a way, we are talking about cultural anthropology; ethnomusicological studies
have been characterized cultural relativism. On the other hand, ethnomusicology is musicology
in its broadest sense. The aim of this presentation is a modest attempt to build a theoreticalmethodological framework around the concept of Nordic music library –view. Classic
ethnomusicologist A. P. Merriam (The Anthropology of Music, 1964) had this great,
fundamental idea, that music is a part of culture. Further, it is crucial to emphasize music library
as a part of culture. (See more about ethnomusicology: http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/mustut/).
The keyword is: context. What is context? According the Google:
 discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation,
 word ‘language’ can replace by ‘music’,
 the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event; ‘the historical context’,
 context includes the circumstances and conditions which ‘surround’ an event,
 includes the political, social, historical, psychological, institutional, and aesthetic factors that
shape the way we understand the performance event.
Music cannot be understood without knowledge of the cultural context. Ethnomusicology
is the study of music in its cultural context. A music librarian, as an ethnomusicologist should
make some detailed observations on music library activities including all levels, in addition, all
types of cultural contexts. At this point, recognizing different contexts is probably the most
important tool for a music librarian. As a fact, there is no good music librarian ship without
knowledge of contextual factors.
The simple fact is: each music derives from its own cultural surrounding and history. For
that reason, music librarian is ought to ask these two basic questions:
 How is culture manifested in music (library)? – Music culture as a context.
 How is music manifested in music library? – Music library as context.
Further more: The Nordic Dimension leads to these questions:
 How is Nordic culture manifested in Nordic music (library)?
 How is Nordic music manifested in Nordic culture?
 And finally: How is Nordic music and Nordic culture manifested in a music library?
Example: The music library in the Regional Libary of Lapland:
The collections and lending services of the department are open to all, though they are
primarily designed for the residents of Lapland. One of our primary missions is to support the
music of Lapland.
Our music library has an important supporting role in the Lappish music scene, including
close collaboration with the Lapland School of Music and the Rovala Folk High school (pop and
jazz).
Lecturer Vesa Suominen (PhD, University of Oulu, Department of Information Studies)
“Pieni Kirjastofilosofia” (A Short Philosophy of a Librarianship: Finnish Information Studies,
2001):
 Librarianship begins in the library.
 Librarianship primarily concerns about documents.
 Librarian is able to learn about documents.
 Learning is simply useful for the society.
Further more:
A good librarian knows quite a lot about documents and he (or she) can provide respect
of them.
And now I will change the perspective:
 music librarianship begins in the music library;
 music librarianship primarily concerns about music documents;
 music librarian is able to learn about music documents;
 learning about music documents is useful for the society.
A good music librarian knows quite a lot about music documents and he (or she) can
provide respect of them.
In brief, ethnomusicology as a study of music as a culture. Ethnomusicological approach
can be very useful working in a music library. In sum: a Music library should be always
approached from a cultural perspective. In a present-day Finnish ethnomusicology, studying a
music library culture is still a rare phenomenon. Music library is relatively unstudied area of
ethnomusicology. Vice Versa: ethnomusicology is unknown ground for the most of music
librarians.
As Sanna Karttunen wrote in her dissertation “Music in Cultural Cognition” (Universtiy
of Jyväskylä, 1992):
All musical traditions are tied to cultural conceptions about music, which in turn are tied
to the general norms and values of the society or group, and, on the whole, to the socially
constructed reality of the culture.
Culture is a result of collective learning, which is accumulated in the course of time in
certain geographical and social conditions. A person who creates or listening music is living in
some social and cultural interaction in relation to his or her environment and circumstances. This
particular case has helped me to take many steps in my attempt to understand what music is and
finally – how to become a better music librarian in the Regional Library of Lapland.