”Vi är till för kommuninvånarna” : En kvalitativ studie av musikavdelningen på Enköpings kommunbibliotek

The aim of this study is to examine the significance of having a music department at the public library in Enköping, and how the organization of the phonograms is handled. The different areas examined are the reason of the reintroduction of a music department, its budget, its users, the work with selection, the marketing, statistical data concerning loans, the work with classification, indexing, and organization of the phonograms and the future of the music department. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with staff connected to the music department at the public library in Enköping. For the theoretical frame, Sanna Taljas discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland is used. Talja presents three discourses which all show different views on what kind of material a music library should contain. The first discourse, The General Education Repertoire, advocates that the music library should supply a collection that could serve as educational and represent the history of music and its different genres. The second discourse, The Alternative Repertoire, advocates that the music library should serve as an alternative to the sources of commercial music and offer material with a more alternative character. The third discourse, The Demand Repertoire, advocates that the music library should build its collection based on the users demands and needs. The study shows that all three of the discourses are present when material for the collection is selected, even though The General Education Repertoire and The Demand Repertoire are the two most conspicuous. The study also shows that a music department was reintroduced in the library stock based on things like an interest in the art form as such in the library management. The department has had a positive impact on the library's entire statistics, even though loan figures of phonograms have showed a negative trend since the opening. The figures still remain fairly high so the music department is believed to have a future, even though its future also appears uncertain. When classifying phonograms, judgements made by other libraries regarding the work in question, and different sources on the Internet are helpful tools in the process before making a final decision. The organization of the phonograms on the shelves do not in detail follow their classification. Instead they are organized in more rough divisions in order to make the music department more user-friendly