Dagsländor eller bestående värden? En studie om urval av musikfonogram på folkbibliotek.
This paper discusses normativity in selecting musical phonograms in public libraries. The purpose is to gain an increased understanding of music activity in public libraries. To do this I have interviewed five music librarians about their visions, ideals and goals with their work. The questions discussed concern ambitions with the music activity and how to keep up to date with current record releases. For the theoretical frame I use two kinds of material. The first is a theoretical model by the library- and information scientist, Sanna Talja. The model includes three interpretative repertoires of the music library: the general education repertoire an hierarchical point of view, including mostly classical music, the alternative repertoire and the demand repertoire. The second is two articles, which discuss the concept of musical canon: by the musicologist Marcia Citron and the historian William Weber. I use the concept canon as a tool for discussion and analysis, including all kinds of music. The result shows that the informants share some basic assumptions, above all the notion of a basic repertory and the importance of alternative music. The conclusion is that the concept canon works as an analytic tool for the retrospective part of selection. We might talk about a new form of canon. The concept of a basic repertory concur with the general education repertoire, but a change has taken place; instead of an narrow cultural norm, a wider definition of culture is used, including all musical genres.