Music Archive JAPA, founded by volunteers, has today established its position. It is housed in attractive and functional facilities on Sörnäisten rantatie in central Helsinki, in a building it shares with the National Audiovisual Institute and The Labour Archives.

“We started in a basement in Meilahti, and then moved to Arabia, both suburbs close to downtown Helsinki. Our new facilities in Sörnäinen have put our work on a more professional basis. Among other things, we are able to offer digitisation services to other actors in the field.”

Nowadays JAPA aims to profile itself as a treasure trove for researchers, while not ignoring the average music fan.

“Even though we're no traditional research institution, we do now have our own Academy Research Fellow. Antti-Ville Kärjä is in charge of a four year project on studying Finnish music from a multicultural perspective.”

The archive also goes in for publishing, and Juha Henriksson has first-hand experience of the vagaries of the publishing industry. A book may stay in print for only a short while, after which it is fit only for the dumpster.

“Unfortunately we must always consider very carefully what the archive can publish. We receive no subsidies for our publications, so each and every publication has to cover its own costs at the least. Even so, we do also try to publish works with a somewhat more marginal appeal.”

Music Archive JAPA is a relatively small archive, but one field in which it has been quite active is digitisation projects, both at the national and international level. In this work Dr Henriksson has had much use for his many degrees and his engineering background, even if he lacks an actual archivist degree.

“I have been honing my skills studying on my own down the years. I am also a member of several working groups active in developing common standards and good practices in the archive sector. However, my most important duties as director are coordination of activities and managing finances.”

The digital age brings its own challenges, especially to an audio-based archive. A common misconception Dr Henriksson has come across is the idea that when the analogue materials have all been digitised, the job will be done. Not so.

“Digital technology is changing all the time too, so archiving must keep up with the change. New equipment must be purchased and data must be recopied from one storage medium to another every so often. In principle, archiving on paper is less expensive in the long run.”