Public Libraries Mobilising Advanced NetworksNovember 2002
Editorial
by Rob Davies
PULMAN-XT
by Rob Davies
The PULMAN
Guidelines
By David
Waugh & Mary Rowlatt
Time to talk of many
things:
by Margo
de Groot
PULMAN: The
conference workshop
by Margo
de Groot
What is NAPLE – and do we really need such a thing?
By Jens
Thorhauge
Registry of Distance Education Resources
By Eoin McGrath
The Danish Cooperating Library System
By
Rolf Hapel
Public libraries in Turkey
By Yilmaz Bulent & Bayir Didar
Editorial (top)
The six months since the
last issue of PULMANExpress have been an incredibly busy period for the
participants in the PULMAN Network, as we try to put our aspirations into
practice.
The First Edition of the
PULMAN Guidelines has been completed and is now available on PULMANWeb. We
think a very good start has been made in producing an extensive tool which
public librarians and their partners can use to help develop and deliver new
services in the digital era. But we want to know what you think, so that we can
improve them further in time for our major policy conference in Portugal next
March. The next few months will therefore be a period of open review of the
Guidelines. The article by David Waugh and Mary Rowlatt (Essex) describes ways
in which we would like you to participate in this process.
Promoting
awareness and use of the Guidelines will be a major feature of the PULMAN
national workshop which is taking place in every participating EU member and
candidate country this Autumn. We hope that the workshops will also help to
drive forward the agenda and debate on strategies for public libraries and
local services in general, including those requiring cross-domain and
cross-sectoral co-operation and partnership. Margo de Groot (Eblida) describes
plans and the goals of the national workshops in more detail.
Margo also provides an
update on planning for the PULMAN Policy Conference. We are aiming for a major,
high impact event to demonstrate the role of public libraries in delivering the
e-Europe agenda. We will be seeking as high a level of representation as
possible among policy makers from every country participating in the PULMAN
network and will give you more news of progress in the next issue.
PULMAN’s policy work doesn’t
stop there. PULMAN has given presentations at a number of major conferences
during the last few months including IFLA and EVA London and organised its own
meeting of European-level cross-domain organisations in June. In addition,
PULMAN is in discussion with the NAPLE network (representing national public
library authorities in a number of European countries) about future
co-operation and participated in its conference under the Danish EU Presidency
in Copenhagen in early October. We will pick up the strands and possible
directions of some of this policy work in the next issue of PULMANExpress. In
the meantime, Jens Thorhauge provides an overview of the way in which NAPLE
intends to develop its role and activities.
Eoin McGrath also provides an update on progress with the PULMAN
Registry of Distance Learning Materials
Training attachments took
place during September for 40 public library managers from East and South
Europe. They were held in Centres of Excellence in Demark, Finland, Greece and
Slovenia. Each of the participants is committed to spreading the news about
what they found on their return home. Having been part of the Greek event
myself I can vouch for the impact! More in the next issue.
The PULMAN network was
formally extended by ten new countries in June with the commencement of the
PULMAN-XT support measure, funded under the 8th Call of the IST programme. It
is a great pleasure to bring some of the EU’s important neighbours into the
PULMAN Network. They will carry out ‘mainstream’ PULMAN activities such as
Guidelines translations, national workshops, training attachments …with the
addition of one or two new ideas. More information is provided in my article
below.
Inevitably, we are thinking
in terms of which aspects of the work of PULMAN might provide a suitable basis
for development under IST FP6, for which the workprogramme is now at an
increasingly advanced stage of development. PULMAN was successful in its bid to
organise a workshop at the IST Conference in Copenhagen and in conjunction with
the Cultural Heritage Applications Unit at DG INFSO we invite you to attend
this workshop on "The Business of Heritage - from Local to Global" on
5 November at 16.00. We hope that this event will have a significant impact on
thinking in terms of priorities for FP6. The developing programme for this
event can be seen at http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/
events.htm -
ECNovember
This issue is completed by
interesting articles on the public library situations in Denmark and Turkey by
Rolf Hapel (Aarhus) and Bulent Yilmaz
(Turkish Librarians’ Association). Remember that you can find updated
information on public libraries in most European countries now in the PULMANWeb
Country Profiles section!
By Rob Davies
MDR Partners
PULMAN Project Manager
Email:
rob.davies@mdrpartners.com
g
PULMAN-XT (top)
The PULMAN Network is
growing! The proposal to extend the PULMAN Network to countries bordering the
European Union and its candidate states, favourably evaluated under the 8th
Call of IST FP5, was contracted on 15 June 2002. With the extension, the PULMAN Network is strategically placed to
stimulate and promote best practice in digital services and practices of public
libraries and cultural organisations at the local and regional level throughout
Europe and in neighbouring countries.
The new countries involved
include Russia (Mayakovsky Public Library, St Petersburg) and Turkey (Turkish
Librarians’ Association) as contracted partners and a number of other countries
represented by Country Co-ordinators
(Albania, Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova,
Montenegro, Yugoslavia and Ukraine). Details of individual Country
Co-ordinators are available through PULMANWeb.
PULMAN-XT will run for 14
months and will enable the new countries to benefit from the work of PULMAN in
addition to ambitious new activities. Activities and Plans for the PULMAN
Network Extension Members are to:
ü Translate the PULMAN
Guidelines into their national languages;
ü Participate in the PULMAN
Policy Conference in Portugal, targeted to senior policy makers, practitioners,
and national representatives of public libraries, museums and archives, with an
agenda to build scenarios for future co-operation and cross-sectoral strategies;
ü Nominate participants in a
further range of training workshops on innovative practice for public library
managers to be held in PULMAN Centres of Excellence during the Spring of 2003;
ü Develop research capacity in
the local cultural services sector in each PULMAN-XT country supporting
interest and capability to participate in future EU research programmes (e.g.
IST FP6). A series of seminars will be held during Autumn 2002 in the PULMAN-XT
countries to explain the possibilities for participation in FP6 and to
encourage those active in research and development to consider the
relationships between national programmes, IST and the priorities of the
e-Europe action plan
ü Embark on an ambitious new
programme of institutional mentoring and twinning between public libraries
within the PULMAN-XT ‘region’ and between them and the other PULMAN
countries.
The PULMAN Network members
who are partners in PULMAN and will help to make the ‘bridge’ with PULMAN-XT
are: MDR Partners (UK, Co-ordinator), Helsinki City Library (Finland), Oton
Zupancic Library, (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Veria Public Library (Greece) and
EBLIDA, as a subcontractor.
By Rob Davies
MDR Partners
PULMAN Project Manager
Email:
rob.davies@mdrpartners.com
g
The PULMAN
Guidelines (top)
The
First Edition of the Guidelines is now available. The Guidelines are intended
to point the way to providing services in the digital era for public libraries
working together with other cultural institutions at the local level.
Following
the successful Evaluation Workshop in Helsinki in February this year, which
gave rise to numerous suggestions for improvement and refinement, revised
drafts of the Guidelines in English have been produced by the individual topic
authors from all over Europe. These in turn have been further edited and
revised in order to finalise the First Edition. PULMAN and PULMAN-XT Country Co-ordinators are now organising
translation into more than 25 languages.
The
English versions have already been seen by reviewers appointed by the European
Commission and have been described as "an extremely useful potential
resource to Europe’s public library community, particularly in those regions
where services are developing from a lower base." They already represent a
large input of thought, research, consultation and effort from everybody
involved, but the process of honing them for maximum usefulness will need to
continue.
From
now until mid-December 2002 there will be a review period during which several
further processes will affect the final form of the guidelines:
1.
The country co-ordinators will launch the
Guidelines to policy-makers and practitioners in their countries, especially
through 37 national workshops or seminars which are being arranged under PULMAN
and PULMAN-XT this autumn. The process of analysing the outcomes of the
national workshops is to be carried out by EBLIDA (see article by Margo de
Groot in this issue of PULMANExpress). Issues and comments raised at the workshops
will feed back into the process of further refining the Guidelines.
2.
National language versions of the Guidelines
will also be made available through national websites, linked to PULMANWeb and
comments invited.
3.
We hope the availability of the PULMAN
Guidelines on PULMANWeb (now in Word, zipped and html formats) will stimulate
the whole community of Europe's librarians, curators, archivists and other
parties interested in the delivery of local services, to provide critical
comment and feedback. In particular we would like to know:
ü
Have the Guidelines covered the right topics
and brought out the right issues?
ü
Is the guidance useful?
ü
Are the Guidelines relevant in all countries
where the PULMAN network is active?
ü
Are there examples of good or innovative
practice which we should be highlighting but have not?
4.
Comment will be invited from experts on
specific aspects of the Guidelines.
An
email form is provided on PULMANWeb for readers of the Guidelines to use to
send their comments to the PULMAN editorial team. Or e-mail them direct to rob.davies@mdrpartners.com. We would encourage you
to comment before the end of November 2002. At that point the review will be
finalised in order to allow time for the redrafting work which will be
necessary to prepare the Second Edition of the Guidelines in time for the
Policy Conference in Oeiras, Portugal on the 13/14 March 2002.
Should the Guidelines prove to
be as valuable resource as we hope, it will be important to find a way to keep
them up to date once the PULMAN funding period is over. The management of
PULMAN is currently giving serious consideration as to how this sustainability
can be achieved. We hope to have more news in the next issue of PULMANExpress.
PULMANweb:
http://www.pulmanweb.org/DGMs/DGMs.htm
By David Waugh
& Mary Rowlatt
Essex County
Council
Email:
David.Waugh2@essexcc.gov.uk & maryr@essexcc.gov.uk
g
Time to talk of
many things: (top)
The PULMAN national workshops
It is time for the PULMAN national workshops! In
this article, we discuss the idea behind the national workshops. There is also
an overview of the schedule of the national workshops per country. The first
workshops have already taken place and all will be completed by mid-December.
The format and goals of each National Workshop is
flexible. Some are stand-alone events, others have been combined with other
PULMAN activities such as the Training Workshops and others still incorporated
within important national conferences or public library events. Country
Co-ordinators and their national support groups are arranging the type of event
which they feel will work best and address the current situation in their own
country.
The first edition of the PULMAN Guidelines (in
English) on digital public library services is now ready and available through
PULMANWeb. The Guidelines form a powerful tool for identifying key policy
issues, as well as a practical guide to best practice and service
implementation. They are currently being translated into around 25 European
languages. See the article by Mary Rowlatt and David Waugh in this issue of
PULMANExpress. A major purpose of the national workshops is to launch, promote
awareness and use of the Guidelines by policy makers and practitioners.
In some countries, the national workshops present
an important opportunity to move forward the debate on public library
strategies in the age of digital services. Elsewhere - perhaps especially in
countries where it has proven difficult to make this kind of progress to date -
workshop programmes received so far point to a mounting interest in identifying
areas of real co-operation between museums, archives and public libraries at
local level,
The outcomes of the workshops will also be a major
source of content for the PULMAN Policy Conference in Oeiras, Portugal next
March. The temperature at EBLIDA will go up considerably towards the end of
this year when all the workshops will have taken place and our job is to
analyse the twenty-six workshop reports plus eleven more from PULMAN-XT. A
common report format has been sent to Country Co-ordinators to enable an
analysis of the issues which are raised and the activity which is underway.
A table of dates for the National Workshops is
provided below. Contact your Country Co-ordinator for more information.
|
Country |
Date
national workshop |
Belgium |
21 November 2002 |
|
Bulgaria |
2-5 October 2002 |
|
Czech Republic |
3,4 or 5 December 2002 |
Denmark |
14 November |
|
Estonia |
21 November 2002 |
Finland |
23-24 October 2002 |
|
France |
September or November |
|
Germany |
10 or 11 December 2002 |
|
Greece |
19/20 September 2002 |
|
Hungary |
4
October |
|
Ireland |
December 2002 |
|
Italy |
21 October 2002 |
|
Latvia |
10 –11 October |
|
Lithuania |
18 November 2002 |
|
Luxembourg |
Start of October |
|
Netherlands |
26 September 2002 |
|
Norway |
28 October 2002 |
|
Poland |
10-12 October 2002 |
|
Portugal |
18 October 2002 |
|
Romania |
10-12 October 2002 |
|
Slovak Republic |
October |
|
Slovenia |
11 or 18 November 2002 |
|
Spain |
13 December 2002 |
|
Sweden |
7 -8 November 2002 |
|
United Kingdom |
13 December 2002 |
PULMAN-XT National Workshops
|
Country |
Date
national workshop |
|
|
Albania |
22 – 23 October |
|
|
Belarus |
25 – 26 November |
|
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
4 November |
|
|
Croatia |
15/16 November |
|
|
FYROM |
26 November |
|
|
Moldova |
13 – 18 October |
|
|
Montenegro |
23 November |
|
|
Russia |
27 – 29 November |
|
|
Turkey |
16 – 19 November |
|
|
Ukraine |
15 November |
|
|
Yugoslavia |
21 – 22 November |
|
By Margo de
Groot
EBLIDA,
Netherlands
Email: pulman@nblc.nl
http://www.eblida.org
g
PULMAN: The conference workshop (top)
In the last edition of
PULMANExpress, we told you that the PULMAN policy conference will be held in
Oeiras, Portugal. A lot of progress has been made on the policy conference
since the last issue and we are very happy to be able to update you about what
what’s new!
Progress on the programme!
First of all, a date has been decided. The conference will take place on
13 and 14 March 2003, so please mark these dates in your agenda!
An organising committee has been
established to plan and assure the quality of the conference programme,
involving Teresa Hackett, (EBLIDA), Ana Runkel (Director, Oeiras Public Library
and Portugal country co-ordinator), Jan van Vaerenbergh (Director, Antwerp
Public Library, PULMAN Network co-ordinator and country co-ordinator for
Belgium), Chris Batt (Acting Chief Executive, Resource, UK), Andreas Mitrowann
(project leader, Bertelsmann Foundation) and Ariane Iljon (former European
Commission). We would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the
committee for their valuable contributions.
Following several rounds of discussion, a draft conference programme is
now in place. The draft programme focuses on the creation and delivery of
services to the public through public libraries and their local partners in the
information age. In short: how to bring e-Europe to its citizens through local
institutions. This topic will be addressed both from a political perspective as
well as from a practical viewpoint by focussing on case studies, which will be
structured thematically.
This means that the conference is aimed at two key target groups. One
group consists of high level policy makers, the other group are decision makers
working in public libraries, museums and archives. It is hoped that a
conference that brings together players working at national and European level
to discuss and develop strategies for the delivery of local services,
illuminated by examples of best practice at local level, will have a strong
benefit on policies for local service delivery.
An event for 37 countries!
Thirty seven European countries will be represented at the conference,
bringing together around 200 policy makers and practitioners to debate the
delivery of local information services, exchanging information, building
partnerships and co-operation. The countries are Austria, Albania, Belarus,
Bulgaria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,
Turkey, United Kingdom and Ukraine.
The next step is for each PULMAN Country Co-ordinator is to identify the
key players, the “movers and shakers”, to take part in the conference, which
will be by invitation only. It is essential to identify the right people who
can influence the creation and delivery of services through public libraries
and their local partners.
How will this work in practice? EBLIDA is providing the Country
Co-ordinators with a “toolkit” with all the information needed to go about the
task e.g. conference aims & objectives, draft programme, press releases,
etc. There will also be advice on who to invite. Country Co-ordinators will be
very happy to hear from you with any suggestions.
Sponsoring the conference
While the programme is developing apace, we are turning our attention to
the issue of the conference budget. We are very grateful to the municipality of
Oeiras who have already committed to supporting the conference in a number of
ways. In addition, we are also liaising with companies with interests in the
field of libraries and the knowledge economy about sponsorship. If you have
suggestions or useful business contacts, or maybe your own organisation or
company wants to be involved in the PULMAN conference, then let us know.
Sponsorship opportunities range from Euro 1000 to Euro 6500.
By Margo de
Groot
EBLIDA,
Netherlands
Email: pulman@nblc.nl
http://www.eblida.org
g
What is NAPLE
– and do we really need such a thing? (top)
The acronym NAPLE stands for
National Authorities of Public Libraries in Europe . It is an informal network
of national library authorities in a
number of European countries. NAPLE was formed and named during a European
conference hosted by the Portuguese authority during the Portuguese EU
presidency in spring 2000.
The network has
not however been very active, despite the fact that some of us strongly feel a
need for such a network. However, during the occasion of the EBLIDA annual
Council meeting in the Hague in May 2002,
some of us took the opportunity to try to establish a network that is a
little more formal. The proposal is to establish an association which might run
an electronic newsletter and organise biannual meetings, to name a few
examples.
The background for forming a
network is of course the fast development of libraries in the networked
society. We can identify many needs deriving from this development: policies for new services, clarification of
changing roles and benchmarking, but there is also a general need for mutual
inspiration and exchange of information. My point is that we need these things
in an even more defined way. National authorities are in general responsible
for policy development at national level and for a general perspective on
cultural, educational and information institutions in Europe. It is obvious to
me that if we don’t need co-operation today, we will most certainly need it
tomorrow.
“But we already have co-operation” you may argue. And that is
true. There is very good co-operation between the large European research and
university libraries through LIBER. There is
also strong co-operation between European library associations organised
by EBLIDA. And then there are EU funded initiatives such as PULMAN. However,
authorities are not associations. And even if at a certain level we have the
same goals, I see associations roughly as lobby organisations, whereas
authorities are government agencies. As such, their tasks and goals are not the
same. Authorities have common interests – at more or less the same level - for
example in administration, policy-making, benchmarking, etc. I do not think
that NAPLE should aim at an activity level comparable to that of EBLIDA. NAPLE
should remain a simple network, but it can only do so if you know the members and
how to reach them. And that is actually a problem. In my opinion co-operation with EBLIDA will be a natural
thing. But national authorities have a need of their own for exchange of
information and co-operation on policy development. This is the need that NAPLE
should try to meet.
In October 2002, there will
be a European conference, by invitation only, in Copenhagen organised by some
NAPLE members and hosted by the Danish National Library Authority. Directors of
national library authorities and presidents of the national library
associations from all Europe are invited. The purpose of the conference is to
discuss the present situation and the future development of public libraries.
This will be done on the basis of a short state-of-the-art report. The work on
this is now in progress at the Danish
National Library Authority.
After the conference, we
will organise what is hopefully a founding meeting for the NAPLE association.
National authorities and associations as well as regional organisations from
federal states are welcome to attend this meeting as founders – and members –
of NAPLE.
NAPLE is not a competitor.
It is a new network with its own goals but perfectly willing to co-operate with
other organisations where there is a need and a natural opportunity .
By Jens
Thorhauge
Director, Danish National Library Authority
Email: JTH@bs.dk
g
Registry of
Distance Education Resources (top)
The database now
contains over 230 entries covering courses of all lengths and types. To date,
responses have been received from 18 countries including those where, at the
moment, no relevant courses are delivered by distance education. The following
languages are represented: Catalan, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Italian,
Lithuanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Greek. 145 of these courses are
delivered in English and the majority originate in the UK .
The PULMAN evaluators, in June
2002, noted that the development of the registry of distance education
resources for people working in public libraries, and local museums and
archives is a welcome initiative contributing directly to the enhancement of
public library services, with potential European Community-wide impact.
As one of the
most tangible deliverables of the PULMAN project, it is most important that the
progress made since the end of 2001 in gathering data is maintained. To
establish PULMAN as an authoritative source of information on sectoral distance
education, the reach of the network across Europe and the local nature of its
data-gathering system will be crucial to its accuracy and timeliness.
PULMAN Country Co-ordinators
have the job of constantly monitoring the availability of courses in their
countries. Distance education is a fast-evolving area and is growing all the
time, so this monitoring at local level is essential to keep the registry
current and relevant. Please contact your Country Co-ordinator if you know of
any relevant resources which are not yet included in the database. (See page
13)
By Eoin McGrath
Dublin
City Library
Email: dubcilib@iol.ie
g
The Danish
Cooperating Library System (top)
One of the most important concepts in Danish
library terminology is: “The cooperating library system”. The concept
represents a unique construction in international terms, and is based on historical
aspects of Danish culture and the tradition of “public enlightenment” and
democracy.
The term “cooperating
library system” covers a number of positive values connected with the public
libraries’ work. These are values like - “cooperation is a rational basis,
cooperation means shared resources, cooperation is conducted by equal partners,
cooperation reduces the risk of conflict”.
In Denmark the cooperating
library system is currently organised on three levels: local, regional
(counties) and national. The pivotal points of cooperation are supply of
materials and information between libraries, sharing experiences, and further
education within the profession.
Superstructure
The local level (public and school
libraries) takes care of communication in the broader sense, the regional level
(county libraries and county centres) carries out superstructure functions for
the local level, and the national level (The National Library Authority, The
State and University Library, The Royal Library (the national library) and
other public research libraries) acts as superstructure for the local and
regional level.
The very idea of a
cooperating library system is closely related to the public library conception
of free and equal access to information and knowledge, an intensified awareness
of our cultural heritage, and the strengthening of the individual’s creative
talents and the ability to read. Whereas before this idea was based on the
rather obvious advantages of sharing and exploiting information in a society,
which was short on that commodity, it now seems as if the underlying concept of
caring is the one being sustained in a time very much affected by an
information surplus - or flood.
History
The idea of the Danish
public library has its roots in adult
education, dating from the late 1700s when the basis for the state school was
created. This was followed by the period in the early 1800s, when the
nationalism grew strong and a poet and clergyman, Grundtvig, provided the
common people with wonderful hymns, a belief in the combination of Christianity
and national romantic history, as well as the important basis on which to build
the so called “folk high school movement” - his “school for life”. The public
libraries started in the country, not in the towns. In the mid 1800s there were
book collections in half of the approx. 1700 parishes in Denmark. By the end of
the 1800s some of these “folk” libraries had been closed down, but a modest sum
had been entered on the state budget for the establishment of parish libraries.
The overall feeling was that these “folk” or parish libraries had been created
for the poor - the unenlightened and the unpriviledged. The libraries were not
really the peoples’ libraries as such. The transformation to libraries with a
broad common appeal did not occur until during and immediately after the 1st
World War, when the first Danish Public Libraries Act was born, and the anglo/american idea of the public library
began to extend to the entire population - to the citizens of the country.
The early coordinating organisations
The first Danish Public
Libraries Act in 1920 also inaugurated the first budding coordinating
organisations as well as the cooperative structure, which stills exists. The
coordinating bodies were the county libraries, the first being established in
1914, and the State Inspectorate of Public Libraries, which became a modern
version of Statens Bogsamlingskomité (the National Book Collection Committee).
It is interesting to note that these organisations were not cooperations as we
know them today. The keywords were authority and coordination, and a
considerable amount of this was consultative activity - not a partnership
between equals. With sizeable grants from the state, county libraries
experienced a veritable boom in their numbers. Their task was to support the
smaller libraries by supplying books which they did not hold - and besides to
offer advice and supervision.
Another very important
aspect was to relieve the pressure on the State and University Library, which
since 1902 when the collections were made available for lending purposes had
experienced an overwhelming increase in demand.
This was also the period in
which the ideal organisation the Danish Library Association (Danmarks
Biblioteksforening) was born by an amalgamation of the two associations
“Danmarks Folkebogsamlinger” and “Dansk Biblioteksforening”. This became to a
greater extent a cooperative body, as the association’s primary aim was to
further the library cause and establish public libraries. This was done through
lobbying and attracting attention in the broader sense. In 1927 a white paper
on the national library system concluded that “the Danish public library system
must be said to have reached the stage where one is entitled to regard it as a
unit - stretching from the small parish library to the Royal Library and the
University Library”. A myth had been born.
The only important change in
this basic structure of cooperation is that more central organisations have
emerged.
The new coordinating organisations
The Bibliographic Office of
the Public Libraries, which was set up in 1939, was to prepare common
catalogues and catalogue cards. In 1963 the name was changed to the Danish
Library Bureau, and following bankruptcy in 1991 the Danish Library Centre A/S
(DBC) emerged. DBC provides the libraries with a number of bibliographic
products and PR material.. DBC compiles the National Bibliography and is the
general contractor of the DanBib cooperation. Shareholders in DBC A/S are the
Danish State and the municipalities’ common organisation. A commercial daughter
organisation, DBC Media, offers videograms, music materials and multimedia in
competition with other commercial vendors.
In 1949 the Bibliographic Office
of the Public Libraries opened a department for the binding of books for
libraries, called “Fællesindbindingen” (Common Binding). In 1957 it became the
Danish Library Binding Centre (IBC) I/S, and today the private company IBC acts
as wholesaler to the public libraries. IBC also - like DBC Media- offers
videograms and multimedia products. Competition however is fierce in this
particular field. Several larger municipal libraries have after tender chosen
other suppliers, leaving IBC in a very difficult position, actually rumour has
it, that bankruptcy is near.
The independent institution
the Danish Repository Library for Public Libraries was established in 1968 and
holds a large collection of materials weeded from the public libraries. A few
years ago the institution was merged with the State and University library.
In 1984 the independent
institution the Danish Central Library for Immigrant Literature was
established, which acts as superstructure for the public libraries, making available
books and other suitable materials to immigrants. In 1990 the existing National
Library for the Blind became the main centre for the public libraries’ lending
of talking books.
Public and school libraries today
In 1993 legislation was
changed, which meant that the services of the public libraries and school
libraries were separated. The public libraries are governed by the Public
Libraries Act under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, while school
libraries are governed by the Primary Education Act and answer to the Ministry
of Education. Broadly speaking one might describe the task of the public
libraries as public enlightenment and that of the school libraries as
educational. Cooperation between public libraries and school libraries is rudimentary
in most places, but there are some well-functioning exceptions - e.g. the
municipalities of Odense and Aarhus - where so-called ‘combi-libraries’ serving
both the municipality and the primary school has emerged and created great
political interest. The new library act from 2000 has not changed this picture
significant, although cooperation between school- and public libraries is high
on the agenda of the Danish National Library Authority and in the
municipalities.
County libraries and county centres
Until recently Denmark’s 14
counties each had a county library. Following a previous amendment to the
Library Act, the state of Denmark - not the county - finances the county
libraries. All county libraries are municipal libraries in relation to their
own municipality. This means that by far the major part of the total funding
for a county library stems from municipal budgets.
The county centres for
educational resources are the superstructures for the school libraries and
supply educational material for teaching purposes. They are funded by the
counties.
An important part of the
library act deals with the structure and tasks of the county libraries. But big
changes are envisaged in this area. Following the latest Library Act of year
2000 the minister of Culture has ordered a new structure for the county
libraries. The total number of regional support libraries has gone down from
the previous 14 to 10. The idea is to create a superstructure based on fewer,
but stronger regional libraries. This superstructure will mean fewer centres
for the distribution of the physical media. Combined with the fact that already
now a considerable amount of information is being distributed in Internet-based
library services, this will promote a development towards closer, networked
cooperation between public libraries. The political discussions on the changes
in the structure of county or regional libraries have just ended and the new
structure will be put into full force from 2004.
Central Organisations
The central organisations
today may be divided into two main groups, namely those with a super structural
function as their primary task, and those for which this function is secondary.
The first category includes the Danish Library Centre, the Danish Library
Binding Centre, the Danish Repository Library for Public Libraries and the
Danish Central Library for Immigrant Literature. The second comprises the State
and University Library, the Royal Library and the other research libraries.
Some of the central
organisations have changed from being cooperating organisations to increasingly
becoming professionally managed suppliers in competition with others. This
applies to DBC and the Danish Library Binding Centre. Some areas, like for
example the compilation of the national bibliography, are governed by contracts
with the state, and at the present time the tasks are defined and agreed upon
by the individual supplier and the state, represented by the National Library
Authority. This construction is rather problematic for two reasons, partly
because the state is a shareholder in DBC, which compiles the national
bibliography, and partly because this type of task is directly affected by
EU-directives on services and therefore will in all probability be put out to
tender within a foreseeable future.
The National Library Authority
The National Library
Authority (since 1990 an amalgamation of the State Inspectorate of Public
Libraries and the Office of the National Librarian) has had to transform its
traditional authoritarian role into a far more advisory capacity. This was
mainly due to a financial reform in 1983 when the state decided that the
municipalities should receive their fiscal compensation as block grants instead
of the hitherto directly earmarked state grants. After this change in the
system it was no longer possible to threaten the municipalities with a
reduction or even withholding of library grants, if certain conditions were not
adhered to. Most people in the library profession still regard the National
Library Authority as a safeguard for ensuring that the differences in the
Danish library system do not widen, but there is apparently a schism between
the expectations from the National Library Authority by the Ministry of Culture
and the library profession respectively. The ministry considers SBT’s primary
functions as preparing legislation, interpreting legal issues and advising the
government, carrying out the administration of government grants and public
lending right remuneration and coordinating national and interdisciplinary
committee work. However, the profession is more aware of SBT’s role as mediator
in cases of conflicting interests, as a neutral body, who will ensure that
justice is done. Many signals indicates that it will be impossible for SBT to
continue playing this role in the future.
The cooperating library system
Apart from the emergence of
new “partners” such as the Danish Library Binding Centre, the Danish Library
Centre, the Danish Repository Library for Public Libraries and the Danish
Library Centre for Immigrant Literature no basic changes have taken place in
the cooperative structure, which was defined in the Public Libraries Act of
1920. It means that the public libraries are to carry out public enlightenment
a broad sense, supported by the county libraries, which again should mean
relieving the pressure on the State and University Library, the research
libraries and the National Library. Apart from the superstructure function
those libraries do, of course, perform other tasks which bring them in direct
contact with the users, but the superstructure function is undoubtedly the main
one. This most traditional and very hierarchical construction has been relevant
for a long period. The relevance was of course due to the fact that the
cooperation was centred around acquisition, registration and distribution of
physical media. The argument in favour of a cooperative construction such as
this has first and foremost been based on the need to be able to use a book,
purchased in one part of the country for a specific purpose, for another
purpose in another geographic area.
There have been no marked
changes in the basic ideals of free and equal access to library books
everywhere in the country or the right to order books free-of-charge from other
libraries.
However, there is very good
reasons for contemplating the cooperating library system from another angle,
namely the one that considers public and school libraries to be the core of the
system - where contact with the users is at a premium.
A reason is that cooperation
on materials supply is in fact quite modest. The public libraries’ loan
requests from the research libraries only represent a minor part of the total
lending from the public libraries (0.2 %), whereas the figure for the research
libraries’ loans to public libraries represents 4 % of their total loans
(figures from 2001). With that in mind one might wonder at the continuous
protestations of the blessings of a cooperating library system - at any rate as
far as the vertical lending cooperation is concerned. The enthusiasm is, of
course, closely connected with the qualitative aspect of offering a large
number of citizens the information they need, which this kind of cooperation
guarantees. The hallmark of a democratic society is after all the free and
equal access to information, and without doubt providing the desired material
may bring considerable qualitative experiences. But whether these activities in
themselves are sufficient to surmount the barriers against free and equal
access to information is another matter.
The big changes
Another reason to take a
different view at the cooperating system is the fact that an ever increasing
part of the information disseminated by the libraries is digital. As
information becomes gradually less dependent on analogue media like books, some
aspects of the “cooperating library system” is becoming more of an anachronism.
New ideas are emerging. The libraries are no longer only cooperating on
localization and distribution of physical media, but also on localization,
validation and distribution of information via the Internet. Right now there
are several networked public library services on the Web, all developed and
operated by Danish public libraries in network with the aid of funds from the
Danish National Library Authority. These are services like:
Library.dk (Bibliotek.dk -
http://www.bibliotek.dk), a web ordering system that allows a user to access a
common catalogue and order a book from any Danish public or research library to
be delivered at his nearest public library
Public Libraries' Netguide
(Folkebibliotekernes Netguide - http://www.fng.dk/), a general subject guide to
Internet resources, selected and annotated by librarians from 21 Danish
libraries.
Library Duty
(Biblioteksvagten-
http://www.biblioteksvagten.dk ),
a 24 hour quick-reference
and information service.
Dotbot (http://www.dotbot.dk),services for children.
Bibhit (http://www.bibhit.dk/), a metadata search engine
based on the standard Z39.50.
AuthorNet ( ForfatterNet - http://www.forfatternet.dk), a website that
presents living Danish fiction authors and novelists.
FINFO (http://www.finfo.dk/), a refugee and immigrant
Info system.
Danske Billeder (http://www.danskebilleder.dk/),
a common database with photos of local history interest.
So the Danish public
libraries certainly have adopted the idea of the hybrid library. Four
characteristics dominate the library’s immediate future: It will be a place
offering guidance and access to global information and to collections of
various media.
The libraries’ tasks will be
the classic ones: They must localize, purchase, classify, store, procure and
pass on information. But the ways and methods to fulfil the tasks will be
modern and implies a shift in focus from building collections and gathering
production capital to qualifications development within the libraries’
organisations.
Neither the “virtual” nor
the “physical” library can exist alone. The concept of the physical library
will survive, but it will have the virtual library as a very important
component. The local public library has four general roles as centre for 1)
knowledge, 2) culture, 3) information and 4) social exchange. The information
society will offer the potential to strengthen all of these roles.
Trends in the
virtual library:
ü Still more library services
can be reached from home via the Web-catalogue, e.g., requisition, renewal,
lending status etc.
ü The catalogue/OPAC will be
interactive
ü General info from the
library via subscribed services based on Web and push technology
ü Specialized services are
distributed via www (e.g. Netguides, questions and answers, local history etc.)
ü Distance learning is
increasing
ü Electronic full text
documents to be delivered via the catalogue
ü Intelligent agents and personalized
user interface like “MyLibrary”
ü Metadata
Trends in the physical
library:
ü Automated self service
ü Microchips substitute bar
codes in the physical media
ü More digital media -
physical as well as Netdistributed
ü More networked workstations
for the public
ü Broader bandwidth to enable
streaming video and music
These developments have the effect that the traditional vertical
division into three levels of cooperation is rapidly becoming an old-fashioned
way of dealing with cooperative relations. The vertical model only applies to
those of the libraries’ activities that are based on transport of physical
media, while other cooperative efforts would depend on knowledge (human
resources) and IT-resources. By using information technology to its fullest potential
it is possible to differentiate the libraries’ superstructure functions in such
a way that larger libraries or other superstructure organisations carry out
different tasks, e.g. work following tender and contractual negotiations with
the state. The concept of a universal library would have to be discarded at
county library level, as has happened at public library level, but on the other
hand it is a revitalisation of the old cooperative library system, turning it
into a new virtual library. In a socio-economic
sense it will be a great relief when it is no longer necessary for 14 county
libraries to deal with exactly the same tasks. When the ministerial vision of a
smaller number of regional libraries is put into effect, it is likely that the
regional libraries not only will be able to maintain their traditional role as
supplier of super structural media within the region as before, but furthermore
could take on various tasks on a national level. Moreover the somewhat
controversial concept of “competition” might well become an incentive for some
libraries to engage in development.
What remains is that the cooperating library system will continue to
exist in the information society; it might even gain in stature, but it also
means that a number of questions regarding the financing of super structure
functions have to be solved politically. One of the sources of funding could
very well be the saved money that the decreased number of regional libraries
will generate.
By Rolf Hapel
Library Director
Aarhus Municipal Libraries
Email: hapel@bib.aarhus.dk
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Public
libraries in Turkey (top)
The Organisation of Public Libraries
From 1960 to 1972, the
Ministry of Education administered all public libraries. Since 1972, they are operated
under the Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Libraries in Turkey,
where the population is around 67 million with 7 large geographic regions and
74 provinces. The General Directorate of Libraries is the largest department
within the Ministry in terms of its budget and personnel. Children’s libraries,
which are operated under the Ministry of Culture, are mainly established within
the public libraries. Some children’s libraries have their own building,
although there has been a recent trend towards having children’s libraries
within the public libraries. There are also a few municipal libraries governed
and financed by local authorities.
There are several articles in the regulations of the municipalities regarding
the establishment of public libraries.
Public libraries are largely
financed by the central government. However, the city private offices provide
some financial aid to the public libraries. Most of the local authorities
support the Ministry of Culture by providing the library buildings. The last
protocol approved by the Ministry of Education supports public libraries
through their personnel. Those people, who are librarians working under the
Ministry of Education, have started to work in
public libraries.
The position of
public libraries in the organizational/administrational structure in the cities
comes under the Director of Culture who reports to the Governor. Provincial
public libraries have branch libraries, town public libraries, children’s
library and mobile libraries.
Public libraries provide
some services to prisons, care centers, child care institutions, camps,
etc. Mobile libraries reach the rural
and remote areas where public libraries do not exist.
Some statistical data on
public libraries in Turkey for the last 5 years are as follows:
As can be
seen, the number of users has decreased signifiantly. This is a result of new
statistical methods in gathering the data. Since 1998, only active members who renew
their membership at the beginning of the year are recorded as users.
Public Library Policy
In Turkey,
there is no law governing the public libraries. But there are some regulations,
most of which were revised in the 1980s, related to the services of public
libraries, such as, “Public Libraries Task and Working Regulation” (Official
Journal, 21.9.1981, 17465), “Public and Children Libraries Regulation”
(Official Journal 19.8.1982, 17789), “Ministry of Culture Archive Services
Regulations” (Official Journal, 29.7.1989, 20236) “Ministry of Culture
Regulation of Selection of Publications” (Official Journal, 25.3.1998, 23297) “Regulation of Educational
and Cultural Activities in Libraries” (Official Journal, 21.9.1981, 17465)
“Regulation of Inter Library Lending Printed Books” (Official Journal,
21.9.1981, 17465) “Regulation of
Celebrating the National Library Week” (Official Journal, 6.3.1982, 17625).
As mentioned
earlier, public libraries are included
in the five-year development plans under the headings of “culture” or
“education”. In these development plans, general attitudes and principles
regarding the public libraries are mentioned. But there are serious problems in
converting these principles into reality.
The main
problem of the public libraries is that they also serve as school libraries,
because of the insufficient number of school libraries in most places. Today
only 10% of schools have their own libraries. This affects the services,
policies and facilities of the public libraries.
Collections
of public libraries are developed by the General Directorate of Libraries
through central purchasing, according to the “Regulation of Selection of
Publications”. The Directorate also pays attention to the recommendations made
by the public libraries while selecting the materials. Some public libraries
have their own public funds/associations supported by the local people. These
funds help them to develop their collections.
Information Technology in Public Libraries
Public libraries use AACR2 and the 20th edition of the DDC system in
general. Cataloguing and classification processes are done centrally at the
General Directorate of Libraries Office. A catalogue card is prepared for each
item and sent to the libraries regularly.
Although efforts are being made to develop information technologies in
public libraries, this is the most problematic area and one of primary concern.
However, the “Section of Information Process” within the General Directorate,
is working on the transformation of the public libraries into automated
libraries. They want to realize this aim in 10 public libraries each year. Up
to now, automation has been introduced in 56 libraries. These public libraries
use a software program called “Iskenderiye”. It was developed and freely
distributed by the General Directorate of Libraries. But all services are not
yet automated in these libraries. Especially, all catalogue records need to be
put in MARC format.
In 2002, the National Library gave all records created for its
collection (around 600,000 records) to the General Directorate of Libraries.
These records are all in MARC format. The General Directorate of Libraries has
a project that aims to create a union catalogue of all publications held at
public libraries, including those given by the National Library. Once this
project is finalized, all public libraries will be able to access all of their
records as well as the Directorate’s records.
Today, there are 26 public libraries with Internet connections. With
their own efforts, these libraries try to keep their Internet connections up
and to create web pages.
The main problems in this area are:
ü
Lack of money: Because of insufficient budget
allocations, most libraries cannot pay for their Internet connection fees.
ü
Lack of staff: There are not enough staff who
have the necessary skills to run an automated library.
Conclusion
Turkey has a centralized
public administration. So, all public libraries serve under this structure, as part
of this centralized organization. It is well known that all public libraries
should be under local authorities. But local authorities in Turkey generally
are political institutions, and they do not see the libraries as a support in
the election arena. So, they do not put any value on having libraries as local organizations.
There are four librarianship departments at the universtiy level in
Turkey, and the average number of graduates is 150-200 per year. So, there should not be a problem in
finding qualified people to recruit to public libraries. We hope that the
national policy or strategy in the librarianship field will solve this problem.
Turkey is a
cradle of information and civilization from the antique period. It has a very
dynamic and educated young population. Therefore, public libraries must become
important and functional institutions by reforming them immediately. We believe
that the PULMAN project will help us in achieving this big goal.
By Yilmaz Bulent & Bayir Didar
Hacettepe University Faculty of Letters, Department of
Library science
Koc Univeristy Library
Email: byilmaz@hacettepe.edu.tr
Email: dbayir@ku.edu.tr
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News & Events
The Greek National PULMAN workshop (top)
The Greek National
PULMAN workshop was held successfully in Veria on 19/20 September as part of an
International Workshop on : 'The Role of Public Libraries in the Information
Society", suppoprted by the Ministry of
Education and the Centre for
the Book. More than 200 participants attended the workshop. Ian Pigott from the
Cultural Hertitage Applications Unit of the European Commission IST programme
was the keynote speaker (A European Agenda for modern Public Libraries
Services) and Rob Davies presented the 'PULMAN guidelines on emerging policy
and practice for public libraries and local cultural institutions.
For more
information visit: http://www.libver.gr/gr/conf2002/public_en.htm
Photo from the
International Workshop: Veria, Greece
By Ioannis
Trohopoulos
Veria Central
Public Library
Email:
ioannis@libver.gr
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PULMAN at the IST2002 Event:
(top)
4-6
November, Copenhagen
We invite you to attend the workshop on “The Business of
Heritage - from Local to Global” on 5 November at 16.00 organised by
Cultural Heritage Applications Unit at DG INFSO. We hope that this event will
have a significant impact on thinking in terms of priorities for FP6. For more
details visit: http://2002.istevent.cec.eu.int
By Rob Davies
MDR Partners
PULMAN
Project Manager
Email:
rob.davies@mdrpartners.com
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Registry
of Distance Education Resources (top)
Visit PULMANweb at: http://www.pulmanweb.org/database.asp
By Eoin McGrath
Dublin
City Library
Email: dubcilib@iol.ie
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PULMAN
Express is a quarterly published newsletter available in English only.
Subscription is free. To subscribe, visit the PULMANweb server at:
www.pulmanweb.org/news/register
and fill in the on-line form.
PULMAN
Express will be also available on-line on the PULMANweb server at: www.pulmanweb.org/news.
For
any questions concerning the
PULMAN project, please contact:
PULMAN
Network Coordinator
Jan van Vaerenbergh, Antwerp City Library
jan.vanvaerenbergh@cs.antwerpen.be
PULMAN Network
Project Manager
Rob Davies
rob.davies@mdrpartners.com
PULMAN Network
Administrator
Mary Gianoli
mary.gianoli@mdrpartners.com
PULMAN Express Newsletter Editor
Veria Central Public Library, Greece
dimproto@libver.gr
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