The National Library of Norway was
first established in 1989 with the
opening of a department in Rana in
the north of the country. Even at that
early stage the accessibility offered by
information and communication
technology (ICT) was used as an argument
for siting this first unit 1000 km
(625 miles) from the capital. At about
the same time revised legislation was
introduced stipulating the requirements
for legal deposit, legislation
which had the foresight also to include
‘EDP documents’. These factors have
influenced the work of the National Library
from its earliest days. The NLN
has been later extended to include a department
in Oslo and the office of the
National Librarian.
More difficult to predict than a general
rapid development in technology, however,
was the introduction of the World
WideWeb (WWW), a technological
base which has led to a veritable explosion
in the number of documents now
widely accessible. Nor were there many
who could foresee that the Internet
would become common property in
the course of a few years. It was reasonable
to expect that in the long term all
publishing would be digital, but the development
of such methods has come
about far more quickly than most
people had anticipated.
The NLN has followed these developments
extremely closely and has kept
pace reasonably well with regard to its
own infrastructure and expertise. Activities
connected with internet-based
access to information have been many
and varied, keeping the library in the
forefront of international library development
in the successful utilisation of
relevant ICT. In support of this claim
we can point out that the NLN was one
of the first to offer large-scale access to
digital photography via WWW, that we
are among the leaders in building up a
digital sound archive and that as far as
the legal deposit of digital documents
is concerned, we are as far advanced as
any other comparable institution.
As a library, the NLN is in a special situation
with regard to the integration
of all types of information and expertise.
Today we deal with information
ranging from written text to multimedia
and with carriers ranging from old
manuscripts to digital material. In spite
of a relatively short period in which to
build up the organisation, we have succeeded
in gathering together a skilled
staff with expertise in all these areas.
In addition to the National Library’s
more traditional activities, we have for
example established specialised departments
to deal with audio-visual material.
The library’s ICT staff now represents
40 man-years with a significant
application of resources to the development
of software and services.
Development of the NLN Digital Library
Many people wonder how libraries will
look in the future, what role they will
play and indeed whether or not they
will exist at all. Will there be libraries
without librarians? Will they still need
to be in a building? Will just one library
perhaps be enough for the whole of
Norway? Who knows? So far as the
NLN can see into the future, the following
would appear pretty certain.
- We shall continue to deal with paperbased
information far into the foreseeable
future
- Copying information from the analogue
to the digital domain demands
so much time and use of resources
that we must regard it as a never-ending
task
- Human resources determine the lines
along which we work and also guarantee
that library services maintain
the quality required by users
- Libraries as a physical meeting place
will not only continue to exist but
will play an even greater role
- We believe that the combination of
people and technology is unbeatable.
Therefore libraries will carry on much
the same as before, but with digital se rvices
as an extra leg to stand on the y
will have a greater role to play in the
community. Local and immediate access
to knowledge will become of vital
importance.
It is fair to say that the NLN has taken
the first,lengthy strides in fulfilling its
role as an active player in the digital
domain. Purposeful measures over
many years have been aimed at establishing
an architecture for the NLN’s
digital library. In recent years these
efforts have been first and foremost directed
towards the creation of the
library’s Long-Term Preservation Repository
(LTPR).This is by far the library’s
greatest project so far in the
field of ICT, both with regard to investment
and to personnel. Based on an
overall powerful physical infrastructure,
a fundamental functionality has
been established capable of dealing
with large collections of digital documents.
LTPR will serve as the foundation
for the majority of the library’s important
future ICT-related projects.
In principle LTPR will provide the
NLN’s physical infrastructure for longterm
preservation of information in a
digital form. The main characteristics
of the LTPR can briefly be summarised
as follows:
- Large, expandable capacity
- General infrastructure for the storage
of the NLN’s digital objects
- Infrastructure for the long-term preservation
of digital information
- Services to provide digital objects to
the user
- Systems for copyright management
- Formal requirements for identification
and metadata
- Formal requirements governing format
and quality
- Great emphasis on security and access
control.
One example from LTPR is the identification
service based on Uniform Resource
Name (URN). The NLN has developed
one of the first services in the
world using URN to identify digital
objects. The URN system allots identifiers
according to need and also offers a
resolution service in order to find the
physical position of any digital object
with a given URN.
For many years the NLN has also worked
with broadband technology and
today we operate a technological platform
for the Internet which is at the
forefront of what is available. The combination
of LTPR, powerful search systems,
an excellent infrastructure and a
high level of expertise has resulted in a
number of interesting projects and services,
such as photo databases, a digital
radio archive, newspaper collections of
historical interest, a web archive and
multimedia exhibitions.
The way ahead
– an age of possibilities
Utilising new technology opens up new
possibilities. Libraries can be not only
more but also better than in the past.
We see this first and foremost in the
collections, in the services offered and
in the collaboration with other sectors
in the community.
The collections
A library’s own collections have traditionally
been looked upon as relatively
isolated units, existing to all intents
and purposes independent of time and
space. A great deal of work has been
devoted to making the collections as
complete as possible.With new technology
it is much easier to integrate different
collections and to give the user access
to new, virtual collections. The individual
library’s service to the user is
less dependent upon having everything
in stock itself,since now the user can
search through many libraries. These
virtual collections will appear more
complete to the user and the refore also
seem better in quality. In the task of integrating
with other collections Z39.50
and Open Archives Initiative (OAI) are
central elements in the NLN’s development.
A further advantage is that by digitising
valuable and delicate collections,
it is possible to make them accessible
without any risk of wear and tear,
damage or theft.
The services
For the National Library it is important
to focus on the needs of library users.
ICT makes it possible to create new
services and to improve the traditional
ones. Even more important is perhaps
the fact that geographical barriers are
reduced. Services can be made available
at the time and place most suitable to
the user.
New technology also creates the conditions
for user-directed services, specially
designed for a particular type of user
in a given context. It is easy to appreciate
that a historian would require a different
interface with a photographic
collection on the Internet than would a
school pupil. Similarly a radio archive
should have a different appearance to a
radio journalist than to a senior citizen
looking for the recording of an old
broadcast. The NLN already has the
first specialised services of this type in
place in its digital r adio archive.
We believe that relatively soon we can
expect to see interface solutions where
the user to a considerable degree creates
his or her own library. Completely
new search and navigation tools will
become available with an emphasis on
accessibility related to context. Users
will find that what today is experienced
as ‘noise’ will soon completely disappear.
When working with historical collections
the library faces a considerable
challenge in attaching good descriptions
to objects.A variety of personnel
resources exist in the community capable
of making a positive contribution
to improved metadata by participating
in the library’s work. For many
years now the NLN has studied user
input in connection with the library’s
photo database Galleri NOR. Experience
shows that this type of interaction
can be particularly valuable with regard
to quality control of services and collections.
Co-operation
Society in general is subject to changes
which are partly determined by technology.
These changes offer the possibility
of new forms of co-operation, for
instance between producers of material
and libraries. Already we can see that
the nucleus of expertise built up
around our digital library is regarded
as a positive resource by many external
bodies. One example of this is our cooperation
with the Norwegian Broadcasting
Corporation (NRK) in the development
and running of the digital
radio archive. So far more than 40,000
radio programmes of historical interest
have been digitised, both sound and
catalogue being available to selected
users on the Internet.
Legal deposit and long-term preservation
In 2001 the NLN initiated PARADIGMA,
a project designed to continue for
several years and with a focus on the
legal deposit of digital documents. The
aim of the project is to find the technology,
methods and organisation required
in order to meet the challenges
posed by legal deposit in the digital
domain. These efforts will to a great
extent be based on the work already
being carried out within the NLN’s general
digital library. By the end of the
project we hope to have developed an
operational process for the legal deposit
of digital documents, also for what
we refer to as internet documents.
The large-scale handling of legal deposit
material submitted in digital form
brings a further huge challenge with
regard to long-term preservation. As
16 SPLQ:1 2002
might well be anticipated, the library’s
aim is to use LTPR as the basic tool in
this connection.
At the moment we regard migration as
the only feasible method of preserving
individual digital objects over long periods
of time and we are working on
establishing migration support in LTPR.
New roles
In the digital domain the stream of information
can assume forms and volume
to which we are not accustomed.
Procedures in the case of radio broadcasting,
for example, include the logging
onto tape by the broadcaster, the
sending of the tape by post to the NLN
and the final handling and storage of
the tape by the library.
With a view to replacing this process,
we are now working on internet-based
legal deposit. As a result we have found
it both necessary and advantageous to
enter into close co-operation with the
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation
in order to agree upon common standards
with regard to metadata, format
and quality. Furthermore, the library
has been able to act as adviser in special
areas of expertise.We can justifiably
claim that this work has had international
consequences,as much in the library
and archive sectors as in the area
of broadcasting. It is inevitable that the
NLN must accept entering into unfamiliar
situations which will make new
demands on both the organisation and
the individual member of staff. Clearly
this applies equally in our relations
with other producers of material, such
as publishers and newspapers.
Research and development
A library is an institution built upon
paper-based information and on its
knowledge of this collected information.
In the reality now sur rounding us it
is therefore imperative to acquire new
knowledge and to develop new practices.
We must ensure that the necessary
conditions exist in order to navigate
successfully into the future and to offer
the community at all times the best library
possible. Unfortunately these
conditions do not occur of themselves.
They must be created. In addition to
the need for technological expertise,
completely new demands will also b e
made on organisational insight. In line
with society as a whole, the library sector
must also develop these skills.
A strategic emphasis on research and
development is therefore of vital importance
for the National Library. For
many years now the library has taken
part in research projects financed by
the European Union. These not only
represent a source of new knowledge
but also offer considerable possibilities
for pursuing our own initiatives.We
shall naturally continue to seek participation
in such projects in the years
ahead.
The Nordic region represents a natural
environment for co-operation. The similarities
of cultures and history, the
linguistic reality which makes for easy
communication and the many other
characteristics we share in common;
these all serve to ensure that co-operation
across our borders gives speedy
and satisfactory results. NORDINFO
and Nordunet are excellent tools in
making such projects possible and the
NLN has had and continues to have a
large portfolio of projects based on
Nordic co-operation.
In a national context the NLN has
established formal research co-operation
with industry, research institutes
and the educational sector.
The National Library has also taken the
initiative with a view to setting up an
extensive, national programme to carry
out research on digital libraries. This
report, partly financed by the Norwegian
Research Council, concludes that
there is a need for such a programme
and that it will require an annual grant
of about 20 MNOK over a period of
five years. The report is available from
the National Library and has been officially
submitted to both the Norwegian
Ministry of Cultural and Scientific Affairs
and the Norwegian Research
Council.
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