New agenda in Nordic Council of Ministers and Nordic Council
In 2000 a panel of specialists appointed by the Nordic co-operation ministers, published their thoughts on content and direction in future forms of cooperation, in the report Öppet för världens vindar.
Nordic Council and Nordic Council of Ministers subsequently published a New Nordic Agenda on 24. October.
The report maintains that the new overall strategic goals for Nordic Council are technological development, welfare, the interior market in the North, environment and co-operation between neighbouring countries and regions. This is a breakaway from the two previous strategy reports from 1992 and 1995 which prioritised cultural co-operation as the fundamental ‘genuine’ Scandinavian interest with about 50% of the resources together with research and education.

As opposed to the changes in the strategy of Nordic Council of Ministers, culture has gained a more prominent place in Nordic Council’s new organisation, having got an independent committee together with education.

Library co-operation – new possibilities
Cultural co-operation under the auspices of Nordic Council of Ministers will in future be placed under the headline Technological development with special emphasis on i.a. the problems posed in the information society. Basically the information society is more a question of content, language and culture, rather than technology and in this connection digital content production, copyright and multimedia issues will be prioritised, as well as active citizenship, competence development and the role of volunteers.

From the libraries’ point of view this angle on cultural co-operation and the overall prioritisation of the information society, supports the role of the libraries in a modern Nordic society. A role that encompasses amongst other things being the supplier of public service, public information systems, civic service, information producer and developer of democracy. Libraries can contribute – not only with mediation of information – but also with interpretation by qualifying the information on the net and lending it a human face via the personal contact in the library. Libraries ought to help bridging the information gap between those who can and those who cannot handle the whirlpool of undigested information – a major problem of the information society all along.

Nordic Council of Ministers’ committee for literature and libraries, Nordbok, is prepared to pick up the gauntlet and provide the ministers of culture with food for a discussion on a new public service concept. How will media convergence affect the libraries’ opportunities? Where will the lib raries be able to assume new public service obligations? How best to support the public on the net? What kind of content should be made available in digital form and how can we support the individual citizen by integrating library services in his everyday life.

Translated by Vibeke Cranfield