The multicultural North
In 2002 the pool was spent on a general enterprise, entitled The Multicultural Community in the North. The reason for choosing this theme is that the right of everyone, whatever ethnic or cultural background, is universally recognised as a basic and necessary prerequisite of a democracy. “It is in this light that a cultural policy, based on cultural diversity, should be seen”, say the ministers. “Cultural diversity is not only about ethnicity, but about finding a new definition of both the democratisation of culture and the cultural democracy, so that the many cultures in the North are given the opportunity for participating and contributing to the development of new cultural and artistic expressions.”

Nordic literature and library committee, Nordbok, which is the Nordic Council of Ministers’ professional committee for literature and library co-operation is to carry out two initiatives on behalf of the ministers concerning the multi-cultural community in the North. The strategic pool supports the initiatives with DKK 900,000 and DKK 600,000 respectively.

Competence development in LAM institutions
One initiative is a project on competence development in libraries, archives and museums. It should prepare the ground for development of the institutions in order for them to match a multi-cultural society. The project is developed in co-operation with Nordic Council of Ministers’ committee for museum co-operation. The objective is to create a Nordic, network-based multi-cultural competence development for members of staff across the Nordic countries and across subject boundaries.
The competence development is supposed to develop the multi-cultural understanding and corporate culture of the institutions as well as their intercultural competencies in terms of mediation. The product is a new specially designed course, offered by the relevant educational institutions. The course will cover communication strategies and learning about foreign cultures seen in relation to for example acquisition of materials, arranging of events, electronic possibilities and staff policy. The project will also establish a Nordic inter-sectorial network. The courses are developed in close dialogue between the institutions whose staff are involved and the educational institutions.

Nordbok sees the project as an opportunity to get started on the co-operation between archive,library and museum, which is given high priority by the Norwegian chairmanship in 2002 in the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Multicultural literature
The second initiative is a project entitled New Nordic literary landscapes - perspectives for literature in a multicultural society. The aim of the project is i.a. to highlight the literature written by authors with a different ethnic background from the Nordic one. In connection with multi-culturalism it is necessary to develop new standards for an appraisal of artistic quality in literature, both as part o f the development within the literary genre and as part of the development of cultural democracy.

The project is carried out in co-operation with i.a. Nordic authors’ associations. In this way the way is paved for close-operation between the library committee and the literary world.

Translated by Vibeke Cranfield