In Norway there exists a political aim to make access to quality-assured material available to all. The focus of the project “Digitisation and improved access for culture and education” has been to examine how the cultural and educational sectors can best cooperate in order to improve access to digital learning resources among pupils and teachers in elementary and secondary schools, also among staff, researchers and students at institutions of higher education and among the public in general. An overall perspective has been applied to the differing roles of users in a variety of different situations.

The main focus has been on cooperation between the library and the education sectors. They represent two cultural areas, where the services developed differ from each other not only in technology but also with regard to pedagogic features and user-friendliness. At the same time, however, they face a number of mutual problems, a situation which further increases the need for professional coordination if the resources available are to be utilised across the sectors in the best possible way.

The project report recently presented concerns itself primarily with the differing roles and individual expertise of the cultural and the educational sectors and the differences in their definition and use of specific concepts. Discussion centres on the possibilities for cooperation with regard to formats, standards and document description (metadata) in addition to other areas of cooperation.

The project has developed a digital learning resource on the subject of Henrik Ibsen to provide an example of how cooperation between the two sectors can make such resources more easily accessible.

Those cooperating in the project have been the Norwegian Digital Library programme run by the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority, the web portal Utdanning.no and the eStandard project. Their work has been funded by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Research. The conclusion of the project will be marked by a seminar in September this year where the results were presented.

The project report can be found at
http://www.abm-utvikling.no/publisert
/ovrige/digit_tilgjeng_rapport_web.pdf

Tertit Knudsen
Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority
tertit.knudsen@abm-utvikling.no

Tranlated by Eric Deverill

Libraries and a multicultural Norway

The work carried out on a national library report by the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority revealed the necessity for a closer analysis of the roles and responsibilities of public libraries in an increasingly multicultural society. This analysis now exists in the form of a sub-report published in the Authority’s series of articles and written by Robert Vaagan, associate professor at the Oslo University College’s Department of Journalism, Library and Information Science.

Vaagan looks at library activities in the light of official Norwegian policies in the multicultural area. One of his main conclusions is that as a result of legislation concerning newly-arrived immigrants from countries outside the European Economic Community, stricter demands will now be made on their knowledge of Norwegian society and their mastery of the Norwegian language. Here is an area where libraries, in cooperation with school authorities, will be able to play a significant role.

Libraries nowadays already have a multicultural responsibility, not only as laid down by the Library Act itself but also as a result of the new stipulations in §100 of the Constitution concerning freedom of expression, where emphasis is laid on the responsibility of the authorities to promote learning among the general public.

In his report Vaagan focuses on how best to share this responsibility among the three administrative levels of state, county and municipality and also considers what this responsibility should encompass.

His report concludes with certain proposals for a number of initiatives and solutions. These include a recommendation that public libraries in the future should associate themselves with local authorities in carrying out the introduction programme for immigrants and should also establish regular cooperation with centres for asylum seekers in their respective municipalities.

He suggests that a new Library Act should include a specific paragraph on services for minorities, immigrants and their descendants, refugees and asylum seekers. A further recommendation, based on Danish practice, is for a 3- year trial project with four regional consultants for library users from ethnic minorities. Vaagan’s proposals will receive further consideration during the final stages of the national report which, if all goes according to plan, should be completed by the autumn of this year.

For further details of the report:
http://www.abm-utvikling.no/publisert/ABM-skrift/index.html A printed version can be obtained from the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority:
post@abm-utvikling.no.

Tertit Knudsen
Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority
tertit.knudsen@abm-utvikling.no

Translated by Eric Deverill