The 7. Heaven gets fixed address in Køge

The 7. Heaven - children’s literature’s answer to Experimentarium - has after ten years of touring gained permanent address in Køge harbour. The exhibition ‘Himmel og Hav’ offers a guided tour through the story of Ragnarok (Twilight of the Gods) from Nordic mythology, you can scrub the floor at Pippi Longstocking’s - by tying scrubbing brushes under your feet, or you can go exploring in the big library which also features a secret door.

Librarians Majken Jørgensen and Gitte Vejlby started the exhibition activity in 1996, and have since been showing their fantastic exhibitions round about Scandinavia and once in Brussels. The 7. Heaven contains exhibitions, theatre, music, films, narratives, art and children’s own activities inspired by stories, fairy-tales, rhymes and jingles, mythology, songs and pictures from Nordic culture.

NORWAY

Women most avid readers

Statistics:
In Norway 25% of the population read books on an average day in 2005. The figure is rising, and it is the women who are reading more. 32% of all women were daily readers, whereas only 19% of men read books. In the same year, each Norwegian spent on average 15 minutes each day reading books. That is 3 minutes more than the previous year. Women, especially, read fiction. On an average day 72% of the female readers were reading fiction, whereas only 60% of the men preferred this genre.

SWEDEN

All about troublesome borrowers

Why are some borrowers unable to return their books on time or collect the books they have reserved? Why do people write in books that do not belong to them? Some answers can be found in the report Jeg kan jo godt leve med at blive udelukket (I think I can live with being excluded), written by librarian Maud Lindström, Umeå University Library.

During her studies in library and information science,Maud Lindström decided to focus on the troublesome borrowers. Through friends and acquaintances she managed to find four borrowers who were willing to be interviewed in depth about their infringements of library regulations.

"The troublesome borrowers live in the present and seem to lack understanding of the future. Even though it might hurt those closest to them", the report concludes. To make it easier for this particular group of borrowers to comply with the rules, they should be able quickly and easily to cancel reserved books, receive reminders - for example via e-mail - that the borrowed material is soon to be returned. Finally, each library should try harder to communicate information about the library’s regulations to the borrowers.

Translated by Vibeke Cranfield