Just before Christmas last year,
the Danish
minister of culture Brian Mikkelsen announced a reform
of the regional library
structure in Denmark. |
Up till now there have been 16 regional
libraries, one in each of the former counties as well
as one in Copenhagen
and Frederiksberg respectively. After the municipal reform,
the introduction of the national union catalogue, library.dk,
and a national transportation scheme aiming, as cheaply
as possible, to execute the more than two million loans
that take place each year between the libraries, it is
obvious that a more effective structure could be worked
out with fewer regional libraries to perform the tasks.
The reform means that the tasks are now
divided between six libraries instead of 16. The six libraries,
which will be regional libraries in the future, are the
libraries in Aalborg, Herning, Vejle, Odense, Roskilde
and Gentofte.
More money for development
The new structure is based on a division
of the state superstructure into two main groups:
1. An accumulated set of tasks are placed
with a number of selected regional libraries, including
supply of books and other non-electronic materials, e-books
and digital services
2. A number of tasks are dealt with centrally
by libraries, following tender, or by other players, including
coordination of net libraries, license negotiations and
development
tasks.
With the reduction of the number of regional
libraries and ensuing administrative simplifications,
means will be
released to development the public libraries’ Internet
service, while at the same time maintaining the present
level for the purchase of books. Means will also become
available for the continuous innovation of libraries.
These
tasks can be dealt with by one or several libraries together.
Interim arrangement
The reform will be implemented in two stages
with a view to providing the libraries with optimal frames
for djustment.
The contracts with the present regional libraries, which
terminated at the end of 2007, have been prolonged for
another year until the end of 2008. From 2009 the number
of regional libraries will be reduced to 10. The reform
in its entirety starts operating on 1. January 2010.
Jonna Holmgaard Larsen
Danish Agency for libraries and media
jhl@bs.dk |
