DENMARK

Reading Aloud champions

How do you convey the joy of reading to a teenage audience when the act of reading is such a private activity? The Danes have made reading fun and exciting by involving whole schools and school classes in a reading aloud
campaign.

Before the 10 finalists in Denmark’s first-ever national competition in reading aloud climbed onstage in Arhus in November 2007, the sixth grade pupils in 265 schools all over the country had taken part in qualifying rounds.More than 60 children’s libraries played an important part in organising the first leg of the championships while the 10 regional central libraries hosted the semi finals. The other partners were the national School Library Association, The Cultural Centre for Children in Arhus and the Association of Teachers of the Danish Language. The aim of the national
campaign was to increase the children’s interest in reading – and particularly in reading aloud.

In the finals, the 10 pupils all read for five minutes from a book of their own choice followed by a five-minute read
of a text they only received when onstage. The competition ended with all finalists reciting ghost stories written by school children in a writing competition. All finalists were rewarded with a diploma, a book and a present card,
and the winner received a check for DKK 59,000 for a school trip to the biggest fun fair in Scandinavia for the entire school class. The championships also managed to attract a lot of media attention, in the regional newspapers as well as the national television.
(Danmarks Biblioteker 1:2008)

Targeting user groups by personas

Mads Brian Olsen is 35 years old, unemployed, doesn’t make friends easily but has a dog called Bisse. Up until now he hasn’t really used his local library in Roskilde. 81-year-old Eva Madsen’s dog is called Perle and she’s been a regular user of the mobile library services for years borrowing historical novels, classical music and talking
books.Mads Brian and Eva are examples of Roskilde Public Libraries’ 18 personas who represent different target
groups in the community. In the Personas Method the fictional users’ characteristics are based on research and
statistics with made-up lives. Their life situations keep changing, as in real life, and Eva has recently broken her hip while Mads Brian is looking for a girl friend. Personas is a way to target user groups and design and adapt library
services for them. By using personas it is easier to focus on the needs of the users – and according to the staff at
Roskilde Public Library, it is also fun.
(Bibliotekpressen 4:2008)

Service for the whole person The multiprofessional Information Centre at the Odense University

Hospital offers advice and information for hospital patients before, during and after their stay at the hospital. The aim
is to help the patients to understand their diagnosis and condition. The starting point is a holistic view of the
patients who not only have physical but also mental, cultural and social needs. The information centre offers a
wide range of materials such as fiction and non-fiction books, talking books, films and music plus brochures on
different aspects of health information. Apart from the professional librarians, the information centre also employs
nurses. The centre functions as a seamless whole even though it operates on two separate budgets with librarians
employed by the central library and nurses by the hospital. The synergy of the two professional groups works to the patients’ advantage.
(Danmarks Biblioteker 1:2008)

FINLAND

Book talk by an idol

The Haapajärvi and Pyhäjärvi Public Libraries tapped into a goldmine of inspiration when they invited a Finnish Idols competition finalist to give a book talk to two whole schools. Hearing a young, successful (hard) rocker - Kristian Meurman -talking about his love of books and reading is
probably the most effective way to convince teenagers about the joys of literature. The former Idols star told them that he’d been reading from an early age and even reads on the tour bus, everything from detective stories to Finnish classics. The appreciative audiences also got to know that reading has lead him to write lyrics for his own songs, one of the greatest incentives for all aspiring rock stars to get into the habit of reading.
(Kirjastolehti
http://kirjastoseura.kaapeli.fi/etusivu/lehti/uutiset)

National user survey at libraries: Measuring impact and quality

The National Library together with the Finnish library network will carry out a user survey on the web this spring. The survey is being conducted at several university, polytechnic, special and public libraries. The end users will
answer questions on their satisfaction with library collections, range of services, library premises and equipment and web services. An important goal is to look into the impact of library services on the users’ jobs, studies and leisure time. The libraries who link the survey to their web pages will receive a ready-made analysis of the results on a local level while the National Library will compile the results on a national level. The purpose of the survey is to support the self-evaluation of libraries and the customer-oriented development of library services.
(Kirjastolehti
http://kirjastoseura.kaapeli.fi/etusivu/lehti/uutiset)

Merging the author directories
of public libraries

Practically every provincial library and several local public libraries in Finland (as elsewhere in Scandinavia) have produced biographical and bibliographical information on authors for a regional web directory. Up until now the users
interested in a particular author have often been forced to try several different directories before finding the right
regional one. In some cases, the same author has been included in more than one directory according to their birthplace and their later place of living. The national project run by Vaasa Provincial Library has as its main goal the
merging of the different directories and databases so that the information can be searched using one versatile search
interface while maintaining the distinctive local qualities of the original directories. The contents will be described
using metadata and the technical platform will be the DSpace open source software. Later on the new web
directory will be integrated into the coming national title register on fiction which in its turn will make use of
semantic web technologies.
(Bibban 1:2008;
http://www.biblioteken.fi/biblioteksbranschen/Bibban/2008_1/kitka1;
http://wiki.kirjastot.fi/index.php/Projekti_Kitka2)

NORWAY

Literary awards by youth jury

If you give the teenagers good books to work with and some encouragement, you are going to see how enthusiastic they are about reading, say librarian Anne Catherine Voss and teacher
Anne-Berit Leganger whose pupils acted as jury for the Norwegian Youth’s Critique Prize the previous year. Seven school classes from upper secondary education are selected as jury each year. Each class is appointed a literary critic who regularly meets with the pupils. The eight shortlisted books are chosen by a professional jury. The youth jury then reads and discusses the books from November to February. The award ceremony was arranged for the third time in March. The pupils of class 1C at Fagerborg shcool in Oslo had only positive things to say about their involvement the previous year: “Some of the books were difficult but they became alive when we started to work on them.” “Reading has widened our vocabulary” and “it is important that the teacher – and the librarian – are
enthusiastic about the project.”
(Bok og bibliotek 5:2007; http://www.ungdommenskritikerpris.no/)

Whole Stavanger will be reading

A well-functioning idea does not have to be ground-breaking. The One Book, One City reading promotion project started in the US ten years ago and has since spread all over the world. (E.g. in Tampere, Finland the public library organised a One Book One City week in March.) Stavanger, the European capital of culture this year, has picked the book everybody will be reading by an open vote this spring. All citizens were invited to vote for a book, the only requirement being that the book must have been published in Norwegian. Hundreds of different books were nominated. Five books with most votes were shortlisted together with five books picked by an expert jury. The ten shortlisted books were presented on the library web page, local newspapers and at the library. In a final vote in May Kaninbyen by Arild Rein was determined as a winner with 2379 votes.
(Bibliotekaren 2:2008; http://www.stavangerkulturhus.no/layout/set/print/soelvberget/ arkiv/bokprat_hele_byen_leser_n ominasjonstreff)

SWEDEN

WordBridge: Ask a Librarian in Finnish, Russian, Persian or Spanish

The International Library and the information and loan centres together will develop the national online reference service Ask a Librarian to include several new languages.When the project
funded by the Swedish Arts Council is finished, the users will be
able to send in questions in not only in Swedish but also in 12 other languages including Persian and Russian. There are currently over 70 librarians from both public and research libraries answering questions from the users both on the web and in a chat reference
service.
(Biblioteksbladet 2:2008)

Volvo Library

The Volvo Lorry Factory in Umeå has recently opened a library for its staff. The library has a collection of books, talking books and ready-packed bags of children’s books. Some of the book stock is part of a project called ‘Read to me, Dad!’. The library is centrally situated
at the factory and is open every day. The new library was inaugurated by the chairman of the Metal Trade Union who stated in his speech that libraries in the workplace are more important now than ever. ‘By reading books it is possible to find your own language which makes it easier to take part in the public debate in society.’
(Biblioteksbladet 2:2008)

Inspirational bags

The children’s librarian of the year, Malou Altergård, has come up with several fresh ideas during her career. One of these are her inspirational bags where she collects material on a certain theme such as ‘Outdoors’, ‘Gender’, ‘Children and sorrow’ or ‘New parents’.
The bags are intended for different professionals working with children: teachers, psychologists etc. There are 36 different bags at the moment all with 6-10 books both for children and the adults who work with them. Apart from helping the childcare professionals, the bags also function as marketing for the library collections and
services.
(Biblioteksbladet 1:2008)

Scandinavian Shortcuts are selected by
Päivi Jokitalo
Licensing Coordinator
National Electronic
Library Services /
FinELib The National
Library of Finland