LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

UPDATES ON PUBLIC AND RESEARCH L IBRARIES IN SCANDINAVIA

This issue

No. 1-2. 2016

The library as a ‘free zone’. Christina Jönsson Adrial. 4

Happy together. Päivi Jokitalo. 5

Libraries matter. Susanne Ahlroth. 7

Libraries are vital meeting places. Anders Rydell. 8

The library as welfare generator. Brian Stephansen and Louise Eltved Krogsgård. 11

The new human landscapes of Iceland. Kristin R. Vilhjálmsdóttir. 12

Information literacy and health literacy. Sigrun Espelien Aasen. 16

The library plays an active part in issues of health care. 18Lisbeth Bjørn Hansen, Peter Thybo, Martin Lundsgaard-Leth

Reading, libraries and well-being. Pirjo Tuomi. 22

The library in an ecosophical perspective. Sveinung Nesheim. 25

The library and quality of life. Ragnar Audunson. 28

Edit rial

Content

Reading has many positive effects on a person’s quality of lifeand well-being. Page 22

The Women’s Story Circle in Reykjavik working on an art project. Page 12

A holistic perspective is valuable when decisions about thefuture of a rural library are taken. Page 25

Library of the Year award to Berg Library, a small library in arural community in Norway. Page 35

GET CONNECTED!Go to slq.nu and read all issues of SLQ and SPLQ

VIEWPOINT: May the force be with you. Elspeth Randelin. 30

Libraries are building a new collaboration. Pirjo Karppinen. 32

Public library opening hours 2016. Cecilia Ranemo. 34

Large award to a small library. Tertit Knudsen. 35

A national library strategy. Annika Hjerpe. 36

Democracy. Who cares? Helene Høyrup and Lars Konzack. 38

The world’s oldest freedom of print. Annika Hjerpe. 39

Spreading the values of freedom of information, thought and expression globally. Mark Weiler. 41

Community of cataloguers in Iceland. Magnhildur Magnúsdóttir. 42

Our century online. Kristina Hilden. 45

Scandinavian Shortcuts. Päivi Jokitalo. 46

Libraries and well-beingThis is a very special year for SLQ. All of 2016, Iceland will participate with articles and we are very happy to be able to offer our readers an Icelandicview! However, as you can read in Christina Jönsson Adrial’s editorial on the next page, we also have something tobe very unhappy about: This year is SLQ’s very last year. We will try to make the best of this special year by offeringyou interesting and informative articles.

This particular issue of SLQ is, among other things, about libraries and well-being. As you will see when you read ourarticles, libraries and well-being are certainly related.

Some of our co-workers that will participate in the IFLA conference this August will bring copies of this issue to bedistributed there so that new readers will get to read about Scandinavian libraries. We hope they will appreciate it asmuch as our regular readers and I want to send a Thank You to every single one of the Scandinavian IFLA-partici-pants that bring copies of SLQ in their luggage – all the way to Ohio.

I hope you will all enjoy reading this issue of SLQ. The next issue, NO 3 2016, will reach you in the beginning ofOctober.

Annika HjerpeEditor-in-chief

annika.hjerpe@kb.se

Annika HjerpePress and Communication OfficerPublic Programs Departmentational Library of Sweden

Cover photo: People and libraryNorden.org

Content

Christina JönssonAdrial

4 SLQ:1-2 2016

SWEDEN EDITORIAL

librarian’s task to actively impart knowledge of how to protectyour integrity in the digital environment that forms part of themedia and information awareness – known as “digital self-defence”.

Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.At my workplace, we have started by changing the internet statis-tics tool to one that does not track the individual user’s searchpatterns. We are also checking all the public computers to makesure that it is not possible to install any device that can be used togain access to other users’ information. A simple checklist is agood start for this. Hopefully, this will lead to many peoplefeeling secure and security is essential to our well-being.

Final edition of SLQOpenness and the universal right to education is something theScandinavian library ethos is based upon and an indirect reasonbehind the creation of the Scandinavian Library Quarterly (previ-ously Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly) almost 50 yearsago. The national library authorities wanted to spread the goodScandinavian example to other countries, setting about this bycreating an English-language publication. The same that you arenow holding in your hand, or have before you on the screen.

But the discussion is taking a new direction and as of the end ofthe year, the exchange will take place in other forums than SLQ.December 2016 will see the final edition of SLQ, the theme natu-rally being the future. Those wishing to study the past, in thespirit of openness, we have published every edition from 1968onwards on slq.nu. Maybe you will find that most things arefamiliar, forms and concepts change, but the core and tasks of thelibrary remain the same.

Christina Jönsson AdrialHead of Public Programs Department

National Library of Swedenchristina.jonsson.adrial@kb.se

The public libraries in Sweden – and undoubtedly many otherplaces – have shown moral courage and opened up for peoplefleeing. They have shown that they are the free zones theyshould be. How many other places can you think of where youcan go without having to buy something or having someoneask you why you are there?

Being able to get hold of information and express opinionswithout being monitored are democratic rights. Perhaps herein Scandinavia this is such a given right that we have becomenaive and do not pay attention to the fact that integrity issomething we must protect. Freedom of opinion and integritymust be constantly defended.

Search engines’ algorithms influence what we find. Trysearching for the same word at home on your own computerand then again at the library. The results will be different. Thealgorithms track our previous searches and adapt the result sowe end up in a filter bubble.

The fact that our searches are saved may be irritating for themajority of us, but can be dangerous for others. People livingin exile have a lot to lose if the authorities in their owncountry can monitor them electronically, as is the case forvulnerable children living in controlling families or indivi-duals living under threat.

The library must be available to all and therefore everybodymust feel secure in the library’s environment.

IFLA recommendationsThe International Library Manifesto (UNESCO/IFLA) statesthat libraries and information services shall protect each user’sright to integrity and confidentiality regarding the informa-tion that is sought or gathered and the resources used, bor-rowed, acquired or transferred.

In August 2015, the IFLA Statement on Privacy in theLibrary was issued. The recommendations do not simplytouch upon the library environment, they also concern the

Every now and then, we take a step back from our everydayassignments and become incredibly aware of the business wework in. Freedom of speech and freedom of opinion – that iswhat we work with. For me and many others, this has becomeeven clearer over recent years in a Europe with acts of terrorismand refugees. The world is closing in on us, ever present in ourdaily lives – and democratic principles are put to the test.

The library as a ‘free zone’

Päivi Jokitalo

The theme of the 2016 IFLA Congress,Connections, Collaboration and Commu-nity, is thus related to the library’s com-munal role in many ways. If the residentsare able to influence and participate in theplanning of the premises and services, it ismore likely that they will feel like thelibrary is their own and commit to itsfunctions. The sense of community increa-ses the feeling of security and promotesthe well-being of community membersthrough all of these processes.

It is also a question of observing andsurveying the needs of the local surroun-dings. People often think that libraryservices, and services in general, are moreimpartial if the same types of services areoffered to patrons in the same way. Onesize does not fit all, though, and thevarious obstacles for using the libraryshould be eliminated: language, senses,accessibility, attitudes.

This calls for knowledge and understan-ding of the patrons. It is a question of at-tainability, observing the needs of specialgroups and balancing the origins of diffe-rent target groups. When the libraryknows its local community, the conditionsfor increasing the well-being of thepatrons are favourable.

Patrons as partners in building the library In the designing of the Helsinki CentralLibrary, endeavours were made to create acommunity around the library in advance.

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Creating community around a librarylocated in the capital’s relatively anony-mous city centre is not the easiest endea-vour; usually the concept of community isassociated with smaller circles, but with apro-active approach, the project has pro-gressed well.

Working with patrons has involvednetworking, meetings, listening to youth,adults, civil activists and people in thefield of media. Pro-active budgeting wasalso experimented with in the projectwhich has helped to both implement newservices proposed by the patrons, such asstorybook birthday parties, and choosematerials in English to put in the library’scollection.

With help from the residentsCollaborative development has subse-quently taken place elsewhere as well. Oneof the present democracy pilot projects inthe City of Helsinki involves three muni-cipal actors: the library, adult educationcentre and youth services, which make upthe Maunulatalo cultural centre, a placewhere the premises and functions havebeen designed and events have been inno-vated by the area’s residents throughonline discussions and workshops.

Other extensive library projects havebeen executed in close contact withpatrons. The Dokk1 Mediaspace buildingin Aarhus, Denmark, is already a familiarplace to many. The name of the library

SLQ:1-2 2016

was chosen from as many as 1,250 sugges-tions, but the residents were invited totake part in the planning at a much earliertime.

In the beginning, pictures were gatheredonline from the residents to help withcreating ideas, children planned contentsand premises in workshops and the archi-tects’ designs were discussed with the resi-dents throughout the entire project.

Recently, the local high school studentsin Aarhus have produced chic advertisingvideos for the library as part of theirstudies. And, indeed, the locals have madethe building their own – one million visitswas reached already in March, 2016.

The rich chorus of experts to be heardConnections, collaboration and commu-nity are important concepts among pro-fessionals as well. Conferences among thelibrary directors in the capitals of theNordic countries have united Helsinki,Copenhagen, Oslo, Reykjavik and Stock-holm for years.

“We are really different as leaders andpeople, but we have plenty to talk about,”says Tuula Haavisto, director of the Hel-sinki City Library, about the group’smeetings.

Plans are being made for joint Nordicleadership training for the middle mana-gement of customer services. Taking ad-vantage of a peer network will surelypromote well-being and consequently in-

LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

Libraries create well-being through connections, collaborationand community. Collaboration between libraries, their connec-tions to other local actors and functioning as a meeting placein their own area strengthens the local community. The libraryalso facilitates networking among associations, organizationsand individual patrons.

Happy together

lioteksbladet magazine (3/2016) that she isafraid that democracy will be threatened ifthere is no library in the local area.

There is discussion in all of the Nordiccountries about the library’s societal re-sponsibility and democratic role: Howdoes the library provide opportunities forthe community to voice its various opi-nions and viewpoints, who are these op-portunities for, how can understanding bepromoted among the different groups andminorities in the community? The topic isdiscussed in this issue by both Anders Ry-dell of Sweden and Ragnar Audunson ofNorway who tells about the Place project.

How is well-being measured? When the connections in the communitywork and collaboration with the patronsruns smoothly, people in all likelihoodwill feel better; everyone has permissionto express their own thoughts and partici-pate in discussion, everyone has space inthe local library, in their own living envi-ronment.

But how does the library increase thewell-being and happiness of the patron orthe entire local community? How arethese effects measured, how are theydemonstrated?

The traditional meters alone are nolonger enough. When the population ishealthier and lives longer on both sides ofthe service counter, how do you knowhow much of it has to do with the library?Could this be the next theme and taskwhereby connections, collaboration andcommunity will help us move forward?

Päivi Jokitalo Freelance Library Specialist

pjokitalo@gmail.com

6 SLQ:1-2 2016

fluence the rest of the staff and in the endthe patrons.

The social media offers handy tools forengaging in community and collabora-tion. When the previous Library Act inFinland was compiled in the 1990s, theMinistry actively listened to the voices ofthe field, but e-mail, public hearings anddiscussion forums were slower and moreawkward tools than Facebook, Twitter orInstagram.

In the present reform work, workshopshave been utilized but also the opportuni-ties offered by social media to some ex-tent. The strategy work has been a swifterprocess than the reform of the act. Thenational library strategy in Sweden isbeing promoted through discussions on,for example, Facebook in a group createdfor the purpose.

Erik Fichtelius and his partners regularlypost statements, themes and thoughts thateveryone interested can comment on.Annika Hjerpe, editor of SLQ, disclosesmore about the phases of the library stra-tegy in her article. At best, a communitywill form around the topic in the networkalso, the discussions of which willguarantee that more viewpoints will beseen, the regional perspective will bebrought into the open and libraries ofdifferent sizes will be able to participate.

Tools for the individual’s well-being The core process in the newest processoverview of the education department inKokkola in Finland is called Supportinglifelong education and well-being. Thelibrary promotes the well-being of theresidents in many ways through colla-boration with not only schools butcultural services too.

Culturepath is one form of collaboration

for school children in Finland, and inmany places it is a part of the official cur-riculum. Through Culturepath, schoolchildren can attend music events and visitmuseums and libraries. Learning goalsand well-being are often achieved in thesame way.

There is concrete collaboration withathletics departments as well. In manyNordic localities, the library also loanssports equipment: kettlebells, balanceboards, dumbbells, snowshoes and Nordicwalking sticks. You can purchase yourown once you are sure the equipment issuitable for you. Elsewhere in this issue,Sigrun Espelien Aasen writes about therole of public libraries as suppliers ofinformation on health and promotors ofhealth in Norway.

Above all, the library promotes mentalwell-being through the collections, events,knowledge and adventures it offers.Although art, or the library as a mediatorof it, is not just a cog in the machine ofwell-being; literature also offers emotionsand relaxation, which promote well-being.

Whatever the reader’s intention may be,doing something you like usually makesyou feel good. Pirjo Tuomi of the OuluUniversity of Applied Sciences in Finlandwrites of the beneficial impact reading hason people.

A happy community? Swedish Minister of Culture and Demo-cracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke, is worried aboutthe closing down of local libraries. Libra-ries have the role of supporting demo-cracy and civil society as long as no one isleft outside; rather, everyone feels wel-come in the library and community. Alibrary for all – peace in the country? TheMinister states in an interview for the Bib-

The Öresund/Øresund Link is a bridgeand tunnel connecting Sweden andDenmark. Since it opened in 2000 it hascontributed to increased collaborationbetween the two cities Copenhagen inDenmark and Malmö in Sweden and thetwo cities are part of the community ofthe Öresund/ Øresund area. Photo: NASA/Public domain

Susanne Ahlroth

7SLQ:1-2 2016

immigrants through providing guidelinesand improving staff competence andtools.

It is a question of remembering that asy-lum-seekers and immigrants aren’t justthe receiving party. They have a lot to offerin the way of language, culture and know-ledge. At the same time, the new arrivalsare prospective new library users. Accor-ding to an article in the Swedish news-paper Norrköpings Tidningar, visitors toNorrköping’s city library increased lastyear by 45 percent. The new arrivalsaccount for a significant amount of theincrease, they have found their way to thelibrary. They say they can connect theirmobile phones and computers here andestablish a lifeline to Syria, Afghanistan,Somalia and other places. They visitlanguage cafés and borrow grammarbooks and driver’s ed books. The driver’seducation book in Arabic is said to beamong the top three most borrowedbooks.

Libraries a part of the paradiseEven the Iraqi journalist and immigrantReband Khoshnaw, who spoke at thelibrary directors’ meeting in Tampere,testified as to how happy he became when,as a new arrival to Finland, he found Se-ven Brothers by Alexis Kivi and the folkepic Kalevala in Arabic at the library, andthat he felt that, by reading them, he couldbetter understand the spirit of the Finnishpeople. Khoshnaw thus concluded his in-sightful speech with a tribute to the libra-ries:

“According to me you have the mostbeautiful and perfect libraries here inFinland! Every time I speak with Finnishpeople, I repeat that your country, Fin-

land, is like a paradise. And today I saythat also your libraries keep that standard.Libraries in this country are a part of thisparadise! Now I feel happy for my chil-dren to grow up with the Finnish libraries,and feel sad because I wasn’t lucky enoughto have that chance myself.”

Last year a record number of refugeessought asylum in Finland. Of those, 35-40percent are expected to be granted a resi-dence permit and move to some munici-pality in the country. Anyone who maydoubt the value of investing in services forthem, may consider the fact that behindevery statistic there is a person with ahistory and a future. What each and everyone of us do, both privately and professio-nally, plays a role in this.

Susanne AhlrothSenior Adviser

Regional State Administrative AgenciesFinland

FINLAND LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

Successful integration prevents marginali-zation, which can lead to both personaland social problems. New and old resi-dents who have the opportunity to meetalso get to know and understand eachother better. With new friends andcontacts, it is easier to learn the language,find a job, participate and understandrules and values. Libraries offer free accessto material, the internet, computers andspace to meet. By arranging languagecafés, story hours in different languages,homework help, library bus visits torefugee reception centres etc., librariesalso shoulder their responsibility to con-tribute to successful integration.

Books, IT, language and meeting peopleThe large number of asylum seekers havecaused libraries in many municipalities tore-evaluate their collections, services, andtheir sufficiency. According to a studydone in fall of 2015 by the Stockholmcounty regional library, newly-arrivedrefugees come to the library primarily toborrow books, take advantage of ITservices, for language development, toread, meet with other visitors and staff, toseek help with different tasks and to obtainaccess to information in their own lan-guage about the society.

In the same study, staff felt that there wasa lack of personnel with specialized skills,for example, language skills. There was adesire to develop language support, formsof discussion and cooperation withexternal actors. Staff also wanted guide-lines and standardized information forasylum-seekers. It is also here that I seelibrary management’s most important taskin integration work: to enable people skillsparticularly suited to asylum-seekers and

Libraries matterAt the beginning of the year, I arranged a meeting for librarydirectors in Tampere, Finland. The title of the seminar was Inte-gration and multiculturalism – do libraries matter? It was, ofcourse, a rhetorical question, if not also perhaps slightly provo-cative, because libraries clearly play a role.

The study by the Stockholm country regional library,Biblioteket hjälper mig att komma in i samhället, canbe downloaded at www.regionbiblioteket.se.The article referred to in Norrköpings Tidningar,“Rekordökning på stadsbiblioteket”, was published atwww.nt.se on 16.1.2016.

This article is a slightly reworked version of a columnin Bibban, the journal of Finland’s Swedish LibraryAssociation, 2016:1. www.biblioteken.fi/sv/biblioteks-branschen/Bibban

Libraries are vital meeting places

written in its place, now people could startgathering knowledge instead.

The Umayyad library in Cordoba is saidto have had upwards of 400,000 books –nothing even came close to that in Chri-stian Europe.

Libraries became central meeting places,the equivalent of the ancient Greek Agora(square), for the political, philosophicaland scientific conversations of the period.But they also served as bridges betweencultures, where ancient philosophy, Is-lamic science and Indian literature met.

Libraries came to play a particularlyimportant role for political and religiousminorities. Not least for the SephardicJews, who were expelled from Spain andPortugal from the late 1400s, when thepeninsula was recaptured by Christianrulers. The Sephardic Jews were largelythe heirs and co-creators of the medievalIslamic high culture – it was often Jewswho did the translations from Latin andGreek into Arabic.

Vital existential meeting placesThe Sephardic Jews carried this culture ofeducation both to the east and west. In theEastern Mediterranean, Saloníki (nowThessaloniki) became a Sephardic learn-ing centre, famous for its libraries, print-ing houses and schools. In Western Eu-rope, many settled down in Amsterdam,which with the help of the Sephardic refu-

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A group of villagers took 4,700 booksfrom the shelves to a “secret hiding place”.The politicians in Lindesberg Municipa-lity had decided that the residents ofRamsberg did not need their own library.The leaders of the municipality thoughtthat a mobile library, which was to stop inRamsberg twice a month, was sufficient.

The residents of Ramsberg did not agree,and they protested about the closure atlength. Instead of seeing their books givenaway, distributed to other libraries anddiscarded, as was the plan, they decided totake action. “The books will not leave hereuntil we know that we can keep ourlibrary!” one of the initiators told SverigesRadio.

Not unique to SwedenThe library rebellion in the tiny village ofRamsberg, which has about 250 inhabi-tants, is also significant from a wider per-spective. In recent decades, hundreds oflibraries and local branches in Swedenhave closed. Most have died a silent death.Over half of Swedish school children to-day lack a staffed library.

This trend is hardly unique to Sweden.When I visited one of Germany’s largestpublic libraries in Berlin last year, anemployee explained that a large part of thelibrarian’s work would now be replaced bymachines, which would manage the cata-loguing of books. Digitisation and e-

books mean that libraries face an evenbigger shift. There is a clear risk that e-books will be used as an argument to closemore libraries. But thinking that mobilelibraries and e-books can replace physicallibraries builds on a very simplistic view ofwhat a library actually is. What the protes-ters in Ramsberg mourned was not prima-rily the loss of the local book supply butthe library as “an important meeting pla-ce” for society.

Library history as central meeting placesLimiting the role of libraries to lendingstations is first and foremost ahistorical.In the long history of libraries, lending is amodern invention. The role of the libraryas a meeting place was much more impor-tant, and is often overlooked today. Andabove all, libraries played a central role inintegration and identity formation.

The first major libraries in Europe weremade possible by a new technique thatspread from China through the Muslimworld to the caliphate on the IberianPeninsula just before the 11th century: theuse of paper. Paper, which was more du-rable than the fragile papyrus and cheaperthan parchment, was what made the Mus-lim translation movement possible, wheremany of the ancient works were saved forposterity.

Previously, old text on parchment wasoften rubbed out so that new text could be

Last autumn, the books in the library inRamsberg, a small community innorthern Västmanland, disappeared! Anders Rydell

SWEDEN LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

9

of their heart, as well as their centre foridentity, language and history.

Already in the 1930s, the Nazis hadlooted many of the public libraries in Ger-many, which were branded as “literarybrothels”.

In Sweden, the public, parish andworkers’ libraries that emerged in the1800s became a cornerstone in the broadeducational project that took Swedenfrom a poor agricultural nation to aleading industrial nation.

Digitisation is no substitute for meetingsToday we are going through another shift,the digital shift. And the question iswhether libraries are actually necessarywhen we have the internet? Couldn’thundreds of branches be replaced by

gees would become “Europe’s printinghouse”.

For these refugees, libraries became vitalexistential meeting places, which were toplay a dual role. Partly in preserving theirunique culture – but also as a catalyst forintegration into the new society linguisti-cally. With the help of libraries a newidentity was formed, which both pre-served their culture and integrated thenew era.

Refugees, immigrants and educationLibraries came to play a similar role foranother group of refugees. In the 1800s,Paris became the capital of several groupsof political refugees from the East. One ofthe first groups was the nationless Poles.For nearly a century, the free Polish litera-

SLQ:1-2 2016

ture and culture has lived on at the Bibli-othèque Polonaise in Paris.

Another fascinating emigrant librarycame to have the same significance for theRussian culture – the Turgenjevbiblioteketwhich was founded in 1875. Up to 1917,the library was the natural meeting placefor the period’s exiled revolutionary Rus-sians. Lenin worked as a librarian there fora while. After the Russian revolution thelibrary was inherited by white Russianrefugees: aristocrats, the bourgeois, wri-ters and journalists.

It was these libraries in Amsterdam,Paris, Thessaloniki and other locationsthat became some of the first victims ofNazi looting commands during the war.By cordoning off, looting and dispersingthe libraries they deprived these cultures

A book from the RosenthalianaLibrary in Amsterdam, whichwas plundered by the Nazisand taken to the Institute forStudy of the Jewish Questionin Frankfurt. Some time duringbattle, at the end of the war, itwas hit by a bullet, probablyfrom an allied soldier.

important as they were to the SephardicJews who were forced to flee in the 1500s,or the Poles who sought refuge in Francein the 1800s.

It is through meeting the literature, butabove all, meeting other people, that anew identity can be formed. Libraries of-fer a completely essential key for thislanguage. This could never be replaced bya website or a lending machine. This iswhy we need these meeting places morethan ever today. The inhabitants of Rams-berg are right to resist, a library is morethan just books.

Text and photo: Anders Rydell

Anders Rydel is an author and a journalist. He isthe Head of Culture at Hallpressen and author ofThe Book Thieves. The Nazi Looting of Europe’sLibraries and the Present Day Race to Return a

Literary Inheritance (Penguin Random House).

websites that lend e-books? And couldn’tlibrarians be replaced by algorithms?

This type of perspective is based not onlyon a simplistic view of what a library is,but also on a simplistic view of “digitisa-tion”. The internet and social media do notreplace the physical public sphere, butcomplement it. Rather, digitisation has re-inforced the importance of physical spaceand meetings – the need to be in a now.

Last year, a somewhat confused debatein Sweden’s culture pages raged, aboutlibraries becoming the haunt of “unrulyyouths”, especially in the suburbs. Youcould also choose to see this developmentas an expression of our increasinglylimited public sphere. The library is aunique place, one of the few areas where asecurity company does not drive youaway if you don’t buy anything. Whereyou are a citizen (an almost forgottenword today), not a consumer.

Building intercultural bridgesThe library as a literary public sphere iseven more important in a time whenmany refugees are coming to Sweden.Since the autumn of 2015, when the largerefugee wave swept over Europe, moreand more Swedish libraries assumed therole of integration bridges.

70 people go to Motala library’s Lan-guage Café every week. Eksjö library haspartnered with the Red Cross and pro-vides homework help for newcomers andarranges a book club for SFI students.Norrköping City library saw the numberof visitors increase by 45 percent in 2015,and according to the library, new arrivalsaccount for a large percentage of theincrease.

When working at their best, librariescan serve as cultural and linguistic brid-ges, as they have done for thousands ofyears. For today’s refugees, they are just as

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Left: The Ets Haim Library inAmsterdam was plunderedduring the war.

Right: Boxes of archive mate-rial stolen by the Nazis fromthe Institute of Social Historyin Amsterdam. After the war,these boxes were taken toStalin’s secret archive inMoscow. They were returnedat the end of 2000.

DENMARK LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

Brian Stephansen and Louise Eltved Krogsgård

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public library is a unique arena for jointcreative processes and that by unitingvarious players, new welfare solutions canbe worked out without extra costs. Simplyby using the collective resources acrossborders.

In this way, Småt brændbart defines anew role for public libraries in fringeareas: Based on culture, learning andidentity, the libraries have strategicallyand purposefully placed themselves at theforefront as welfare facilitators and pro-blem solvers in relation to municipal chal-lenges, initiatives and strategies, e.g. in the

areas of mentalhealth and socialchallenges.

Brian Stephansen and Louise Eltved Krogsgård

Library ConsultantsBrønderslev Library

The project Småt brændbart (‘smallcombustible’) links five of these fringemunicipalities in Jutland, Ringkøbing-Skjern, Morsø, Aabenraa, Vesthimmer-land and Brønderslev – in a project wherethe libraries are being developed as a kindof welfare institution.

Via the project, the five libraries havefacilitated joint creative processes thatbring together citizens and municipalplayers to work on new welfare solutions.The project gets financial support fromthe Danish Agency for Culture and Pa-laces and runs over two years.

New library wellfare solutionsIt is obvious that the present public wel-fare models are crying out for new solu-tions. The unique aspect of the project isthat Småt brændbart places the five libra-ries as welfare generators.

In the fringe areas, with a rapidly grow-ing group of older people and fewer tax-payers, welfare solutions have to be recon-sidered. This calls for social innovation,co-creation, collaboration.

Naturally, there are nuances in the diffe-rent approaches, but the point remains thesame: Together we can achieve more, andit is a question of thinking of solutionsacross the municipality.

The project is particularly important asan example of how libraries can tackle therole of welfare operators.

Focus on segmentsBased on the Danish library initiativeTænketanken Fremtidens Bibliotekers’(The think tank Future Libraries) segmentstudy from 2014, the project has so farbeen focusing on the target group seniorsand parents over 30.

With the help from personas and obser-vations, the project has formulated thesenior target group’s particular fringecharacteristics: He is male and in the riskzone as regards loneliness and healthproblems. Another challenge in the fringeareas is marginalized families. Many pa-rents are poorlyeducated, econo-mically challen-ged and the groupis characterized byhigh unemploy-ment.

All five librarieshave conductedmerging proces-ses with for ex-ample care con-sultants, familyconsultants, asso-ciations and fire balls. The result is fiveprojects that make new collaborationspossible.

Facilitating wellfare without extra costsThe results of the project show that the

Like the rest of the world, Denmark is experiencing a markedcentralization that concentrates the population around thelargest cities. This results in a divided Denmark, where the ruralareas are being depopulated, work places close down, youngpeople move to the cities and the tax base is diminishing.

The library aswelfare generator

The aim of the project is that the

library must contribute tomerging the existing effortsand policies within thearea, which requires thelibrary to be out-reachingand facilitating.

“

SLQ:1-2 201612

ICELAND LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

The new human landscapes of IcelandAs the world looks today – and maybe has done always – the humanlandscapes are in a constant state of change. The movement ofpeople and the changes in the ‘landscapes’ is a fact that has to beconsidered in social, educational and cultural areas and servicesprovided in society.

Kristín R.Vilhjálmsdóttir

A new map of ReykjavikPhoto: Kristín Hauksdóttir

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Over the past 15 years the number ofpeople, from all over the world living inIceland, has increased a lot.

Today about 12.5 percent of the citizensin Reykjavik are immigrants. The largestgroups are from Poland, Lithuania and thePhilippines. When the landscapes change,we have to renew our maps. Reykjavik Ci-ty Library has been running several inter-cultural programmes the last eight yearsand, within these projects, tried to put aneffort into creating ties between people,cultures and languages represented in thecapital of Iceland. All the projects are builton collaboration with partners in society.

Intercultural projects The Reykjavik City Library began itsintercultural activities in 2008 as pilotprojects by hiring the author of this articleas project manager. The projects are now

Cooperation partnersThe library puts an emphasis on coope-rating with schools, educational, culturalas well as social institutions, NGOs andindividuals from all over the world livingin Reykjavik. Among our partners are; The Universityof Iceland, The Department of Educationand Leisure of Reykjavik, The VigdísFinnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Lan-guages, The Red Cross, The HumanRights Office of Reykjavik, languageschools and the two NGOs Mother Ton-gue Association and W.O.M.E.N inIceland. At Reykjavik City Library we usethe IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural LibraryManifesto as a guideline in the multicultu-ral projects. The objective of our work isto:• Encourage social integration, under-

standing and respect.

all an integrated part of inter- and multi-culturalism in Reykjavik, in the cultural,social and educational field, and have alsobeen introduced, and in some cases trans-ferred, to other countries such as Belgium,the Czech Republic, Spain, Canada,Greece and Denmark.

The main idea behind the work is thatindividuals or groups should be seen in awide context, rather than as an icon forone nationality or another and that theprojects should appeal to local people aswell as global people. Desiring to contri-bute to a vibrant multicultural society andthe development of intercultural compe-tence, the target group is both Icelandersand world citizens living in Iceland.

The goal is to promote awareness of thepositive values of cultural and linguisticdiversity – values that can contribute todialogue and coexistence in society.

Kaffitár artwork made by TheWomen’s Story Circle. Kaffitár is one of the biggest coffee companies in Iceland.Photo: Kristín R. Vilhjálmsdóttir

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coffee companies in Iceland, who approa-ched us subsequently and asked whetherThe Women’s Story Circle would be inte-rested in making a painting, in the samespirit as this one, to be used as the newbranding and logo for the company.

From all over the worldThis lead to a very fruitful cooperationresulting in shedding light on how diversebackgrounds are now a vibrant part ofIceland’s cultural landscapes. A new mapof Iceland is a painting created by 35women from all over the world. The artwork was unveiled at The National Mu-seum by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, formerpresident of Iceland, in the spring 2014and has since then not only featured oncoffee and chocolate packages, in super-markets and as part of the interiors of thecafés, but also cars are driving around co-vered in the art work.

In addition, the symbols are exhibited onthe walls of the cafés with a photo of thewomen behind it and a short description,in Icelandic and their mother tongue, oftheir contribution to this colourful andlively version of Iceland. Everybody seemsto adore what visually came out of thiswarm and creative process – but also thestory behind its existence. We embracethat the idea also has reached foreign lati-tudes as A new map of Greece is now beingpainted by students from the AristotleUniversity of Thessaloniki in the samespirit as the Icelandic map.

• Introduce Icelandic society to immi-grants – and vice versa – through cultural and social encounters.

• Enhance immigrants’ language skills in Icelandic.

• Enhance awareness of linguistic diver-sity and intercultural competence among citizens.

• Encourage an open dialogue in society.• Make connections between citizens

through culture and the arts.• Create an informative and dynamic

forum of communication for diverse groups in society.

• Break down isolation and encourage compassion towards others.

• Make a visit to the library an integral part of the daily lives of immigrants.

The new map of IcelandHow do we ensure making space foreverybody on the map and making aframework where the story of individualsgets to bloom?

One of the concrete projects created as atool to fulfil the goals above is TheWomen’s Story Circle, a forum where wo-men from everywhere exchange stories,experiences and cultural backgrounds andtake part in creative workshops as well ascultural visits and excursions. It’s open toall women.

Within the project three artworks havebeen created. They are now icons of mul-ticulturalism and intercultural dialogue inIceland. A creative writing workshop, aclown course and a drama course resul-

ting in a multilingual performance havealso been among the projects. The lan-guage of communication is mainly Ice-landic, but women participating also com-municate in all kind of languages.

The Women’s Story Circle was founded inNovember 2008 and since then severalhundred women, both Icelandic and non-Icelandic, have been participating in theprogramme – and new ones keep coming.The intention is to connect women withone another and to create a platform fornetworks and friendships. The project is acooperation between the library andW.O.M.E.N in Iceland, an NGO whosegoal is to unite, express and address theinterests and issues of women of foreignorigin living in Iceland.

Creating a new map of IcelandTwo of the three art works the group hascreated were made by using the Abori-ginal method of painting with dots. Bothpaintings are maps, one of Reykjavik andthe other of Iceland. What makes thesepaintings unique is the fact that thewomen have personalized the maps withsymbols that are of significance to theirlives, be that a connection to their ownpersonal stories, their country of origin,Iceland or another place in the worldimportant to them.

The map of Reykjavik was made in 2011and is located in the Reykjavik City Hallwhere it has received quite a lot of atten-tion from people passing by. It also caughtthe attention of Kaffitár, one of the biggest

Art and clowning in The Women's Story Circle.Photo: Kristín R. Vilhjálmsdóttir

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Intercultural encountersThe Reykjavik City Library assists teachersand students in organising interculturalencounters in primary schools, elementaryschools and colleges. The project has beendeveloped as part of teaching in Denmarkand Iceland the last 15 years and is apractical tool to embrace diversity andenhance intercultural competence in theeducational system.

The idea is to promote mutual respectand understanding between people in aconcrete way and through different meansof expression. Students, parents and staffmembers get an opportunity to introducetheir personal culture, language(s) and in-terests in a lively way within an encoura-ging environment. Everyone involvedshould be received with acknowledgement.

The project is part of the multiculturalpolicy of the Department of Education ofReykjavik and has been implemented inmany schools. It now has its own home-page with guidelines for teachers www.menningarmot.is and is getting more andmore suistainable in all school grades.Some comments in English from teachersand headmasters are to be found here:http://borgarbokasafn.is/node/1043

Café Lingua – living languagesThe projects is a platform for those whowant to enhance their language skills(Icelandic or other languages), a place tochat and communicate in various langu-ages as well as a gateway into differentcultures. One of the goals is to activate the

languages that have found their way toIceland, enriching life and culture, while atthe same time to give immigrants theoption to express themselves in Icelandicby introducing their mother tongue toother citizens.

The linguistic events are held in differentplaces around the city and aim to leteveryone interested contribute to thelinguistic landscape of Reykjavik. Theunveiling of the world languages spoken inIceland by immigrants seems to be a suc-cessful way of promoting a positive aware-ness of linguistic diversity. Especially thespeed date a language model which wehave implemented at the University of Ice-land has built bridges between multilin-gual students and the Icelandic studentsstu-dying languages.

The wide range of partners in thisproject, such as The Department ofForeign Languages and Icelandic as a se-cond language at the University of Iceland,The Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute offoreign Languages and several NGOs, haveinfluenced the expanding. The Café Lingua– living languages of the Reykjavik CityLibrary is now being implemented in theCzech Republic as a result of Europeangrants.

Kristín R. Vilhjálmsdóttir Intercultural Project Manager

Reykjavik City Librarykristin.r.vilhjalmsdottir@reykjavik.is

Close-up of the Kaffitár artworkPhoto: Kristín R. Vilhjálmsdóttir

• Information about all the multicultural projects: http://borgarbokasafn.is/en/ content/multicultural-projectsVarious multicultural/multilingual events through the year:

• “Reykjavik Safari”, a guided walk in mul-tiple languages where immigrants introduce other immigrants to cultural life of Reykjavik in their mother tongue.

• Story telling in different languages, those interested can arrange public story telling in their mother tongue at the library.

• “Children teach children languages” pro-grammes where children introduce their mother tongue to others in a fun way.

• A celebration of the International Mother Language Day in February and The Euro-pean Day of Languages in September.

THE MULTICULTURAL PROJECTS

Intercultural encounter - Flying Carpet.Photo: Kristín R. Vilhjálmsdóttir

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Greater inter-ministerial library coopera-tion to boost information literacy inhealth and medicine and also to enhancethe general public’s understanding ofhealth in cooperation with municipalhealthcare professionals will probablymake libraries an even more attractivepriority area for the authorities.

Libraries and community health servicesHealthcare professionals employed bylocal and county authorities requirelibrary services that can assist them inupdating their professional skills, and theordinary member of the public needs help

to find relevant, high-quality health infor-mation. Public libraries seem to be theobvious choice to play the role of thelibrary of the municipal primary healthservices.

There are several reasons why publiclibraries are suited to such a role. Theyhave always promoted the education ofthe general public and given their usersfree access to the prime sources of know-ledge. They can be found in all municipa-lities, the general public place great trustin them and librarians have a high level ofinformation literacy.

The new Public Libraries Act places

emphasis on the library’s role as a meetingplace and arena for public discussions anddebates, thus endorsing the idea of deve-loping the libraries as a meeting place in ahealth-related context.

Promotes public health projectThe website Helsebiblioteket.no is a pub-licly funded medical knowledge servicethat gives healthcare professionals freeaccess to online, high-quality health infor-mation. Many of the resources offered areavailable to everyone in Norway, givingpatients and their family access to theworld’s leading medical reference works.

The website offers a good alternative tothe low-quality information that prolife-rates on the Internet, and it is vital that thepublic libraries are aware of the range ofopportunities it offers. In order to conveythis most effectively, we consider it essen-tial to bring the libraries on board.

The goal of The public library promotespublic health project has been to bolsterthe libraries’ role as a provider of and anarena for quality-assured health informa-tion to both healthcare professionals inthe municipal health service and thepopulation at large.

The process started when Helsebiblio-teket.no contacted the county libraries inNordland, Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag to explore interest in holding

Information literacy and health literacy A challenge for librarians?

In Norway there is little mention of health information in thepublic libraries’ strategy plans and there is little mention ofpublic libraries in the strategy plans of the health authorities.

NORWAY LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

Health information atthe Nordland fylkesbib-liotek. Photo: Nordlandfylkesbibliotek

Sigrun EspelienAasen

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local seminars on key online healthresources and in including lectures byexperts on mental health in order to createinterest and encourage healthcare profes-sionals to participate together with libra-rians.

The idea was well received, and an appli-cation for project funding was submittedto the National Library of Norway, whichsupported the project. Nordland countylibrary took on the role of project ownerand Helsebiblioteket.no had the role ofproject manager.

It was vital to make the task straightfo-rward and feasible. As project manager,Helsebiblioteket.no took responsibility forthe subject content, and the county libra-ries were in charge of the events and mar-keting. The events consisted of:• Lectures on the key online health

resources for librarians and healthcare professionals

• Lectures by experts on mental health aimed at healthcare professionals and librarians

• Open evening lectures by expert on mental health, for the general public.

ImplementationSix events were held: in Trondheim,Stjørdal, Bodø, Namsos, Mo i Rana andTrondheim. The events were marketedthrough the county authorities’ websites,email, telephone, social media andposters. Healthcare professionals playedan active role.

Twelve two-hour lectures were held. Sixlectures – Health information you canaccess freely online – dealt with websitesproviding health-related knowledge:

having a critical approach to sources iscrucial.

Well-written fiction, related to mentalhealth if possible, can provide patients andtheir families with insight, understandingand recognition, and may have a positiveimpact on those with health problems.Both subject literature and fiction consti-tute a resource in public health work.

Unifying meeting arenasLibraries profit from building networks,since this strengthens their position andtheir competence. Throughout the projectwe held constructive, interdisciplinarymeetings that paved the way for closercooperation in the future between libra-ries and healthcare professionals.

The project showed us that libraries canfunction as unifying meeting arenas fordifferent groups of healthcare professio-nals. Every municipality has many diffe-rent health actors that due to organizati-onal variations do not necessarily havecommon professional arenas. We are ofthe opinion that bringing together actorsin this way opens for further collaborationwith the library sector.

So why not invest in this?

Sigrun Espelien AasenResearch Librarian

at the Norwegian Electronic Health LibrarySigrunEspelien.Aasen@fhi.no

Photo: Nordland fylkesbibliotek

Kunnskapssenteret.no, Helsebiblioteket.no, Helsenorge.no and MedlinePlus.gov.In addition, the termbase MeSH (MedicalSubject Headings) in Norwegian andEnglish was presented. This is a useful toolfor conceptual understanding, and forachieving relevant search hits in centraldatabases.

Three lectures were entitled Seriouspersonality disorders. Antisocial, border-line and schizoid personality disorderswere presented, with emphasis on thecombination of these. Ways of approa-ching people with these personality disor-ders were discussed.

Three open lectures on Mental health,personality and a good life were held forthe general public in the evening. Localperformers provided music and drama asa background for the lectures.

Suitable premises with well-functioningtechnical equipment were vital to thequality of the events. Altogether 582people participated, 282 during the dayand 300 in the evening. People enjoyed theevents, and particularly appreciated beingable to attend free lectures locally byprofessional experts. The diversity of par-ticipants reflected the large demand forsuch events.

Subject literature and fictionThe project was successful and the colla-boration worked well. We, organizers andparticipants, believe that this type of initi-ative can boost the library as a resource forhealthcare professionals as well as for thegeneral public who are given the opportu-nity to learn more about health. Beingaware of the quality of information and

“Information literacy = the ability to recognizewhen information is needed and to locate,evaluate, and use the needed informationeffectively.” “Health literacy = degree to which individualshave the capacity to obtain, process, andunderstand basic health information andservices needed to make appropriate healthdecisions.” Definitions are from MeSH (Medical SubjectHeadings), the National Library of Medicine’scontrolled vocabulary thesaurus.

DEFINITIONS OF LITERACY

Daytime seminar atNordland fylkesbibli-otek Photo: Nordlandfylkesbibliotek

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The library plays an active part inissues of health care

18

DENMARK LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

Lisbeth Bjørn Hansen, Peter Thybo and Martin Lundsgaard-Leth

Phot

o: T

he R

eade

r Org

anis

atio

n UK

Can the library contribute to public health apart from providingknowledge? Based on a wider health concept, public healthservices and the library in Ikast-Brande municipality areworking together on creating increased quality of life andmental health for mentally vulnerable youngsters and adults.

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special qualifications are needed for parti-cipating in a reading group, everybodycan join in no matter background, age,gender and education.

A typical reading hourThe reading guide brings a copy of thetexts for each member of the group. Thetext usually consists of a short story andpossibly a poem. The guide is not an in-structor, but a guide who may help to me-diate the text by way of opening and trig-gering questions. The text is read aloud inturn with breaks along the way. Thebreaks offer a chance of discussion aboutthe text and to reflect on the content.

One member might have a question orsomebody was reminded of somethingparticular during the reading. The plotand theme of the text are discussed in thegroup, and the members are invited toshare their expectations as to what willhappen in the story. Then the reading isresumed.

In this way the reading varies betweenreading aloud and discussion. This leavestime for contemplation and personalinsight and to share your thoughts andinterpretations of the text. Basically, thereis no correct answer – anything that thestory causes the participants to thinkabout or feel, may be the object of discus-sion.

Ikast-Brande municipality is a municipa-lity in central Jutland with 40,798 inhabi-tants. For several years, the municipalityhas been focusing on the possibilities of alinkage of culture and health – an initia-tive that forms part of the municipality’svisions.

Both parties work on the basic premisethat the library disseminates learning,experience and cultural activity and thepublic health sector is in charge of treat-ment, mental health promotion and theprevention of illness. Nevertheless, thetwo municipal sections are basicallyengaged in the same cause – to contributeto the experiences, quality of life and well-being of each individual citizen.

When the core issue moves from prima-rily focusing on physical health to alsoincluding mental and social health, i.e. thewhole human being, the library as culturalinstitution has a lot to offer.

By combining the library’s core service,which is interplay with citizens and medi-ation of knowledge and culture, with ourpartners’ health professional core service,the citizens are offered more possibilitiesof being included in meaningful socialcontexts and thereby the chance to formnew networks. In the long term, these net-works can contribute to the citizens’physical, mental and social health.

Combining culture and health The starting point for the collaboration isthe wider health conception based on thesalutogenic research and perception ofhealth and well-being (see fact box).Thesalutogenic perception stresses an aware-ness of protective factors, rather than themore traditional risk factors, for mentalhealth and psychological power of resis-tance.

With this in mind, Ikast-Brande Libraryand the health sector see a potential for a

combination between culture and healthand a chance to collaborate on increasingmentally vulnerable citizens’ generalquality of life and offer them new tools forreflecting on their life situation – and inthe end become better at managing theirown lives.

The means to reach this goal, has i.a.been by practising the reading methodGuided community reading. In 2011 twolibrarians at Ikast-Brande Library quali-fied at the Reading Association as readingguides in the method. The foundation wasnow laid for contact to the social-psychia-tric departments with a view to readingsessions with mentally vulnerable people.

Everyone can participateThe method Guided community reading isbased on the idea of literature as a possibi-lity for communal activity. The partici-pants in a reading group do not read thetexts before a meeting of the group. At themeeting, the reading guide reads thechosen text aloud. This method encou-rages you to share the initial wonder andenthusiasm that might evolve when youread a text for the first time.

The method means that everybody canparticipate, e.g. people with reading disa-bilities, blind people, mentally vulnerablepeople, people with limited capacity ofconcentration et cetera. No preparation or

Salutogenesis (salute = health; genesis =cause of) is developed by professor ofmedical sociology Aaron Antonovsky (1923-1994).

Salutogenesis differentiates betweenhealth (whether you are healthy or unhe-althy) and mental health (a feeling of cohe-rence in life creates mental power of resi-stance).

SALUTOGENESIS

The feeling of coherence is developedthrough various learning processes, whichresults in a strong sense of meaningfulnessand comprehensibility in life, as well as abelief in being able to handle demands andliabilities. This differentiation means forexample that one can be sick and healthy atthe same time – or healthy and mentallyunhealthy

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For vulnerable groups Mediation of the story creates a sense ofcommunity and personal presence,because all the participants listen to thestory together. Through the conversa-tions, the participants are able to put indi-vidual problems in a meaningful perspec-tive and perspectivate their personal lives.According to the salutogenetic theoryparticipation, dialogue and networksinspire the participants’ motivation tohandle and work on their own life situa-tion and provide them with tools formastering their own lives.

When the initiative was launched fiveyears ago, contact was established to asocial-psychiatric drop-in centre. Thedrop-in centre The Blue Café, which is alocal government offer to mentally vulne-rable people and people with mentaldisorders, held a total of 12 reading hours.Up until today, the offer has regularlybeen extended to include more targetgroups and new areas, for example tar-geted offers such as:

• Citizens with stress, anxiety and depression in the local authority job centre

• Citizens with the need for temporary care and treatment at the local autho-rity rehabilitation centre

• Young people under 25, who are unableto complete a youth education pro- gramme and have been offered Specially organized Teaching for the Young

• Citizens with anxiety, stress and depression at Café Laicos, a social-psychiatric centre.

• Elderly people with dementia at the residential home Brandlundparken.

Experiences from reading hours Common to the different target groups isthat each has expressed great satisfactionwith the reading hours. The participantshave experienced a personal space in asafe atmosphere. The reading hours havehelped to increase the participants’ self-esteem and self-understanding.

Those who in other contexts had found

The Salutogenic basic model. Illustration: Peter Thybo

government now has set aside a tempo-rary pool for culture and health of ninemillion Danish kroner.

Culture and mental health is an area thatalso attracts the interest of other Scandi-navian countries. The Nordic Council ofMinisters’ report Vändpunkt – forslag omkultur och hälsa I nordisk samverken(2014) provides a useful insight into themany different Scandinavian activitieswhich are being tested in “the art ofliving”.

The Reading AssociationThe Reading Association is a voluntarynon-profit association that works to intro-duce as many people as possible to the joyof reading. The Association was estab-lished in 2010 and modelled on the Eng-lish The Reader Organisation. The Read-ing Association also offers a course pro-gramme for prospective reading groupguides in the reading method Guidedcommunity reading. The method aims tocreate the space for experiences and reflec-

tions on literature. The Association’shomepage is: http://laeseforeningen.dk

Well-beingThe Department of Health takes as theirstarting point the WHO’s definition ofmental health as a “state of well-being inwhich every individual realizes his or herown potential, can cope with the normalstresses of life, can work productively andfruitfully, and is able to make a contribu-tion to her or his community.”

Lisbeth Bjørn HansenLibrarian and Head of children’s services

Peter Thybo, Health InnovatorMartin Lundsgaard-Leth

Head of Culture and LibrariesIkast-Brande Municipality

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that their opinions were of limited value,found a haven where their thoughts andopinions were welcome, and where every-body was seen and heard in an apprecia-tory community with reciprocal empathyfor each other’s situation and life history.

The participants also got the feeling ofbecoming part of a community of destiny.This created a feeling of unity and mayhave helped the individual member of thegroup to form new and thought-provo-king perspectives on their own situation.Many also managed to form new socialnetworks, which in the longer term cancontribute toward increased mental,physical and social health.

The art of livingIn the municipality of Ikast-Brande we aremuch inspired by the valuable add-onbenefit that reading and other culturalactivities can be to mental health andsocial affiliations, i.a. because it providesnew ways of working on welfare. At thesame time, we are happy that the Danish

The Reading Association. Photo: Martin Lundsgaard-Leth

According to international studies, libra-ries have a positive impact on patrons’reading skills, learning, well-being andnational identity, a fact stated by AnnaIdström who has studied the beneficialeffects of libraries. She has written abouther findings in a book concerning theimpact of libraries, which was publishedin 2016 by the Association of FinnishLocal and Regional Authorities.

Since the establishment of libraries, theirmission has been to support educationand reading, and that has been theprimary reason for using them. Librariesfor the common people began to open inthe Scandinavian countries as well, at firstin association with grammar schools toincrease the level of education of thepeople.

However, their necessity as a source of

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FINLAND LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

Reading, libraries AND well-being

Reading is not only fun and invigorating, it also has many otherpositive effects on a person’s quality of life and well-being. Oneof the fundamental missions of public libraries has always beento support people’s reading habits and promote literature. Anumber of surveys pertaining to the use of the library have alsoindicated that libraries are still a significant part of people’slives in precisely this way.

Pirjo Tuomi

well-being and recreation, in general,quickly became evident. Although there ismuch discussion about the decrease in thepopularity of reading, still today, peoplevisit libraries a lot mainly to borrow booksand maintain the hobby of reading.

Improve the quality of lifeAlthough libraries nowadays endeavor todiversify their activities and in this waypursue non-patrons, established librarypatrons are still readers. They also feel thatlibraries and collections significantly im-prove their quality of life. This is evidentin a patron questionnaire carried out bythe National Library of Finland in 2013,whereby the use of library services, patronsatisfaction and the significance of thelibrary to the patrons was surveyed.

A total of 16,137 patrons responded to

the section of the questionnaire pertain-ing to public libraries. According to theresults, 90 percent of the patrons felt thatthe library has, above all, supported themin their reading and cultural hobbies andin this way has also improved their qualityof life. Respondents clearly did not valuethe library’s other services as much as this.

Additionally, the Cross-European surveyto measure users’ perceptions of the benefitsof ICT in public libraries, carried out in theEuropean Union region in 2013, foundthat 94 percent of the respondents chose“books to read/borrow” as the most signi-ficant service that libraries offer.

Similar studies related to library usecarried out in the 2010s in Sweden andEngland concluded with the same results.The significance of libraries in supportingreading and the hobby of reading still

seems to be the most important servicethat libraries offer.

The benefits of readingReading is not only fun and invigorating;it also improves the quality of life. AnnaIdström not only brings attention to libra-ries in general, but also to the literaturethey offer as a well-being service. She re-fers to the results of Dugdale and Clark’sstudy, Literacy Changes Lives: An advocacyresource (2008), whereby reading has posi-tive effects on people’s economic well-being, health, family life and civil aware-ness.

Reading also increases general know-ledge and verbal skills, understanding ofother cultures and knowledge of humannature. As early as the 1970s and 1980s,studies in Finland related to library use

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Reading at the Rikhardinkatu Libraryin Helsinki. Photo: Susanne Ahlroth

and reading found that the hobby ofreading and library use correlated withgeneral well-being, health and, for ex-ample, education.

Literature meets the reader No matter where you go in the world, thelibrary is the only place where anyone canencounter literature. When talking aboutthe library, we should first and foremosttalk about the library’s unique quality.

At the library, people can also encounterother readers or authors. This can happendirectly, for example when borrowing abook, participating in reading circles ormeeting an author during a literary event.It can also happen indirectly through pro-fessionally constructed systems, which area part of the library’s institutional charac-ter.

Library professionals categorize andcreate descriptors for literature, presentliterature at exhibitions and on websites,write summaries and literary critiques,write online author profiles, et cetera. Thepublic library should therefore be seenbroadly as a part of both national and

local literary life. The library not only sup-ports the hobby of reading, but it partici-pates in the promotion of literary know-ledge and reading in many different ways.

Reading as a well-being service When talking about the library and thepromotion of reading, the question isusually addressed from the viewpoint ofchildren and youth and mainly as deve-lopment of cooperation between schoolsand libraries. There is seldom discussionof adults as readers and reading as a hobbyand what the library’s interests are in thisarea of promoting literature.

However, libraries do a lot of work inpromoting literature, which can be inte-grated in the promotion of the well-beingof the people. Such activities include thelibraries’ home-delivery services, readingcircles or different projects where libraryservices are offered in homes for theelderly and, one of the newest activities, areading consultation service where pa-trons receive a personal, customizedreading packet.

These services offer patrons enjoyment

and significant emotional well-being.However, professional expertise is neededto produce these services, which doesn’thappen by itself or merely because alibrary professional happens to be intere-sted in literature. Education in the libraryfield should acknowledge the central roleof libraries as a distributor and up-keeperof literary culture – from the perspectiveof the people’s well-being as well.

Stick to the basicsToday, different cultural services are seenas services that significantly increasegeneral well-being and even health. Thepublic library is first and foremost acultural institution, which, like otherpublic cultural institutions, producescultural services for the people. From theperspective of the library patron, the mostessential cultural service, at least in thelight of the statistics, seems to be related tothe promotion of reading and the hobbyof reading.

When talking about the significance ofthe library with regard to the well-being ofthe people, you do not necessarily have toexpand the library services into new areas;rather, you can stick to the basics and con-sider how to develop perhaps new servicesto promote literature and reading, which,in turn, promote the well-being andhealth of individual people.

It is not enough to state self-evidently inlibrary policies that libraries offer litera-ture. It is more a question of for what andhow literature should and could be used ina new way for the better of the patrons. Ifthe library patrons feel – and the studiesprove – that reading promotes well-being,it is more a question of what the library’sresponsibility is as the only institution thatoffers free literature in this sector of well-being.

Pirjo TuomiLic. Phil., Senior Lecturer

Library and Information Studies Oulu University of Applied Sciences

This article has been previously published in a slightly

different format in the Oulu University of Applied Sciences

Research and Development ePooki publication series

(ePooki - Oulu UAS Research and Development publica-

tions) http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe201602267835.

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Reading at Rikhardinkatu Library inHelsinki. Photo: Susanne Ahlroth

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Sveinung Nesheim

I grew up in the library. It was one of thefew options available to those of us whohad little interest in soccer and biathlon.Moreover, my mother was the local libra-rian.

I can recall sauntering along the book-shelves, letting my fingers glide over thespines of books. Such an infinite numberof thoughts were sort of attached to thinsheets and hung up between covers thatvied for attention.

I can remember where Cosmos by CarlSagan stood and where the Deweydecimal classification was located. Theformer showed how the universe wasarranged, the latter the library. In Dewey,the number series 100 was reserved forphilosophy, and I felt an attraction to thissubject. Perhaps it was due to the titles onthe spines, promising a Critique of PureReason or Selected Topics of ElementaryLogic. Although I found it to be neitherelementary, nor logical, it neverthelessspoke to me.

Me and the library Something started to sprout within methere, in the library, between the shelvesand in the wide spectrum of thoughts andknowledge that were openly available

there. The library encompassed the entireworld; the totality of things.

My fumbling led me precisely to ideas ofthis totality, only pertaining to the wholein a harmonious and integrated manner,more like holism. In the library I foundbooks by Arne Næss, and I was fascinatedby his magical world. Besides being aphilosopher of world repute, he was also amountaineer and a practical joker.

The anecdotes about Arne Næss arenumerous and well-known. Næss spokeabout ecosophy and Baruch Spinoza’sphilosophy of the creative force of nature,‘natura naturans’. This became the start ofa long and dedicated study of how theuniverse is interconnected in an ecologicaland living balance, and these were ideasthat resonated and seemed so infinitelytrue and universally valid.

Not least, this was a body of thought thatnever stopped maturing and soon couldbe applied to everyday life in many ways.

Ideas of holismI am now of the opinion that such holisticideas can be linked to virtually everythingwe do, if only we are aware of them. Theyprepare us to make choices based on thewisdom of nature, by taking sufficient

account of ripple effects, and by attemp-ting to see some of the added value of eachpart of a greater whole.

Holism says quite simply that the sum ofthe whole is larger than the sum of theparts. In terms of biology it means, forexample, that all life has a value beyond itsintrinsic value, which is not realised untillife functions in its ecological context.There is something infinitely beautifulabout this, but it also testifies to the vulne-rability of ecological systems.

Ecosophy in a nutchellTo remain in balance, an ecological sy-stem depends on all its constituent parts,and this balance gives rise to the long-term creative force, or added value if youlike. For the same reason, we cannot re-move a bothersome part or add amountsof another and still expect the system tofunction. This is ecosophy in a nutshell. Itis the wisdom of nature itself.

Humans have become capable of influ-encing life forms and the basis of lifeeverywhere in nature, and we are seeingan increasing number of examples ofdestructive incursions that cause imba-lance and irreversible damage to flora,fauna and climate.

LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEINGNORWAY

The library in an ecosophical perspective Ecosophy is about how everything is integrated in an ecologicaland living balance. These are ideas that may be applied invarious everyday contexts and prepare us for making choicesbased on a holistic perspective, for example when makingdecisions about the future of a rural library.

We fail to take account of the wholewhen we exceed the quotas for fishing, usemore energy than we are able to generate,and when the production of thingsexceeds consumption by orders of magni-tude. Then we have ignored the real im-portance of universal balance for our livesand our planet.

However, a holistic mindset does notnecessarily address large, global issues. Itcan act as a guide in the smaller decisionsthat we make in life and elsewhere inculture and society.

The history of a local library For a long time, municipalities have savedmoney by closing local libraries, and eachmunicipality has its own reasons, but theargument is generally that this service canbe centralised and municipal fundseconomised upon.

This is a tempting option in a budgetproposal, but what happens in practice?To highlight the short-sightedness inhe-rent in this, there is no need to argue infavour of the obvious value represented bythe libraries being a low-threshold optionopen to all, or to point out that the libra-ries are seedbanks for the cultivation ofsociety. It suffices to point out the effectsthat the closure of the branch had on thelocal community and municipality I comefrom.

Here, the local library was open twoevenings per week, in addition to functio-ning as the school library. However, it wasnot only a library in the narrow sense ofthe word. The library was also a meeting-place for young and old. The young con-nected with each other there and hadaccess to books costing no more than aride on a bicycle.

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Returning to libraries, the closure of local

branches specifically exemplifieswhat happens when functionsare seen in isolation with noconcern for ripple effects, andmany rural communities inNorway have the same story to tell.

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Doors were closedFor those who no longer had colleagues toconverse with during the day, the librarywas exactly what they needed to stay intouch with others. The library was also aninstrument of practical integration formigrant Kurds and Turks who came to ourcommunity at that time. They could findnewspapers in their own language, whilealso being exposed to spoken and writtenNorwegian.

In sum, this was a simple yet versatileservice that encompassed far more thanany budget item could reflect. However,these benefits were not visible there, andthe costs had to be justified with referenceto the library services alone, so finally thedoors were closed.

Municipal responsibilitySometime later, however, the need aroseto provide services for the older people ofthe community, and this was immediatelyregarded as a municipal responsibilitypursuant to the regulations, and an acti-vity that could be fitted into the budget.Again, the municipality looked at itsoptions in isolation and established activi-ties specifically for the elderly.

This, however, was not adapted to theyoung people who also needed somethingto occupy them, and a new set of activitieshad to be established for this group aswell. The cost of these services, in additionto operating the library branch for thelocal school, exceeded the operating costof the original local library. Moreover, theadded value that the local library hadrepresented for the local community isharder to quantify.

To see the value of a libraryIn such cases, we need to take the troubleto actually think broadly and deeply, lestwe end up by making society a poorerplace. In all constituent parts of societythere are mechanisms and features thatmerit better attention, but this presup-poses that we keep the principle of theholism of things in mind and let it mature.

We need to make a habit of thinking inholistic terms, and demonstrate our wil-lingness to investigate ripple effects. At the

same time, we need to take into accountthat our actions may produce consequ-ences that we cannot predict.

Local libraries help keep communitiesactive and of sound mind. As for me, thelibrary gave me an opportunity to discoveran interest that lay dormant within me.The library opened my eyes to holisticthinking, which in turn highlighted thevalue of libraries in a wide sense. This isa finite circle.

The library is social sustainability inpractice, breaking down barriers betweendifferent cultural and demographicgroups. Walking between the shelves at alocal library encompasses an infinitepotential for each and every mind. It is aspiritual soup kitchen and an ingredient ina strong and healthy society.

Sveinung NesheimChief Executive Officer, Ecoverk

sne@ecoverk.no

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The library is one of society’s fundamental

building blocks and an invest-ment in people and values.“

Photo: Amanda Tipton/Flickr CC BY-NC ND

Photo: amanda tipton/Flickr CC B

As far as I am aware, no such observationsof the significance of the library in peop-le’s lives have been seen in Norway.However, the PLACE (Public LibrariesArenas for Citizenship) project conductedin Norway between 2006 and 2012 didgive some indications.

In the PLACE project, we were primarilyinterested in the library’s role as a meetingplace in the community. What kinds ofmeetings are held in the library? Does thelibrary help to create an integrated com-munity that is good to live in? What roledoes the library play for immigrants look-

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NORWAY LIBRARIES AND WELL-BEING

The library and quality of life

Can anything be deduced from research about the impact ofthe public library on welfare and quality of life? In the USA, PewResearch Centre conducted a survey in which the citizens werecategorised according to their relationship to the library. Thirtyper cent of the population had a close relationship to the libraryand said it would have a significant impact on them personallyif the local library were to be closed.

Ragnar Audunson

Furuset Library and Activity House,Oslo, used the PLACE results in thedesign of their renovated library.Photo: Karoline Røsand

ing to settle in a new country? What dousers do in the library – how is it utilised?

These were just some of the areas wewere interested in. In order to findanswers, we conducted for example twosurveys, observations in three branchesand qualitative interviews with immigrantwomen. The surveys and observationswere carried out in three districts in Oslo:a suburb with a large immigrant popula-tion, a gentrified district in the inner eastand a typical middle-class district with alarge number of villas.

The importance of librariesSurvey respondents were asked to evaluatethe importance of various meeting placesin terms of creating good local communi-ties using a scale from 0 to 10, where 0means completely immaterial and 10means very important. In the last surveyfrom 2011, the library had an averagescore of 7.66.

This was slightly lower than communityhalls, sports centres, swimming baths,cultural centres et cetera (8.5) and schools(8.14), but ahead of market places andparks (7.26), local cafes and coffee bars(7.47) – and well ahead of the local shop-ping centres (5.78). Between the firstsurvey in 2006 and the last one in 2011,the library’s average score went up from7.09 to 7.66. Thus, the library seems to beof great importance to the quality andexperience of living in a local community.

Both surveys showed that a wide rangeof meetings are held in libraries: theyserve as a meeting place in the district,where the inhabitants can randomly en-counter friends and neighbours, andwhere they are exposed to the diversity ofthe multicultural city. More than one thirdof users say they have struck up a conver-sation with a stranger and a very largeproportion of these have struck up aconversation with people who are diffe-rent to them in terms of ethnicity, culturalbackground, age et cetera.

The library is a place where people gowith their family, friends, colleagues, etcetera to do something together – whetherit is planning a long weekend in Paris,

working on a school assignment together,taking children or grandchildren to thetheatre or going with a partner or friendsto a lecture.

Observations in three case librariesIn the qualitative observations in the threecase libraries in Oslo, some of the keyfindings can be summarised as follows:

Through observations and interviews itbecame clear to us how the library is anarena where people can drift betweendifferent roles and life spheres: the parentand caregiver role, the role of citizen, therole of employee or prospective student etcetera.

Example: In the middle-class library, weobserved and interviewed two women intheir 30s who went there every afternoonafter work. They had brought a cup ofcoffee, and were sitting on a sofa chatting;taking on the role of friend. Then one ofthem got up, walked over to the area withbooks on religion and life stances, andcame back with a book on Islam. She saidthat this was a topic that was discussed alot at work, and she wanted to learn moreabout it in order to participate in thedebate. This took her into the role ofcitizen.

This could be considered a typical ex-ample of the seamless movement be-tween roles and life spheres that we wereable to observe. Very often in our dealingswith public institutions we are either jobapplicants, prospective students, relativesof patients, patients, citizens, recipients ofsocial benefits, et cetera. In the library,people can drift between the various rolesthat make up the whole person. What im-pact does this have on the quality of life?

A user among othersWhen we started the PLACE project, wewere interested in the extent to which thelibrary may be an arena that helps enableus to develop a tolerance for the diversitythat characterises today’s society. Wefound that the library is indeed such anarena. However, at the same time, webecame increasingly aware that the libraryis also a place where a person can just be a

user among other users, without revealingtheir true self.

No one could tell by looking at the 35-year-old woman and the almost 50-year-old man sitting next to each other onpublic computers that she was a successfulyoung woman who had just had her firstbook accepted by one of Norway’s largestpublishers, while he was one of the long-term unemployed, using the library tocreate a structure to his daily life. Thelibrary served as a space for normality,where they were both users among otherusers. What impact does this have on thequality of life?

The library enhances livesIn a follow-up survey we conducted in2011 with a representative national samp-le, respondents were asked how well thelibrary helps promote different values,such as solidarity and fellowship, lifelonglearning, equal access to information andknowledge, knowledge of and interest inthe world around us, democracy andquality of life. Many did not know how torespond to these questions.

The proportion responding “Don’tknow” was between 35 and 40 per cent.However, most believe that the library isvery good or fairly good at promotingthese values. Of all respondents, 47 per-cent, that is 60 percent of those who hadan opinion, think that the library makes avery good or fairly good contribution toimproving quality of life.

For values such as equal access to infor-mation, democracy, lifelong learning,knowledge of and interest in the worldaround us, the scores were higher.

The library clearly enhances people’slives.

Ragnar AudunsonProfessor at the Department of Archivistics,

Library and Information Science Oslo and Akershus University College

of Applied Sciencesragnar.audunson@hioa.no

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For me reading is magic! Reading canprovide inspiration, solace and hope. Agood read is so much a part of my life Icannot imagine a life without it. How is itthen possible that so many young peopletoday are able to say “No thanks – readingisn’t my thing” or “I don’t DO reading”!Not only do young people freely expresssuch thoughts with impunity but seem-ingly without the slightest hesitation ortwinge of remorse. How is this possible?

Somewhere, at some time in the not toodistant past, an adult has missed anopportunity or indeed missed many op-portunities, to open the magic door.Adults who failed to reveal the wonders of

reading for a child who then grows into ayoung person who says that they don’t ‘do’reading.

An adult, even many adults have letmagic moments go by without ever stop-ping to think how it will be for this childas they grow up without the wonders of ashared book: shared warmth, sharedlaughter and shared tears after having reada truly wonderful story. Never to know theoverwhelming sadness felt when the verylast sentence of a wonderfully excitingstory is read.

It happens. Opportunities ignored andchildren missed because there is no longertime. Now adults are too busy to read astory. Fifteen minutes a day without a tele-phone or being connected electronicallyto anything or anybody is just not pos-sible. Sorry.

To cuddle an ipadI am often asked to speak at parentevenings and with me I have an arsenal ofastounding and convincing arguments asto why reading in the home is importantand I try very hard to convey the wonderof sharing a story together with a child.They listen, applaud and then we all drinkcoffee.

On one occasion quite recently a youngmother spoke to me very seriously during

coffee time. The conversation went a bitlike this:

“Thank you for your talk. It was veryinteresting. However, I don’t think youreally understand the situation for youngfamilies today.”

“Really”, I replied – genuinely interestedin her reasoning.

“It may have been different when youwere home with your children in the 80’s.(It was the 90’s but perhaps this isn’t thepoint and I don’t argue.) It is 2016 nowand we simply don’t have the time to liedown with our children or read everynight. There are so many other things thathave to be done.”

“It need only be 15 minutes”, I replied. “Ithink it is so very important for your chil-dren to have your undivided attention atleast once a day. It is often not the bookthat is important but the warmth of acuddle and the talk.”

“Yes”, she replied. “I understand that itwould be lovely but our lives just aren’tlike that anymore. My daughter loves tolisten to a story on her Ipad and that isalso language development...isn’t it?”

Other parents had gathered to listen andmy adversary had their support. No oneindicated that she was wrong. I was theone who was misinformed, out of dateand irrelevant.

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FINLAND VIEWPOINT

“May the force be with you”Our challenge, school library colleagues, is already upon us.Time for story reading is disappearing. Before our very eyes thespecial, almost holy ‘story at bedtime’ ritual is slowly but surelybeing obliterated. So I say to you in school libraries everywhere“May the force be with you”. May we rise to meet the challengethat is facing us and may we emerge victorious. Elspeth Randelin

Elspeth Randelin is school librarianat Ytternäs skola in Mariehamn,Finland. She is well known as apassionate promoter of a widevariety of ideas designed to inspirechildren and young people to read.Unwilling readers are a special chal-lenge and many of the methodsElspeth promotes are aimed at justthese readers, particularly boys, inthe hope of luring them into thewonderful world of literature. Shelectures often in Finland andSweden and has been awardedseveral prizes and scholarships forher work.

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I was so saddened by this conversation Ihad difficulty to hold back tears. Thisyoung mother was in earnest. She lovesher children and wants to do what is bestand yet is on the road to missing theopportunity to open the magic door.

She and her partner have a list of priori-ties and reading stories is not high enoughon the list and I even found myself wonde-ring if it was on the list at all. Ipad storieshave taken their place and yet you cannotcuddle an ipad.

There are of course many, many mumsand dads that do read for their childrenand who have completely understood thereasons for it and the joy to be foundthere. But times are changing and we, wholove books and everything a children’slibrary stands for, need to be seen and tobe heard and to inform. We need to shoutlouder.

We need men!In our school library we believe that abeginning reader needs the support ofmany adults. All the adults in a child’sreading life have a role to play. Mums andDads and their families and friends,teachers, day care staff, sports coaches,neighbours and the list can go on and on.

However what we really need are men.Male reading models are in short supply

and if a little boy doesn’t have a dad whoreads and there aren’t any male teachers inhis school it can well be that he never seesa man reading for pleasure.

It is possible, maybe even likely, thatMum reads, Grandma reads and all hisfemale teachers and librarians read andencourage him to read too. This howeverfails to convey the message that reading isalso fun for boys. For that we need to showthis little boy that men also read becausethey want to and because they really, reallyenjoy it.

Find reading modelsTo go on a hunt for men who read may notbe everybody’s idea of a fun evening outso it is fortunate that there are manywebsites available with reading men – justto print out and decorate the walls in yourclassroom or library. Pictures of men whoread – famous sportsmen, famous authorsand men who like to read on their way towork on the New York underground.

One of the most popular sites in ourschool is the Premier League Reading Stars(PLRS). It doesn’t have to be big starseither. Policemen, firemen, ambulancedrivers – anyone in a uniform can bepretty impressive. The best readingmodels are men who genuinely love toread and do so whenever they can.

We need a forceIt was a good thing that Måns Zelmerlöwwon the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.He is an avid reader and was only toohappy to allow us to photograph a quiettime on stage while waiting for all soundchecks to be completed. It makes a diffe-rence. It isn’t as if children say “Oh Månsreads – I think I will too”. It is more subtlethan that.

Photographs of readers on the walls justshow everyone that it is OK to read.Possibly even more than OK. Maybe it is areally good thing to read. The best readingmodel of them all is, without question,Dad and maybe even Grandpa.

If we can motivate all the adults in chil-dren’s reading lives to read for, in front ofand beside their children – every evening– a great deal of the pseudo opposition tothe activity will disappear and that canonly be a very good thing.

We need a force – maybe even THE forceto make this happen and I sincerely hopethat it is with you!

Elspeth Randelin

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The Swedish singer and last year’swinner of the Eurovision song contest,Måns Zelmerlöw takes a reading break. Photo: Therese Andersson/Blick bildbyrå

The Centre for Preservation and Digitisa-tion of The National Library in Finlandcarried out an open and free courseDiscover the treasures of the history pagesof newspapers for local people. The coursewas arranged in cooperation with theMikkeli Community College and Provin-cial Library and was held at the ProvincialLibrary four Tuesdays in March.

The participants were encouraged tochoose a personally interesting topic andto search for information from the digitalnewspapers of The National Library, thedigi.kansalliskirjasto.fi service. The Nati-onal Library has digitised all Finnishnewspapers until 1910, and they are freelyavailable to everyone.

Digital newspapers You can use the digi.kansalliskirjasto.fiservice in Finnish, Swedish and English.Due to copyright reasons, the more recentdigital newspapers are seen only in the sixFinnish legal deposit libraries and they areavailable on microfilm in selected libra-ries.

The Aviisi project of The NationalLibrary is piloting two in-copyright digitalnewspapers from 1916 to 2013 in the Mik-keli region and the compatibility of the

whole digital history of these papers foruse, for example in elementary and highschool, community college, museums andfor research and educational purposes.

The newspapers are an invaluable andrich cultural and historical heritage andthe Finns have always been diligentreaders. Even before the year 1950 therehave been published 611 separate news-paper titles in Finland. Finns have alwaysread about the current events in newspa-pers, be they political, economic, science,culture or art. Newspapers tell local, regi-onal and national news in a brief andconcise manner. Therefore, the newspapermaterials are very diverse and rich mate-rials to be used.

Learning by doing and sharingThe newspaper course had three mainobjectives. First, we wanted to find outwhether citizens have an interest instudying the digitised data of old newspa-pers. The number of people involved andreturning each time confirmed the ex-istence of interest.

Second, we wanted to know in whatkinds of things and which newspaperinformation the townspeople are interes-ted. Course participants have shown

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FINLAND A C C E S S

Pirjo Karppinen

Libraries are building a new collaborationWhat did the famous wartime hero, Marshal Mannerheim do inMikkeli during the war years? Fires in Mikkeli – which buildingshave burned and when? My grandmother was working in atraveling circus – are there data from the circus or about mygrandmother? Why have people moved to Mikkeli through theyears? These are examples of questions from people who cameto learn about the use of digital newspapers of The NationalLibrary.

From an old newspaper: Thefamous wartime hero BaronGustaf Mannerheim, Marshalof Finland in Mikkeli. Photo: CC BY 4.0/SA-kuva

interest in a broad spectrum of topics:from family history, village and townhistory to various events, anecdotes,proverbs and the linguistic and semanticchange in Finnish words.

Third, we wanted to test whether the olddata from digital newspapers could beused as learning materials when adultsand older people are to learn the basicskills of using a computer. Could theylearn basic computer skills by experimen-ting with search possibilities in the news-papers and conducting searches concer-ning issues of personal interest?

The tutors were supporting learning andalso giving guidance. The group sup-ported individual learning, by discussing,reflecting on the topics and articles andsharing information. The group was stu-dying together, learning by doing, sharingknowledge and experiencing joy whichleads to interaction, and thus builds socialrelations and social well-being.

Both local and national cultural heritageThe experts of The National Library de-signed and pedagogically guided thecourse based on joint learning. As a visitorwe had the well-known historian, JukkaPartanen, from the Genealogical Society

of Finland. Jukka guided the participantsinterested in genealogy and history andrecalled the time when all the data wereon microfilms. Microfilm reels had to bewound on until the right frame was found.Today, data is very accessible for resear-chers and other users and browsing andsearch is easy.

In addition to guiding the homing desirefor knowledge of the townspeople the twodigital in-copyright newspapers of theNational Library are piloted in other orga-nisations too. The University of Helsinkihas a research unit in Mikkeli, and a fewother universities also use the newspapersfor research and educational use. They arealso available online in the Mikkeli regionin all elementary schools, high schools, aswell as the regional museums.

The experts of The National Libraryhave initially organized guidance andbrainstorming sessions for the user groupsof the material, together with the organi-zations: what data is available, who canuse the materials and how? Newspapermaterials are part of the national culturalheritage, which should be made morewidely accessible, to benefit society as awhole, and to open doors into a widerange of new possibilities.

The Aviisi ProjectThe project is carried out at the Centre forPreservation and Digitisation in Mikkeli /The National Library of Finland which ispart of the University of Helsinki. TheERDF project is funded by the South SavoRegional Council, the National Libraryand the City of Mikkeli, Kaakon ViestintäLtd / Länsi-Savo newspaper, ViestilehdetLtd / Maaseudun tulevaisuus newspaper,as well as the copyright organisation Ko-piosto. The project is implemented during2015-2016.

For more information:

Pirjo Karppinen, Acting DirectorNational Library, Centre for

Preservation and DigitisationPirjo.karppinen@helsinki.fi

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The Aviisi Project has also givenaccess to in-copyright newspa-pers to e. g. Mikkeli CommunityCollege and schools.

SPECIAL L IBRARY

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SWEDEN

has not increased despite the closure ofpublic library branches.

The survey was conducted from a userperspective and the results show that 844of the approximately 1,118 public librariesin Sweden have shorter opening hoursthan 40 hours per week. A total of 480public libraries are open less than 20 hoursper week. A total of 209 public librariesare open less than 10 hours per week.Only 24 public libraries are open 60 hoursor more per week.

The conclusion is that the public spaces,which public libraries are frequentlydescribed as, often are closed.

Cecillia RanemoExecutive Officer StatisticsNational Library of Sweden

Cecilia Ranemo

Public libraries are important places for meetings, knowledge,culture, information and experiences. However, only one in fourpublic libraries in Sweden is open at least 40 hours a week.

Public Libraryopening hours 2016

In January a survey of the Swedish publiclibraries opening hours was carried out; itshowed that four out of ten public librariesin the country are open less than 20 hoursa week. This means that they are notalways very accessible to the users, despiteoften being the only institution for cultureand information available in smallertowns.

In the last few years, the public librarycommissions have been increased, at thesame time as the municipalities continueto close public library branches andreduce opening hours. The public librariesare given more to do and less time to do it.

Limited opening hours limit visitsThe budget limitations for the libraryoperations in municipalities often lead tobranches being closed in order to increasethe quality and focus the activities withinthe given budget at the other libraries and,e.g., extend the opening hours there.

Limited opening hours at the public li-braries means that not all user groups canvisit the physical libraries. In total only 13percent, that is 144, of the country’s publiclibraries are open on Sundays and 38 percent are open on Saturdays.

The journey to a library that is open atthe weekend is many miles for a lot ofpeople. And yet weekends are often theonly possible times that e.g., parents andchildren can visit the library together.

Limited to online functionsAccess to public libraries is not equal forusers in Sweden. There are great diffe-rences between different counties. Theoften long distance to the nearest publiclibrary in combination with the shortopening hours does not promote the useof the libraries.

The users are limited to the functionsthey can use online. Often the book bus isthe solution but the number of book buses

Kista library in Stockholm. Open everyday from 10-21. In 2015 it was grantedthe international "Public Library of theYear Award" og "Library of the Year".Photo: Elisabet Ahlqvist

This award focuses on the societal role ofsmall libraries, and the jury’s statementincludes the following passage: ‘Mostlibraries in Norway are small, and thelocal library in Berg revives the communalspirit that has always been vitally impor-tant in fishing hamlets and rural commu-nities. To participate in shaping thesociety we live in is a pillar of democracy.On the seaward side of Senja island thispillar rests on a rock-solid foundation: thelocal library’.

As the only employee of Berg library andwith no more than a 34 percent full-timeequivalent position, librarian Brita Esai-

assen has succeeded in providing first-rateservices to the 900 local inhabitants, whorepresent a number of different culturesand languages.

Local voluntary effortHere, young immigrants can learn fromelderly villagers how to knit mittens, andin the cooking classes everybody learnsfrom everybody else. The cultural eventsare well attended, and renovation of thepremises is taken care of through volun-tary community work. All this was achie-vable through collaboration with localvolunteers as well as through cooperation

NORWAY STATISTICS

Tertit knudsen

Large award to a small library In 2015, the Norwegian Library Association chose to give theprestigious Library of the Year award to Berg Library, a smalllibrary in a rural community in Norway.

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on librarianship with the host municipa-lity of Lenvik, which supplies the chieflibrarian and more besides.

In small communities where everybodyis mutually acquainted and the commu-nity spirit has always remained strong, it isperhaps easier to join a community effortand use creative methods to make the bestof the available resources, as the people ofBerg municipality on Senja island havedone.

Tertit KnudsenNational library of Norway

tertit.knudsen@nb.no

Berg library wth happy users feeling at home. Photo: Brita Esaiassen

Annika Hjerpe

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SWEDEN

A national library strategy

According to the Swedish library law, publicallyfinanced libraries shall serve society by offeringfree access to knowledge and by promoting lite-rature, education, research, enlightenment andculture. Since 2011 the National Library ofSweden has the public function to survey thecountry’s publically financed libraries and topromote collaboration between them.

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In 2015, the National Library was taskedwith developing a proposal for a nationallibrary strategy based on a long-termdesire to maintain and develop libraryoperations in Sweden.

“Libraries should be meeting-pointswith literature in focus. Meanwhile theyalso offer room for dialogue and arethereby central building blocks of ourdemocracy. The recent debate about libra-ries also highlights the need for a nationallibrary strategy,” Alice Bah Kuhnke, Mini-ster for Culture and Democracy, said in apress statement from the Ministry of Cul-ture in June 2015.

The aforementioned debate took place inSweden in the early summer of last year. Itwas about the order in libraries, mainlypublic libraries – or rather – the lackthereof, and about the norm of silence inthe library. Is silence desirable or obsolete,and is it ok to run around and play orshould you sit quietly and read?

The National Library will suggest longterm goals and strategies to promotecollaboration and development in thepublically financed library community.Among other things, the role and theconditions of the librarian profession willbe highlighted as well as the libraries’ rolein promoting literature, forming demo-cratic discussions, developing an ability toanalyse and evaluate sources and to freelyform opinions. The need for developmentof school libraries will also be analysed.

Clarify libraries’ position in society“This is a commission for the NationalLibrary for developing a plan of how thecountry’s libraries will work together withSweden’s best interests at heart” saysGunilla Herdenberg, National Librarian ofSweden.

“The strategy will clarify aspects such asthe libraries’ position in society; the needsof the users, new media, technologicaldevelopment and national infrastructure.Through collaboration, libraries can opti-mize the use of resources to give peopleaccess to information, which is one of thefounding pillars of a democratic society.Therefore, the strategy also needs toanswer questions about national coordi-nation of long term digital preservation oflibrary material, as well as other questionsconcerning physical and digital collec-tions,” she continues.

Collecting facts and ideasThe National Library has given the task todevelop a proposal for the national librarystrategy to National Coordinator ErikFichtelius and National ResearchersKrister Hansson and Karin Linder.

“We have decided to work as transpa-rently as possible. We want the plan to beso established among the library commu-nity that they feel they have influenced theoutcome through facts, knowledge, expe-rience and ideas,” Karin Linder says.

The group is collecting the facts, know-ledge, experience and ideas in differentways. One way is through Facebookdiscussions with approximately 1,300participants in the Nationell biblioteksstra-tegi (National Library Strategy) Facebookgroup. Here, the group has asked aroundone question per week since January.

They have travelled around Sweden tomeet library directors, local branches ofthe Swedish Library Association, countylibrarians, special librarians, universitylibrarians, college librarians and politi-cians.

“We have also been using a method thatwe have borrowed from the Ministry ofForeign Affairs, we have invited people towrite dispatches – a personal reflection onhow things are – what the problem is andhow we would like it to be. This far wehave received around 40-50 dispatches,”Karin Linder says.

“We have also decided that we will meetas many people as possible to get as gooda picture as possible of Sweden and all itsparticular nature and conditions. We are

using existing networks and work groupsand will only create new work groupsoccasionally,” she continues.

Research and reportsThe group has ordered two different rese-arch mandates, one to map the positionand authority of the library director inlibraries and one to follow up on theinvestment in school libraries that theSwedish government will make in theautumn of 2016.

“We will also receive a research andknowledge compilation of Swedish libraryresearch,” Karin Linder says.

At the beginning of May, the groupsubmitted a situation report, a feature-likesurvey of libraries in Sweden.

“Now when the May report is done, weare working with more specifically direc-ted questions, and they will also result inreports. In 2017 we will produce an ex-tended business intelligence report for theMinistry of Culture and in 2019 the stra-tegy itself should be accepted by otherpublic authorities in order to be sent to thegovernment,” Karin Linder explains.

Annika HjerpePress and Communication Officer

National Library of Sweden

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Karin Linder. Photo: Lena Dahlström

One effect can be that information andculture providers change their self-under-standing from ‘just’ making materialsavailable to a more deliberate intention ofoptimising social processes.

Hjørring Public Libraries have taken thisstep with their project Democrary – whocares? This cultural course programme foryoung people combines the teaching ofdemocracy and rhetoric at the schoolswith challenging events and user-gene-rated activities in city and library environ-ments.

The young and democracyThe young and democracy is a focus areaunder the Danish Agency for Culture andPalaces, but how can public libraries andeducational institutions in practice engageon involving young people in democraticprocesses? Educating oneself to demo-cracy requires both historical and criticalknowledge and personal dedication.

Through committed cooperation withlocal educational institutions, HjørringLibraries are therefore dedicated to trans-cending the institutional environmentswhere young people move on a daily basis.The idea is to create a common holisticmind-set, where different local institu-tions contribute to providing a commonculture at a higher level than would bepossible for each individual institution.

The aim is, through activities that trans-gress professional groups and types ofknowledge, e.g. critical knowledge andtechnical and aesthetic performance, toaddress the young student as a ‘whole’human being.

The project culminates in the democracycelebration The power of the word, wherethe students cooperate with professionalartists and stand-up comics to create anaesthetically and rhetorically convincingstatement in present-day terminology.The students made their own musicvideos, contributing with suggestions forthe perception of democracy.

“Embedded librarianship”In research literature, one often comesacross the term “embedded librarianship”,i.e. a so-called integrated or “embedded”communication. It may be a question ofinformation and culture mediators inte-grating their work more directly in socialprocesses like democracy, research,education or job functions. In this way, itbecomes possible to move the processes

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DENMARK STATISTICS

Helene Høyrup Lars Konzack

Democracy.Who cares?Generally speaking, digital media create a more integratedcommunication environment than was previously the case.Society’s learning is therefore more often perceived as an‘ecology’, that is to say an eco-system with various contributors.

up to a higher taxonomic or empiricallevel.

Hjørring libraries work deliberatelytowards creating a more performativeinformation and culture mediation. Byintegrating itself directly in the debate ondemocracy, the project reinforces theinstitution’s rhetorical sender-perspective.At the same time it is actively offering anumber of expressive and aesthetic formsof knowledge, which have traditionallybeen associated with the concept ofcultural mediation (e.g. poetry slam andstand-up).

Thinking of mediation in terms ofcontributing to an ‘ecology’ transgresseslast, but not least, some of the contradi-stinctions we know from actual discus-sions about today’s pedagogical andcultural challenges – for example divisionsbetween public library and school,amateur and professional, the receptiveand the expressive, the critical and theperformative.

Democracy – who cares will from now onbe a regular element at the commence-ment of study for the young in the muni-cipality of Hjørring.

Helene Høyrup and Lars Konzack, Associate Professors at the Royal School

of Library and Information Science, University of Copenhagen

Arrangement at Hjørring LibraryPhoto: Peter Martin Jørgensen

Freedom of the press is an important demo-cratic right, it gives people the right to freelypublish books, newspapers and journals withno right for public authorities to examine inadvance or censor what has been written.

As long as you follow the law, you have theright to spread whatever printed informationyou wish.

FOI incorporatedThe Swedish Freedom of the Press Act of1766 did not only pioneer the freedom of thepress and print, it also openly declared publicaccess to state information, making Swedenthe first country in the world to officiallyinstigate a principle of public access to offi-cial records through Freedom of Information(FOI) – that gave the citizens access to previ-ously secret public documents.

To guarantee an open society, access toinformation about the work of the parlia-ment, government and government agenciesis necessary. FOI has been incorporated intothe Swedish Freedom of the Press Act.

Not self-evident“Freedom of the press is unique intwo ways; it initiated the principleof public access to official recordsand followed the principle of lega-lity, which is an essential elementin modern law. It says that a docu-ment cannot be prosecuted if ithas not been defined as criminalby the law, 250 years ago this wasnot self-evident,” explains histo-rian Jonas Nordin.

“The Freedom of the Press Act obeyed theprinciple of legality in that it carefully statedexisting exceptions to the freedom of print.Everything that hadn’t been defined in thisway was allowed to be printed. Such specifi-cations did not exist in, for example, GreatBritain where the extensive freedom ofspeech lacked legal protection and was oftenrestricted through capricious application ofthe law,” he continues.

The 250th anniversary of the Freedom ofThe Press Act is being celebrated in bothSweden and Finland as in 1766, Finland waspart of Sweden.

Annika HjerpePress and Communication Officer

National Library of Sweden

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SWEDEN

The world’s oldestfreedom of printIn 2016, the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act thatabolished censorship and required authorities to providepublic access to official documents celebrates its 250thanniversary. This makes it the oldest constitutional regula-tion of press and print freedom in the World.

The first page of the Swedish Freedom of Print Act from 1766 translated by Peter Hogg.

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The first page of the original Swedish Freedom of Print Act from 1766. Photo: Mårten Asp/KB

SWEDEN

In late 2015, I organized a petition askingthe Swedish Parliament to translate intoEnglish an edited volume that was re-cently commissioned. The volume wascommissioned to commemorate the 250thanniversary of Sweden’s freedom of thepress and access to information legisla-tion.

Supporters of my petition included 114librarians, media advocacy groups,lawyers, and university professors fromover 30 countries. Why does this bookcaptivate a Canadian librarian and somany others? The answer is that to betterunderstand our own rights, we needhistoric knowledge about the origins offreedom of information.

Only 33 yearsMany Canadians I have talked withassume the United States of America wasthe first country to have freedom of infor-mation legislation. They are surprised tolearn that Sweden had it 200 years earlier.Likewise, Canadians do not seem to re-

cognize how closely access to informationis tied to freedom of thought and expression.

These misunderstandings should not betoo surprising given that Canadians haveonly had the right for 33 years. This is notmuch time to develop knowledge about itand weave it into our culture.

Most of the world is no doubt in asimilar position to benefit from know-ledge in Swedish and Finnish history. In1965, only 0.4 percent of the world’s popu-lation had a right to access governmentinformation. That level has risen to morethan 80 percent. Interestingly, 70 percentof the countries that have FOI laws haveonly had it since 2000.

Historical knowledge importantHaving access to historical knowledge isreally important for public debates.Recently, I gave testimony to the com-mittee of the Canadian Parliament thatoversees issues of access to information. Iwas lucky to have access to AnticipatingThe Wealth of Nations: The Selected Works

of Anders Chydenius (1729-1803) whichincludes three English translations ofreports presented to the Swedish parlia-ment in 1765/66. In my testimony, Iquoted one of the reports.

Librarianship rooted in valuesAs a librarian, my hope for the translationis more than just about getting a copy ofan important book into the hands ofreaders around the world. For me, thiseffort reflects a value of freedom ofthought and expression that librariansaround the world try to manifest in theircommunities and countries on a daily basis.

Librarianship is rooted in values. As newtechnologies emerge and older ones fadeinto the background, the golden threadsof continuity are found in our values, suchas freedom of information, thought, andexpression.

Mark Weiler, MLIS, PhD Web & User ExperienceLibrarian / Psychology Librarian

Laurier Library, Wilfrid Laurier University

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Spreading the values offreedom of information,thought and expressionglobally

I am a librarian from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canadaand want to share reflections on an experience thatmight be of interest to my colleagues in Scandinavia.

Community of cataloguers in IcelandNew cataloguing rules

The first step taken in preparation for theimplementation of the new cataloguingrules, Resource Description & Access(RDA), in Iceland was a conference heldin Iceland in 2007. The conference Back toBasics – and Flying into the Future was atwo-day international conference aboutthe RDA cataloguing rules which werethen being developed.

The conference was well attended andspeakers from USA, UK, Denmark, Ice-land, Norway and Germany discussed thesubject from various angles. Since thenGegnir cataloguers have done their best tofollow all further developments. Manycataloguers have attended conferencesabroad and brought back relevant infor-mation.

Online courses from ALA have beendownloaded, such as general courses onthe implementation of RDA as well ascataloguing of maps and music. The Nati-onal and University Library is a memberof the European RDA Interest Group(EURIG) and has formed important linkswith foreign experts. Cataloguers of Geg-

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ICELAND STATISTICS

MagnhildurMagnúsdóttir

The work environment of cataloguers in Iceland is unique inthat the majority of libraries use a common library system,Gegnir, (Aleph) which is a nationwide union catalogue. Catalo-guers, whether they catalogue for public libraries, universitylibraries or special libraries, have common interests and colla-boration between them is extensive. This is one of the mainstrengths of the cataloguers’ work environment in Iceland aswell as the common integrated search portal leitir.is.

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nir have been kept up to date in regularseminars.

Preparation for RDA in IcelandIn 2014 a number of major steps concer-ning the implementation of RDA inIceland were taken. That year the decisionwas made to implement the RDA catalog-uing rules in Gegnir. On 2 February 2015the decision on the implementation ofRDA in Iceland was formally confirmed.The main responsibility for the decision,as well as the financial responsibility forthe project, lies with The National andUniversity Library.

The Consortium of Icelandic Libraries, acorporation owned by the state and localgovernments, is responsible for the opera-tion. The Cataloguing Council works onits behalf and its role is to formulatepolicy, monitor developments and provideguidelines and instructions for catalog-uers.

In the autumn of 2014 the CataloguingCouncil began to draft a plan for theimplementation of RDA at the request of

the national librarian. The Councilsubmitted a draft schedule and appointedan implementation team, a translationteam and a teaching team. The Catalog-uing Council and these teams carried outthe main tasks involved in the implemen-tation along with a team of system libra-rians from the Consortium of IcelandicLibraries.

Began in January 2015The national librarian appointed a ProjectSteering Committee to aid and ad-vise onmajor policy decisions. Members of thesteering committee included the nationallibrarian, the director of the Consortiumof Icelandic Libraries, the director of Rey-kjavik Public Library and the chairman ofthe Cataloguing Council.

Implementation officially began onJanuary 1, 2015. From that date onwardsthe implementation team was responsiblefor managing the project. A project ma-nager was appointed for one and a halfyears in a part-time position.

After RDA has been implemented, all

original cataloguing bibliographic recordswill be according to RDA. However, thereare not only original cataloguing biblio-graphic entries in Gegnir. Approximately30 percent of the bibliographic records inGegnir are uploaded annually fromforeign databases.

The implementation processThe project manager’s role is to coordinatethe project and keep a record of all infor-mation related to it. Among the tasks isoverseeing the organization, ensuring thatall data pertaining to the project isavailable to those who need it, acting as acontact person between the variousworking groups and providing all relevantinformation about the project.

A decision was made to obtain informa-tion on procedures that libraries in othercountries are using to implement RDA.For that purpose a group of cataloguersvisited the British Library in Boston Spaand the University Library in Amsterdam.A foreign expert in RDA, Alan Danskinfrom the British Library, was invited to

Visit to The British Library at BostonSpa. Photo: Rósfríður Sigvaldadóttir

come to Iceland. He was a keynote speakerat a meeting of cataloguers in the spring of2015 and also held courses for key peopleinvolved in the implementation process.

From the beginning it has been clear thatit would be impossible to translate thecomplete RDA rules into Icelandic. Butdue to new definitions and terminologycompared with the previous rules, thetranslation team needed to translate basicconcepts at least and assess the need forfurther translations. The Introduction andpart of the Glossary have been translatedinto Icelandic. The aim is to continuetranslating according to need.

The Cataloguers’ ManualThe National and University Library hascompiled an online manual for catalog-uers, A Manual for Gegnir cataloguers(HASK). The manual plays a key role inproviding cataloguers with access to infor-mation on cataloguing and in coordina-ting cataloguing practices. It was decidedto update the manual with informationpertaining to RDA instead of relying onlyon the RDA Toolkit.

The Cataloguing Council appointedwork teams which compiled guidelines tocataloguing of different formats accordingto RDA for publication in HASK, forexample, guidelines for the cataloguing ofmusic, books, audio books and movies.The above mentioned translations arepublished in HASK, along with variousinformation about RDA. The manual isupdated regularly in line with the devel-opment of RDA and as the work on theIcelandic guidelines progresses.

The teaching teamThe teaching team consisted of four cata-loguers. It was responsible for organizingthe courses and training sessions of RDAcataloguing for all Gegnir cataloguers.The team also created teaching material inIcelandic. In February to April 2016 tentraining courses were held for 161 catalo-guers, each course lasting eight hours. Thecourses were a mixture of lectures andpractical exercises and were held in acomputer room where each participanthad access to a computer.

These training courses are a prerequisitefor all cataloguers who wish to maintaintheir cataloguing permissions in Gegnir.In May 2016 the team also held courses onmusic and score cataloguing, as well as aseparate course for cataloguing of derivedrecords such as journal articles, bookchapters and single music recordingsaccording to RDA.

The library system team in collaborationwith other teams has re-configuredGegnir and ensured that new cataloguingpractices are compatible with the librarysystem. The re-configuration has resultedin a more accessible working environmentand better work practices.

Follow-upThe formal implementation date for RDAin Iceland is May 20, 2016. This meansthat from then on, all original catalogingwill be according to RDA. Subsequently, itwill be necessary to consider training forgroups other than cataloguers, forexample, librarians working in acquisi-tions, reference and circulation.

It is also necessary to monitor and de-velop how the system works with thebibliographic records, how they appear inthe leitir.is portal and how the interfacelooks and ensure a secure and acceptableinteraction with older data. Additionally itis necessary to monitor the developmentof the rules in the RDA Toolkit.

Alot of work aheadThe implementation process, which agreat many people contributed to, hasbeen intense but the results have beensuccessful. Between twenty and thirtypeople participated in teams and workinggroups, most of them still doing theirdaily tasks not being able to fully devotethemselves to the implementation. Theprocess was one of cooperation and soli-darity among cataloguers all over Iceland.

It is also not to be underestimated thatthe implementation of RDA is an impor-tant opportunity for continuing educationfor existing cataloguers. Although theformal implementation has been com-pleted, a lot of work lies ahead in monito-ring the results and quality control.

It is especially important to see how cata-loguing according to RDA looks in theuser interface. The implementation ofRDA is a step towards a more user-friend-ly approach to the dissemination of infor-mation.

Magnhildur MagnúsdóttirRDA Implementation Manager and Librarian atThe National and University Library of Iceland

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The main responsibility for the decision on RDAas well as the financial responsibility for theproject, lies with The National and UniversityLibrary of Iceland.Photo: Britt-Marie Sohlström. Flickr. CCO

Kristiina Hildén

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The women’s movement and women’sorganisations have played an importantrole in developing society, equality andnational welfare, and the National Libraryof Finland is proud to announce that toprotect this heritage, it has launched apartnership with the two branches of thevenerable Martha Organisation, theFinnish-language Marttaliitto and theSwedish-language Finlands SvenskaMarthaförbund.

To preserve our way of life, we must copewith chores, maintain our personaleconomy, discover clever work methods,cook nutritious food, care for others andprotect nature, and in these arenas theMartha Organisation has paved the wayfor the rest of society for more than acentury.

Joint fund establishedBoth branches were established in 1899,and their official magazines, Emäntälehtiand Husmodern, were first published in1902.

The cooperation is hoped to provide thevaluable, still current material produced

by these associations for public online use. In autumn 2015, the organisations estab-

lished a joint fund for this purpose as partof the National Library’s cultural heritagefund among the University of HelsinkiFunds. The name of the fund is theMartha Fund (in Finnish: Martat –Martharahasto, in Swedish: FondenMartat – Martha).

Digitise as much as possibleThe goal of the National Library is to digi-tise the historical printed materialproduced by the Martha organisationsuntil 1944, including cookbooks, homeeconomy guides and other leaflets, annualreports and ephemera. At the moment,issues of Emäntä and Husmodern havebeen digitised up to 1944.

The National Library intends to acquirethe necessary rights to display copyrightedmaterial online. The digitised resourceswill be released through the Finna inter-face (www.finna.fi/?lng=en-gb) and link-ed to the websites of the organizations.

The Marthas hope to promote the Nati-onal Library’s work to conserve the publi-

cations and work of public organizationsas well as to help the National Libraryraise funds for the Martha Fund so that asmuch of the material as possible can bedigitised.

Based on shared valuesThe cooperation is based on communica-tion and the values shared by the parties,such as the preservation of our immaterialcultural heritage and their long historiesas public institutions.

Articles and videos will be produced incooperation for the magazines and socialmedia of the Martha organizations, pre-senting the National Library’s collectionsand history as well as shedding light onthe work of digitising and conserving theresources. Correspondingly, the NationalLibrary Magazine will present the publica-tions, history and work of the new part-ners.

The cooperation was launched in au-tumn 2015 and will continue through2017.

Kristiina Hildén

FINLAND

Our century online Everyday help from the Marthas!The National Library digitises important parts of the Finnishcultural heritage – from everyday microhistory to high cultureand the achievements of science and art.

What every woman should know ...in 1902: To keep a proper house,how to wash and of course how tomake a nesting box ...

MEETING PLACES FOR CHILDRENONLINE AND IN REAL LIFEOver 1,400 users had registered on thenew national children’s website biblo.dk injust three days. Themes for the so far 160discussion groups range from Minecraftto F.C. Barcelona and from drones toanimals. Anyone can create a group wheremembers share photos, videos and links,much in the same way as on e.g. Facebook.As biblo.dk is meant for children, safetyissues are important.

The members can flag contents they findoffending and the staff will either removethe content or talk to the user responsible.The meaning of the service is to act as asafe environment for children before theymove onto other social media. The loginpractice guarantees that parents cannot

access their children’s profiles or contentswithout permit.

In Gladsaxe a groundbreaking play-ground is being built next to the mainlibrary. The goal is to combine play andlearning and give the whole town a boost.An area of 3,500 m2 will be a green oasiswith themed play areas. The library istaking an active role in town design withthe project. The park is one way to drawnew inhabitants, especially families withchildren, to Gladsaxe. The playgroundproject aims at making the municipalcultural services more visible, and thewhole town livelier and greener thanbefore. It is meant to act as the architec-tural centrepiece for a meeting place.

A big bookcase will be catching the eyefrom a distance, swings, slides and climb-

ing frames will be available together withcharacters, themes and citations fromchildren’s literature. The themes of thepark will seamlessly continue into thebuilding and the children’s department.The playground will be used for concertsand theatrical performances, it is meant tosupport reading, learning and languagedevelopment in children.

Copenhagen Libraries website Danmarks biblioteker 1/2016

DISCUSSION GROUPSSUPPORTING INTEGRATION While debate groups for locals and immi-grants are not exactly unheard of, it isalways good to hear from examples thatwork. Vejle Libraries are exploring how

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SCANDINAVIAN SHORTCUTS

DENMARK

Gladsaxe playground. Photo: UNO.dk

discussion groups could be used to helpintegrate immigrants and refuge seekers.The young users have already met ingroups which have been marketed by theyoung themselves on Facebook. Theyhave chosen the themes and lead theconversation with an adult chairpersonfor help and support. The library offers itspremises as meeting place.

Since the model has worked well for twoyears, it is now being adapted for immi-grants with the help of volunteers andlibrary staff. The new debate groups willvary in size and are meant to supportdemocracy and dialogue in Vejle in colla-boration with the local Red Cross.

Vejle Municipality's is also participatingin the international 100 Resilient Citiesproject, which receives support from theRockefeller Foundation. The goal of thisnew urban network is to create more resi-stant cities. All in all, Vejle Municipalityhopes with this and the debate project tohelp create resiliente, robust refugees andimmigrants.

Danmarks biblioteker 1/2016

STORY OF YOUR LIFEStories are in! Storytelling is a hot topic inpresentations, articles and social media.Stories are being connected to impactevaluation and marketing. Stories are notonly confined to the pages of books, noteven in libraries. Fuglebjerg Library hasarranged several storytelling events wherethe participants tell their life story.

The previous workshops have resulted ina book, and now the library has started astorytelling café. The afternoon kicks offwith a half-hour presentation followed bythree questions which are discussedduring a cup of coffee. Then participantsare under no obligation to contribute,neither is there any homework as was thecase in the workshops.

Naestved Public Library website

DATA LITERACY FOR STUDENTS

Many of the new learning environmentsmake you – or at least me – wish you werea student again! At the University of Co-penhagen (UCPH) the students now haveaccess to a lab where they can explore datadigitally at the Faculty Library of SocialSciences. You can bring your own laptop,but the Digital Social Science Lab (DSSL)also offers iMacs, projectors, big touch-screens and new ways of exploring data.Do you want to pretend you’re in a futuri-stic jungle? This might be the place foryou.

University Post online

OFFENSIVE VICTORY FOR NATIONAL LIBRARYSometimes disobeying and going publicwith it pays off. Kai Ekholm, the directorof the Finnish National Library reactedstrongly against the extensive lay-offsbeing planned for the library as part of theco-determination negotiations in theuniversity sector.

According to Mr Ekholm, the budgetcuts would mean returning to the servicelevel of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The cutswould also put following the constituti-onal law in jeopardy and he downrightrefused firing any of the staff. His state-ment resulted in television appearancesand numerous newspaper articles – and areduction to the number of lay-offs at theNational Library.

National Library website Helsingin Sanomat online

Finnish Broadcasting Company website

FLOATING COLLECTIONSMore and more libraries are introducingfloating collections locally or even regio-nally. While Jyväskylä and Oulu CityLibraries have been floating their collec-tions for a few years, Espoo and Vantaa inthe metropolitan region have started morerecently. In Vantaa, circulation is up by 10percent, some libraries report even biggerincreases of up to 48 percent compared tolast year.

This year, two more regional centrallibraries, Tampere and Rovaniemi, beganfloating their materials. In all of theselibraries, the materials remain at thelibrary where they were returned. Userscan also borrow a book from one libraryand return it to another within the area.Users in Tampere were quick with theirpositive reactions: “Makes my life easier”was one comment on Twitter.

Kirjastolehti 2/2016Tampere City Library website

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FINLAND

Photo: David Clay/Flickr CC BY-SA

OLDIE BUT GOODIEIn a city visited by hundreds of thousands– if not already millions – each year, itmakes sense that also the library getsinvolved. The guided walking toursoffered by Reykjavík City Library since2003 promote Icelandic literature in a funway. As several Icelandic crime writershave recently been translated into nu-merous languages (including English,check out e.g. Arnaldur Indriðason) thefree of charge Dark Deeds in Reykjaviktour has proved popular. And while we’reon the subject of walking, the ReykjavíkCulture Walks App helps you to discoverthe city’s sites through tours curated bythe City Library, the Reykjavik UNESCOCity of Literature and other cultural insti-tutions in the city. Get acquainted withSaga literature, Halldór Laxness or Sjón.

Reykjavik City Library website

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NORWAY

ICELAND

SCANDINAVIAN SHORTCUTS

million entries. A new search functionwith more than 200,000 open-licenceimages from the Finnish cultural heritagewas also introduced. Users can now searchfor images available for e.g. commercialuse or education. These images includephotographs from the 1952 HelsinkiOlympic Games and visual material onFinnish saunas and sauna culture.

Libraries.fi website

Finna, the web service combining thematerials of over 40 museums, around 30libraries and a dozen archives, grewsharply during 2015. Over 50 new organi-zations, a substantial increase in materialsand better usability resulted in a doublingof the amount of searches, the length ofthe visits increased by 50 percent.

In February, an open application pro-gramming interface was published, lettinganyone access the metadata for almost 9

NEW API, MORE IMAGES FOR FINNA

Photo: Anarchivist/Flickr CC BY-SA

Flytta ned hela notisen en rad så linjerar den i botten medfärgplattan och med första kolumnen på sid 49, dessutom blirmellanrummet under bilden mewr li8kt mellanrummet underbilden högst upp på sid 49

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MONSTERPLAY FOR CHILDRENMost children like monsters. A group ofchildren prepared a short play based onscenes from the popular children’s booksabout a little and a big monster, workingtogether with an actress at the Culture-house Gerðubergi.

The production focused on expressingemotions and collaborating with others.The performance was given at themonster show exhibition at the library.The exhibition supported by the NordicCulture Council will be travelling fromReykjavik to the Faroe Islands and Swedenduring the next two years.

Reykjavik City Library website

“SPEAK UP, THIS IS A LIBRARY!”Libraries are adapting to changes inteaching methods and studying habits,also in Iceland. The National Library triesto cater for the sharp increase in studentsworking together by making more spaceavailable for group work. The differentfloors in the library have different rules:teamwork and conversation on one level,quiet space without coffee to spill orsnacks to eat on another.

The Student Council of the University of Iceland website

COMMUNAL SPACEThe interior of the newly renovated TøyenLibrary in Oslo has already created a posi-tive buzz on Facebook with its comfor-table seating groups, attractive work spaceand secluded corners for concentratedreading. While the library offers peaceand quiet, the long communal tables mayinvite visitors to discussions. There is alsoa stage for debates and interviews. What’smore, most of the furniture is made ofrecycled materials, old doors serve asspace dividers, lamps are made of metalpots and pans. Eye candy for any libraryuser!

Norway’s Library Association websiteDeichmanske Library Facebook page

SILENCE IS GOLDENLibraries everywhere are balancing withdifferent, often contradictory needs whenit comes to the noise levels on thepremises. Libraries are, after all, one of thevery few places of peace and quiet intoday’s society but no library can becompletely silent anymore. Luckily, thereare several solutions available. One way toturn down the overall volume of a libraryis to reserve certain spaces and times forsilence.

Bergen Public Library is one of the initi-ators of the national day of silence.Together with the Norwegian LibraryAssociation and the Association AgainstNoise, the library set extra focus onsilence on May 2nd. Every area has beenprescribed a limit: 20 decibels for the café,25 for the children’s department, 10 for thesilent reading room. Sound level metersinstalled in the ceilings make the lightsflash if the noise level exceeds the pres-cribed limit for that particular area. Onthe day of silence the sound level was setat 10 decibels for the whole library.

Bergen Public Library Facebook page

NORWAY

FOOD FOR THE BRAINLibrary users in Norway really have itmade during their lunch break! Severaluniversity, college and public librariesoffer interesting programs – coffee in-cluded (but bring your own lunch) – inthe middle of the day. Levanger PublicLibrary offers book talks every Thursdayat noon, University College of SoutheastNorway Libraries organize monthly lunchbreaks with presentations on current re-search themes at the university.

Some of the recent topics for the Know-ledge for Lunch talks have been e.g.whether consumers really have powerwhen it comes to the grocery industry,history of oil and the ethics and use ofwelfare technology in the care of theelderly.

Levanger Public Library Facebook page

READING ON THE GOSMS literature is still a relatively unknownconcept but around forty Danish librariesare already making short stories andpoetry written specifically for use onmobile phones available for their users.Sølvberget Public Library is the first inNorway to offer access to the sameservice. The selection of the DanishSMSpress so far includes 13 original Nor-wegian titles, the rest are translations fromDanish and Swedish.

What’s exciting about the service is thatthe titles are divided into several messagesand the user doesn’t know the exact timesshe/he will receive the next SMS. Eachtitle consists of up to five text messagesper day, over a period of up to five days.There is also a measure of interactivitythrown in. According to the library, it isimportant to explore the different formatsof literature – the format may change butstories will prevail.

Bok og bibliotek 1/2016

50 SLQ:1-2 2016

Päivi Jokitalo Freelance Library Specialist

pjokitalo@gmail.com

SELMATHON! LEARNING RDAInspired by the Jane-athons organised byALA Publishing and RDA DevelopmentTeam, the Swedish National Libraryarranged its local version, Selmathon,

Selma being the Swedish author SelmaLagerlöf, the first female writer to win the

SELF-SERVICE CULTURAL HOUSESelf-service public libraries where usersalso have access to the library outsidestaffed hours are already a permanentfixture in all of Scandinavia. A self-servicecultural house, on the other hand, is a newconcept. After a renovation, the munici-pality of Alingsås will open both its mainlibrary and its art gallery for self-servicefor its population of 40,000. During reno-vation, the library has made pocket booksavailable at the local shopping mall,grocery stores and the town museum.Newspapers have been placed at localcafés – and readers are under no obliga-tion to buy coffee and cake.

Framisidan website

LITERAPP ENHANCES THE READING EXPERIENCETo support and promote reading is stillone of the most important tasks of libra-ries. Literapp, a literary mobile app, ismeant to do just that. The app combinesliterary work and writing, literature, li-terary places of interest and new literarycontents. It is a collaboration between li-braries, Umeå University, illustrators, de-signers, publishing houses and, of course,app developers.

Literapp can be used as an educationaltool by libraries and schools, but it is alsomeant to bring literary works and personsbehind them alive for all readers: userswill be able to read and listen to stories,get information, study maps, pictures andillustrations on the setting of the stories.The County Library of Västerbotten coor-dinates the project and will start by tyingin the local literary settings with thestories and authors of the region.

Biblioteksbladet 1/2016

SWEDEN

Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. The aimof the day – “a whole day completely freefrom MARC format” – was for catalo-guers, developers and system supplierstogether to explore the RDA and FRBRand have fun!

National Library website

SCANDINAVIAN SHORTCUTS

BOOKFACE FRIDAY, READING TIP TUESDAYI don’t think any of you can have missed the bookface Friday phenomenon. You knowthe funny photos where library staff is photographed with a book cover which melts intotheir person in the picture. You then post the picture on Facebook or Instagram whereit acts as a book tip and advertisement for the library.

As the rest of the weekdays are open for other use, Lund University Library has startedtheir own reading tip Tuesday when the staff share their recommendations on the bestinformation resources such as this.

Lund University Library Facebook page

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The only thingthat you absolutelyhave to know, is thelocation of the library.Albert Einstein

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