Rolf Hapel, Library Director at Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker provides this issue's regular PubliCA column. Rolf is Denmark's country contact for PubliCA [1].
Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark and has 283,000 inhabitants. The library system consists of a main library, 19 district and branch libraries and 2 mobile libraries. The libraries have a circulation of more than 5,2 million issues and 2 million visitors per year. The IT-infrastructure is well developed as are the contents of the virtual library.
An important aspect of the development of access to Internet services that Aarhus Municipal Libraries has provided in recent years is Aarhus-net, the network that connects all the institutions of the municipality. All the local libraries in Aarhus (20 in all) have been connected to Aarhus-net since 1997. At present more than 160 public workstations in the libraries are connected to the "red net" section of the net, which is allocated to citizens' use. Consequently everyone can access the Internet when visiting the library.
The libraries have thus democratised access to using the most important tool of the information society. In practise everyone can, free of charge, surf and search on the Internet. The libraries regularly hold introductions to the Internet for anyone interested as a part of the libraries general educational task. Libraries have, from the outset, been defined as important centres in the information society. They guarantee one of the most important principles of a democratic society, namely the free and equal access to information.
In a library system it is traditional to have an pro-active strategy in relation to information technology. As early as the late 1980s a computer facility was set up and a UNIX-based library-system was introduced. The public has used the system ever since to search the library's catalogue and the staff have used it to administrate the purchase and lending processes.
The system has been expanded and modernised several times. With the emergence of the Internet, a merging of the dedicated library system and the Internet services has taken place. It is now possible to search the library's catalogue from home, via the library's home page. Later this year users will have the option of reserving and ordering material from home as well.
Furthermore, the first steps have been taken in creating "the interactive catalogue". This library catalogue will not only provide information about a given book's availability in the library and allow the user to reserve or order the book but also uses the catalogue entry to act as a link to selected related resources on the Internet e.g. information about the author, book reviews, articles on the topics of the book etc.
As has been the case in other knowledge-based organisations, the Internet signified a revolution for Aarhus Municipal Libraries. It began in 1995 with its first web pages. Since then it has been a deliberate policy to ensure the pages are updated and to make them increasingly more relevant to the users: in short, to focus on the contents.
At the end of January 1999 the web site was renovated. It is, in terms of contents, amongst the most advanced in Denmark today. Even as early as October 1998, as the only one among 67 libraries, the web site, along with that of Vejle Library, was rated with 5 stars by the electronic magazine on culture "Soendag Aften" (Sunday Evening).
It is necessary for the library system to increase IT competence among its staff, in part to make them capable of supervising users and also to enable them to participate in the enrichment of information through selection, quality assessment and commenting on relevant resources on the net.
This development in competences will also include elements to build up new IT-supported internal working methods. Such working methods may thoroughly change the organisation within five to ten years. An important aim in this process will be to convert human capital, or the "hidden knowledge", into structural, more usable capital, not least in view of the expected generational change the libraries will experience in the timeframe.
Another strategic element in the usage of the Internet in the libraries is the involvement of the "civilian society" in the development of the resources. The users form a vital part of the services, not just as target group for the service but, to a large extent, as co-developers of the service. It would not, for instance, have been possible to create "Censuses on the Net" had it not been for the participation of a number of volunteers, who assisted in keying in the old censuses to a digital form.
Similarly, young volunteers, organised as a group of so-called "Netskaters", have contributed to the development of the homepage for children and youngsters, just as representatives for the users have worked as active consultants in the development of "FinFo" - the electronic information system addressed to refugees and immigrants.
The following are some of the services from "The Electronic Library" which users can access on the Internet:
Aarhus Municipal Libraries have created a virtual - or electronic - library of periodicals in which links to all web-based Danish periodicals can be found that are judged to be relevant to a larger circle of users. This means that periodicals from various associations, clubs and societies are now included. Furthermore access is provided to a number of foreign (international) periodicals, which the library subscribes to through regional and national licences. Presently approximately 750 full text periodicals are available from the agencies Ebsco, Academic Press and Springer.
Moreover, in connection with the subscription at Ebsco, registered distance users from Aarhus County have been given access. This means that registered users of the libraries in the municipalities of Aarhus County are able to use the search facilities from home, as opposed to only being able to use these facilities via the libraries' Internet PCs.
In 1999 Aarhus Municipal Libraries received a grant of 275,000 kroner from the Danish National Library Authority's development pool for the development of a proper user registration system, which controls the access to net-based electronic resources by the libraries' users, regardless of whether the users are physically present at the libraries or not.
The Development Department at Aarhus Municipal Libraries has produced a distance learning scheme, which is specially adapted for employees at the public libraries in Denmark. The development phase was financially supported by The Danish National Library Authority, while the operation of running the courses are based fully on payment by the participants. To begin with the courses were offered to the libraries in Aarhus County, but since June 1998 they have been offered to libraries nation-wide.
Presently the scheme is being translated into English, as the distance learning courses have been in great demand in a number of European countries. Not least prominent people at libraries in the ten Central and Eastern European countries, which have applied for membership of the EU, have shown a huge interest in the distance learning project from Aarhus.
So far the scheme consists of three courses, which are being updated continuously:
In 1999 the library's Business Information section will offer a "tailor-made" distance learning course of 4 lessons to businesses and firms in Aarhus County. The library is furthermore arranging a Nordic conference in Aarhus with the title "Distance Learning in Tomorrow's Public Libraries" to take place in May 1999.
Rolf Hapel
Library Director
Aarhus Biblioteker
Moellegade 1
8000 Aarhus c
Denmark
Email: hapel@bib.aarhus.dk
URL: <http://www.aakb.dk/>
For citation purposes:
Rolf Hapel, "Aarhus Municipal Libraries and the Information Society",
Exploit Interactive, issue 3, October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/publica/>
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