What is the significance of the library to people in everyday life and how is the library perceived as a meeting place? How does the Internet affect people’s social life and their use of the library? How can one offer a variety of services with the best possible use of the limited resources available? These are very relevant questions when deciding upon strategies for a library in a local community.

The public library’s role in society is
constantly evolving. The library system
holds a unique position as a knowledge
resource offering equal services free of
charge to each and every inhabitant. At
the same time a library serves as a cultural
and social meeting place in the
local community with a particular focus on literature
and activities for children and young people.

The last few decades have seen a massive
closure of small branch libraries in
the Nordic countries and many of today’s
libraries also have very limited
resources. Users of libraries in the
smaller municipalities, however, have
just the same variety of interests and
needs as those who live in the larger
towns. Being able to offer adequate and
varied services regardless of the library
concerned represents a formidable
challenge.

It is not often that the public library
system rates as a topic in the national
or international media, but when libraries
feature on political agendas at local
level, public interest can be strong.
Users often express appreciation of
their local library and many are well
aware of a library’s importance to the
local community. This involvement
and the feeling of ownership among
both politicians and inhabitants is of
great value and should be nurtured
with care in any future development of
the public library system.

Nevertheless, although the library
system has a good reputation and
although politicians are supportive,
statistics show that the use made of
library services and the financial support
given to libraries are both decreasing.
Libraries must therefore start to
think along new lines. The development
of closer cooperation between
libraries is a necessary strategy if these
challenges and demands are to be met
and if libraries are to be strong and
active partners in the knowledge society of the future.

In Norway an official report Library
Reform 2014 has been nationally distributed
for professional consideration.
The response from many municipalities
is that they see a need for a
strengthening and improved quality of
local library services and that this can
only be achieved through coordination
and better collective use of resources.

By judging the individual resources of
any particular library against what
other libraries have to offer, both with
regard to media resources and professional
skills, a sound basis can be created
for useful cooperation. Establishing
digital library services, joint search facilities
in all library catalogues, shared
transport arrangements, etc. can all
serve to exploit media resources and
staff expertise in a better and more
intelligent way, thus ensuring improved
library services regardless of municipal
borders and differing administrative
levels.

Universities and colleges of higher
education have seen the potential in
cooperation, both the possibility to
offer their students decentralised services
through the public library system
and also for they themselves to serve as
a special library for all the inhabitants
in the region working in their particular
field. New types of library, such
as the one recently opened in Drammen,
can provide valuable experience
and prove an inspiration to other local
communities.

Library development is dependent
upon national and regional support,
upon the willingness of librarians to
ignore traditional dividing lines when
considering their resources and on cooperation,
not only between libraries
themselves but also with other institutions
in the community. The challenge
here is for library owners and administrators
to be far-sighted enough to
pioneer this type of cooperation without
perhaps being able to foresee the
consequences for their own library.

External project financing is often
necessary in order to carry out reorganisation
of this nature, but no less
important to success are motivation,
enthusiasm and creativity in the local
community. Library development
should place the user at the centre and
challenge libraries to think along new
lines.

Leikny Haga Indergaard
Head of department Norwegian Archive
Library and Museum Authority

leikny.haga. indergaard@abm.utvikling.no

Translated by Eric Deverill