A Danish perspective

In Denmark we have for years talked in terms of ‘outreach library work’. This meant functions actually outside the library building, aimed at the service to all who were prevented from visiting the library themselves, for example library service to hospitals, old people’s homes, prisons, military barracks and ‘The library at your doorstep’, meaning service to the elderly and the handicapped in their own homes.

We had librarians who worked exclusively
with this particular area. Now we
see the libraries’ social work to a
greater extent as an integrated part of
the libraries’ other tasks.We have tried
out new ways and designed programmes
to match the present needs of
different groups. For example:

- A new generation of elderly people
with a need for instruction in IT
competencies
- The need for support for reading
stimulation. In Denmark the situation
is that every pupil in four leaving
elementary school is not able to read
well enough to complete a further
education – including a vocational
education. In terms of young people
with two languages, the figure is one in
two.
- A particular challenge lies within the
area of refugees and immigrants where
the library could play an active role in
the integration initiatives.

Traditional ‘outreach work’ is still operating,
and many libraries make an important
contribution in this way, but a
lot of effort has also gone into the
development of new forms of socially
directed library work. To a great extent
encouraged by government means for
development, which we in the Danish
Library Agency administrate. Over the
past few years we have singled out special
action lines and developed programmes
for those areas which we find
it important to strengthen.

A strategy for developments

In 2006 we furthermore prepared an
overall strategy for developments in
our libraries. A strategy which we considered
necessary for the library in order
to live up to its position as a central
public institution in a digital age. The
strategy seeks to take into account new
user habits and the new demands
which globalisation imposes on Denmark’s
competitive abilities in an international
context. At the present time
government and the Folketing (the Danish
parliament) prioritise:
• Research and education
• Lifelong learning
• Innovation
• Social enterprises that activate and
integrate.

Within all these areas we feel that the
library has some very important tasks
to attend to.

Support for citizens
with reading handicaps

I can give you some examples of current
projects and programmes with a
social aim:
A very concrete area is support for citizens
with reading handicaps. The central
institution for library service to the
blind, The Danish National Library for
the Blind, is in the process of reorganising
its entire production from
analogous to digital technology. Via the
portal E17 digital texts and audio
books are introduced to the blind and
others who because of some handicap
are unable to read conventional text.
Due to a comparatively liberal Danish
copyright legislation on this point,
dyslexics also have access to the site.

The Danish National Library for the
Blind mediates the digital texts directly
to the user and cooperates with the
public libraries which can provide
guidance to the users in how to use the
site. Several public libraries also run
projects on IT utility programmes,
which give the reading handicapped
direct access to information that is
being read aloud on the net. A completely
new project deals with the integration
of such IT utility programmes
more generally in learning programmes
aimed at lifelong learning. One of
the recommendations in our strategy
is: The librarian must leave the library
– and go in search of the user. This can
happen in a physical sense or via the
net.

A library service in a trucker centre

A small library in the south of Jutland
has for example set up library service
in a trucker centre in the municipality.
Lorry drivers from all over the country,
travelling all over Europe, gather together
there. They can borrow audio
books which they can enjoy listening to
on the long journeys. The project has
been a major success with completely
new experiences for a group who traditionally
has not enjoyed a comprehensive
education, and who are not the
keenest ‘culture users’. A subsequent
project is at the moment extending the
service to cover the whole country.
Over the past ten years many public
libraries in Denmark have supplied introduction
and instruction to various
target groups in the application of new
technology and information search on
the Internet. For example, courses for
students in further education, courses
for seniors and for immigrants.

Borger.dk

In connection with the structural reform
which took effect at the turn of
the year, one common digital access to
public service was opened: borger.dk
(citizen.dk) which is a cooperation between
state, municipalities and regions.
As a consequence of the libraries’ obligation
to mediate public information
and in continuation of the work the
libraries are already carrying out in
instructing citizens in searching on the
net, an agreement on cooperation has
been made with the national institution,
the Digital Taskforce that develops
the service. The agreement
means that the libraries are given an
official role as ambassadors and tutors
of borger.dk and the self-service solutions
associated with it. Acquiring a
digital signature is, for example, not
entirely simple. The Danish Library
Agency organises the cooperation and
also finances an appropriate competence
development programme for the
libraries. All municipalities have joined
the programme. The entire enterprise
is, of course, meant as a service to all
citizens, but in the nature of the case it
does have a social dimension, seeing
that some sections of the population
will need more help than others.

The library – gateway to
the Danish society

Under the slogan ‘The library - gateway
to the Danish society’ and in cooperation
with the State and University Library,
the Danish Library Agency has
been running a three-year programme
with a view to strengthening the libraries’
work with integration of citizens
with a different ethnic background.
The programme received government
grants for four regional consultants
who were to inspire and coordinate the
individual libraries’ work.
At the same time the libraries were given
the opportunity to apply for financial
means for development projects.
The Danish Library Agency wanted in
this way to offer ‘a helping hand’ for
the purpose of working out new models
for the libraries’ integration efforts,
whereupon the libraries themselves
were to finance further developments.
The results were so excellent
that the Ministry of Refugee, Immigration
and Integration Affairs wanted the
libraries to develop the programmes
even further with new activities.

The kind of integration work that took
place in the libraries had proved to
work really well. A club for young girls
in a part of Odense that has a heavy
concentration of foreigners became an
enormous success. To young girls and
women belonging to an ethnic minority
the library is one of very few places
that they may visit freely. Via club activities
the girls have learnt about social
and health-related subjects, got help in
seeking jobs etc.
The Ministry of Refugee, Immigration
and Integration Affairs and the Ministry
of Culture have therefore subsequently
made an agreement of cooperation,
which will underpin the libraries’
function as hothouses for citizenship
and as learning centres and cultural
meeting places.
The first concrete result of the agreement
is a grant of two million DKK
towards establishing help with homework
in the public libraries. The aim is
to help more young people who have
to cope with two languages to improve
their Danish, so that they may complete
an out-of-school education and
later a qualifying education. At the
sa-me time help with homework encourages
a kind of social fellow-feeling
that gives an insight into Danish values.
I feel that the examples above apply to
some of the libraries’ offers with a clear
social dimension. Having said that, the
library is by nature, with its fundamental
emphasis on ensuring free and
equal access to information, socially
inclusive.We positively know that the
library has played a decisive role for
many ‘pattern breakers’ both among
Danes and immigrants.

Jonna Holmgaard Larsen

Chief Consultant
Danish Library Agency
jhl@bs.dk

Translated by Vibeke Cranfield