Public Libraries Section

Country Report: The Netherlands 2001

Jan Ewout van der Putten
Secretary general of NBLC Association of Dutch Public Libraries

Reform of the Dutch Library system

As Dutch public libraries are mainly financed by local authorities and Dutch law imposes only a small amount of regulation, the public library world of the Netherlands is at risk of losing cohesion. The NBLC, Association of Public Libraries (web address: www.nblc.nl) is trying to hold the community together and has succeeded in uniting them on a common platform of reform and co-operation. The introduction of the new media, for example the Internet, made it clear to all that co-operation between libraries is absolutely necessary in order to maintain a sufficient service level in the years to come. For instance: to provide a meaningful service on the Internet, the library needs much more resources than any single Dutch library or library institution on its own can bring about.

Central government wants to sustain the library system and strengthen this cooperation. The secretary of state for cultural affairs asked the Dutch Council for Culture (Raad voor de Kunst) to advise and as a result, has asked a special committee (commissie Meijer) to find a way to unite the central and local governments (communities and provinces) on a platform of mutual consultation and evaluation of policies on libraries. Libraries that are strong enough to support themselves and are willing to cooperate for the providing of backoffice services, ill, internet etc. Those libraries must be formed by merging of libraries into library organisations (central libraries and branches) serving at least a population of 30.000, better 60.000 inhabitants.

The provincial library authorities, who until now have provided all kinds of services to the individual library organisations of small communities (minus 30.000 inhabitants, often in the countryside) and who occasionally offer backoffice services to bigger organisations, can either offer (paid) services for the libraries in their province or develop into a network organisation of the library community. This autumn, a convenent between the Dutch government and the organisations of communities and provinces will be signed to develop the new system. The NBLC has been asked to take an active part in this development and has received extra funds to undertake the work.

During the process described above, the Dutch public library community supported the direction chosen and asked the government to lay a better foundation for the "new" public library system by introducing - once again, the former law expired 20 years ago - a proper library law, in which at least free access to information and an obligation on the communities to maintain a public library are guaranteed. Furthermore the libraries asked for proper funding to maintain services at a sufficient level and more importantly to maintain the service level of new media (content and equipment) in those libraries where it has already been successfully introduced.

In the area of finances, in spring 2002 the Dutch government commissioned a general survey (IOO-onderzoek) of necessary costs for the new library system . The results of the survey showed that an extra 100 million Dutch guilders (i.e. 40 million dollars) per year is needed for a standing budget of 900 million.
Until now it is not clear if, and/or by what means the money will be made available. Over the next 4 years the government has already undertaken to spend an extra 44 million (11 million per year) to get things going.

Internet

Over the years 1998 - 2000 all Dutch public libraries and library branches were connected to the internet. Most libraries maintain their own, sometimes well developed websites. Many organisations were already on line. An extra grant from the Dutch government made it possible to fill the gaps.
Also extra government money, we could emphasis the content-side in the following years.
The NBLC introduced the concept "Bibliotheek.nl" to provide an umbrella to the individual endeavours of the libraries. A spot on the web, where all kinds of information (reference and full text) can be found with special emphasis on culture, reading and literature. "Ask your librarian", e-mail and online, will be part of this.
Libraries will use this framework to present content to their visitors on the premises. Most of that content will in due course be available for the subscribers of the local libraries from their home computer.
NBLC is working on a program to ensure cooperation between all libraries in procuring and buying content. The license on access to the archives of the most influential daily newspapers (Krantenbank) is an important, first achievement.

The concept Bibliotheek.nl also gives the opportunity to strengthen the network between libraries all over the country. For this reason a "service entrance" will be developed. In the governmental project "Schools and internet", the NBLC has been funded to build a " Mediatheek" on the net. An initiative of the Hague Public Library (de spin (spider), is a portal site for schoolchildren in cooperation with local schools and teachers) has been extended onto a national level system "Vakwijzer". Other projects will follow.

On the technical side two projects are in progress. A big survey has been undertaken to investigate the options and the feasibility of a common library intranet.
The Dutch government funded an intranet for schools (Kennisnet) and libraries must use it to bring library content to schools. A decision is pending whether libraries can do this by using a common gateway to the kennisnet or whether they must belong fully to that network, i.e. choose the Kennisnet as their intranet.
The other project is to add a search engine to Bibliotheek.nl to cover all content in bibliotheek,nl, available databases in one search and present an integrated result. An added feature will be that the user can do an search either in the conventional (boolean) way or "associatively".

To support the library world, the NBLC in co-operation with the NBD, founded an expertise centre called "Laurens". The Centre is the point of exchange of ideas, people and skills within the community. It will also provide (paid) services from a small but experienced staff and - on contract - expertise from outside the library world.

Lending rights

As commonly known, the Dutch position on lending rights (lending exception) differs a great deal from other countries. The European regulation, that introduces fair compensation for rightowners was followed rigidly. Lending fees were introduced on all books. Some libraries could, with some help from their local authorities, secure the money needed from their budget. Others had to introduce direct charges for patrons with immediate, initially sharp repercussions in their number of loans.

The amount of the lending fee is subject to great debate. As is the Dutch custom, there is a joint committee of representatives of the libraries and the rightowners, chaired by an independent president with the deciding vote when both parties cannot come to an agreement. After ten years and as many interim solutions, both parties agreed on 10 eurocents as fair compensation as from 2003. The library community accepted the agreement as the best possible within the given legal framework and asked the government for compensation for the costs of the agreement to safeguard the principle of free access to information.

As the law will be reviewed next year, the NBLC will take the opportunity to evaluate the consequences of the law and again ask for amendments.

For audio and video material, similar agreements have been reached. The lending of cd-roms remains a problem. The rightowners maintain that because a cd-rom consists of both content and operating software, the library cannot invoke the library exception but should seek permission and negotiate the price for every cd-rom.

After long negotiations, rightowners and NBLC decided to agree to disagree and to put the question before a court of justice. In the meantime the parties are preparing to work together in the political debate that will follow should the court rule out the use of the exception.

The Dutch library world is closely following the national implementation of the European copyright directive which came into force in summer 2001. The Dutch government honoured most of the possible exceptions in the (proposal of) law they sent this summer to Parliament. Lobbying will be heavy. As many members (2/3) of the last Parliament either did not stand in the recently held general elections or lost their seats, the political situation is unclear. In addition, the new government can reassess the position taken by their predecessors.

NBLC works closely together with the National Library, the University Libraries and the special libraries to achieve comparably good results in national law-making.

Relation to publishers and booksellers

Recently the two major suppliers to the library community merged. Biblion BV (formerly the Foundation (Stichting) NBLC), after been sold to AND Publishers, was bought by the NBD, a joint venture of NBLC (50%) and the federations of booksellers (25%) and publishers (25%). Both enterprises will be merged on 1 January 2002. The NBD acts as general media-store for the Dutch public libraries (special library binding; added information etc) and adds with this merger many new activities to its programme (publishing (digital and print), book cataloguing and foreign language services). The NBLC, as a representative of the library community, is keen on maintaining its interest in the new enterprise.

Relations between libraries and booksellers have improved enormously over the last few years. Together they organise public meetings with writers and other activities. Last year the NBLC joined the Dutch book promotion association of publishers and booksellers (CPNB) and will participate in the activities on an equal footing with both founding fathers. The CPNB is capable of creating a massive amount of free publicity for books. Libraries have benefited in the past and will do more so, when they can take an active part in the campaigns.

Together with the federation of booksellers, the NBLC is working on a general bookportal on the internet which wants to provide the public with an independent source of information about books. Buying and lending will be treated alike. If a book is still in print, the public will be informed of the price, nearest bookshops etc. One can also see if the book is available in the library and - depending on the service level of that library on internet - if a reservation can be made.

Librarians and booksellers are colleagues in so far as they are both working on the "distribution" side of the bookmarket. Their common interest is that people read books and stay on doing so. Customer satisfaction is the main idea.