Archive - Historical Material

Over the past decades there has been a considerable increase in higher education in Sweden due to the political education policy. New universities and university colleges have been established throughout the country. The decentralisation of teaching and the growing number of students have put extra pressure on university libraries as well as on public libraries. This has led to an increase in document delivery and ILL.

In Sweden there are two major library systems and union catalogues, one for research libraries, LIBRIS, administered by the Royal Library - and one for public libraries, Burks"k, run by a commercial firm. LIBRIS is a decentralised system whereas Burks"k is centralised. Approximately a year ago the LIBRIS service became available on the Internet thanks to the the Swedish government which put pressure on and allocated money to the Royal Library.

ILL for public libraries has a hierarchic structure consisting of three levels. After having applied to these levels and failed to get an ILL, a public library turns to a research library. An ILL case study was carried out last year to see how matters have changed. The study was initiated jointly by The Royal Library's Department for National Coordination and Development and the National Commission for Cultural Affairs. The results will be presented at the conference.

Can the two different library systems be integrated to facilitate ILL? Can the end users be allowed to order their own material? There are both legal and practical implications.

The presentation will cover how the changes have been addressed in Sweden including the funding of national licences for use of commercial databases within the academic world.