Lecture "National Library of Sweden – challenges in the digital age"
 Dr. Gunnar Sahlin (National Librarian, National Library of Sweden)

Discussion
 Dr. Gunnar Sahlin and Dr. Makoto Nagao, Librarian of the NDL

Dr. Gunnar Sahlin

Libraries in the digital age

Since the end of the 20th century, we have been strongly aware what a big impact digital technology has on our lives. For libraries, it caused two separate realms – the website and the library building – and two types of library materials – print form and digital form – which have to be co-ordinated, yet at the same time treated separately. It seems that the digital material and the Web will dominate in the coming years.

Recently, libraries have accepted dramatic transformation, which coincides with the development of the whole society, such as IT, the Internet, demands for better and faster service. The IT development is important for library activities. Now, catalogs and digitized collections are accessible anytime, anywhere. Digital technology such as digitization and e-publishing must be regarded as a great challenge in the coming years as well as a new renaissance for traditional library activities. The physical library building remains, but its function is transformed. Collections are becoming more visible and can be utilized for research and other purposes.

Digitization, e-publications and digital preservation

All around the world, libraries, archives and museums digitize material. Digitization facilitates use of library materials and will influence the way of research in the future. Digitization enhances the availability of our cultural heritages – books, journals and magazines, newspapers, pictures, manuscripts and other materials; offers opportunities of wider access to rare materials; protects the original material from risk of harm; and provides access to collections which are special due to their format, size or volume.

The influx of newly produced digital materials is linked to issue of long-term preservation. Especially, long-term preservation of digital materials will require significant resources, technical development and other efforts.

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Digitization at the National Library of Sweden

Although the National Library of Sweden is at an early stage of digitization, like other libraries all over the world, we have radically improved our production line, increased volume, and provided easier and more effective access to the produced materials.

From 2006 to 2008, the National Library of Sweden received a nearly 2.5 million Euro grant from the government and recruited new staff. Staff with various technical backgrounds, such as photographers, librarians, web specialists and preservation specialists, perform a variety of tasks. It is necessary to allocate our resources in order to increase the budget for digitization. Cooperation inside the organization is one of the most important factors for success.

In addition, we have found difficult questions such as:

• Which should we put priority on, quality or quantity?
• Should we have different production lines depending on material types?
• Should we decentralize the production process?
• Should we automate all these processes?
• We must recycle metadata when possible!
• It is of utmost necessity to pick one’s staff extremely carefully!
• It is important to set realistic goals!

We have digitized some interesting collections, for example most of our 16th century collection, parts of our collections of travel literature, weekly magazines, maps and posters. We have also started digitizing Swedish newspapers. This is a herculean task with difficult issues regarding copyright. We are also involved in digitization projects such as the Swedish Literature Bank (Litteraturbanken), which is a project to digitize Swedish literary classics.

Codex Gigas – digitization of a famous manuscript and its special challenges

I would like to present how we digitized the Codex Gigas, the Devil’s Bible, the biggest and one of the most important manuscripts in the National Library of Sweden. Codex Gigas came to Sweden from the historical Czech territories as war booty in 1648.

Codex Gigas (Devil’s Bible)

We digitized this famous bible from September 2006 to March 2007, when we prepared for its journey and exhibition in Prague, which was its first home-coming in some 350 years. The digitization was a daunting task due to the material’s large size. We built a special studio first of all, and took almost an entire day to digitize each large page. Now, the Codex is accessible on our website, a website which enables the visitor not only to peruse the text and the scholarly commentaries, but also to use the work in a way not possible previously.

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Leadership in libraries in the digital age

Leadership required for libraries changed in the last two decades. Previously library directors were expected to be specialists and to rule library functions such as cataloging and collection development. However, in this age of rapid technical development, the expected image of library leaders is: a generalist; visionary; quick and precise decision maker; able to adapt to the circumstances at hand; has vision and strategies for the future; and has ability to communicate inside and outside the organization.

The National Library of Sweden – its tasks and its role

The most important task of the National Library of Sweden is to collect, preserve, catalog and provide access to Swedish printed and digital materials. A new legal deposit law, which will include digital materials, is in the process of legislation at present. To prevent loss of cultural heritage until the new law is enacted, since 1997 we have collected all Swedish websites about twice a year and Swedish online newspapers every day.

In addition, we are actively involved in international activities. We cooperate with other national libraries, mostly in the other Nordic countries, as well as participate in international projects including the European Library (TEL) project (a portal site of European national libraries), Europeana ( a portal site of digitized materials of libraries, archives and museums).

We are also cooperating closely with Swedish government agencies. The National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images, the National Archives, and the National Library have worked together on common issues, especially long-term preservation of digital materials. We are developing a common catalog, share IT support and we have signed an agreement on the direction of future development. From January 1, 2009 the National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images and the National Library of Sweden have been merged in line with Swedish governmental policy to use resources more effectively and to provide users with better services. It seems to be natural because it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the materials we handle: What is a newspaper of today? Is it the paper edition you read at the breakfast table? Is it the web version?

Conclusion

What’s going on at the National Library of Sweden is part of an ongoing process in the entire world. Now, there is no national boundary in the library world as a result of digital development. The pace of development in libraries will not drop. The National Library of Sweden – like other libraries – will be facing great challenges in coming years.

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Discussion between Dr. Sahlin and Dr. Nagao

In the discussion between Dr. Sahlin and Dr. Makoto Nagao, Librarian of the NDL, broad topics were mentioned, from copyright issues regarding digitization to cataloging work in the digital age. Following is the outline of Dr. Sahlin’s remarks.

How do users use the digital materials of the National Library of Sweden? Do you have problems regarding the copyright of recently published materials?

At present, we have very few users of digitized materials. We still have to wait for one or two years until we have many users. We have digitized materials of which the copyright are already expired, such as all materials published in the 16th century and Codex Gigas. They are used by many researchers; however, there are not many users who study 16th century materials.
Although we would like to digitize materials of the 20th century and many users would expect it, there is a problem of copyright. Even if we digitize newspapers, we cannot put their digital version on the web. Even materials published in the 19th century, which we have not digitized so much, are difficult to provide on the web. As for the Swedish Literature Bank, when we digitize books of the 20th century, we have to pay publishers. It costs much money if we pay for many authors, but we do so as there are many users of the Swedish Literature Bank.
We have two problems: 1) digitization takes time; 2) issue of copyright. We think we share these problems with other national libraries.

Does the National Library of Sweden collect web information with the permission of copyright holders?

In some cases, we have permission so that researchers can use the materials. However, for most of the materials, we have no permission or agreement so far with publishers or with organizations of photographers and authors. At present, we are in negotiation. We hope that we can sign an agreement with one organization in such a way that all the stakeholders could be included. However this is not easy; for example, if we discuss with editors on an agreement about a weekly magazine, they have to discuss with organizations for photographers, for journalists, and for authors. We would like to continue to have meetings with stakeholders to find a solution to copyright issues.

How do you provide collected web information to users?

At present, only a small number of materials are digitized and provided on the web. We are just beginning to consider how we will provide web information to users.

What do you think about long-term preservation of digitized materials?

We know much about long-term preservation of physical materials, as books and microfilms, and less about long-time preservation of digital materials. Our experience of digital materials is in comparison very short. My opinion is all the same that we should phase out microfilm as soon as possible. The problem of long-term preservation of digital material has to be faced and solved. The development and the investments will cost a huge amount of money.

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Could you tell us details of the new deposit law?

We do not know its details at present. The Ministry of Education is in charge of this new law. We have discussed with them and told them what is most important in this law: bringing digital materials to the National Library. As we have no deposit law for digital materials, we are losing many materials. In addition, it is also important what we can put on the web. The current situation is very difficult, as the Ministry of Law is very careful about how materials should be presented on the web. Therefore, I think we need to concentrate on collecting materials in the National Library, rather than considering how we can provide them on the web.

What is your opinion of cataloging work in this digital age?

It is important for library directors to take more responsibility for cataloging and how to run cataloging in the future. Metadata is very important in digitization of materials. It is not only a question for libraries, but also for universities and others involved with digital materials. Metadata is a tough question today.
In Sweden, we decided to replace SAB (Swedish Classification System), which had been used since the early 20th century, with DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification), which is the most common classification system in the world. We had many discussions, and then we reached a conclusion that classification will still be important in the future. Therefore, we introduced DDC. The cost was high; however, we can reduce costs by importing information from other countries.
As for other solutions, we are considering recycling of metadata and bibliographic work in a more rational way. If we can obtain good information from editors, it is not necessary for national libraries to spend so much time and money on cataloging. There is also room for improvement in organization, as there are many catalogers in libraries and universities.
We can see that digital development will enable us to do cataloging work in more mechanical and technical ways compared with today. So we really have to work on these issues.

More details of this lecture and discussion will be published in NDL Monthly Bulletin no. 577, April 2009 (in Japanese).

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