Niels Ole Pors, Library Link Regional Convenor - Europe

Two days ago I received the official Danish Statistical Yearbook on the conditions and state of public libraries. (Biblioteksstyrelsen - Biblioteks�rbog 1997: Statistik for folke-og skolebibliotekerne. Copenhagen 1998. ISBN 87 89147 80 4.) Reading all the numbers raised some - at least from my perspective - rather interesting questions that in some ways relate to the ongoing debate about the information society.

As you might know there are approximately 5.1 million inhabitants in Denmark in 2 million-plus households. 1 million of these households have a computer. That is, nearly 50% of the households. During the last year the number of private households with an Internet connection has doubled - from 167,000 to 325,000.

This is very interesting when you look at activities in the public library sector. A couple of years ago quite a lot of people asked questions about the future pattern of reading and the future of the book.

The above mentioned statistical yearbook covers the year 1997. It is very detailed but it gives some amazing figures about lending and reading patterns - which make interesting readign in this electronic age. The figures show that the issuing or lending of books was declining until 1996. 1996 was a turning point, because that year lending increased. That trend continued in 1997. It is interesting to note that it is all kind of lending in public libraries that is increasing. It is books; it is other materials like audio-visual resources; it is interlibrary loans and so on. The increase is, of course not huge. But nevertheless it is encouraging in the light of the other IT opportunities to get entertainment and educational help.

Since 1993 the number of staff members in public libraries has decreased by approximately 10 per cent. You could then talk about a higher productivity. Around 40 - 45 % of the staff are librarians.

The public library system in Denmark has in total 32 million books. The yearly growth in stock is over 2 million, which is nearly the same as the number which are weeded. This means that the public library system has 6 books for each inhabitant, and that the lending figure is nearly 14 for each inhabitant per year - 9 for adults and 35 for children on average.

Nearly every Danish public library has some kind of Internet access for its users, and these IT facilities are, of course, used heavily. It makes it much more interesting to witness those issues for all groups of society. It looks as though the current fear for the future of the book is exaggerated. It is true that lending of materials other than books - AV resources, CD-ROMs, and music - increases even more but still, it would be good to hear about the situation in other countries.

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