library.dk
Integration of National and Local library services
ELAG Rome 18 April 2002
Leif Andresen, Library Advisory Officer, Danish National Library Authority
*) This paper includes additional information compared to the presentation at ELAG 2002.
Everybody has direct access to the database with the possibility of sending off requests to the
Danish libraries. The database with the Danish name bibliotek.dk and Internet address
http://bibliotek.dk is free of charge.
In order to provide every citizen in Denmark with equal opportunities for searching, finding
and gaining access to information, the libraries’ shared catalogue of holdings has been available
to everyone via the Internet since October 2000. And it is possible to request books or articles
(or other media) to be collected from the user’s own library.
The Danish National Union Catalogue includes holdings information from nearly all Danish
Public Libraries and most of the publicly available research libraries.
This information is the basis for the new service.
Background
Denmark has a long tradition of many different forms of co-operation between public libraries
and research libraries (special and scientific libraries). Interlibrary loan is essential in this
context. Giving access to information on collections in the individual libraries has therefore
been a central task for many years.
In the early nineties the databases which contained location information from the public and
research libraries’ collections, were combined in the database called DanBib.
DanBib is a professional tool for library staff and contains about 14 million bibliographic
records consisting of
 Research library catalogues
 Public libraries’ holdings
 The Danish National Bibliography including e.g. articles and music
In addition DanBib contains British National Bibliography and Library of Congress, both of
them since 1981. The German National Bibliography is accessible as a separate database.
DanBib contains localisations for the public libraries, but catalogue records for the research
libraries. Matching catalogue records for the same title has therefore been a major problem, as is
indeed the case in many other National Union Catalogues.
DanBib has become the central point in the libraries’ interlibrary loan co-operation, as the
localisations in DanBib make DanBib an obvious choice in this context. The so-called DanBib
mailbox, which via email sends requisitions to the individual library, was therefore quickly
established.
As the libraries’ own catalogues were being opened on their homepages, there was an increasing
demand for DanBib to be opened to the end user.
A change in the public library act has been under way since the mid-nineties. As part of the
preparatory legislative work, the then Danish minister for culture, Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen,
chose to put forward the political wish/claim that DanBib were to become accessible to all
Danish citizens on the Internet, not only with a search but also an ordering facility. The result
was that the new Act regarding library services includes public access to DanBib.
Soon the proposal won general approval which meant that the Danish National Library
Authority was entrusted – with the Danish Bibliographic Centre in the role of developer – to
create a popular edition of DanBib, accessible on the Internet and with an ordering facility
available from the start.
Right from the beginning it was decided that not everything had to be changed! There are many
perspectives in a common database with general access, but the intention has all the way been
that the project should be a realistic one and get off the ground as quickly as possible. The
development of many new, exciting facilities takes time and would certainly have postponed the
opening for quite a while.
The pivotal point is the user
In the development of library.dk, the attention has focused on the end user. Focus has quite
deliberately been shifted from the libraries to the user, keeping in mind that the service is after
all supposed to be directed at him. A marketing of the libraries is obviously also an aspect of
library.dk, but the presentation of the site is not aimed at promoting the libraries’ profile, but
rather at providing the users with collective access to all libraries.
User interface as well as content have all the way been intended to live up to the requirements
and expectations of the user. The Danish Library Centre therefore chose almost straight away
to attach a user panel to the development project. From the beginning it was decided to develop
the user interface under the assumption that the user had a minimum of knowledge of how to
use PC and Internet and a minimum of knowledge of libraries. On the basis of this, user panels
were selected, partly to outline the requirements in relation to user interface and search facilities.
The panels consisted of people of different ages, people in employment, unemployed people,
pensioners, women and men. The end user’s - and not the professional user’s = the librarian’s wishes and demands in relation to the system have therefore been the most important aspect.
The fundamental idea has all along been that library.dk must be accessible to everyone. The
page has also been tested with a view to accessibility for the visually impaired and a user
interface in English has also been developed.
The Library point of view
The library.dk concept stresses the fact that it is the individual user who chooses the material
he/she wants and also the place of collection, i.e. the library where the user wants to pick up the
actual, ordered material. But the user doesn’t choose the library to deliver the material.
So it is the library system in general which in the most rational and economical way makes sure
that the material ordered, is procured for the place of collection, in case the library chosen as
place of collection does not itself hold the material in question.
Each library determines its own service profile within the frames of the library act. This means
i.a. that music materials, CD-ROMs etc. belong to the group of obligatory material, which will
not be compulsorily included in the interlibrary loan co-operation until after 1 January 2003.
Also after this date, video isn’t obligatory material for public libraries, so a library can decide not
to lend this material to citizens from other municipalities.
Each research library has their primary user and a lot of the libraries have different rules for
different groups of users.
It means that each library in library.dk has described in quite precise terms the service which is
offered to the user. Questions about searching and description of books, periodicals, music etc.
as well as assistance in using library.dk must therefore be directed at the individual user’s local
library. Questions about the individual requisition must be directed at the library which the user
has chosen as place of collection.
A number of Danish libraries have individually - or together - developed a number of net
services. The services, which are of a national character, are included with links on the front
page of library.dk.
Function of library.dk
The users can search on three levels: simple search, advanced search and a blank CCL-screen.
After choosing a title, the user must choose a library to collect the material from. The user
doesn’t have to select a library to get the material from – only where to collect it.
library.dk contains:
 Localisations from nearly every public library and public research library in Denmark
 The Danish National Bibliography, cf. content of the DanBib database.
This means that one can search on all registered books, periodicals, CD-ROMs and other
materials, acquired in Danish libraries. There is a total of just over 7 million titles, covering
several million materials.
The Danish libraries’ technological co-operation has right from the start been built on open
international standards, which are only to a limited extent adapted to Danish conditions. The
DanBib base is thus built on standardised modules which are immediately compatible with the
library systems that build on standards which are on the Danish market.
In the development of library.dk no particular technological demands were placed on the
participating libraries.
Existing library systems were, therefore, supposed to be able to be used without further
immediate technological requirements and subsequent economic consequences.
The libraries receive requisitions from library.dk in various formats:
 e-mail with human-readable text
 e-mail with structured information
 a web-based database.
Each library chooses its own mode of receipt – which might be different for requisitions from
the library’s own holdings and potential interlibrary loan requisitions.
From the web-based database your requisition can be processed by a single click, so we are
talking about an efficient tool. The requisition is then moved on to the lending library via the
DanBib mailbox.
As is the case of the general development of the Danish library system, library.dk has been built
up piece by piece, module by module. The intention has never been at the theoretical level to
develop a complete, closed product – on the contrary – the development is process-orientated
and continuous.
With present technology it is not possible to show loan status in library.dk. But via library.dk it
is possible to change to the individual library’s catalogue. Some libraries have chosen to bar
requisitions for material from their own holdings via library.dk, referring the user instead to
order the material by changing to the local catalogue. It has seemed at bit inconvenient, but at
the beginning of the year a facility was added which means that this change takes the user
straight to the requisition screen for the title concerned in the local catalogue.
It has been a question of choice here, as technology and implementation of for example Z39.50
for holdings registration is not yet established in Denmark, but the first implementation was
carried out in the autumn of 2001.
The consequences for the libraries
By far the majority of requisitions are in fact for interlibrary loans. This can be seen partly from
library.dk statistics and partly from the fact that a number of the larger research libraries have
experienced a marked increase in the number of requisitions from the public libraries. A major
part of English-language literature has in fact only now become visible to the man in the street,
and this has quite clearly resulted in a growing demand.
library.dk has increased the number of requisitions in the libraries – and this is particularly true
in the case of the public libraries.
The number of ILL-requests sent to public libraries from other libraries went up from 2000 to
2001.
From public libraries were received 703,243 requests in 2000 as opposed to 843,323 requests in
2001, which is an increase of 19,9 %. From research libraries were received 145,538 requests in
2000 as opposed to 219,627 requests in 2001, which is an increase of 50,9 %. In the same
period the number of total loans to the public libraries’ borrowers went down by 1,1%.
But one thing is absolutely certain – the traditional materials such as books, periodicals etc. will
for many years to come remain central in Danish libraries. In the further development of
library.dk the emphasis will therefore be on processing and executing so-called user initiated
interlibrary loan requisitions as rationally and economically as possible.
New developments
Since the launching of library.dk a number of improvements have taken place and a
comprehensive action plan is now available which includes several functionality developments.
Improved service to the user is the keyword and all development initiatives will be based on this
premise.
In the case of some libraries, requests for materials owned by the library itself have been
transferred to the local library system. The request is re-directed from library.dk to the local
system where the local material ID is used for direct check in the local system’s stock
whereupon the local procedure for requests moves into operation. It is also possible to re-direct
from local system for an immediate search in library.dk without having to key in once more.
It is now possible for the user to save his borrower’s identification etc. so that it won’t be
necessary to key this in at each request. This is done via a cookie on the user’s own PC.
It is a well-known problem for National Union Catalogues that one cannot make a complete
matching so that the same edition of the same title is always gathered into one registration. With
access for everyone this problem has become even more topical. The Danish Bibliographic
Centre had been working on this and by doing a new match run in March 2001 was able to
remove 1,1 mil. duplicates from the system and combine them with other records in the
database.
Development plan
The continuous development of library.dk is done with a determined view to improve the
possibilities for the user of library.dk. We maintain that a simple user interface is most
important and very advanced facilities, which cannot be used by the ordinary user, are not on
the cards.
The purpose of developing library.dk can be divided into:



Improved access for users to the libraries’ data
Rationalisation of the libraries’ work
Using library.dk’s content as a springboard to better/extended service to the users.
Improved access for the users to the libraries’ data
A so-called ‘work presentation’ is under preparation. The idea is based on IFLA’s Functional
Requirements for Bibliographic Records to collect several editions of the same work and
present them together to the user – both in the search and presentation phase. If a title, for
example, has five editions, the user is supposed to only experience one hit and one inclusive
presentation. He can then view directly the division into editions or click his way to view
detailed information. How important a particular edition is for the user is bound to vary. In
terms of works of fiction it probably won’t matter too much, whereas it matters a great deal
with non-fiction and this structure will then be very useful in identifying the most recent
edition. Hans Henrik Lund from Danish Bibliographic Centre presented this project on ELAG
2002.
A way of using the classification system as subject access points, is to create an alphabetical
browser hierarchy based on the Danish decimal classification system. The idea is to use the
verbal description of a subject group for representations on the screen (without classification
code), starting by presenting the 10 main groups. By selecting one of these, the appropriate subgroups will be shown. The final design has not been worked out yet, but the emphasis is not
going to be on a formal rendering of the system. It will for example be possible to combine
several levels in the classification system into one level if the number of groups is of a size that
makes this viable.
Since March 2001 several net services developed by Danish libraries have been integrated in
library.dk. There are links to these services from the front page of library.dk, and the next step
in integration is import of registrations of net resources into library.dk. The idea is that
library.dk will then covers a wide range of Internet resources, quality-checked by Danish
libraries. First the plan is to import data from the projects listed above under library.dk is also a
portal. This is a challenging job. The projects of the public libraries used different formats and
the level of registration varies.
Another example of integration with data produced by the libraries are ‘author portraits’, which
are presented on various homepages, i.a. prepared by the libraries. There will be a marking of
the author in library.dk, if a portrait of him/her exists and a click on an icon will take you to
wherever the portrait can be found.
As an extra service to the users it will be possible to view holdings registrations from any
library. Information about whether the material is on loan is particularly useful and you will also
be told the expected time of delivery if the material is not on the shelves.
Rationalisation of the libraries’ work
The improved match and development of ‘work presentation’ mentioned above would also
mean a rationalisation of the libraries’ work. At the moment quite a lot of time is spent on
sorting through potential interlibrary loan requests in order to provide another edition which is
actually available in the library in question.
Presentation of holdings statements is also going to mean a rationalisation of the libraries’ work.
Z39.50 Holdings Schema is used for presenting and transferring holdings statements.
From the libraries’ point of view, one of the weak points is that at the moment it is not possible
to check before accepting a request whether the local library knows the user. The only
validation available is checking whether a personal identification number meets the formal
requirements. The development of borrower check from library.dk to local system is therefore
high on the agenda. With NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) we now have a
standardised form to be used for the implementation of such a borrower check.
Today requests to another library generated from library.dk are sent via the DanBib mailbox. As
there actually is a library system, which is just about ready to receive ILL requests carried via
Z39.50 in XML format, library.dk should also be able to send this way. The great advantage is
that the local library system will be updated automatically and that the requesting library
automatically will be told whether the material is available. It would facilitate the manual process
when receiving requests from other libraries considerably.
Another improvement in service – and incidentally one, which eases the workload in the
libraries – is a marking of new titles. Then the user realises that the reason for his own library
not having got the title is perhaps that it has just been published and has not reached the
shelves yet.
Using library.dk’s content as springboard to
better/extended service to the users
The primary objective with library.dk is of course to present the libraries’ service to the citizens.
But this should not be perceived as a straitjacket. There are several areas where the information
in library.dk can be used as the basis for development of a further number of services to the
user. It does not really matter whether the libraries are the suppliers – the all-important thing is
that the citizen is given a better service.
Central in this context is the so-called ”Available for sale” button. It is up to the user to decide
whether he wants to order a title from the library or whether he would prefer to buy it. It
would, for example, seem sensible to choose purchase instead of ordering, if he can see that the
local library won’t be able to produce a copy for him within the next six months, because there
is a long waiting list already. Or the book may not have been purchased yet and therefore won’t
be ready for several weeks. When the user has indicated that he wants a certain title, he will be
offered the choice between ordering or buying, if there are booksellers who have the title in
stock. If the user wants to buy, he is shown a list of possible suppliers with prices and terms of
delivery. He then chooses the relevant supplier and is transferred to the appropriate web site.
Another possibility is to offer extra service against a fee – a case in point being the dispatch by
post of photocopies of articles. But there may be quite a number of areas where the libraries
can offer extra service based on data in library.dk. I am quite convinced that we shall be
witnessing a host of ideas emerging in the years to come.
Integration with other systems
At ELAG 2002 I gave an overview of integration of library.dk with the local library system and
with others systems. These facilities and development plans are in this article presented together
with a total presentation of library.dk. But to give the same overview as on ELAG 2002 the
integration with other systems is resumed subsequently.
The user’s library gets access to their user’s requests by receiving e-mail or by looking it up in a
database. Normally requests for their own holding are received by e-mail and proposals for ILLrequest are looked up in the database
The ILL-requests are performed integrated in the DanBib request mail-box system. The ILLrequests to other libraries are sent by email (just unstructured text) or as ISO-ILL carried by
Z39.50. A copy of the request to requesting library is sent by email - unstructured text or
structured for update in local ILL-system.
Some libraries don't accept requests for their own books etc. Then the user can’t request the
title in library.dk. But he can click on a link and is moved to the request screen in his local
library system.
Many libraries offer their users a service in the OPAC: repeat the search in library.dk if the
search in the local system gives zero hits. An example:
Search for title: Coastal morphology is transferred to library.dk with this URL:
http://www.bibliotek.dk/linkme.zap?ccl=ti%3DCoastal+morphology
The weakness of the current way of handling the user-initiated ILL-request is the manual check
of borrower identity. The solution to this problem is automatic check of borrower before he
gets access to request in library.dk. Our plan is to use NCIP to make this check.
For articles registered in the national bibliography, we plan to open a “request a copy sent to
your letter box” service. The user pays with credit card, and the request is sent to a library
which can deliver a copy from the specific journal. This library sends the copy by mail the same
day - and is credited every month
When a user wants a title, he will also be given the opportunity to buy it. When the button is
selected, he is presented with an overview of suppliers. He selects a supplier and is moved to
the supplier’s web-page ready to buy the specific title.
Conclusions
library.dk has meant that general public access to all Danish library materials has become more
than a principle – it is a fact. The easy access to all the country’s library materials via library.dk
gives each citizen immediate access to many more resources than was previously the case.
The development of library.dk has been successful because the targets set were simple and
manageable and it was possible to realise them within a reasonable timescale. The development
has moreover not been based on comprehensive and specified demands, but has worked
towards some overall targets and benefited from a running development process based on
dialogue.
The user has been put right at the centre – and this is not just a cliché. New functions etc. are
continuously being considered not in terms of tools for the libraries, but as facilities for the
ordinary user. An example like the ’Available for sale’ button demonstrates clearly that it is not
only a question of a presentation of the libraries’ possibilities, but also of the user’s possibilities
on the basis of the libraries’ resources.
There is an on-going development of the basic functions which library.dk offered from the
start. A number of classic problems are being looked into:
- match of records from different libraries
- exploiting classifications for subject searches
- integration of the libraries’ physical materials and quality-assessed net resources.
The library.dk development has also meant changes in the professional edition of the national
common library catalogue DanBib, which was launched in May 2002.
The new service library.dk has proved a success. It works – and it works well.
Just try it:
Danish interface: http://bibliotek.dk
English interface: http://library.dk
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Caption
Requests sent to University and Public Libraries and added up together. Requests from the 17
months from November 2000 to March 2002. The amount is still growing. Off course June,
July and December are “slow months”. In April 2001 a campaign was conducted, which
resulted in an extraordinary number of requests (the black column).
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
University etc.
Public
All