This year the Netherlands Public Library Association celebrates its centenary. To mark this event a short film was made.

Starting with lots of severe looking men and women reading newspapers in reading rooms stacked to the ceiling with books, gradually developing into the modern libraries of today with their diverse collections and materials; their well designed buildings and people coming in to meet, to discuss, to attend lectures and to use the many, many computers available to them. And yes, there are still lots of books.

Also to mark the centenary scholars from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland, the UK and the Netherlands were asked to describe the various sources and routes of public library development in their respective countries. The result is ‘Working for Five Star Libraries; international perspectives on a century of public library advocacy and developments’.

There is a
lot of worrying going on in LibraryLands all over the planet. Will there still be
libraries in ten years time?

To answer
that question for the Dutch libraryscene this year a comprehensive study was
carried out by The Netherlands Institute for Social Research, SCP. A  very respectable institution advising the
government on a wide range of social and cultural issues.

From the
blurb:

‘The public
library is the biggest cultural institution in the Netherlands with around 4 million members and
130 million items lent each year. Yet despite this, the library is under
pressure; membership numbers and borrowings have been falling steadily for
several years. In the last six years the public libraries have been working
together with local, provincial and national authorities on a ‘library renewal’
programme. From an organisation primarily concerned with lending books, the
library is being transformed into a cultural centre which is active in five
domains: knowledge and information, development and education, arts and
culture, reading and literature, and meeting and debate.

Meanwhile, rapid changes were and are taking place in society and in the world
of information and culture. This study describes relevant developments within
and outside the Dutch public library sector and relates them to each other. Based
on these observations, the report outlines two possible futures for the
position of the public library in the Netherlands ten years from now. In the first
variant, trends continue at the same rate and the public library gradually
loses support. In the second possible future, the present trends accelerate and
the threats are greater. These two future projections are followed by an
analysis of the deficiencies that could arise from a social perspective in both
cases. In conclusion, a number of suggestions are put forward for action by the
sector and the public authorities to counter these deficiencies. The central
focus is on the substantive renewal of the library service.’

It’s actually quite
a good report as far as reports on this subject go and has greatly contributed
to keeping libraries on the official government agenda.

The report
may be downloaded or ordered in print from the SCP website.

The Leiden university library has launched a new English website. The website will be a one-to-one translation of the Dutch library website. At its launch the new website contains mainly practical information such as library news, locations, opening hours, facilities and access to catalogues and databases. Over the next period of time the website will be gradually extended with further translations of the Dutch website.

So far, English information about the libraries was lacking or difficult to find, whereas demand is great. The libraries have therefore opted to launch the one-to-one translation of the Dutch website in stages, so that English information can be published as soon as available. The English library website provides a growing amount of elaborate information on the many services and collections offered by the university libraries in general, and links to individual library websites that are available in English.

DOK, the
public library of Delft is one of the most innovative and inspiring
public libraries in the Netherlands. Somehow I never got round to write
a lot about them in this weblog.

This month Jenny Levine was a speaker at
the Ugame-Ulearn conference of which DOK was one of the organisers. On her
weblog, The Shifted Librarian there is a detailed description of the wonderful
world that is DOK.

Amsterdam Public Library aims to be a real ‘experience library’. It seems to be working!

free pianoconcert in the library of Amsterdam from annamariaheeftgelijk on Vimeo.

In the spring of  2008, NBD/Biblion the national Dutch library supplier will open a portal site for borrowing e-books
and audio-books. Public libraries may use this site to acquire their own collection
of e-content (e-books and audio books) and make these available for their own
customers.

E-books and audiobooks are increasingly for sale but could  up to now not be
borrowed in the Netherlands, according to a spokesman for NBD/Biblion.

Borrowing means online use by library customers at home on their own pc or downloading
to a mobile e-bookreader or MP3 player. The e-books are available in pdf-format.
With DRM (digital rights management) the loan period is monitored and the book
protected against copying. E-lending works on the same principles as borrowing
physical material: as many customers may borrow a book as the library has purchased
licences.

At the start of the portal a few hundred Dutch language books, e-books and audio-books,
will be available. The aim for both categories is to grow at least with a hundred
titles a year. In addition thousands of copy-right free English e-books will be
available.

The technical infrastructure will be based on the  NetLibrary platform, which is worldwide the biggest supplier of English-language e-content for
library users. For this purpose NBD/Biblion has entered into a contract with OCLC,
the owner of NetLibrary.

The wonders
of RFID technology!

 For his
final exams of the Dutch Design Academy Eindhoven Jelte van Geest made a moving
chair that follows you around. Once you’re finished and ready to check out your
books the chair returns to its homebase!  Great idea! (as long as it’s not too busy and all youngsters are of the extremely well-behaved kind!)

Dutch
libraries receive quite a few visitors from abroad, but it’s not very often
they keep a blog on their experiences and reflections. But that is just what
Helen Carpenter does.

She works in the UK as coordinator for the Welcome to
your library project, connecting public libraries with refugees and asylum
seekers. For 2007 she has been awarded a travelling fellowship on The Role of
Public Libraries in Multicultural Relationships. In October she
visited the Netherlands and Belgium. In the Netherlands she visited the Hague library and
attended in Belgium the Low Countries Library Link conference on ‘The multicultural
library in Mechelen’.

Her personal impressions on both visits are well worth
reading. Read her
impressions on her blog Public Libraries and Multicultural Librarianship.

Part of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is the largest art
history library in the Netherlands.

The library occupies a unique international position, particularly dus to its collection of important works from the 19th century and earlier on Dutch industrial art, printing and drawing.

Recently the library got their own Flickr account which gives a good impression of
what goes on behind the scenes in a large art history library. Based on the
photomaterial there are a number of sets, eg the set Pre-Shelf Life of Library
Materials and a set on the Book Conservation Department.

They promise to add
new photos on a regular basis and welcome your comments and views. Lovely initiative. Enjoy!