Library frontiers - old and new. The Norwegian Library Association 1913-2005

By Tord Høivik, Associate professor in library and information science, Oslo University College

      Go west, young man, go west!
      In the early years of the twentieth century, Norwegian libraries were
      deeply influenced by new American ideas about librarianship. The two
      biggest public libraries in the country were headed by men that had
      experienced US public libraries at their best: Haakon Nyhuus in Oslo and
      Arne Kildal in Bergen.
      Nyhuus (1866-1913) had worked at the Newberry Library and the Chicago
      Public Library where he became Head of Cataloguing in 1893. He returned
      to Norway in 1897, and turned Oslo Public Library upside down. He was
      still young, only 31, and people describe him as full of enthusiasm and
      bursting with ideas.
      From 1905 till 1907 Kildal studied librarianship in the USA, at Dewey`s
      famous school in Albany, NY. Afterwards he worked at the Library of
      Congress. He returned to Norway where he became head of Bergen Public
      Library in 1910. He was even younger than Nyhuus. At the age of 25 he
      directed the second largest public library in the country.
      The ideas that the two men brought back included open stacks, public reading
      rooms, the Dewey Decimal System and ambulant services. Nyhuus wanted to
      set up library services outdoors, in local parks, and even - it is
      rumoured - on trams.

      The Norwegian Library Association
      These two innovators were also instrumental in setting up the Norwegian
      Library Association which was founded in 1913. Nyhuus died in 1913, but
      Kildal (1885-1972) had a long and distinguished career in the library
      sector. He served as president of the Association from 1913 till 1916 and
      again in 1929-33.
      Nyhuus and Kildal were not exceptional. During the period 1887-1926 more
      than sixty Norwegians received their formal library training in the United
      States. Those who returned got central positions in Norway. The
      professional basis for Norwegian librarianship was created by students
      abroad.
      This particular link was, in fact, unique: during this forty year period
      more than thirty percent of all foreign library students in the US came
      from Norway - a country with only two million inhabitants at the time.

      The great Dewey battle
      Libraries are quiet and peaceful places. Does that apply to librarians as
      well?
      Fifty years after Nyhuus died, Oslo Public Library was the scene of a
      bitter struggle. The head of the library, Mr Henrik Hjartøy, and the head
      of cataloguing, Ms Birgit Foss, clashed famously over the proper use of
      Dewey. Hjartøy wanted to arrange books of fiction on the shelves by their
      original language,and to modify the Dewey codes for literature accordingly.

      Foss wanted no truck with local dialects:
        "Dewey´s classification system has proved its worth ... A generation ago
        many talked about national adaptations, but this is hardly feasible
        today. If every country had its own system, it would would hamper and
        delay international collaboration with regard to bibliographies, card
        exchange, staff exchange, etc."
      But Hjartøy was not convinced:
        It does not take a great thinker to realize that most of today`s
        classification systems will be useless for public libraries in a couple
        of generations.
      His in-house expert disagreed:
        "It is well known that international working groups continually revise
        and improve the system. Thus it is almost impertinent to believe that a
        single individual, in splendid isolation, would venture to impose
        fundamental changes in total disregard of expert opinion.”
      The struggle lasted for almost two years. Finally Mr. Kildal, who now
      headed the Directorate of Public Libraries, was brought in to decide the
      issue. It was settled in favour of Ms Foss and international
      standardisation. And maybe rightly so. Two generations have passed, and
      the Dewey classification system is still going strong. In 1955, and again
      in 1969, NLA published Norwegian editions of the DDC, with the victorious
      Birgit Foss as editor.

      Radicals and conservatives
      The great "catalogue battle" (1951-53) was more than a technical
      disagreement, however. Political and cultural barriers separated the
      parties. Before the war, Henrik Hjartøy was an active communist, with deep
      roots in the radical labour movement. Hjartøy had been the head of the
      "red" Public Library at Rjukan, an isolated industrial town. In this
      community, the library was both a social and a political centre. Rjukan
      still has one of the strongest collections of revolutionary literature in
      Europe.
      The world economic crisis in 1929 led to a radicalisation of Norwegian
      political life. Hjartøy was elected head of the NLA after Arne
      Kildal in 1933. Within the Association, Hjartøy headed the radical wing. He wanted
      libraries to engage in social and political issues and disliked the
      narrow technical orientation that many librarians returning from the
      United States brought with them. In 1935 he was defeated by a more
      conservative candidate.
      Technicians and activists
      A certain tension between conservatives and radicals, and technicians and
      activists is natural. A few years after the great Dewey battle, in the
      late fifties, a young librarian described the technicians:
        An impressive collection of grey-haired elderly ladies surveyed the
        public library situation - a group of old friends with similar
        backgrounds and identical opinions. (They) knew their subjects to
        perfection and managed their libraries with a tight grip, but their
        attitudes were authoritarian and conservative. They were not interested
        in more active library policies, preferring to go into technical and
        administrative details instead.
      Librarians operate at the intersection between technical systems and
      social communities. Influenced by family background, training and inclination, some
      will emphasize technical improvements. Others wil see the need for
      community development. Some will opt for stability, while others will go for change.

      Norwegian librarians and IFLA
      The Norwegian Library Association was one of the original members when
      IFLA itself was established in Edinburgh in 1927. The 13th IFLA meeting
      was held in Oslo in 1947. This was the first conference after the war, and
      a Norwegian, Wilhelm Munthe, was elected as IFLA president. He served from
      1947 to 1951.
      The United States was still a source of inspiration. In 1930 Munthe had
      crossed the Atlantic to study the organisation of US academic libraries.
      He concluded that
        "the traveller was forced to reevaluate everything that had been
        inherited and had been accepted as the way to do things in the face of new
        ideas, methods, problems, perspectives and ideals. America ... is not a
        country; it is an ambience."
      The 41st IFLA meeting in 1975 was also held in Oslo. Another library
      pioneer from Norway, Else Granheim, chaired the Norwegian Organizing
      Committee. Else Granheim headed the Norwegian Directorate
      for Public and School Libraries for many years. She served on IFLA’S Executive Board from
      1977 and was elected President in 1979.
      At that time, the "special relationship" between Norway and the United
      States no longer existed. Norway was a strong supporter of the United
      Nations and emphasized its links to the world as a whole. Else Granheim
      was a committed internationalist. In her Presidential Address (1981) she
      emphasized the social context in which libraries operate:
        “We live in a world in which blessings are unevenly and unjustly
        distributed, and this applies not only to food and the necessities of
        life. This holds true just as much for the spiritual stimulus one gets
        through books and other printed matter, as well as for the information
        necessary for education and craft and for assuming our roles as
        conscientious citizens.”

      Today, the Norwegian Library Association faces the same basic issues. As
      professionals, we believe that culture, education and knowledge should not
      be divorced from equality, justice and freedom. The library profession
      has a social as well as a technical mission. But our social environment is
      changing, now in the early years of the 21st century. We are leaving a
      world defined by the Book - and entering a world defined by the Web.
      The heavy industries that created towns like Rjukan are retreating.
      Professionals, artists and small creative firms move in. In the late
      nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the
      United States. Our library pioneers went with them. Now the flow of
      migration goes from South to North. Norway is becoming a multicultural
      country.
      Our task as an organisation is to make sense of what is happening, and to
      find a viable direction for the library sector in this new and unmapped
      territory. The frontier is right in front of us.

      References
        Johan Koren. The Pioneers: Wilhelm and Gerhard Munthe [i] . World
        Libraries, Vol. 12, No. 2, Fall 2002.
        Norsk bibliotekforening. Norsk bibliotekforening 90 år. Oslo: NBF, 2003.

        Unni Knutsen. Deweys desimalklassifikasjon og Norge. Foredrag på
        Kunnskapsorganisasjonsdagene 2002
        Hans Eirik Aaarek. American ideas in the development of public libraries
        in Norway. (PDF)
        Kristin von Hirsch. Hemmelig, rød helligdom . Bok og bibliotek, no. 4,
        2004.
        NLA - The Norwegian Library Association

	Library frontiers - old and new. The Norwegian Library Association 1913-2005
	By Tord Høivik, Associate professor in library and information science, Oslo University College Go west, young man, go west! In the early years of the twentieth century, Norwegian libraries were deeply influenced by new American ideas about librarianship. The two biggest public libraries in the country were headed by men that had experienced US public libraries at their best: Haakon Nyhuus in Oslo and Arne Kildal in Bergen. Nyhuus (1866-1913) had worked at the Newberry Library and the Chicago Public Library where he became Head of Cataloguing in 1893. He returned to Norway in 1897, and turned Oslo Public Library upside down. He was still young, only 31, and people describe him as full of enthusiasm and bursting with ideas. From 1905 till 1907 Kildal studied librarianship in the USA, at Dewey`s famous school in Albany, NY. Afterwards he worked at the Library of Congress. He returned to Norway where he became head of Bergen Public Library in 1910. He was even younger than Nyhuus. At the age of 25 he directed the second largest public library in the country. The ideas that the two men brought back included open stacks, public reading rooms, the Dewey Decimal System and ambulant services. Nyhuus wanted to set up library services outdoors, in local parks, and even - it is rumoured - on trams. The Norwegian Library Association These two innovators were also instrumental in setting up the Norwegian Library Association which was founded in 1913. Nyhuus died in 1913, but Kildal (1885-1972) had a long and distinguished career in the library sector. He served as president of the Association from 1913 till 1916 and again in 1929-33. Nyhuus and Kildal were not exceptional. During the period 1887-1926 more than sixty Norwegians received their formal library training in the United States. Those who returned got central positions in Norway. The professional basis for Norwegian librarianship was created by students abroad. This particular link was, in fact, unique: during this forty year period more than thirty percent of all foreign library students in the US came from Norway - a country with only two million inhabitants at the time. The great Dewey battle Libraries are quiet and peaceful places. Does that apply to librarians as well? Fifty years after Nyhuus died, Oslo Public Library was the scene of a bitter struggle. The head of the library, Mr Henrik Hjartøy, and the head of cataloguing, Ms Birgit Foss, clashed famously over the proper use of Dewey. Hjartøy wanted to arrange books of fiction on the shelves by their original language,and to modify the Dewey codes for literature accordingly. Foss wanted no truck with local dialects: "Dewey´s classification system has proved its worth ... A generation ago many talked about national adaptations, but this is hardly feasible today. If every country had its own system, it would would hamper and delay international collaboration with regard to bibliographies, card exchange, staff exchange, etc." But Hjartøy was not convinced: It does not take a great thinker to realize that most of today`s classification systems will be useless for public libraries in a couple of generations. His in-house expert disagreed: "It is well known that international working groups continually revise and improve the system. Thus it is almost impertinent to believe that a single individual, in splendid isolation, would venture to impose fundamental changes in total disregard of expert opinion.” The struggle lasted for almost two years. Finally Mr. Kildal, who now headed the Directorate of Public Libraries, was brought in to decide the issue. It was settled in favour of Ms Foss and international standardisation. And maybe rightly so. Two generations have passed, and the Dewey classification system is still going strong. In 1955, and again in 1969, NLA published Norwegian editions of the DDC, with the victorious Birgit Foss as editor. Radicals and conservatives The great "catalogue battle" (1951-53) was more than a technical disagreement, however. Political and cultural barriers separated the parties. Before the war, Henrik Hjartøy was an active communist, with deep roots in the radical labour movement. Hjartøy had been the head of the "red" Public Library at Rjukan, an isolated industrial town. In this community, the library was both a social and a political centre. Rjukan still has one of the strongest collections of revolutionary literature in Europe. The world economic crisis in 1929 led to a radicalisation of Norwegian political life. Hjartøy was elected head of the NLA after Arne Kildal in 1933. Within the Association, Hjartøy headed the radical wing. He wanted libraries to engage in social and political issues and disliked the narrow technical orientation that many librarians returning from the United States brought with them. In 1935 he was defeated by a more conservative candidate. Technicians and activists A certain tension between conservatives and radicals, and technicians and activists is natural. A few years after the great Dewey battle, in the late fifties, a young librarian described the technicians: An impressive collection of grey-haired elderly ladies surveyed the public library situation - a group of old friends with similar backgrounds and identical opinions. (They) knew their subjects to perfection and managed their libraries with a tight grip, but their attitudes were authoritarian and conservative. They were not interested in more active library policies, preferring to go into technical and administrative details instead. Librarians operate at the intersection between technical systems and social communities. Influenced by family background, training and inclination, some will emphasize technical improvements. Others wil see the need for community development. Some will opt for stability, while others will go for change. Norwegian librarians and IFLA The Norwegian Library Association was one of the original members when IFLA itself was established in Edinburgh in 1927. The 13th IFLA meeting was held in Oslo in 1947. This was the first conference after the war, and a Norwegian, Wilhelm Munthe, was elected as IFLA president. He served from 1947 to 1951. The United States was still a source of inspiration. In 1930 Munthe had crossed the Atlantic to study the organisation of US academic libraries. He concluded that "the traveller was forced to reevaluate everything that had been inherited and had been accepted as the way to do things in the face of new ideas, methods, problems, perspectives and ideals. America ... is not a country; it is an ambience." The 41st IFLA meeting in 1975 was also held in Oslo. Another library pioneer from Norway, Else Granheim, chaired the Norwegian Organizing Committee. Else Granheim headed the Norwegian Directorate for Public and School Libraries for many years. She served on IFLA’S Executive Board from 1977 and was elected President in 1979. At that time, the "special relationship" between Norway and the United States no longer existed. Norway was a strong supporter of the United Nations and emphasized its links to the world as a whole. Else Granheim was a committed internationalist. In her Presidential Address (1981) she emphasized the social context in which libraries operate: “We live in a world in which blessings are unevenly and unjustly distributed, and this applies not only to food and the necessities of life. This holds true just as much for the spiritual stimulus one gets through books and other printed matter, as well as for the information necessary for education and craft and for assuming our roles as conscientious citizens.” Today, the Norwegian Library Association faces the same basic issues. As professionals, we believe that culture, education and knowledge should not be divorced from equality, justice and freedom. The library profession has a social as well as a technical mission. But our social environment is changing, now in the early years of the 21st century. We are leaving a world defined by the Book - and entering a world defined by the Web. The heavy industries that created towns like Rjukan are retreating. Professionals, artists and small creative firms move in. In the late nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the United States. Our library pioneers went with them. Now the flow of migration goes from South to North. Norway is becoming a multicultural country. Our task as an organisation is to make sense of what is happening, and to find a viable direction for the library sector in this new and unmapped territory. The frontier is right in front of us. References Johan Koren. The Pioneers: Wilhelm and Gerhard Munthe [i] . World Libraries, Vol. 12, No. 2, Fall 2002. Norsk bibliotekforening. Norsk bibliotekforening 90 år. Oslo: NBF, 2003. Unni Knutsen. Deweys desimalklassifikasjon og Norge. Foredrag på Kunnskapsorganisasjonsdagene 2002 Hans Eirik Aaarek. American ideas in the development of public libraries in Norway. (PDF) Kristin von Hirsch. Hemmelig, rød helligdom . Bok og bibliotek, no. 4, 2004. NLA - The Norwegian Library Association