Access to information in the nordic countries

This article concentrates on the national services and databases in the Nordic countries. The availability of information via networks is the main discussion topic. The Nordic libraries have a long tradition of cooperation. The basic idea at present is to make the national information of each country available to all users within Scandinavia, to create a "Union Nordic Library." The necessary qualifications for that kind of co-operation are very good: the development of the national systems is in process or already operational at a high technical level; the Nordic research networks are connected to each other and to international networks; the data itself is in standardized form and very well covers the recent publications.