Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS KORSZERŰSÉG – LIBRARY AND MODERNITY

Library automation in Finnish research libraries cable. The databases have also been opened to other universities and several university libraries are already downloading records for their own cataloguing purposes. The use of databases has grown more rapidly than anticipated, the number of simultaneous users being at the moment (when only a part of the libraries within the university have joined the system) about 150. The database of the Finnish National Bibliography FENNICA has also been made available internationally through Internet. When the joint system with its databases and help functions will be installed in 1992/1993, the main load of use will concentrate on the union catalogue of the participating libraries in the joint system. University libraries will then be in the position of utilizing the work already done by other libraries. Helsinki University Library will, as the National Library of the country, be responsible for making the records of current Finnish literature available within the network as fast as possible; this will require close cooperation also in the future with other libraries and agencies participating in registering new Finnish titles. Catalogue records of foreign literature will be made available either by using the National Bibliographies of other countries on CD-ROM or on magnetic tapes. The goal is to reduce cataloguing in the libraries to a minimum. The big investment in the automation system for the University Libraries raises new demands on the libraries. It will not be acceptable that local systems will, during a longer period of time, cover only a minor part of local collections. Retrospective conversion of old catalogues is, therefore, a hot issue in Finland. As the National Library of the country, Helsinki University Library in 1989 set up a special service centre for retrospective conversion of catalogues. The Centre is located in the town of Kotka, about 130 kilometres east of Helsinki, and it has reached the size of 17 staff members. The Centre is partly converting the Finnish National Bibliography for the use of the 6 legal deposit libraries, partly offering its services to other libraries against payment. Several libraries have already made use of this opportunity; Finnish university libraries are suffering from lack of staff but they are permitted to buy services from outside. All converted data will be freely available in the coming joint system for all libraries participating in the LINNEA network. Close cooperation has also been established with public libraries. The supply centre of public libraries, the Finnish Library Bureau Kiijastopalvelu Oy joined the National Bibliography in 1988. It is providing staff for the National Bibliography against the right to sell catalogue records to public libraries. Public libraries, especially big city libraries, will consequently choose data systems which use the Finmarc data format. That makes the exchange of data between libraries easy. Big city libraries e.g. have already purchased the database of the National Bibli„ Gondolatok a konyvtarban " 145