20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The world changes… so the library changes... 357did it start in The Netherlands and who was at the steering wheel of thetransformations?The Netherlands public library landscapeThe Public Library system in the Netherlands consists of three layersof library services related to three levels of government, serving about16 million inhabitants of which a number are from immigrant backgrounds.At the local level about 1100 public libraries are financially supported bylocal authorities, averaging up to 80% of the libraries. In addition, 15% oflibrary income is through users (membership and overdue fees) and 5%through other paid activities like room rent, courses and lectures.Most of the communities have a library or mobile service (60 busesin total). Local libraries can have a service contract with a provinciallibrary service organisation. There are 12 provinces (ranging from 400000to 2.5 million inhabitants). At the provincial level, the provincialgovernment subsidises regional library infrastructure, programmes andprojects, executed through the provincial service organisations and somelibraries with regional tasks.At the national level, the state (Ministry of Education, Culture andScience) subsidises the Netherlands Public Library Association as a sectorinstitute for maintaining and improving the public library network. Thisincludes tasks for professional quality, innovation, IT, promotion of readingand a central lending collection facility for foreign languages. A major taskhas been added in 2007: cooperation with services for the visually impairedand Dutch expats. 1 The Association receives membership income from allpublic libraries. Other income is received through applying for major ITprojects, especially to build further on the digital library, www.bibliotheek.nl. Central library and information services are performed by NBD/BiblionLtd (a merger of a former department of the Association and NetherlandsLibrary Service, NBD), a partly non profit library supply foundationestablished by public libraries, booksellers, publishers, in 1970.Development and legislationThe initiatives of community groups, churches and liberal or charityinstitutions have played a substantive role in building up the Dutch welfarestate. Dutch public libraries were set up by these groups and graduallyreceived funding from the state and local government. Nowadays, publiclibraries still are mainly private non-profit foundations and receive about1The situation at the national level will radically change as of 1 January 2010; seeparagraph Update for 2010.