1991:2 - Universitetet i Bergen

ases and decentralized pictum bases - the pictures stored on laser
disks.
The mos1 cxpensive element in creating picture data bases is still
preparing and registering the pictures, i.e, the manual labour. The
technologicd investmenr takes a smaIlcr proportion of the budger the
higher the number of picrures to be entered.
ET HUMANISTISK NETVÆRK
A HUMANIST NETWQRK
A Scandinavian CuIture-historical Network is now bcing established
under Lhe coordination of the auhor. This network will center around
the ficlds of erhnology and folkIow, where there is already an extensive
Scandinavian cooperation. The comrnunicative basis wiEl be national
nctworks, which will be made to function togebet as a means of
professional comrnunication within Scandinavia. NaturalIy, there will
also be acccss to the large international nerworks.
The nelwork will provide a nurnber of sewices: acccss to bibIiographic
database, conference, elettonic mai1 scrvice, ncws. factual databases,
nrlicles, rcvicws and bibliographic news. In the information society, rhc
problem is not to gct access m information: the problcm is rarher to
avoid the unnecessasy information. Hence, the material on the nerwork
wiII be edited. abbreviated and regisiered such that the individual user
may get just the amount of infomation he desires. This service will
be providcd by the editorial staff of Nord Nytt (the Scandinavian
pcriodical for eihnology).
The main sources of material wil1 be the larger instirutions. bul Ihc
network wiII be open to a11 users. Two organisations far Scandinavian
cooperation, The Nordic institute of Folk Literature and the Nordic
Work Group far Elhnology and FolkIore, wilE participatc from the star^,
and Scandinavian Bibliograplty of Elhnology will be made aceessible
from an early point.
During the first year of the project, starhg this fall, the organisation
and financia1 basis wi21 be eslablished and the practical arrangement
for rnacbinery and software will be worked out. The work planned for
the sccond year includes working out edirorial raulines and accessing
the databases. After that the network will basicdly bc operational. The
pilot projecr will run for one additiond year, and the network wiI1
then be evaluatcd before a decision is made abous pcmcnent operation.
A more cornplcte presentation of the plans can be found in the article
Camrnunicarion Network for researchers Wirhin rhe Humanities, ro be
published in Nordinfonytt.
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