Formal Name: The National Library of Norway
History & Collections
Since its founding in 1811 the Universitets-Bibliotekec i Oslo (University
of Oslo Library) has served as a national library for Norway. For most
of its existence it had the right of legal deposit. The law covering legal
deposit was passed in 1882, revised in 1939, and revised again to take
effect in 1990. In 1989 the government decided to create a new independent
National Library of Norway with a main library in Oslo. It set up a branch
of the new library in the small town of Mo i Rana in northern Norway, a
little south of the Arctic Circle, to handle all legal deposit material.
The new law on legal deposit, probably one of the most advanced in the
world, covers printed material, pictures, films, videotapes, sound
recordings, broadcast matenal, databases, and other types of
electronically and optically stored materials--in principle, every information
format available to the public. The branch in Rana is to develop a national
depository library, national lending
services, a newspaper microfilming program, and a unit for converting
old catalogue cards into machinereadable data. The branch will also have
a laboratory for visual media and will handle restoration of older films
and photographs.
Sources:
World guide to libraries. New York: Saur, 1998.
World encyclopedia of library and information services. 3rd ed.
Chicago: American Library Association,c1993.