Nordic Folk Academy Click here for information about the Socrates project "The Public and the Library"

Preliminary texts for the manual

Part 1

The Library of the Nordic Folk Academy is a meeting place and an information centre specialised in non-formal adult education, adult learning and andragogy. There are books in the English language, particularly on Nordic adult education. The visitors will get guidance and counselling in the search for literature both in the library itself and in various Nordic databases, as well as on the Internet.

The library contains approximately 20,000 volumes of books, 250 periodicals, most of them dealing with adult education, published in the Nordic countries as well as international ones. There are older issues in stacks, some of them going back to the fiftieth. The library also contains Nordic and European daily papers, which are collected for one week.

The library is specialised in adult education in a broad sense, from formal to non-formal adult education, including folk high schools, study organisations and NGOs.

The main part of the special section pedagogy and adult education, but other subjects relevant to the Nordic concepts "popular enlightenment" and education for democracy, are also dealt with, for example, sociology, philosophy, psychology, history, art and literature. A priority area is books in English on adult education, preferably books discussing the Nordic concept of adult education. Books in English on Nordic culture and identify and social issues are also priorities.

There is also a special collection of book dealing with NFS Grundtvig, the Danish educator, poet, priest and thinker……

Donations of books on adult education are gratefully received, older collections of historical value, i.e. Grundtvig books, as well as many gifts of new reports and publications within the field. There is an exchange of reports with other Nordic and international institutions.

Ways of working

The library is at its most active when working with scholars. Every year in January to February, the Nordic Folk Academy is open for scholars to stay for some time, to do research, to make field studies or to finish a book. The library is assisting and guiding the scholars in the library and in the various databases, study visits are arranged and prepared in for example to other local libraries.

Thematic exhibitions of books are made for every course, conference or seminar. The librarian's presentation of the exhibition and of the library as a whole is a recurrent point on the agenda.

In connection with this, literature lists are prepared and delivered to the participants. These lists are of great value, because they contain literature on a specific subject from all the Nordic countries, as well as books in English. This is a longstanding tradition, which has been one of the characteristics of the Nordic Folk Academy Library.
Now the use of IT is of growing importance. Internet as well as Nordic and international databases on books are frequently used.

e-mail: kerstin@nfa.se e-mail: norden@nfa.se
Nordic Folk Academy

Part II

Adult education and public libraries 2010 - a Nordic project

This project is run by the Nordic Council of Minister through the steering group for Adult and Popular education (FOVU).

Each of the Nodic countries has been given the task of building a scenario for the future, concerning the role of the public library in relation to adult education and IT.

The question asked is: How can adult liberal education and public libraries in co-operation counteract the tendencies to polarisation and defective access to IT for adults?

After the scenarios have been put together, a working group is studying the possibilities of actualising some of the ideas in real life.

The deadline for sending in the scenarios was in February 1998, and a meeting was held in March discussing these proposals. At this meeting in March it was decided that the scenarios should be made more concrete with the intention of setting up a national or bilateral project under a period of two years up till the year of 2000. Another meeting was held in September 1998, and the Norwegian national project was of special interest for us and will be enlarged on under another headline.

The goal is to set up minor pilot projects in small cities or in the countryside, where adults will get the opportunity to learn about IT at their local library and through their local study organisation.

The object of this is to avoid that certain groups of people are being marginalised, i.e. people with low education, elderly people or people from sparsely-populated rural areas. The local public library is the ideal place for such learning, as it is a safe and well known meeting place for people of the community, where they can come in just to read their daily paper or to play a game of chess.

Nordic Council of Ministers:
Sigrun Røstad, Nordic Council of Ministers
St. Strandstraede 18,
DK-1255 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Tel: +45 33 96 0378
Fax: +45 33 93 35 72
e-mail sir@nmr.dk
Nordic Folk Academy
Kerstin Dahlén, Nordic Folk Academy,
e-mail kerstin@nfa.se

Part III

Norwegian project

Overall plan for Norwegian project, presented to the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The project is going to set up open learning workshops, which are completely different from the traditional learning arenas. The project involves public libraries, adult education teachers, guidance counsellors and study organisations.

There will be municipal or inter-municipal study centres in association with the public libraries. One is aiming at an increased competence for the library staff within the subjects of andragogy and IT.

The new open forms of learning and learning workshops will be supplied with IT and guidance services. In this connection, there will be need for a new type of service, combining the roles of teacher, librarian and guidance counsellor for jobs and education.

The courses should focus on IT, with the aim of simplifying the learning process, to make it appeal to low educated people and people who lack job experience. The special counsellor will be responsible.

The plan

1. Pedagogical development of the courses (first tried out in workshops for self studies).
2. Developing three public libraries in Hordaland into workshops. Studies of the changing role of the librarian.
3. Electing the participants of this first pilot course. It is important to choose people who are able to evaluate the courses in relation to their jobs. The studies will be organised with the help of IT.

Description of the Norwegian pilot project NELL

"Adult educational guidance in workshops for self studies."
The co-ordination of adult education by the public library.
A more precise description of the NELL project in Hordaland, Norway. (Bente Bjørkly) and Per Inge Båtnes, Vofo (The Norwegian Association for Adult Education), vofo@vofo.no and SRV (The State Adult Education Centre),srv@statvoks.no, Norway. The aim of the project is to make regional networks to adjust infrastructure and to motivate companies and individuals to adult learning. The networks includes all agents in the field of adult education on a county level.

The name NELL stands for Network for Lifelong Learning. It has been active for two year and it will be finished in December 1998, and it is a co-operative project for adult education and public libraries. This networking involves different agents, who are usually not co-operating, but here work together to achieve the best possible opportunities for adult learning.

To develop new learning arenas, the focus is on the public libraries, whereby the learners use the libraries to a much larger extent, and many courses are started as results of the project. In some parts of the region Odda and Hordaland there is an already existing co-operation between public libraries and study organisations, in other parts there is not, so the project has developed somewhat differently according to this, but as a whole NELL is accepted as an arena for learning.

Apart from the public libraries, there are several actors involved in the project. These are: the organisations, the providers and the users (the customers).

The role of the public library

The local public libraries are central in the project. The librarians and the library workers take an active part in the project as part of their ordinary jobs. The libraries have been marketing the study offers: including localities, knowledge of the library system, reference books, Internet and computers. The opening hours have also been adjusted to fit the needs of the learners.

The further education of the library staff is already going on to make them better equipped to meet the needs of the individual customers. The technical equipment must also be taken care of. Each of the libraries in the project has an overview of the regional offers of education as well as distance learning opportunities through a database.

The project is scheduled to start and finish in 1999.

Information about the project:
Internet:NELL Contact persons: Bente Bjørkly: bente.bjorkly@hordaland-f.kommune.no
Ruth Ørnholt: ruth.ornholt@hordaland-f.kommune.no

Evaluation of co-Nexus
Monitoring Visit

My viewpoint on co-NEXuS is that of adult popular education or in other words - socio-cultural education. The main ideological foundation of this is the concept of democracy - a democratic, free and voluntary education for adults.

Within this concept follows the obligation to prevent the marginalisations of groups of underprivileged people. To be able to give a free and easy access to education and to information. A problem here is our information society with its demands for knowledge of IT. This is one of the most burning questions in the field of socio-cultural education at the moment, and it is also very much on the agenda. How to make it easier for people to take part in the information society of today, how to help older people, those living in remote areas, those of work, immigrants, people with low education?

Co-NEXuS seems to be an answer to these questions. It will help people to get an easy access to IT in their own language. This is to me most important. The barrier of language, of spelling, reading disabilities must be overcome. Co-NEXuS has been tried on people with low education and immigrants. The results here are very interesting. If these groups of people could be reached, then much has thus already been gained.

Another issue is that the available information is of interest to these groups. Without having a real, live interest in what is offered, no one will try to search for it. Offers of jobs, offers of adult education, information about the local communities, etc. are examples of what may be of interest. If this is what Co-NEXuS is offering, there is a great potential for good results.

Then there is the question of which buildings to choose for the information centres. An information office, a local public library, a job searching centre are the first most obvious choices for this. I think it would be wise to choose one location to start with, because some of these institutions may not want to change their own informational system. If it works out well in the one place, it could become a good example for the others. To compile the information will be another important task to be considered. The training of the staff is yet another one. All this would require project money.

There will certainly be difficulties in persuading the different organisations to be willing to take part in this work, which will require a great deal of co-ordination. But the importance of reaching the democratic goals aimed at must be a persuasive factor.

What I have seen of the project in my visit in May is very convincing. The ideological part of Co-NEXuS is quite clear. There may surely be practical issues to solve, as I have outlined above. One remedy for this is to stress the democratic point of view.

Kerstin Dahlén
Nordic Folk Academy

Nordic Public Library Authorities

DENMARK

Statens Biblioteksstyrelse
Nyhavn 31 E
DK-1051 Copenhagen K
Denmark
e-mail: BS@BS.DK

FINLAND

Ministry of Education
P.O.B. 2293
FI-00171 Helsinki
Finland

NORWAY

Statens bibliotekstilsyn
P.O.B. 8145 Dep.
N-0033 Oslo
Norway
e-mail: sb@bibtils.no

SWEDEN

Statens kulturråd
P.O.B. 7843
SE-103 98 Stockholm
Sweden
e-mail:statens.kulturrad@kur.se

ICELAND

Undervisnings-, forsknings- och kulturministeriet
Sölvhólsgata 4
IS-150 Reykjavík
Island
e-mail:thora.oskarsdottir@mrn.stjr.se

Iceland National and University Library
Háskolabókasáfn
Arngrímsgata 3
IS-107 Reykjavík
Iceland
e-mail: ibs@bok.hi.is

Bókafulltrúi riksins
Menntamálráduneytid
Sölvhólsgata 4
IS-150 Reykjavik
Island

Nordic Library Associations

DENMARK

Danmarks biblioteksforening
Telegrafvej 15
DK-2750 Valby
Denmark
e-mail:dbf@dbf.dk

FINLAND

Finlands biblioteksförening
Berggatan 12 A 18
FI-00100 Helsinki 10
Finland
e-mail:fla@fla.fi

FINLAND
Finlands biblioteksförening
Museigatan 18 A5
FI-00100 Helsinki 10
Finland

Suomen Kirjastoseura
Kansakoulukatu 10 A
FI-00100 Helsinki

ICELAND

Bókavardafélag Islands
Pósthólf 1497
IS-121 Reykjavík
Iceland
e-mail:thordis@ismennt.is

Bókasafn kennaraháskóla Islands
v/Stakkalid
IS-105 Reykjavík
Iceland
e-mail:khisafn@khi.is

NORWAY

Norsk biblioteksforening
Malerhaugveien 20
NO-0661 Oslo 6
Norway
e-mail:nbf@bibsent.no

SWEDEN

Sveriges allmänna biblioteksförening
Box 3127
103 62 Stockholm
Sweden
e-mail:christina.stenberg@sab.se

Nordic organisation of Folk Highschools

Nordiska Folkhögskolerådet/the Nordic Folk High School Council
Nordens folkliga akademi
Box 12024
S-402 41 Gothenburg
SWEDEN
e-mail:norden@nfa.se

National umbrella organisations of Study Organisations in the Nordic countries

DENMARK

Dansk folkeoplysnings samråd/Danish council of Adult Education
Bredgade 36
DK-1260 Copenhagen K
Denmark
e-mail:dyrholm@dfs.dk

FINLAND

VSY / Finnish adult education Association
Uudenmankatu 17 B 28
FI-00120 Helsinki
Finland
e-mail:vsy@vsy.fi

NORWAY

Voksenoppläringsforbundet/Norwegian Association for Adult Education
Postboks 560 Sentrum
NO-0150 Oslo
Norway
e-mail:sturla.bjerkaker@vofo.no

SWEDEN

Folkbildningsförbundet/Swedish National Federation of Adult education
Box 730
SE-101 34 Stockholm
Sweden
e-mail:fbf@folkbildning.se

Nordic block organisations (uniting organisations of similar profile and ideology from all the Nordic countries)

Nordisk konservativ Studieråd/Nordic Conservative Committee for Adult Education Association
Postboks 1352 Vika
NO-0113 Oslo
Norway

Nordisk konservativ Studieråd/Nordic Conservative Committee for Adult Education Association
Johannebergsgatan 24,
SE-41255 GÖTEBORG
Tel: +46 31 81 45 35
Fax: +46 31 77 84 51

Nordisk Kirkelig Studieråd/Nordic Church Study Council
Postboks 5913, Majorstuen
NO-0308 Oslo
Norway

Nordisk folkeuniversitet/Nordic Folk University
Box 26152
SE-100 41 Stockholm
Sweden

Forbundet Nordisk Vuxenupplysning/The Nordic Association of Adult Education
Box 32
SE-521 02 Falköping
Sweden
e-mail:lennart@sv.se

ABF i Norden/Nordic WEA (Workers´ Education Association)
Postboks 8703, Youngstorget
NO-0028 Oslo
Norge

Nordisk socialististisk Oplysningsforbund/Nordic Socialistic Adult Education Organisation
Silkeborgvej 11
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark