ISSN 0235-0351 (printed edition) 4/1999

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EDITORIAL

How do You do?

I am of the oppinion that it is not right to hide one's light under a bushel as we partake in everything that is going on, at least in the library world. Our eyes must be ready to see and ears ready to hear. In the column Vikergallup of Estonian journal Vikerkaar young people of literary circles expressed their oppinions of authors mostly of their own age. Some observations were made on our profession, too. I am old enough to understand the reasons why we are still called "library mums", and refuse to comment this till we all have undergone more radical changes. I found a sentence from Hando Runnel, an Estonian writer, that I want to share with You: "If it was possible to pollinate the fruit tree of democracy with pollen of aristocracy, what wonderful times would come." Estonian nation is an old nation, but its democrary is very young. And not only democracy – culture of self-expression, too, for instance. But another, more practical problem we still meet concerns acquisition. I quote: "It is especially difficult to aquire the production of (publishing firms) EK$ and Erakkond, even in larger provinces. One must hunt for these publications. Majority of them do not find their way even to small public libraries. But provincial youth would like to refresh themselves with modern poetry of Estonian younger generation, too!" As a critic, I understand the worry of my fellow critic Anneli Mihkelev, but as a librarian, I know also the deep reasons of the problem. As an editor, I advise some energetic and informed persons amongst you to react in the writing press. The discussions on the pages of Raamatukogu do seldom reach historians of literature, let alone young poets. I am still convinced, in spite of the difficult situation, that Estonian literature must have the green light to libraries. Even if there is only a single interested reader. But, alas, plenty of my collegues do not share this oppinion. A book seller declares Estonian belletristics even becoming a fear of rural book-shops (Luup, no. 13). But let's imagine the future of Estonian book collections in five, in ten, in twenty years. And let's speculate also who are then our best writers, and if there will be any retrospective acquisition possibilities.

Maire Liivamets

NATIONAL LIBRARY

National Libraries on Their Way to the Future:
The meeting of CENL is going to be held in Estonia in autumn this year. For this event, we publish materials that cast light on the present situation as well as future perspectives of European national libraries.
We asked the directors of European national libraries to answer the following questions:
1) introduce Your library and summarize the future perspectives of the institution.
2) Your vision of the role and development perspectives of national libraries in the next millennium in the united Europe.
3) What kind of future relationships and cooperation do You expect between your library and Estonian libraries?

Director of the British Library - Brian Lang - 4
The British Library is regarded by many as having one of the world's finest collections. The British Library aims to foster the pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of scholarship, research and innovation and to encourage the broadest possible awareness and accessibility of the Library's collections. It has a varied programmes in publishing, education and public events.
The basic mission of national libraries is to acquire, catalogue, and store information, and to make it available where and when it is required. The digital revolution will not change this basic mission.
The British Library has had successful and mutually beneficial exchange agreements for the acquisition of Estonian material with the National Library of Estonia, the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Tallinn Technical University and Tartu University Library for many years. The British Library has an extensive collection of materials in Estonian and relating to Estonia.

Director of the National and University Library of Iceland - Einar Sigurdsson - 6
The National and University Library of Iceland opened in a new building on 1 December 1994. The Library intends to make the most of its advantage of being both a national library and a university library as well as the largest research library of the nation.
In the future, national libraries will not only be depositories of the written word: they will be stored with other media broadcasts, they will also gain strength as cultural institutions in a general sense.
In the library field, the contacts of Iceland and the Baltic states developed under the auspices of NORDINFO (Iceland being one of five members of NORDINFO) in recent years is of great importance.

Director of Martynas Matvydas National Library of Lithuania - Vladas Bulavas - 7
Martynas Matvydas National Library is the largest library in Lithuania. The library was the initiator of the Lithuanian Integrated Library Information System (LIBIS) project launched in 1997. It should be emphasized that the LIBIS software devised in Lithuania is being used by majority of Lithuanian libraries.
In the next millennium national libraries should experience a golden age. The Baltic states have taken up to essential reforms in librarianship and the level of our library development will reach that of the Western nations.

Chief Librarian of Helsinki University Library - Esko Häkli - 9
The Helsinki University Library is also the National Library of Finland. The library is situated in three different places, the main building in Senati Square will have an annex of 10,000 square metres. The HUL is a national research library of the humanities and a supporting institution of Finnish reserch libraries network. It provides services all over the country. The Library attends upon the computer network of research libraries and is a head of the national projects.
In the future national libraries will fulfil a central part in the network environment because they are responsible for the development and need of the library network that comprises an integral library system.
The HUL has successfully co-operated with Estonian libraries because we know each other personally and have good possibilities of communication.

Director of the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg - Vladimir Zaitsev - 11
National Library of Russia was established in 1795 as the Imperial Public Library and was opened to readers in 2 January 1814. Now, it is one of the world's biggest universal research libraries, the national library of Russian Federation and the research, methodological and co-ordinating centre for the libraries of the federation. In the nearest future, the co-ordination of the work of two national libraries of Russia (National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg and Russian State Library in Moscow) will take place and the conception of there collaboration will be worked out in the unitary world of librarianship and information.
At the present, the nature of co-operation of national libraries of Estonia and Russia lies in book exchange. Both libraries take special interest in developing and widening the sphere of their interrelations.

Director of the National Library of Estonia - Tiiu Valm - 13
National Library of Estonia has become the preserver of national memory and cultural heritage, the center of Estonian literature and national bibliography, an irreplaceable source of information for the legislative body and other constitutional institutions, the development centre of librarianship and library education, and a public cultural centre.
I hope that in the next millennium differences in information technology use between European national libraries will decrease. These have perhaps hindered the most the participation of the so-called "leavers of the socialist world" in joint projects. But it is also important that the role of national libraries as the collectors and keepers of national memory will be more widely acknowledged – the modernization process should not cause the fall of cultural heritage.
National Library of Estonia holds contacts with all European national libraries, the closest of which, of course, with Scandinavian libraries.

RESEARCH LIBRARY

Evaluation of Library Activities - Anu Nuut - 14
In the article "Library activities, evaluation of performance measurement, performance indicators and action planning" Anu Nuut, Head of the Library Science and Development Department of the NLE introduces what motivate libraries to measure and evaluate their performance. There is a need for bench-marking, what is the base on the effectual division and use of financial resources. There are 3 main factors: performance indicators, effectiveness and efficiency. The article gives the review of performance indicators proposed by IFLA, ISO standard 11620, and about the university libraries performance indicators on the basis of Sir Brian Follet Report and describes the international projects of European Union what are concerned with this subject.

BOOK HISTORY

Books of Cult: Akif Pirincci "Felidae" - Aimar Ventsel - 18
In the fourth writing of his column, Aimar Ventsel, an ethnologist, reviews detective novels of cats "Felidae" (1989) and "Francis or Felidae" II (1993) by a German writing author Akif Pirinicci.

ESTONIAN HISTORY OF IDEAS

Enduring by Intellectuality - Maire Liivamets - 19
In the article "The Enduring by Intellectuality" Maire Liivamets introduces Hando Runnel's (editor-in-chief of the series "Estonian History of Ideas") collection of articles "A Brief Kiss". The collection of a well-known Estonian poet and publicist contains written texts on fiction, politics and about Estonian life, the author himself and people in general. Runnel's book provides an intellectual view of life and helps to evaluate the period of writer's life and creative work. The head-word of Hando Runnel's works is the enduring by intellectuality, as well as by descendants. He believes in the power of truth. Runnel likes ethical people who have ideas and he dedicates many pages to such persons. In politics he follows the trends of Estonian, Russian and European issues. Naturally, the fate of the Estonian nationality is very close to his heart, and one can find this issue in his every article.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

If the Press Takes Interest in Us - Triin Soone - 21
A yearly column to help Estonian librarians to enhance their PR activities. The second piece provides reliable advise for the relations with a member of the press. The author names five international levels of press relations, provides know-how for best practice and the basic rules for TV and radio talk-shows.

RECENT LITERATURE ON LIBRARIANSHIP - 23

CRITICAL REVIEW

Everything Is As Before ..., But Something Has Changed - Maare Kümnik - 27
A crital review of the National Library of Estonia's publication Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu 80 : artiklite kogumik = National Library of Estonia 80 : collection of articles / compiled by Anu Nuut. Tallinn : 1998. 133 lk. : ill.

ESTONIAN BOOK YEAR

An Appeal of the Book Year

The appeal presented on 4 February 1999 is signed by the representatives of the Estonian Book Year Committee Jaak Allik, Peeter Tulviste and Hando Runnel.

ESTONIAN LIBRARIANS ASSOCIATION

Ten Years of the ELA Yearbook - Linda Kask - 30
An overview of the ELA Yearbooks published since 1989. It introduces their contents, publishers, compilers and editors.

About the ELA Summer Activities - Krista Talvi - 32

Summer Seminar of the ELA School Libraries Sections in Põlva - Bärbel Luhari, Ester Sõrmus - 32
An overview of the 2^nd summer seminar of the section that has been active for about a year. The discussions concentrated on the situation of school libraries in the library and educational systems of Estonia, and their relations with public libraries. The section addressed Tõnis Lukas, the Minister of Culture with a note that explained the present situation and problems of school libraries.

Training Camp of Rural Libraries - Sirje Bärg - 33
The rural libraries have mostly acquisition problems as it is hard to make a right choice from the print production.

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

LiLaEst 99 - Ene Riet - 35
On their meeting this year, the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian librarians discussed automation, libary legislation and research activities of national libraries.

Financing, Management and the Planning of Service Quality in a Library - Anu Nuut - 37
Anu Nuut introduced in the article "Library financing, management and service quality planning" the international seminar " Library activities and performance indicators, quality appraisal and service planning, business planning framework" held in July inTallinn, in the NLE. Seminar was managed by Phillip Ramsdale, Executive Director IPF, UK and David Fuegi, Library and Information Services Manager, IPF,UK and presented major theme "the performance indicators" as most useful when employed in a formal planning process, because the plan (whether an informal budget discussion document or a published strategy) provides an agenda for decisions about the use of resources.

Summer Seminar at Ojaäärse - Anu Nuut - 39
An overview of the annual summer seminar of Estonian research libraries, held this year on the theme Research libraries in developing information society. The discussions concentrated on the research library system, resource libraries and collection development.

The 19^th Training Camp of Public Libraries - Ene Riet - 40
As acquisition problems have caused burning discussion in research, in school, and also in public libraries, the ELA Acquisition Group introduced their activities in the training camp. Estonian library legislation, relevant legal acts and drafts odf such acts, planning of library activities and drawing its development plan, automation of public libraries, and the impact of Legal Deposit Copy Act and the reformation of public management were also reviewed.

About 1999 Annual Conference of Innovative Users Group         Riin Olonen 42
Innovative Users Group is an organisation that joins the users of INNOPAC Integrated Library System all over the world. This year, five representatives of ELNET Consortium participated in its annual conference.

READER'S COLUMN

Laine Peep - 44

NEWS

CONGRATULATIONS: Ludmilla Rass – 80 - 45

SUMMARY