Reviving the dead: A common market for "document recycling" in the Nordic-Baltic countries?

Taking as its point of departure the experiences learned from the "document recycling database" (Gjenbruksbasen), an intermediating service offered by the Repository Library at the National Library of Norway, Rana Division, this paper discusses the prospects for re-using documents that are not needed by one library, but may be eagerly wanted by other libraries. It is argued that such recycling of information has several benefits, both for the preservation of the environment (less copying, meaning less use of paper) and for the promotion of "information equality" world-wide. The task it is claimed, is very much that of finding potential users of the documents, a fundamental task for all libraries. One way of achieving this could be the foundation of an international electronic clearinghouse for document exchange on the Internet, a two-storeyed "document recycling database" of both needs and supplies, where libraries in need of a certain document could search for desired items and, in case they do not find what they want, can store their requests, while at the same time documents that are no longer needed by a library can be stored in the "supplies department". With modern web-technology this is something that could be easily implemented today. It is argued that a natural agent for setting up such a clearing-house would be the IFLA Universal Availability of Publications (UAP) Programme, which has as its objective "the widest possible availability of published material (that is, recorded knowledge issued for public use) to intending users, wherever and whenever they need it and in the format required". A first step in this direction could be the creation of a common market for "document recycling" in the Nordic and Baltic countries.