PLANNING FOR DOCUMENT SUPPLY - SWEDEN AND SCANDINAVIA

Organized co-operation between Swedish research libraries dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, when work began on the Swedish union catalogue. In 1990, Sweden, with 6,127 requests per 100,000 population, was the most interlending intensive country in Europe. However, the decentralization of higher education has focused attention on local services rather than national co-operation. To meet the threat of fragmentization, a system of national resource libraries has been developed, administered by the Royal Library's Office for National Planning and Co-ordination (BIBSAM). The tradition of co-operation is common to the Nordic countries, Iceland, owing to its small size, taking a rather unique position. Legal deposits provide access to the national imprint; interlibrary lending is used extensively for foreign publications; the union catalogues have been automated; and different types of central library system have been developed, Sweden being exceptional with regard to the extent of funding. The idea of planning acquisitions on a Nordic basis, introduced by the middle of the 1950s in the so-called Scandia Plan, proved completely unrealistic.