Searching for information in databases or on the world wide web to enhance our knowledge has become an everyday task. The internet is a major source of information for education. When we want to make new material available in digital form, we examine how contents can be made searchable by the creation and attachment of metadata. We now have expectations that most educational material, literature and research will be described and to a great extent also readable as full-text in digital form. For the benefit of future university research and teaching the digital global university library is a prevailing image. The work of organizing and representing information with metadata and make it searchable and usable for education and research started already in the 1960’s. A vision of the global library was presented during the same period originating from the Library of Congress in Washington DC.(Library of Congress,1963)1 Some of the expectations, discussions and choices which took place during this period can be recognized as having meaning for processes 20-40 years later.2nd IFIP Conference on the History of Computing and EducationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Olsson, Lena

English

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Great Expectations 
The computerization of research and educational literature 
 in Swedish university libraries 1960-1980 
Lena Olsson 
 
Stockholm Institute of Education, <Lena.Olsson@lhs.se> 
Abstract:  Searching for information in databases or on the world wide web to enhance our 
knowledge has become an everyday task.  The internet is a major source of information for 
education.  When we want to make new material available in digital form, we examine how 
contents can be made searchable by the creation and attachment of metadata.  We now have 
expectations that most educational material, literature and research will be described and to a 
great extent also readable as full-text in digital form.  For the benefit of future university 
research and teaching the digital global university library is a prevailing image.  The work of 
organizing and representing information with metadata and make it searchable and usable for 
education and research started already in the 1960’s.  A vision of the global library was 
presented during the same period originating from the Library of Congress in Washington 
DC.(Library of Congress,1963)1 Some of the expectations, discussions and choices which 
took place during this period can be recognized as having meaning for processes 20-40 years 
later. 
1. Information Overflow – A Problem for Research Libraries in 
the 1960’s 
Research and university education had become important issues in society after the 
WW 2.  Researchers started to compete for positions by increasing their publishing.  
University libraries all over the world faced the problem of coping with an 
escalating growth of scientific and educational publications and thus storing and 
handling big collections and make research literature physically accessible.  (de 
 
1 Library of Congress, Automation and the Library of Congress,1963 
2 Lena Olsson
 
Solla Price, 1962.)2  The cost of cataloguing and managing the collections were 
rising out of proportion.  Swedish university libraries had, during the 1950’s started 
a process of modernization with the help of available office technology, typewriters, 
copying techniques and microfilm.  When the computer arrived, it provided a 
promising solution to the handling of bibliographic data and the administration of 
the growing collections.  Mastering the information overload became a main task for 
librarians.  The information explosion was used as an argument to introduce the new 
technology.  
There were two lines of computerization for application in libraries.  One aimed 
at automating and computerizing routines such as cataloguing, circulation of loans 
and interlibrary lending through networking between libraries.  Another was aimed 
at information retrieval which was made possible by the introduction of 
bibliographical databases such as Medline and Chemical abstracts.  Originally 
bibliographic databases were developed by NASA as a means of competing with 
scientific information in the cold war of the 1950`s – 1960’s.  
2. Libraries and Their Professional Differences 
What is a library?  A library shall provide physical access to literature of various 
forms of publication and provide intellectual access to the contents of literature.  
(Shera, J.,1966)3  Various scientific disciplines differ and used to differ even more 
in their research methods and publication practises.  This has implications for how 
librarians were handling literature collections as well as managing and retrieving 
bibliographic data.  The targeted literature for computing in the university libraries 
was on one hand, monographs that represented the main big collections of 
humanities and social sciences.  Journals and research reports were on the other 
hand at the core of the medical, science and technology literature at the special 
libraries.  A monograph could be classified and catalogued as a piece and put on a 
shelf as a physical artifact; a journal article could be indexed but was part of a larger 
package.  These differences inspired different professional practices.  
At the turn of the century a new professional group, the documentalists, had 
argued for a new concept, concerning bibliographic description, documentation 
which was aimed at retrieving information out of journals and research reports.( 
Shera, J.1953;)4  Information retrieval for the benefit of the user was of more 
interest to them than describing a monograph as an item which was part of a bigger 
collection.  Since these practices also were represented by different 
libraries/librarians it affected how university libraries/librarians and special 
libraries/librarians expected the computerization to solve their respective problems.  
 
2 De Solla Price, D., Science since Babylon. New Haven, 1962 
3 Shera, J., Documentation and the organization of knowledge, London, 1966 
4 Shera,J., A review of present state of librarianship in Bradford, ed, Documentation; 
Great Expectations  3
 
We shall se how their various practices and expectations influenced the development 
of the system. 
3. Expectations on Technology 
Already during the 1960`s computer technology was introduced as a means of 
modernizing some of the problems in research libraries.  Library of Congress 
published 1963 a visionary ten-year plan for rationalizing all library work by one 
integrated system (Library of Congress, 1963)5 A standard format was established, 
MAchine Readable Catalog, MARC. 
The Swedish Royal library had the task of organizing a union catalogue for 
Swedish research libraries.  There were problems with back logs and an increasing 
number of libraries participating in the union catalogue as well as demands from 
most research libraries for more personnel to handle collections.  This was the cause 
of looking to automation for solutions and thus establishing a committee for ADP 
1964 that worked until 1969.  The proposals from the committee were aimed at 
automating the union catalogue by using principles for shared cataloguing.  A 
standard MARC format entry of bibliographic data was to be executed by one 
participating library and was then to be copied by other participating libraries.  This 
could be extended to an international cooperation of libraries, thus creating a global 
catalogue. 
These suggestions were criticized by a well known documentalist, Björn Tell, 
who meant that the technology should be used not as a way of rationalizing internal 
routines but be used as a means of support for decision making and qualitative 
development directed towards the researchers not the librarians. (Tell, B., 1966) 
4. A Vision of the Modern Library  
Normally the computerization processes were designed to automate single routines, 
often starting with the circulation of books.  But there was a more interesting option 
to the Swedish Agency for Administrative Development (SAFAD) and the systems 
designer Mr Lindberg.  SAFAD got the commission to examine the feasibility of a 
library information network for university libraries.  The civil servants from SAFAD 
were interested in finding a way of rationalizing the libraries with the latest 
technology as well as implementing bureaucratic reform.  Long term planning, 
mainframe computers and strong belief in radical change inspired the system 
development plan.  The ultimate solution to library automation was to create the 
totally integrated system, which would be achieved by applying a total systems 
 
5 Library of Congress,  Automation and the library of Congress, 1963 
4 Lena Olsson
 
approach.  By this approach it was planned that an organization and its various 
functions should be computerized to work as an interacting whole, which meant that 
work processes and information flow would be facilitated and easy to control.  The 
concept of a totally integrated library system was introduced in visionary terms as 
the Library Information System, LIBRIS ( Statskontoret, 1972)6.   
The original plan for LIBRIS had utopian features such as a lack of historical 
perspective i.e. not growing out of a familiar reality, an assumption of universal 
consensus of values or institutional arrangements, being characterized by social 
harmony which helps maintain stability, following recurrent patterns and and being 
isolated in time and space from other parts of the world.(Boguslaw,R.1965)7  Thus 
the development of the system was planned according to given standards without 
much consideration to context. 
5. Developing of a National Library System 
LIBRIS developed through three phases: the design phase, 1970-1973; the 
implementation phase 1974-1979; the use phase 1980 and onwards.  The first phase 
was dominated by the promotion of the totally integrated system accompanied by 
the rational planning ideology of SAFAD, responsible for systems development and 
with an interest to rationalize and implement bureaucratic reform of the research 
libraries.  Through LIBRIS the librarians at various libraries would be able to 
perform all functions, acquisition, cataloguing, circulation of books as well as 
communicate with international databases.  A master plan was set up and the project 
would start with the cataloguing routine.  Mr. Lindberg, the systems designer was 
able to enroll head librarians and cataloguers in the implementation.  The new online 
technology gave the librarians and their librarians immediate contact with the central 
database and they could process shared cataloguing which means that a book could be 
catalogued at one library and then copied at all the other libraries which purchased the 
same item.  This was a major effort of rationalization: less personnel would be able to 
perform the same duties. 
But LIBRIS did not advance according to the master plan.  During the 
implementation phase, the practical efforts of establishing common rules and 
methods undermined the initial vision of a total system.  The cataloguers who 
struggled at accomplishing the perfect catalogue were able to enforce their standards 
of alphabetical representation to a level far exceeding normal computional praxis.  
In fact they argued that all different alphabets should be represented.  They 
succeeded however in forcing the developers to a full Swedish representation, which 
we very often do not have today!  Other problems arose due to the choice of 
hardware; LIBRIS ran on a Saab machine D22.  Saab had replaced IBM in several 
 
6 Statskontoret, LIBRIS, ett informationssystem för bibliotek, 1972. p.14 
7 Boguslaw,R., The new utopians, A study of system design and social change,. 1965 
Great Expectations  5
 
national applications.  Computer problems were frequent and opening hours were 
too short.  The diffusion of LIBRIS was slow. 
6. Technological Development as Processes and Conflicts 
As opposed to following a rational plan, technological development can, as be 
understood as a conglomerate of developmental phases, of constellation of actors, 
problematic situations and conflicts.  (Rammert, W.1992)8  The development of 
LIBRIS can be seen as various processes which led to the diminishing of a national 
totally integrated information system to a mere union catalogue.  During the design 
phase, the technology was envisioned as open, potent and capable of developing into 
a fully computerized library: During the implementation phase, technological 
flexibility was narrowed to a cataloguing system in the form of a bibliographic 
utility. 
The general idea of LIBRIS invited the actors to various interpretations of what 
the system could accomplish.  According to their various interests different actors 
attributed different meanings and goals to the system and had different reasons for 
taking part in and supporting LIBRIS: 
? The university librarians wished to keep their autonomy.  They were on 
the other hand enthusiastic about the modernity and status, which 
LIBRIS represented. 
? At the Royal Library, the librarians wished to use LIBRIS as a central 
function and to rationalize the production of the union catalogue. 
? The documentalists wanted to shape LIBRIS according to the norms of 
their standard UNISIST, which suited their professional purposes. 
? The SAFAD systems designers wished to develop an advanced 
technological project as well as succeeding in implementing bureaucratic 
reform. 
The researchers, the real users of the system, were invisible actors who probably 
would have had other ambitions if they had been engaged in the process.  The 
development of LIBRIS can thus be understood by the processes in which actors 
took part to further their interests.  Some processes were connected; others were not.  
The various interests of the actors extended into various conflicts.  They developed 
between: 
? the librarians ( in general) and SAFAD.  The conflict emanated from 
different institutional practices and from their different roles; from 
SAFAD being the reformers and the librarians the ones being reformed; 
conflicts arose from the parties having different competences and from 
their lack of insightful communication. 
 
8 Rammert, W., Research on the regeneration and development of technology in M. Dierkes &Hoffman, 
eds. New technology on the outset. Frankfurt 1992 
6 Lena Olsson
 
? LIBRIS as technological project and LIBRIS as bureaucratic reform:  
The goals of these activities collided on the one hand and encompassed 
each other on the other hand.  The bureaucratic reform aimed at a 
coherent organization where as the technological project envisioned 
using and developing advanced technology.  The technological vision 
inspired the cataloguers to make sophisticated demands, thus 
undermining the plans for efficiency outlined in the bureaucratic reform. 
? Traditionalists and radicals among the library professionals:  The heart of 
the conflict concerned the role of technology.  Technology could serve as 
a means of transforming the library into something qualitatively new, by 
enhancing the possibilities for action and accomplishing new kinds of 
services or technology could improve the existing routines and functions 
of the library by substitution, making them faster or better but mainly 
maintaining the original routine or method.  An example is use of the 
MARC standard format by the traditionalists.  The new MARC-format 
used for computerized catalogues contained the same information as the 
traditional catalogue card.  A traditional technological style was preser-
ved.  A radical alternative would have been to use the indexing format of 
the documentation databases thus violating the traditional norm but 
gaining new possibilities of retrieval. 
The cataloguers became the winners and the losers of the system.  Their routine 
was originally the main target of rationalization.  They managed however to make 
use of the possibilities and promises of the design phase to enforce their professional 
norms and rules.  The catalogue remained during the whole project period the main 
task for computerization.  In the long run, however, cataloguers diminished in 
number due to the frequent use of standardized routines and copy cataloguing. 
The actors’ various interpretations of the LIBRIS system; the various conflicts; 
the enforcement of professional norms and the institutionalization of practices; 
inadequate resources and computer incapability, interacted in shaping the system 
and limiting the alternatives.  Finally, the system came to a temporary closure.  This 
was obtained when the remaining alternative, the union catalogue, was agreed upon.  
The role of closure in technical development can be understood as a punctuated 
evolution as described by Wiebe Bijker (1990): 
“the combination of stabilization and closure processes makes it understandable that 
technical change is a continuous process although not occuring at equal rates at 
every point in time — it’s like a punctuated evolution”9. 
Temporary closure occurred when alternatives other than the union catalogue 
were pushed aside.  This depended not only on the strategies or lack of activity from 
the actors but also because a totally integrated library system could not be achieved 
within the established institutional framework.   
 
9 Bijker, Wiebe, The social construction of Technology, Den Haag, 1990, p.97 
Great Expectations  7
 
7. Conclusions 
LIBRIS  inspired and laid the foundations of library computing during the 1980s.  A 
whole generation of librarians gained computing experience through LIBRIS.  
LIBRIS can be seen as a cooperative effort and a joint development task.  LIBRIS is 
still developing as the Swedish national library system.  The influence of technology 
on the actors and on library activities, did not originate from the inherent capacity of 
the technology itself, but the technology presented a circumstance for organizational 
change, cooperation and learning.   
Through the computerization of research libraries, research and educational 
literature became available on a broader basis.  The visibility and use of university 
collections increased which was valuable for education and research.  This 
development can also be seen as a step towards the virtualization of libraries.  We 
are in fact today approaching the vision of Library of Congress of the global library 
in the 1960’s.  There is still however a need for further standardization and 
cooperation if we are going to accomplish the global digital library. 
There are other challenges as well.  Today information and literature searches 
are performed on the internet and on the world wide web.  We face problems with 
how to make critical reviews of sources presented on the web.  This is an important 
quality issue.  Open access publication of research and educational material creates a 
need for new solutions for indexing and coordination 
Endnote 
In this paper findings from my doctoral dissertation Olsson, L., The computerized 
library – machine dreams of the 1970’s, 1995, have been concentrated and further 
elaborated.  The dissertation has only been published in Swedish. 



Great expectations : The computerization of research and educational literature in Swedish university libraries 1960-1980

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Great expectations : The computerization of research and educational literature in Swedish university libraries 1960-1980

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