Online Development in the Nordic Countries
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Online development in the Nordic countries A history of online information from the 1960s to the ‘00s and NORDINFO’s role in its development Elisabet Mickos (†), Teodora Oker-Blom, Marie Wallin, Lars Klasén, Aud Lamvik and Ulla Retlev (Eds.) Helsinki 2018 Online development in the Nordic countries A history of online information from the 1960s to the ‘00s and NORDINFO’s role in its development Elisabet Mickos (†), Teodora Oker-Blom, Marie Wallin, Lars Klasén, Aud Lamvik and Ulla Retlev (Eds.) i Online development in the Nordic countries © The editors Published 2018 by the editors Teodora Oker-Blom (Finland), Marie Wallin (Sweden), Lars Klasén (Sweden), Aud Lamvik (Norway) and Ulla Retlev (Denmark) Graphic design by Lars Klasén (Sweden) The publishing process began as a project within NORDINFO - the Nordic Council for Scientific Information. NORDINFO was closed down in 2004 and the editors had to take the responsibility of completing the project by publishing this book. Some of the contributions to this book have previously been published as manuscripts in 2007. See: URI http://hdl.handle.net/1975/1490 ISBN 978-952-94-0548-0 (PDF) URI http://hdl.handle.net/10138/235272 Licencees may copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of the work, not derivative works and remixes based on it. The book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-derivative licence (CC BY-ND 4.0). ii Online development in the Nordic countries Contents Foreword, acknowledgements Marie Wallin & Teodora Oker-Blom ...................................... v Acronyms, abbreviations and technical terms ......................................................................... viii 1 INTRODUCTION. ONLINE SERVICES - PAST AND PRESENT IN A NORDIC AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Sauli Laitinen ............................................ 1 1.1 Nordic co-operation ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Birth of bibliographic database services ...................................................................... 2 1.3 Birth of online services ................................................................................................ 4 1.4 Pricing and usage ......................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Access to primary documents .................................................................................... 10 1.6 Online today .............................................................................................................. 11 2 INFORMATION POLICY .............................................................................................. 12 Introduction Teodora Oker-Blom ....................................................................................... 12 2.1 Early online promotion by Nordic intergovernmental organizations Elin Törnudd .............................................................................................................. 13 2.2 NORDINFO and its policy Teodora Oker-Blom ..................................................... 19 2.3 NORDINFO in Europe and the world Inge Berg Hansen ....................................... 25 3 THE INFRASTRUCTURE .............................................................................................. 32 Introduction Aud Lamvik .................................................................................................... 32 3.1 SCANNET Björn Grönlund .................................................................................... 32 3.2 Euronet-DIANE – why and how the European Commission was involved Lennart Scharff .......................................................................................................... 36 3.3 Networking Liv Aasa Holm ..................................................................................... 45 4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND DATABASES ......................................................... 62 Introduction Marie Wallin .................................................................................................. 62 4.1 Early access: EPOS/VIRA, 3RIP and Paralog – Prehistory and early stages Roland Hjerppe .......................................................................................................... 63 4.2 Early access: MEDLARS/MEDLINE - Reflection on development and status in Scandinavia Carl-Eric Elwin ................................................................................... 74 4.3 Early access: Other online systems used in the Nordic countries Marie Wallin ..... 86 4.4 Early database production Elisabet Mickos ............................................................. 95 4.5 IANI – An intelligent tool for Nordic Information Retrieval Maria Schröder ..... 104 5 USERS ........................................................................................................................... 111 Introduction Elisabet Mickos............................................................................................ 111 5.1 SCANNET for the users Malin Edström ................................................................ 112 5.2 The DIANE Centres in the Nordic Countries Even Harmann Flood et al ............ 116 5.3 Nordic database directories Merja Lehti ............................................................... 127 iii Online development in the Nordic countries 5.4 Online user groups and conferences Inga Elding .................................................. 137 5.5 Conferences covering the online field Aud Lamvik ............................................... 149 5.6 The development of end user education in computerized information retrieval in the Nordic countries Nancy Fjällbrant .................................................................. 161 6 THE NORDIC ONLINE MARKET IN AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 1976-2006 Lars Klasén ................................................................................................ 186 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 186 6.2 1979-1989 ................................................................................................................ 192 6.3 1990 and beyond ...................................................................................................... 211 6.4 The Nordic online market in 2004 ........................................................................... 220 6.5 Conclusions and trends 1997-2004 .......................................................................... 226 7 INTERVIEWS. Pioneers’ reminiscences of the start of the online information era ...... 232 Introduction Marie Wallin ................................................................................................ 232 7.1 Preamble to KTHB online Björn Tell .................................................................... 232 7.2 Interview – Sauli Laitinen Elisabet Mickos ........................................................... 236 7.3 Interview – Lilianna Kanafarski Marie Wallin ...................................................... 240 Contributors ............................................................................................................................ 244 iv Online development in the Nordic countries Foreword Information and documentation centres in science, technology and medicine in the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have collaborated informally and formally for decades. At a personal level the sharing of common interests meant telephone calls, later e-mails, visits and meetings across the borders to discuss new developments and problems and to learn from each other. On a formal level Nordic funding and policy organizations like the Nordic Council for Scientific Information (NORDINFO) enabled joint actions and achievements of impressive results in online development. This book presents glimpses of the exciting era of early development of online information retrieval (IR) systems and services in the Nordic countries. It covers the period from the 1960s to the ‘00s. In the autumn of the year 2000 Elisabet Mickos visited Marie Wallin at the Royal Institute of Technology Library (KTHB) in Stockholm. Elisabet Mickos had just retired from the Finnish Technical Research Centre´s (VTT) Information Service and a final two year period at NORDINFO`s secretariat. Marie Wallin was packing for moving to new premises at the KTH campus. They felt nostalgic about the thought that so much of what they had experienced and enjoyed during their working life as information specialists was going to be forgotten and disappear forever in a never reopened archive. Why not try to revive the memories and write them down. Many of the persons who participated in the development of online information retrieval services were academics or graduates in science and technology called information specialists or documentalists who provided researchers and other professionals with literature searches. Their experiences of this pioneering practical daily work would be interesting to record. The Nordic countries have participated significantly in the online development and in many cases been forerunners in Europe. It was possible thanks to persons who had enough foresight and determination to make information centres and libraries in our countries the earliest users of computer-based information systems. Their thoughts and memories would also be important to document when it was