Since 2016 the Danish Ministry of Culture and Danish universities have pursued a policy of consolidation of research libraries. The main tool has been mergers and a significant result is the current Royal Danish Library (RDL). RDL is an institution in the Ministry of Culture with a turnover (2018) of 90m. € and a staff of 850 (650 FTE).

Royal Danish Library (RDL)

The easiest way to explain what has happened is to list the organisations which are now part of RDL:

• Royal Library, Copenhagen (national library and Copenhagen University library and IT University library);
• State and University Library, Aarhus (national library and Aarhus University library);
• Danish National Art Library;
• The Administrative Library (library services to central government);
• Library functions from the Danish Centre for Research and Information on Gender, Equality and Diversity (KVINFO);
• Part of Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF): negotiation of e-resources for academic, research and educational libraries and development of shared services.

In addition, Roskilde University has made a contract with RDL about library services. Negotiations with Aalborg University about a similar contract are almost finished, the result being that RDL provides services to five of the eight Danish universities.

Factors behind

As ever economic considerations play an important role. Digital material and digital services make delivery of library services less bound to a specific place and that makes it possible to benefit from economies of scale. Also in another way digitisation is an important factor behind the consolidation process. Digitisation creates a demand for continuous renewal of technology (systems) and for development of competencies, and the political view is that only bigger organisations can handle these challenges in a sustainable way. It also worth mentioning that the fact that universities have accepted and/or supported the changes is a telling sign that for them library services are not considered a competitive parameter between universities. What matters is price and quality, not who is delivering library services.

Recommendations from working group

In 2018 the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Higher Education and Science set up a working group on the future arrangement of the research library sector. The small working group (five in all: one member from each of the two ministries, an administrative director and a dean from two different universities and one library member – the author of this brief contribution) commissioned a trend analysis (with input from all university libraries) and an analysis of the future demand for library services, made by a consultancy. In January 2019 the working group published its recommendations which were later endorsed by the two ministers. The recommendations are:

• Negotiations of e-resources for academic, research and educational libraries (national consortia) should be transferred from Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF) to RDL. DEFF was founded 1998 by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, and the Ministry of Education as an organisation for collaboration between academic, research and educational libraries. DEFF has been responsible for negotiations of ‘big deals’ of e-resources and have negotiated contracts on behalf of all university libraries and other research libraries. This task is now transferred to RDL (1^st June 2019) and at the same time a new governance structure is set up with a senior management group from the Danish university association (‘Universities Denmark’) as a kind of board for this activity. The purpose is to reduce duplication of work, securing greater impact in negotiations and better coordination with relevant policies (Open Access, Open Science, etc.). In addition to the work with licensing consortia DEFF has promoted development of library services by co-funding collaborative projects between research libraries. The means for these activities will now be split between RDL and the Agency for Science and Higher Education. RDL will have a responsibility to develop services and solutions which can also be used by other libraries. The Agency for Science and Higher Education will use its part of the means to promote Danish efforts in Open Science.
• A unified library system for all university libraries should be established. It is recommended that all universities use the same library system (catalogue and discovery) for printed material and e-resources. The overall aim is to make more material easily accessible for more users and at the same time reduce costs by centralizing back-office functions. A big step in this direction will be taken this year. Today RDL has two library systems, one for the former Royal Library and one for the former State and University Library. At the end of this year RDL will have a new library system with metadata for material in RDL (printed material, e-resources and special collections). Material in Aalborg University Library will also be accessible via the new system. So from 2020 users in five Danish Universities (Aalborg, Aarhus, Copenhagen, IT University, Roskilde) will use the same system, and they can order material from the five universities without using interlibrary lending procedures. They will get ordered printed books via the national library transportation scheme (a speedy transport scheme between all Danish public and research libraries). With the remaining three universities (Copenhagen Business School, Technical University of Denmark and University of Southern Denmark) a dialogue has been initiated about their participation in this set-up. The working group has recommended that part of the former DEFF money for library development transferred to RDL (see above) is reserved to implement a unified library system.
• It is recommended that RDL initiates an analysis of more efficient use of analogue collections, especially printed books. The underlying basis for this recommendation is that printed books are still very much in demand. It is a resource which should be used more efficiently and a unified library system will promote that. At the same time there are clear indications that it is possible to reduce the number of copies kept in university libraries. A possible solution is to let one or two libraries act as depository library for printed material. (RDL is already depository library for Danish public libraries). Work with this issue will start in 2020.
• It is recommended that RDL develops its acquisition and interlibrary lending processes into services which can be used by other research libraries (against payment). The underlying basis for this recommendation is that in this field it is possible to benefit from economies of scale. Work with this recommendation will start in 2020.
• Open Science and Data Management. The trend analysis and the report on the demand for future library services, commissioned by the working group, both stress the importance of library contributions to the broad field of e-science or e-scholarship. Some initiatives in this field have been jointly funded by DEFF and by DeIC (Danish eInfrastructure Cooperation, a government funded organization), especially in Data Management (e.g. https://dmponline.deic.dk/). The working group recommended that the Agency for Science and Higher Education takes the responsibility for national coordination in this area. This does not imply that libraries have no role in e-Science and that is certainly true for RDL with its dual functions as national library and university library. As a university library RDL will continue to offer services in data management and in copyright issues, institutional repositories etc. As national library RDL has vast collections of digital material (Danish Net archive, digitized radio and tv and newspapers etc.) which is relevant for scholars in many fields. To work with this ‘big data’ DeIC and RDL funds a small High Performance Computing facility (see https://www.deic.dk/en/cultural_heritage_cluster). In January 2019 a government report on a new national digital research infrastructure was published, and RDL is presently working on determining its role in this infrastructure.

Perspectives

The working group on the future organization of Danish research libraries started its work in September 2018. In January 2019 the group published its recommendations, in February the two ministers endorsed the report, and April the Danish Parliament passed the necessary amendments. It has been an unusually speedy process. In the library community many find that the process has been far too hasty, but it is important to note that senior management in Danish universities have supported or at least accepted the consolidation process. One result is the set-up of a new organizational framework with RDL in a new role. That is a beginning, not the end. Quite a lot of issues must be addressed and there is a lot of work to be done in cooperation between the Royal Danish Library and other Danish research libraries. It is a work in progress.