The Norwegian National Library: Poised on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century

The article celebrates the reopening of the National Library of Norway in its refurbished Oslo building in the centenary year of Norway's independence. It describes the evolution of the Library and its separation from Oslo University Library. The deposit function of the Library is centred on its Mo i Rana branch, which now stores material in digital form as well as in traditional formats. The author considers the place of the Library in the wider Norwegian library scene, where the National Library can play a coordinating role. The Norwegian Digital Library, for example, involves other libraries, information providers and system vendors, as well as the National Library. In the digital age, what the National Librarian of Norway describes as the ‘extended notion of texts’ means that society is documented not only by conventional texts, but by sound and images, broadcasts and performances. Preserving these ‘texts’ and making them available to a wide range of users is a challenge of the twenty-first century that the National Library is happy to accept.