PRESS RELEASE

Stockholm and Helsinki, 9 december 2019

It took a while, but now it is completed: A book that provides an insight into the early development of online information retrieval in the Nordic countries, authored by veteran information specialists within science, technology and medicine.

Since the late 1990’s, online searching equals to ”google” or another search engine on the net. But already in the 1970’s, so called computer-based information searching was well established at universites, research institutions and corporations as a prerequisite for conducting research in science, technology and medicine. The Nordic countries have participated significantly in the online development and in many cases been forerunners in Europe.

Now a book that presents glimpses of the exciting era of this development, covering the period from the 1960s to the ‘00s, is published. It gathers experiences of the pioneering practical work of persons who had enough foresight and determination to make information centres and libraries in our countries the earliest users of computer-based information systems. Among the contents are the birth of online, early information systems, Nordic cooperation, user education and the Nordic market for online. In addition to articles authored by 20 veteran information specialists, the book contains in-depth interviews with three pioneers within online retrieval.  It also mentions a large number of persons, active in the field of that time. It is illustrated.

Teodora Oker-Blom and Marie Wallin (editors, Finland and Sweden) say: ”We are extremely happy and proud to publish this book. The project was initiated by Elisabet Mickos under the auspicies of NORDINFO (Nordic Council for Scientific Information). Supported by an editorial team of five persons from the Nordic countries, she managed to engage a number of renowned information personalities from the Nordic countries to contribute as writers who delivered their manuscripts in 2003-2007. However, during this period NORDINFO was discontinued, and when Elisabet passed away in 2007 it seemed to be the end of the project. In 2016 the project was revived by us and Lars Klasén (Sweden) and when we now present the final result we do it to honour Elisabet Mickos and the other contributors, some of which have passed away.”

The book, ”Online development in the Nordic countries – A history of online information from the 1960s to the ‘00s and NORDINFO’s role in its development”, is published open access under a Creative Commons license and accessible online at Helda Open Books, the digital repository of the University of Helsinki http://hdl.handle.net/10138/235272. ISBN 978-952-94-0548-0 (PDF) URI http://doi.org/10.31885/2018.00003. It is catalogued in Helka and Libris, the catalogue of KB, the National Library of Sweden.

For more information, please contact:

Marie Wallin, Sweden (maw@walma.se)

Lars Klasén, Sweden (lars.klasen@outlook.com)

Teodora Oker-Blom, Finland (tokerblom@gmail.com)

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