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

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