History

NORSIB - a Cooperative Body for Sport Information in the Nordic Countries

In the early 1970s the initiative was taken to establish Nordic cooperation between physical education and sport libraries in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It was agreed to exchange bibliographies, accession lists and information on current periodicals.

A meeting was held in Örebro, Sweden, June 13-16, 1982. The possibility of establishing a Nordic Sport Data Base, as well as other documentation and information issues, was discussed. In January 1983 an application was sent to NORDINFO, asking for money to support this area of Nordic cooperation. The applicaton was turned down.

A second meeting was held in Oslo, Norway, February 13-15, 1983. At this meeting Professor A. Morgan Olsen suggested that the cooperation between the sport libraries should be formalized, that a cooperative body should be formed, and that NORSIB ("Nordisk Samarbeidskomité fo Idrettsbibliotek") could be an appropriate name for the organisation. No final decision was, however, made at this point.

A third meeting was organized in Örebro, Sweden, August 8-9, 1985. Among the matters discussed was proposal for developing a sport thesaurus for the Scandinavian languages, a list of current sport periodicals held in Nordic libraries, and the organization of the Nordic cooperation. The time was now right for accepting the idea of having a formal, independent body. Membership in NORSIB was, of course, to be approved by the institutions responsible for the libraries or documentation and informations centres. Since the Nordic sport faculties and colleges were already members of RHIN (Nordic Council for Institutions giving Higher Education in Physical Education and Sport), NORSIB was to serve as an advisory body for RHIN and other Nordic bodies. It was agreed to have statues presented at a later meeting.

In accordance with the drafted statutes, NORSIB has its first general assembly in Jyväskylä, Finland, August 20-23, 1986. For this meeting NORDINFO had been allocated FM 17.800. The general assembly approved the NORSIB statutes unanimously. A new publication "Sport and Sports Medicine: Current Periodicals in the Nordic Countries", compiled by Ulla adsen, Copenhagen, was presented. A new edition was published in 1987.

NORSIB had its second assembly in Oslo, Norway, October 8-10, 1987, whereas the third was held in Odense, Denmark, August 4-5, 1989. The fourth took place in Stockholm in 1991, the fifth in Tampere in 1993 and the sixth in Oslo in 1995.

As can be seen from the statutes NORSIB will have its main tasks to fulfill within the Nordic region. The introduction of sport data bases was a major issue in the early 1980s. In order to reduce expenses it was considered if it was possible to bring the SPORT/SIRC Data Base to a Nordic host country or if it was better to develop a Nordic Sport Data Base. These projects are now outdated, since SPORT/SIRC and SPORT/IASI have become readily available for all libraries and centres. A sport thesaurus for the Scandinavian languages is now being developed. Another current issue is the exchange of full text article copies with or without payment.

In a European or world perspective NORSIB may be looked upon as a regional unit. Such units may become important in the future. As IASI becomes a more and more truly global organisation,regional bodies may form important links between the individual countries and their institutions on the one hand, and the central bodies of IASI on the other. We sincerely hope that Nordic cooperation through NORSIB will contribute to the flow of sport information between the Nordic countries, as well as between this region and the rest of the world.

Hege Underthun and A. Morgan Olsen

Norwegian College of Physical Education and Sport, Oslo, Norway