Access and Curation of Digital Cultural Heritage in the National and University Library of Iceland

Abstract

The National Library of Iceland (established 1818) and the Library of the University of Iceland (established 1940) were amalgamated in 1994 as the National and University Library of Iceland (NULI). When the changes occurred, an opportunity to transform operations and services opened. It was done by rationalizing and modernizing the functions of the two libraries in a new building and developing new strategies and priorities (Sigurðsson 2000). Since then the mission of the Library has been to serve the users in a new way. Access has been given to both primary and secondary sources within the collections, sources which sometimes are unique or the only exemplars known. It was decided to aim for the use of the newest technology available and to initiate the development of a digital library, even though it would be small in the beginning. This required periods of learning and experiments on behalf of the staff, but knowledge in the field started to accumulate (Hannesdóttir 2005).