Editorial
Trix Bakker
This issue is quite extensive, because it not only publishes papers of a conference or a workshop this time, but also the
revised Vision Statement for LIBERs strategy 2003-2006, and the English version of the Danish equivalent of the Vision Statement, called: "Knowledge in time". This is a strategic
paper on the perspectives for Danish University Libraries, published by the Library Committee of the Danish Rectors Conference.
In 2000, the Rectors of the 11 Danish universities established an advisory Library Committee, consisting of 4 representatives
of the top management of the universities and 4 library directors, i.e. the directors of the Royal Library, the National Library
for Science and Medicine, the Copenhagen Business School, and the University Library of Roskilde University. In December 2001,
the Rectors' Conference asked the Committee to describe the prospects and problems of university libraries seen from a visionary, strategic
perspective.
On the basis of a survey of how the more important university libraries viewed their future, a vision paper was drafted which
the Committee discussed at a number of meetings during 2002. The outcome is the report "Knowledge in Time" / "Timely Knowledge"on the strategic perspective for Danish university libraries, presented to the Rectors' Conference in January 2003, and approved by the Rector's Conference on February 19, 2003. This report was not conceived as a Master Plan for the future library development of Danish
universities, but as an outline of the most important developmental perspectives discernible today that the universities and
their libraries have to plan for and with.
The present president of LIBER, Erland Kolding Nielsen, took part in the work of the Committee at the same time as the LIBER
Executive Board was discussing and drafting a strategic vision for the organisation. Although at a rather different level,
it is nevertheless interesting to compare the views and approaches to the problems facing European university and research
libraries and those in one of its member countries.
Besides these two texts, there is a summary published of the conference "The changing role of the manuscript librarian", organised by the LIBER Expert Group of European Manuscript Librarians. This
conference was held from 5-8 march 2003 at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), , the National Library of the Netherlands in
The Hague. On the site of the conference you'll find the conference report with all the papers and presentations.
Most of this issue is filled with the papers of the LIBER Workshop "Microfilming and Digitisation for Preservation", organised by the LIBER Preservation Division, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, and the European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA). This workshop also was held at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek on 14 and 15 April 2003. It was the outcome of a long
process that started nearly three years ago.
WEB SITES REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT
The changing role of the manuscript librarian. http://www.kb.nl/coop/liber/mss/
The Danish Rectors' Conference. http://www.rektorkollegiet.dk/
The European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA). http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/
Koninklijke Bibliotheek. http://www.kb.nl/
LIBER Preservation Division. http://www.kb.dk/guests/intl/liber/division/preserv/
Microfilming and Digitisation for Preservation. http://www.kb.nl/coop/liber/
A Vision for LIBER's Strategy 2003-2006. http://www.kb.dk/guests/intl/liber/vision/visionstatement.htm
LIBER Quarterly, Volume 13 (2003), No. 2