Cross-Sectorial Challenges for Archives, Libraries and Museums

Archives, libraries and museums are established to serve society and their users, but there is considerable overlapping of sources across sector borders. Archives, libraries and museums all collect photographs. A survey in Norway shows that museums, like some libraries, have large and important collections of private archives. In a local community the museum might have a better collection of literature on local history than the public library, but it is not available to the general public and may even not be catalogued. The use of information and communication technology is the overriding challenge common to archives, libraries and museums. Improved cooperation between these institutions requires places where they can meet, such as seminars, conferences or networks. In many ways there seems to be greater potential for cooperation at regional and local levels than on a national level. For users it is irrelevant whether the sources of knowledge and experience are in the keeping of archives, libraries or museums. Their first concern is to obtain access to the sources they seek and to make use of them, regardless of the different sectors involved.