Thursday, January 13, 2011

Biblioteksmuseet Boras, Sweden's Library History Museum

Sweden's library history museum, the Biblioteksmuseet in Boras, Sweden, was founded in 1989 under the leadership of the Swedish School of Library and Information Science.  The museum has a video in English on its website which provides an excellent overview of the museum. The museum operates as a non-profit organization funded by membership fees and in-kind contributions. The Board of the Museum includes representatives from the Swedish Library Association and the National Swedish Federation of Adult Educational Associations.  Tommy Olsson is the Director of the Museum and Magnus Torstensson of the Swedish School of Library and Information Science is the museum's historian. In 1994 the museum moved to the former building of the Boras Public Library.  The museum has  permanent exhibits showing travelling libraries, parish libraries, study circle libraries, and public library children's services. It also displays artifacts related to technical services and circulation systems.  It is one of only two library history museums in the world as far as I know.  The other is the Bibliotheekmuseum in Amsterdam. My thoughts on a possible museum/library heritage center in the United States are located HERE.

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