National Librarian Ingibjörg Steinunn Sverrisdóttir and Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland, recently signed a new cooperation agreement between the National and University Library of Iceland and the University of Iceland. Under Act No. 142/2011 the Library is both the national library and the library of the University of Iceland.
The agreement was revised by the joint committee of the Library and the University (UI), with the help of specialists from both institutions. Its priorities include strengthening the cooperation between the parties, working towards the government’s goals for open access to research publications and research data, and the Library setting up research services for the university community, among other things to share information on open science and make open-access publishing easier. There is also an emphasis on strengthening information literacy among students and improving access to electronic collections, for example in the University’s learning management system.
“A university library is the heart of every university. A strong library with accessible information systems and databases is an essential part of an international research university that wants to enable its students to meet the challenges we face today. The agreement confirms the mutual will to cooperate and an understanding of how important the cooperation has been over the past decades and will be in the future,” says Jón Atli Benediktsson.
The agreement was signed in the University Council room of the Main Building. Back row: the members of the joint committee of UI and the Library, Halldór Jónsson, Director of the UI Division of Science and Innovation, and Róbert Haraldsson, Director of the UI Division of Academic Affairs; Elín Soffía Ólafsdóttir, Professor of Pharmacology, UI’s representative on the Library’s board; and Guðrún Tryggvadóttir, Director of Services and Dissemination at the National and University Library of Iceland. Front row, from left: Rector Jón Atli Benediktsson and National Librarian Ingibjörg Steinunn Sverrisdóttir. Photo: Kristinn Ingvarsson.