The Internationalization of Public Libraries — a Danish Case Study

Abstract

This article deals with the question of how public libraries are facing the process of internationalization. In an empirical study, carried out between 2016 and 2018 as part of a government-funded project, the cooperation of small and medium-sized Danish libraries with corresponding foreign institutions was examined. Based on the concept of the path dependency of organizational decisions, the article investigates how strategic and structural measures as well as knowledge sharing and organizational learning support transnational cooperation. Initial results indicate that Danish libraries have taken very different paths to internationalization. The different paths they have taken are above all determined according to the local cultural policy, the institutional environment, the size of the library and the international commitment of staff and management.