After the Second World War Denmark, Norway, and Sweden implemented systems to compensate authors whose books were lent out from public libraries without charge. Finland waited until the beginning of the 1960s before it established its own system, which differed in some important respects from its Scandinavian counterparts. For one thing, it did not tie the amount of compensation to the circulation of the books, and it limited the compensation to authors of belles-lettres (until the 1980s). This article describes the birth and development of the Finnish system and seeks to explain its special features by putting it in the larger cultural historical context. The controversy concerning the right of non-fiction writers to receive compensation is also described.
BT - Library & Information History IS - 3 LA - English N2 -After the Second World War Denmark, Norway, and Sweden implemented systems to compensate authors whose books were lent out from public libraries without charge. Finland waited until the beginning of the 1960s before it established its own system, which differed in some important respects from its Scandinavian counterparts. For one thing, it did not tie the amount of compensation to the circulation of the books, and it limited the compensation to authors of belles-lettres (until the 1980s). This article describes the birth and development of the Finnish system and seeks to explain its special features by putting it in the larger cultural historical context. The controversy concerning the right of non-fiction writers to receive compensation is also described.
PY - 2009 SP - 190 EP - 204 T2 - Library & Information History TI - Defending the National Literature?: Cultural Historical Background of the Finnish System of Public Lending Right Compensation VL - 25 ER -