7 Institutional Convergence and Divergence in Norwegian Cultural Policy: Central Government LAM Organization 1999–2019

Abstract

Rayward’s prediction describes expectations in the LAM (libraries, archives, and museums) field that technological change and digitalization would produce coordination gains and institutional mergers over time. In Norway, The Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority (ABM–utvikling – Statens senter for arkiv, bibliotek ogmuseum), fromhere on referred to asABM–u, was established in 2003. The digitization of documents such as books, journals, archival material andmuseum objects, and with this increasing similarity in working methods between the sectors was an essential argument in the process leading up to the creation of ABM–u: