2 LAM institutions: a Cross-country Comparison of Legislation and Statistics on Services and Use

Many factors influence the ability of libraries, archives, and museums (LAM) to fulfil their role as public sphere institutions. This chapter aims to give an overview of the current situation of LAM institutions in the partnering countries of the ALMPUB research project by reviewing the legislation and the national statistics on services and use. The overarching purpose is to provide a background for the following chapters written by researcher partners from the participating countries. The countries included in the project are Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and to some extent Iceland and Poland, which were not part of the initial research team. This chapter has separate sectionson libraries, archives, andmuseums. These sections include overviews of the purpose statements in the legislative acts in the participating countries, the methods used to collect national statistics, and the national statistics on services and use across the countries. Lastly, a broad comparison is made of the LAM institutions in the summarizing discussion. The collection of national LAM statistics presents various methodological challenges when attempting to make comparisons across countries; however, these challenges can also be seen as a part of the result. The aims and focus differ widely across countries and across the three sectors. The statistics gathered, or not gathered, have implications about what is deemed important as well as about whether the respective sectors can be regarded as part of a common field of practice. The statistics and information about LAM legislation in the eight countries are presented in Table 2.1 (see appendix). Unless otherwise indicated, the information in the text is based on Table 2.1. Links to legislative documents and national statistics are included in the reference list.