Danish Technical Information Service

Abstract

Over the past twenty-five years Denmark has changed into a highly industrialized country, particularly as regards engineering and precision Industries. However, her competitiveness on an international scale heavily depends on the effective utilization of existing scientific and technological knowledge because of the country's inadequate raw material supply.

To achieve this end, the Danish Technical Information Service (Dansk Teknisk Oplyeningstjeneste) was established as early as 1955. Its major fields of activities include:
contact and liaison service,
question-and-answer service,
active information service,
conference and course activities,
consulting service.

The activities of this information institute are based on the contact and liaison service in the framework of which staff-members regularly visit industrial companies and research institutes to gather information about their problems and rouse interest in information services, thus calling the attention to the decisive role scientific information plays in the economic growth of companies.

Once the companies' managers have recognized the necessity of an independent information policy, the Service is given the green light on pursuing its activities: to give an answer to the company's special problems, either directly or through an expert; to organize conferences and courses; to organize or reorganize the company's internal information system, etc.

Information, whose utilization has a strong impact on the development and economic extension of the company, is regarded as a commodity. The Service seeks to propagate its opinion that up-to-date information – like any other commodity – should be distributed, sold and used: information is useful both for the companies and society only if it may be transformed into measurable results of production.

Information services have the task of furthering this purpose.