Ingeborg Torvik Sølvberg
email: ingeborg.solvberg@idi.ntnu.no

Re-engineering

Keywords: BIBSYS, information systems, library automation, re-engineering, systems design

The Norwegian shared library system BIBSYS is in 2010 used by more than hundred university-, college-, and research libraries, including the Norwegian National Library. The BIBSYS project was initiated in 1970 and it led to a complete re-engineering of the Norwegian research libraries. The paper describes the project, how the system was initiated and discusses important decisions made during project development. The two most important factors for the success of BIBSYS are discussed. One is that the project started with a detailed information analysis prior to coding and data base design, using a good software tool. The other factor is that the potential users of the system, the librarians, were included in the project loop from the beginning.

Introduction

In 1970, a process started that resulted in a reorganization of the Norwegian research libraries. The advances in computer technology drove the change process. It was decided to start a "library automation" project at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, NTH, Norges Tekniske Høgskole. The project very quickly was expanded to the two other research libraries in Trondheim, and gradually to other research libraries to become a nationwide project.

The first operational data processing system, for acquisition of library documents, was operational from 1976. Other systems to cover all library work processes followed over the next few years. The system was called BIBSYS, and its successor is still operational in 2010, forty years after its conception [1]. The original information system design of BIBSYS has survived thirty-five years of computer technology development. The design process was based on the information systems development approach, which was pioneered by Langefors in the late 1960s [START_REF] Langefors | Theoretical Analysis of Information Systems[END_REF]. Key elements were o participatory design o separating information aspects (infology) and data aspects (datalogy) o developing detailed requirements prior to coding and data base design BIBSYS embarked on a "business process re-engineering" project many years before the phrase was coined and became fashionable. After the initial design and implementation phases, the system became the basis for a nationwide re-organization of the Norwegian research libraries. BIBSYS took over the operational responsibilities for the computerized parts of the libraries' operations as well as the responsibility for keeping up with advances in information technology.

The following paper gives an account of the first years of the BIBSYS project, as well as a short analysis of its impact.

The BIBSYS Project -Initiated in 1970

Today's libraries use information technology for their internal routines as well as in order to give the public access to their collections. The Norwegian shared library system BIBSYS is used by all Norwegian university libraries, the National Library, a number of college libraries, and other research libraries, altogether more than hundred libraries. Currently the shared bibliographic database contains information about more than 5,000,000 unique titles and more than 15,000,000 physical objects, when copies are included. In 2009, the bibliographic search system handled 20,700,000 searches from all over the world [1].

It all started in 1970. The Director of SINTEF, Karl Stenstadvold, took an initiative to investigate how computers could be used in the daily routines of the Library at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH). He was willing to use Sintef resources to get a project off the ground.

I was a young researcher at Regnesenteret NTH (later called RUNIT) interested in exploring how we could use computers in new and exciting applications. The Head of the NTH Library, Knut Thalberg, was interested in such a project; the same was my superior, Director Karl G. Schjetne. This was a good match!

The first question that surfaced was: What is the status world wide of how libraries use computers? The next question was: What should and could we do at our university?

The Traditional Library in 1970s

The information objects in the traditional library were the physical objects such as books, journals, reports, maps, patent-descriptions and others. The library objects were mainly paper based, even if in the 1970s many libraries included music recordings and movies on physical media in their collections. The objects were catalogued and the catalogue records were printed, mainly on small catalogue cards, which were filed in catalogue card cabinets according to specific rules. Hence, information about objects could be found in many card catalogues serving different purposes, and they were geographically distributed. Only one catalogue at the NTH Library contained information about all the objects owned by the library; this was the Main Catalogue located in the reading room of the Main Library. The Main Catalogue was used by the library staff as well as by the public. The NTH library had several branches on campus; each branch maintained a card catalogue of their own holdings.

The NTH Library, like most other large university libraries, used international cataloguing standards, with local adjustments. Cataloguing and classification were costly processes. A rule of thumb was that it was just as expensive to catalogue an object as to purchase the object. All libraries catalogued all the objects in their own collections. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a few projects involving computers were initiated in Europe and USA. Many of the first library automation projects produced local catalogues in the form of sorted lists or in book-form. The lists could easily be produced in many copies and they were distributed throughout the library and could even be sent to cooperating libraries. A drawback with the lists and books was that they were produced periodically, such as monthly or even annually, with smaller weekly or monthly additions for the new acquisitions. Hence, there were many lists to look through in order to find a specific object. In Europe, the university libraries in Bochum and in Bielefeld were well known for their computerized book catalogues. They were the European leaders in the emerging field of library automation. Soon microfilm was used instead of paper when distributing the catalogues. The microfilms were used by other libraries as a support to cataloguing and for locating specific documents. Other universities as the University of Southampton, UK, developed circulation systems based on punched cards. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Library of Congress (LC) developed the MARC standard (MARC: Machine Readable Cataloguing). The MARC format contains information describing the intellectual content of an object as well as administrative data. The MARC standards have been of great importance to the library community worldwide [START_REF]MARC Standards[END_REF][START_REF] Kilgour | Summary of Marc[END_REF]. The MARC format is described later in the paper. .

The Library Automation Project

At NTH we agreed that the library could benefit by using computers, but there were no clear ideas of where to start. In 1970, I did some minor projects; I learned about the different library departments and their working routines, I produced various types of sorted lists, I looked into the possibility to reuse cataloguing records coming from MARC magnetic tapes from Library of Congress, USA (LC). In a report of November 1970, I gave a brief description of the workings of the library and presented some project ideas [START_REF] Sølvberg | En grov beskrivelse av Hovedbiblioteket NTNU. Biblioteksautomatisering. Arbeidsnotat 1[END_REF]. The number one recommendation was to conduct a user study in order to clarify the requirements of the library users: NTH's scientific personnel and students. If the project mainly should be aimed to have the librarians work more efficient there were interesting starting points in all of the library departments. I also proposed that the Library of Congress' MARC format should be used for the cataloguing work. It could be beneficial for the NTH Library to use MARC magnetic tapes from Library of Congress. Initially this proposal was deemed silly. However, not too long time afterwards did the library subscribe to MARC tapes.

RUNIT's library volunteered to be a pilot, if the NTH Library found a project to be too risky to self-serve as a pilot. At that point, the Library was not interested in a user study; they wanted to aim the project at supporting the internal processes in the library.

The organization of the university sector in Trondheim was restructured at this time. NTH was loosely coupled with two other scientific organizations in Trondheim under the UNIT "umbrella" (UNIT: Universitetet i Trondheim). UNIT had two university libraries, in addition to NTH Library there was the DKNVS Library (DKNVSB: Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs Bibliotek) which just had merged with the library at the other university college in Trondheim, the College of Arts and Letters (AVH). Early in 1971 DKNVSB's Head librarian, Sten Vedi, made contact and wanted his library to join the library automation project together with the NTH Library and RUNIT. This speeded up the process; the NTH Library suddenly had a competitor! RUNIT was asked, "Is it possible to support the work processes in the two libraries with the same IT-system?" This was an interesting challenge. The NTH Head Librarian Knut Thalberg proposed the starting point for such a project to be the work process where information about the documents was registered in the library for the first time: the ordering department.

I made a proposal for a common project for the two university libraries: "A proposal for mechanization of the accession processes in two scientific libraries" [START_REF] Sølvberg | Forslag til mekanisering av aksesjon ved to vitenskapelige bibliotek. Biblioteksautomatisering, Arbeidsnotat[END_REF]. In February 1972, the proposal was presented for the leaders of the two university libraries, Runit's director and a few other key persons, and it was decided to initiate a common project with an ambitious goal:

The project's goal is to develop a system to automate ALL of the internal routines in the libraries; acquisition, cataloguing, circulation, search and serials control. The first departments to be automated are the two Acquisition departments.

BIBSYS was born, both as a project and an organization, even if the name BIBSYS was not invented at this point; this was still the "Library Automation Project."

The project needed persons with a variety of competences, in librarianship as well as information technology, in order to embark on a participative development where IT persons and Domain experts could work together following the so-called "Scandinavian approach" to Information System development.

The libraries approached the project with the opinion that the work could be done by data experts alone with minimal involvement from the libraries. RUNIT had to insist that librarians should be included in the project team; "no librarians -no project." Eventually we got a great team together with me as Project Leader and the main IT-person together with two part time librarians from each of the two libraries. They learned how to program and they got insight in what computers could do and not do. They participated in the development of the systems-and user requirements and were important intermediaries between the IT department and the libraries. After a while, RUNIT allocated one more IT person to the project. Shortly after, in 1974, a formal Steering Committee was established, The University of Trondheim (UNIT) appointed Associate Professor Jørgen Løvset from the Physics department as the Steering Committee Leader. Jørgen Løvset did a great job. He realized the complexity of the project as well as the shortcoming of the available technology. From time to time, he had to stand up and defend the technical proposals from the project team. The user community did not always understand that there was not a straight way forward to develop such a complex system and that we were breaking new ground. Jørgen Løvset was of crucially importance for making the library automation project a success.

A Master Plan

It soon became obvious that all departments of the libraries would be influenced by the library automation project. We needed a Master Plan for establishing the information system for the whole library, which could also serve several autonomous libraries.

We defined the Universe of Discourse to have three main components; the Library, the Vendors, and the Users. The Library had three subsystems: Acquisition, Circulation, and Administration.

The central questions were: Which kinds of data are produced, used, changed, deleted -where and by whom? Who makes the decisions, e.g., about new acquisitions? What kind of information and messages are exchanged inside a library department, between the departments, and communicated with the outside world? These questions and many more needed to be answered.

In the Information Systems Group at RUNIT, the CASCADE research project was based on Börje Langefors' theories of Information Systems development. CASCADE offered computer-assistance for information analysis and information systems design. The tool produced graphical presentations of the information flow on all levels of the system description, systematic storage and presentation of information objects and information processing tasks, automatic testing of the system descriptions, and gave warnings about inconsistencies and broken links [START_REF] Sølvberg | Experimenter med Nyere Metoder i Systemarbeidet[END_REF][START_REF] Aanstad | CASCADE -A Computer-based Documentation System[END_REF][START_REF] Langefors | [END_REF]. This was deemed an excellent tool for the analysis phase.

In 1972, we made a detailed system analysis of the Acquisition department and in 1973 of the Circulation department using CASCADE.

An Example from the Acquisition Subsystem

The Acquisition subsystem had two component systems: the Ordering Department and the Cataloguing Department [START_REF] Sølvberg | Informasjonsanalyse av tilvekstsystemet. Biblioteksautomatisering. Arbeidsnotat 3[END_REF]. In 1972, the Ordering department was responsible for the production and maintenance of three bibliographic card catalogues:

o The Ordering Catalogue contained everything that was ordered but not received, and in addition, claims and other information regarded to be of importance. ("Bestillings katalog") o One catalogue contained information about the objects that had been received in the library and had been forwarded to the cataloguing department in order to be catalogued ("Akse Katalog") o The library did often consult professors and university departments before buying an object. This information was kept in a special catalogue, "Gjennomsynskatalog" The Ordering subsystem had two processes: Verification and Control. A process in the Ordering department was initiated when the department received a proposal for acquiring an object. The proposal came either from someone inside the library world, e.g., a professor, a student, a librarian, or it came from the outside, e.g., a publisher.

Fig. 1 shows what happened when the library received a proposal for buying an object. The incoming Proposal triggered the Verification process. The librarian consulted external bibliographic sources, bibliographies, to verify whether the proposed object existed, e.g. whether the proposed book was published or not. If 'yes' the verified proposal was sent to the Control Subsystem. The Main Card catalogue was accessed in order to check if the object already was in the library's collection. If it was not, the three bibliographic card catalogues in the Ordering Department were searched. Finally, the budget files in the Administration Department had to be consulted in order to check whether there was money available for the scientific area of the proposed object.

When an ordered object arrived in the library, this is not shown in the figure, the order record (of the library of 1972) was physically transferred from the Ordering Catalogue ("Bestillings katalog") to the "Akse Katalog" and new relevant information was added to the card. The order form resided in "Akse Katalog" in the Ordering Department until the Cataloguing Department sent a message, on paper, that the object has been catalogued and classified. Information about the object could now be found on catalogue cards in the Main Catalogue in the Main Reading Room.

In the analysis of the Ordering department, we described around three hundred objects. This description was used in the design phase when proposing processes, forms, and for describing the proposals for data and file structures.

Systems Design and Development

Systems Design

The information analysis described in detail the relations between work processes and the logical files (catalogues) and whether a process reads, modifies, generates or deletes a record or another data item. Based upon the analysis results we defined the logical file structure. Many of the existing catalogues were merged. The information analysis gave guidance when defining the search terms for the index files: author, title, ISBN, DOKID, vendor-identifier, vendor-name, a.o.

The systems analysis described processes in the information system. Some of these processes could be automated immediately, and we could develop computer programs right away, while other processes might be automated later when more mature technology would become available (such as decision support systems), some processes were completely dependent on human decision-making and could never be automated [START_REF] Sølvberg | Systemforslag for tilveksten ved bibliotekene tilknyttet Universitetet i Trondheim[END_REF][START_REF] Sølvberg | Oversiktsrapport om biblioteksautomatisering ved UNIT. Biblioteksautomatisering[END_REF][13][START_REF]RUNIT Årsmelding[END_REF].

In designing the new system, much emphasis was put on that there should not be introduced limitations through unnecessary borders between the different processes. In the design of the computerized system, the border between ordering and cataloguing of an object became blurred. An object is pre-catalogued when the order is registered; the cataloguing process is a continuation of the ordering process using the already recorded order information. In the manual system, bibliographic information was distributed over many bibliographic card catalogues. We proposed these catalogues to be merged so all descriptions about bibliographic objects should be stored in one catalogue/file only. A Status variable was added to the bibliographic record, the value of the Status could be ordered, received, on the shelf, cataloguingin-process, in circulation, et cetera.

The bibliographic record should be updated when new information became available. Pre-cataloguing gave new responsibility to the persons in the Ordering Departments, as they had to register bibliographic data as correctly as possible. At this processing stage, however, only limited bibliographic data were usually available. A quality test was conducted to find if the proposed solution was viable. The bibliographic entries of approximately two hundred orders were compared to the final catalogue records of the same documents. Only 5 percent of the order records had needed to be modified. It was subsequently decided to merge the bibliographic catalogues in the Ordering Department with the Main Catalogue.

The Project team had been instructed by the libraries not to look into organizational or administrative matters. In spite of this, the libraries were restructured when the consequences of the computerization became apparent. The decision to pre-catalogue a document in the Ordering Department is just one example on how the automated system influenced the internal library organization.

A summary of the overall design objectives include the following.

• To create an online system with shared catalogues, for participating libraries; vertical integration within a library; horizontal integration between libraries. This required that routines and standards needed to be harmonized. • The system must be accessible online and searchable for anyone; public as well as library personnel. • Bibliographic data shall be written once; starting in the ordering department(s). The record shall be updated in later processes; verified, changed, expanded, or deleted. • When there are more than one copy of a document, local information shall be added for each specific copy (e.g. physical location, classification) • Each physical object shall have a unique identifier, a DOKID, to be used also in the circulation sub-system.

Representation and Communication of Bibliographic and Related Information

The central part of the system is the database containing the bibliographical records; the digital descriptions about the documents related to the libraries.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Library of Congress (LC) developed the MARC standard (MARC: Machine Readable Cataloging). "The MARC standards consist of the MARC formats which are standards for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form, and related documentation. It defines a bibliographic data format … It provides the protocol by which computers exchange, use, and interprets bibliographic information" [START_REF]MARC Standards[END_REF].

The MARC standard was originally developed as a format for interchange of Library of Congress cataloguing information using magnetic tapes -MARC-tapes. The tapes were originally intended to produce catalogue cards, but they were soon used for book catalogue production and a variety of listings, such as acquisitions lists. In April 1969, the Library of Congress began to distribute to other libraries its cataloging services on machine-readable magnetic tape [START_REF] Kilgour | Summary of Marc[END_REF].

Most MARC fields contain several related pieces of data. Each type of data within the field is called a subfield, and each subfield is preceded by a subfield code. The field, or tag, "100" is used for a person as author, subfield "$a" is used for the author's name, "$d" is used for the author's birth and death year. The field (or tag) "245" title statement, for example, contains the title and the statement of responsibility area of a bibliographic record, where "$a" denotes the title proper, "$b" the reminder of the title ("sub-title"), and "$c" other title information such as statement(s) of responsibility. Tag "240" is used for the document's original title.

The libraries have different kinds of materials in their collections: monographs, serials, maps, movies, photos, and others. Already from the beginning did the MARC format identify data common to different types of material with the same content designators (fields or tag), while unique fields (tags) are assigned for data elements peculiar to any one format of material. As an example, the four kinds of information objects Monographs, Serials, Maps, and Movies all use tag "245" for title statement while tag "255" is used only when describing Maps such as "255 $a Scale 1:12.500".

BIBSYS developed its own variant of the MARC format, there taking into account the Norwegian cataloguing rules and local practice. From the basic MARC format, different presentation formats can be generated.

As an example a search for "A doll's house" and author "Henrik Ibsen" in BIBSYS of 2010 gives seventy-four matches, one of them is: The University Library at Oslo University started around 1971 to develop a Norwegian version of the MARC format, NORMARC, and the BIBSYS Cataloguing User Group defined UNITMARC (later called BIBSYS-MARC), taking into account the need for future cooperation [START_REF] Sølvberg | Katalogavdelingene ved bibliotekene tilknyttet Universitetet i Trondheim, Bibliotekautomatisering, Arbeidsnotat[END_REF]. The University Library at Oslo University did not originally participate in the BIBSYS project. A special branch of the University of Oslo's Library acted as National Library until 1989, when the National Library of Norway was established.

Database Structure

It was decided to use the MARC format in the bibliographic descriptions. This MARC structure was a perfect match for a database system, which was under development at RUNIT: the randomized file system RA1. This was a win-win situation both for the library automation project and for the Database group. We were able to use RA1 and gave feedback and new requirement for the Database group's next database system, RA2, which the BIBSYS project also used for some years [16].

Expert User Groups

The participative development approach included the users of the system, the librarians. Several Expert User Groups were established as early as possible, starting with the Expert User Group on Cataloguing and the Expert User Group on Acquisition. The participants in the Groups were experts in their fields and represented their libraries. The groups' main objectives were to develop the user requirements for the subsystems, harmonizing rules and work procedures inside as well as between the libraries, and later in the process, to test the system prototypes and prepare instructions for their use within the libraries.

In the early years, 1970-75, when talking with representatives from the libraries we were met with phrases like "of course we want to cooperate with other departments and libraries, but my department is very special." However, when the representatives from the different libraries had met a few times they realized that they had similar problems and challenges and that working with colleagues from other organizations was fun!

The sizes of the user groups increased as the number of participating libraries increased, because all participating libraries should be represented in every group. The User Groups' influence on the planning, development, testing, operation, and, not least, the acceptance -of BIBSYS cannot be over-estimated.

Including the librarians in the project team and in the User Groups eased the introduction of computers in the libraries. There were many small as well as a number of large problems when introducing such dramatic changes in the working environments. The librarians had ownership to the system and they were eager to find solutions.

As more and more libraries became users of BIBSYS, User Groups developed defacto standards for the Norwegian university-and research libraries. They became major actors in the reorganization of the Norwegian library community.

Immature Technology, Possible Stumbling Blocks

During the system design phase we made some bold, someone would say naïve, decisions on proposing solutions that were ahead of the technological state-of-the-art:

• Only upper case letters were available in the 1970s on our equipment, e.g. on the printers and the input terminals. This was insufficient for our libraries, and we developed an interim solution for upper-and lowercase letters. Multikey strokes had to be widely used.

• In the very early days, BIBSYS was a one-user system. The operating systems were not designed for multi-using. An ad-hoc solution was developed and used until multiuser facilities were included in the standard software of time-shared computers. The ad-hoc solution permitted five to ten simultaneous users.

• Due to limitations of the data nets, only one library at a time could use the system during the first year (1976). The two participating libraries in Trondheim each used the system two days a week, and half day Friday! The multiuser solution permitted the librarians to use the system in parallel.

• We wanted full screen terminals to be used when ordering and cataloguing objects. Only tele-type terminals were available the first years. We bought a few screen terminals, UNISCOPE-100, in 1974. According to the vendor, they were the first of their kind in Norway. UNISCOPE-100 was expensive, NOK 50,000 apiece, comparable to an average annual wage.

Operational System Modules

As the first acquisition and search modules became operational, the NTH Library registered the first real document using the acquisition module in March of 1976. More modules were added to the system; cataloguing pre-testing began in 1978 and became operational in 1980 with circulation control and Online Public Access (OPAC) in 1983. The last module was serials control, which was added in 1994.

During the first years, we used RUNIT's main computer, UNIVAC 1108, the programming language FORTRAN and tele-type terminals. Today BIBSYS has its own IBM computer.

Discussion

Going from a Dynamic Developing Environment to an Operational and Service Environment

The project became well known in the Norwegian library community and abroad. The number of research libraries participating in the project increased quickly and the size of the project team and the expert user groups became larger. So did the steering committee and the project budget.

When the steering committee obtained new members, the first question usually was, "Why don't we just buy a library automation system? There must be hundreds of suitable systems on the market." Several surveys, investigations, and visits were made, but the result was always negative; commercial systems that covered certain functions like circulation or catalogue productions existed, but no system was found that could give all the functionality and flexibility that our libraries demanded.

Large resources are required for developing and operating a system of BIBSYS kind so there is a substantial shift in the use and distribution of the organizations' budgets. During the first ten years, the BIBSYS staff grew from a handful to twenty persons.

It can be hard to accept that new technology requires continuously technological development -which consequently results in continuous change and budget redistribution. The administrative leadership of the participating organizations wanted of course to increase their influence on the further development of BIBSYS. Administrative leaders became members of the steering committees. In many ways, this was beneficial to the project, but it did also hamper development both because "change" can be scary, but also because change initially costs money.

The resistance to change was always felt and had to be continuously combated. There were some tense situations over the years. My first report [START_REF] Sølvberg | En grov beskrivelse av Hovedbiblioteket NTNU. Biblioteksautomatisering. Arbeidsnotat 1[END_REF] became so controversial and radical that key persons in the library declared that this report had better disappear from the surface of the earth. This may be due to "cultural" differences. I am educated as a physicist and may have used a different vocabulary and described procedures in the library differently than the librarians were used to. Another example: In the very early years there was a formal meeting at the university where we discussed some proposals I had made without having received any feedback. A leading person in the university administration mentioned these proposals and said that more time was needed before a conclusion could be made. I was enthusiastic and proud because I could tell the good news: "We have already completed that part!" The administrative leader became furious and shouted back: "You are a galloping elephant!" For me, this comment was a compliment I appreciated -and I do so more and more. Over the years, I have stumbled into bureaucracy several times; in a bureaucratic world, maybe more "galloping elephants" are needed?

BIBSYS was in a good shape in the early 1980s. The computerized system was in front worldwide. We had a great project team with competent, enthusiastic and dedicated persons. We were part of an excellent IT community at RUNIT and the university. The necessary developments for the nearest years were planned.

The steering committee focused increasingly on minor additions required by the users, and day-to-day operation filled the days. I proposed a couple of times that we should look into new challenges and technological opportunities for the library community, for example, to use some resources for including full-text documents in the library information system, or to make it possible to have information exchange with other online information systems. Some of the prominent leaders of the organizations said that they did not want to be in front of the technological development and use; "let the others do research, develop, use, and think, and we may follow later" was one phrase. The libraries were pleased with the situation and wanted to consolidate.

In many ways, this is easy to understand. The libraries had been through dramatic re-engineering over a relatively short time. They had been very courageous during the changing times, they had been eager to change, learn and to include new technology into their daily work. Now they had an operational system: No more changes for a while! Further change would cost more money. To propose inclusion of full text electronic documents was perhaps overdoing the level of ambition when remembering that a few years before we could only handle capital letters!

What Did We Learn?

BIBSYS has been in operation for many decades. The design principles from the 1970s are still valid. The computer programs have been re-written, adjusted and expanded several times over the years to fit with the continuously changing technology.

Looking back I find that one important factor to the success is that we started with a pioneer approach. We were able to work without a large bureaucracy during the first years. We were not bothered with people who wanted to lead without understanding what they were leading. This gave us flexibility, and flexibility is important for a pioneer project.

In addition, there were two other crucial success factors:

1. The project started with a detailed information analysis, analyzing the whole library information structure, developing detailed requirements prior to coding and data base design. The master plan and detailed systems analysis occurred before programming (the "think first -program later" approach). We had a good tool at hand assisting in the information analysis and design 2. Participatory design people, potential users of the system, and librarians were included in the project loop from the beginning, in the project group and in the expert user groups. However, we must realize that the participants come from different "cultures." The terminology is different, so is the problem solving approach, sometimes even the human values. The different cultures must respect the differences and trust each other if the project shall succeed. In the BIBSYS project, we were lucky enough to have this mutual respect for each other.

  Fig. 1 shows an original CASCADE diagram of the Ordering Department process. Because of low print quality, we have added additional identifiers to the original in order to make the figure readable.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. The Ordering department, Receiving a Proposal for buying an object. Legend: Ver: Verification process; C: Control process , Prop: Proposal; PropA: Accepted Proposal, PropR: Rejected proposal Bibliographic Catalogues: MK: Main Catalogue; O1: AkseCat; O2: GjennomsysnKat; O3: OrderingCat; Bib: bibliographies B: Budgets


Peter H Hughes
email: peterh@idi.ntnu.no

Computer Systems Performance Engineering in Trondheim: Origins and Development, 1970-1995

Keywords: Benchmarking, model-support environments, performance engineering, queue-network analysis, simulation, system sizing

Developments covered by this review include early experimental work on Univac mainframes, a contribution to early debate regarding the application of queue-network analysis, the development of bespoke benchmarking techniques, one of the first interactive load generators, and modeling tools for system sizing and for simulation. We show how addressing problems that arose from practical needs has benefited both university teaching, and industrial practice. The period covers the transition of performance evaluation as a set of ad hoc modeling and measurement techniques to performance engineering, which aspires to be an integral part of systems design and development. Cross-fertilization and collaboration with developments internationally form an important part of the activities reported.

Introduction

The computer center at SINTEF in Trondheim, later known as RUNIT, was a pioneer in the practice and teaching of computer systems performance evaluation. Today, NTNU is one of a very few teaching establishments in the world with computer systems performance engineering as an established part of the undergraduate curriculum [START_REF] Hughes | Lecture Notes in Performance Engineering IDI[END_REF]. In this paper, we trace some of the activities and developments, which contributed to this long journey.

In scope, the paper deals with those applications of performance evaluation related to computer systems capacity management and information systems development. Other application domains, such as computational software optimization, hardware design, and the design of telecommunications systems are not considered.

Over the period of twenty-five years, some eight researchers were involved, augmented by a number of master-level students. At any one time, the core research group numbered between two and five. The treatment is broadly chronological, with some parallel threads for clarity of exposition. In the final section, we consider the larger context in which these activities took place and make some general observations.

The Mainframe Era: Measurement, Modeling and Experimentation

The work began with a practical need, mainly to understand capacity aspects of the expensive UNIVAC 1100 series mainframes introduced to Scandinavia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The performance of mainframe computers and their operating systems was at the time something of a mystery. They were extremely complex engines with opaque scheduling policies and a range of adjustable parameters, the tuning of which was a dark art. Even senior technical personnel at Univac had difficulty with the more esoteric areas of the EXEC8 operating system.

A performance evaluation group came in existence at Trondheim in 1971. The purpose was to guide decisions on tuning, upgrade and future investment. The approach was apparently simple: select a representative set of programs and data and use this "benchmark" to measure the capacity of alternative system configurations. The predictive accuracy of this approach depended on the benchmark being sufficiently representative of the user workload and on the measurements obtained being sufficiently comparable. Neither requirement was easy to fulfill. This early experimental work turned out to have a wider impact in the following three directions.

(i) The Art of Benchmarking

Firstly, we developed techniques whereby benchmark tests became the basis of reproducible experiments, in which both workload and system state were carefully controlled. This was a complex challenge, involving an understanding of a large, disparate set of user programs and data, analysis of system log-files, and special instrumentation of the operating system [START_REF] Hughes | Developing a reliable benchmark for performance evaluation[END_REF]. We developed the idea of a benchmark beyond its origin as an arbitrary reference point, to become a model of an actual user workload. The reward for this rather laborious investment was that we were able to offer a customized benchmarking service to other computer centers with procurement projects. Internationally, they invited us to contribute to a state-of-the-art report for the industry on computer measurement [START_REF] Hughes | Towards Precise Benchmarks[END_REF].

(ii) Models of Multiprogramming

The second contribution was less direct, but at least as significant. Certain results due to Geir Moe [START_REF] Moe | Computer Performance Analysis using Simple Queuing Models[END_REF] gained international recognition as a rare experimental validation of the new theory of queue-network analysis.

A purely measurement-based approach to performance prediction is limited by the range of configurations, which are available for testing and by the cost of such an exercise. It was natural to consider a modeling approach to reduce the number of measurements required. Modeling of computer systems was however in its infancy.

Moe had developed a simulation model for multiprogramming based on simple probabilistic assumptions. This model displayed some intriguing asymptotic behavior. About this time, at a conference of the British Computer Society, Conway Berners-Lee, from the UK computer firm ICL, provided a queuing network interpretation of multiprogramming systems [START_REF] Berners-Lee | Three analytical models of batch processing systems[END_REF]. Armed with Berners-Lee's analysis, Moe was able to explain the behavior of his simulation model and show that it was consistent with a queuing network model. Moreover, results from the model were consistent with results obtained in the benchmark experiments [START_REF] Hughes | A structural approach to computer performance analysis[END_REF].

It was both difficult and expensive to do controlled experiments with large mainframes. It turned out that our painstaking benchmark tests constituted one of the very few measurement experiments worldwide that provided evidence for the queuetheoretic interpretation. At the time there was much controversy regarding the validity of queue-network models. Real systems do not have exponential service times and other mathematically convenient Markov properties, and it was not clear until years later, how far queue-theoretic predictions could be relied upon.

(iii) Synthetic Programs

It quickly became apparent that modeling and measurement together could provide powerful insights. Performance measurement, in combination with queuing theory, simulation and statistics, was helping to demystify mainframe computers and to untangle the complexity of computer system behavior. We investigated some key issues surrounding the role of so-called synthetic programs in benchmarks. Was it legitimate to model computer workloads with artificial programs and data? Which properties should we preserve? [START_REF] Barber | Benchmark construction[END_REF][START_REF] Hughes | Benchmarks, Workloads and System Dynamics[END_REF] How might a set of programs be statistically representative of a workload? [START_REF] Barber | A question of balance[END_REF] 3 The Birth of an Academic Subject At RUNIT in 1972 a teaching unit was formed which became the new Institutt for Databehandling (IDB) at Norges Tekniske Høgskole (NTH), led by professor Arne Sølvberg. After various reorganizations, these two entities were subsumed in larger ones, leading eventually to the present structure: the Institutt for Datateknikk og Informasjonsvitenskap (IDI) at NTNU.

Following an initiative by Sølvberg, we packaged and distilled some of our practical experience for teaching purposes [START_REF] Asphjell | Ytelsesvurdering av datamaskinsystemer[END_REF]. The new subject came to be entitled Systemering III, a sequel to the systems design courses Systemering I and II. This association anticipated by more than a decade the link between performance evaluation and design now implicit in terms such as software performance engineering [START_REF] Smith | Performance Engineering of Software Systems[END_REF]. The course content gradually extended to both practice and theory by contact with industry and the wider academic community.

Globally, research in the mathematical analysis of queuing networks proceeded in parallel with the practical side of performance engineering, as is still the case today. Although mathematical textbooks appeared, there was little to support the more holistic engineering approach we wished to develop. In 1978, the situation had transformed by the appearance of Domenico Ferrari's comprehensive and scholarly work, Computer Systems Performance Evaluation [START_REF] Ferrari | Computer Systems Performance Evaluation[END_REF]. This text became the foundation of the subject for years to come.

In the same year, the author received an invitation to present our work on benchmarking techniques as part of a summer school in Urbino, Italy, led by Ferrari. The gathering attracted many leading researchers in the field. The widening of horizons provided by this experience was of long-term benefit to the course in Trondheim.

In the late 1970s, the theory of operational analysis developed [START_REF] Denning | The operational analysis of queuing network models[END_REF]. Based on directly measurable quantities, this provided a simpler approach for analyzing multi-programming systems. Our earlier simulation results also supported an operational interpretation. Indeed, some of the invariance rules derived in [START_REF] Hughes | A structural approach to computer performance analysis[END_REF] are equivalent to operational laws. Alternative theories continued in passionate debate for some years, until the protagonists of the several mathematical camps learned to accommodate one another [START_REF] Denning | A tale of two islands (a fable about operational analysis)[END_REF].

In 1984, a second landmark textbook appeared in which the new queue-network solution technique known as "Mean Value Analysis," expressed in operational form [START_REF] Lazowska | Quantitative System Performance[END_REF]. This relieved our syllabus of an overload of queuing theory.

Interactive Computing: Mini-computers, Hardware Monitors and the RUNIT Interactor

By the late 1970s, the importance of interactive computing was increasing and the minicomputer revolution was undermining the position of mainframe computing centers. In a changing economic climate, the performance group at RUNIT became a cost center, which had to finance itself from industrial consultancy and research grants. The group made a successful research proposal in collaboration with the Norwegian computer manufacturer Norsk Data A/S to develop one of the world's earliest interactive load-generators: the RUNIT Interactor [START_REF] Hughes | Applications of the RUNIT Interactor[END_REF]. This device could monitor and learn the keystrokes of a human operator, scale up and emulate a controlled load, and measure the resultant response times.

They used the Interactor in numerous benchmarking studies in the state sector under Norway's Statens rationaliseringsdirektorat. It subsequently became one of Norsk Data's principal tools for remote stress testing over telephone links (e.g., from Oslo to Stockholm). The Interactor attracted commercial interest from Denmark and the UK. In today's climate, it would undoubtedly have been a prime candidate for commercial exploitation.

The Interactor stimulated the development of other experimental techniques. They frequently used it together with a performance monitor, which could be software-or hardware-based depending on the target system. This required intimate acquaintance with either the workings of the target operating system, or the circuitry of the hardware "back-plane" to which measurement probes were to be attached.

A second important technique was the development of executable workload models. These consisted of two parts: scripts, which emulated user-to-computer interactions, and target programs, where scripts invoked execution. The target programs could consist of real programs and data. However, this approach limited our range of investigation. We therefore developed a prototyping system known as PILOT to study the performance of CODASYL database systems before they became operational. PILOT generated synthetic workloads with appropriately randomized keys and artificial data for the target database schema [START_REF] Hughes | PILOT -A Synthetic Prototype Generator for Database Applications[END_REF].

At IDI, they introduced a course in discrete-event simulation based on the Simula language. The introduction of an elegant Simula class known as DEMOS (Discrete Event Modeling on Simula) transformed this course [START_REF] Birtwistle | Discrete Event Modelling on Simula[END_REF]. Developed at the University of Bradford in the UK, Graham Birtwistle (who had worked on the Simula project in Oslo) created DEMOS. It was the outcome of practical experience with applying simulation to industrial problems. The original SIMULATION context of the Simula compiler was low-level and complicated to use. DEMOS exploited the powerful extendibility features of Simula by providing a small set of high-level synchronization constructs. These constructs lend themselves readily to a graphical representation known as "activity diagrams." In Trondheim, we enhanced the DEMOS activity diagrams to develop an accessible undergraduate teaching method. This enabled us to focus more on the core techniques of discrete-event simulation, and less on the details of the simulation language.

The Process Interaction Tool (PIT) developed in the UK later adopted the enhanced activity diagrams [START_REF] Pooley | Towards a standard for hierarchical process oriented discrete event simulation diagrams part II: the suggested approach to flat models[END_REF]. PIT was a unique tool, which supported the construction of simulation models via a graphical interface [START_REF] Barber | Evolution of the Process Interaction Tool[END_REF]. Industry used it for models ranging from hardware design, to telecommunications, to real-time financial settlement. The appeal of the DEMOS constructs is demonstrated in their adoption by simulation tools in other object-oriented languages such as C++ and Java. A modern example is DESMO-J from the University of Hamburg.

Sizing, Configuration and Deployment

Computer systems have a coarse-grained modularity arising from separately developed software and hardware units configured together for particular applications. The choices made regarding dimensioning and deployment of such modules directly affect performance. The industrial experience with this problem in the 1970s in the UK and Norway caused us to develop a semi-formal quantitative framework known as "Structure and performance Specification" (Sp). The first description of Sp appeared in 1983 [START_REF] Hughes | A structural analysis of information processing systems (with application to the sizing problem)[END_REF]. Collaborative projects established with Norsk Data and subsequently with ICL in the UK [START_REF] Hughes | Design of a Performance Modelling Environment[END_REF] led to a succession of prototype Sp tools.

Sp has exhibited a long staying power. It proved capable of modeling successive generations of computer and software architecture such as enterprise systems and mobile platforms; these conceptions did not exist at its inception. Recent work [START_REF] Hughes | A generic model for quantifiable software deployment[END_REF] suggests that Sp offers a more powerful alternative to the "deployment diagram" currently offered by the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Moreover, we have found that Sp provides a vital part of the conceptual foundation needed for the teaching of Performance Engineering [START_REF] Hughes | Lecture Notes in Performance Engineering IDI[END_REF]. Environment

The 1980s saw the emergence of powerful graphical workstations with potential to construct and solve detailed models. This gave an enormous stimulus to the development of new performance tools based on various modeling paradigms. In parallel with this development, the new generation of object-oriented databases was emerging.

At IDI, a separate line of research was investigating model-driven design in the context of information systems. Most work in this area was conceptual and functional rather than quantitative. It proved feasible in combination with Sp to address some of the quantitative issues [START_REF] Opdahl | Sensitivity Analysis of Combined Software and Hardware Performance Models: Open Queuing Networks[END_REF]. Several doctoral dissertations investigated related topics [START_REF] Opdahl | Performance Engineering during Information System Development[END_REF][START_REF] Vetland | Measurement-based Composite Computational Work Modelling of Software[END_REF][START_REF] Brataas | Performance engineering method for workflow systems: an integrated view of human and computerised work processes[END_REF].

In 1989-1992, the various strands of research and development described above came together in a European Research project under the Esprit 2 program. This was IMSE, an Integrated Modeling Support Environment, which involved nine industrial and academic partners from five European countries [START_REF] Pooley | The Integrated Modelling Support Environment[END_REF]. Trondheim was an active partner [START_REF] Brataas | Final Evaluation of the IMSE[END_REF]. The conceptual basis of IMSE was developed via a UK predecessor project known as SIMMER [START_REF] Hughes | Design of a Performance Modelling Environment[END_REF]. Sp and PIT tools integrated with queue-network, petri-net, simulation, and workload analysis tools in an object-based system having a common meta-model and a common graphic support system. They built an experimenter tool that exploited the common framework provided by the meta-model. IMSE was a pioneering environment that had a strong influence on the development of performance engineering across Europe, still traceable today.

Conclusions

This condensed case history provides a basis for the following observations. A. It contains concrete demonstrations of some familiar principles such as i. practical needs leading theoretical advance, ii. application of the classical scientific method, iii. synergy of research and teaching, iv. vital role of the international community. B. It demonstrates the importance of taking a long-term view. No one could have predicted in 1970 how the field of performance engineering would develop or the challenges it faces today. Many thought that the subject would not survive in the face of Moore's Law. Yet Moore's Law is now becoming obsolete and the field is well established. C. Mobility of individuals between industry and academia was extremely valuable, perhaps even essential, to the development of this field in Norway. Crossfertilization with the United Kingdom, with its larger industrial base, had mutual benefits. The SINTEF model of industry-related research seems to this observer to have been particularly advantageous. D. With a great deal of effort and some delay, the evolution of the teaching material reflected step-changes in the state of the art. Course content improved markedly with the arrival of landmark texts in 1978, 1979, and 1984. Our thoughts could make bigger strides and we created more room for applications. The need to keep up with constantly changing technology balanced these gains. The syllabi we developed were not contained in any one text. Although methodology and mathematics changed infrequently, the applications that gave meaning for successive generations of students changed much faster. E. The context in which the early work took place was quite different from today. At the beginning of the period, computing itself received scarce recognition in Norway as an academic subject. Although we had benefited from RUNIT's good economy, obtaining funds from research committees was extremely difficult and uncertain. We were indebted to the good offices of a few far-sighted individuals and to the personal enthusiasm and commitment of many team members and students. F. We could have done better at exploiting of our research and development results.

This would have required more mentoring early on and more financial investment at crucial times. We can now better appreciate such needs. Nonetheless, we had the privilege to work in a very supportive environment.

This review over a quarter-century ends in 1995. We conclude that performance engineering has not only been a valuable practical subject but also a strong stimulus to research. The dynamic interplay of measurement and modeling continues to throw up challenging questions about the systems we create as computer systems engineers.

Feedback from alumni and industrial contacts indicates that inclusion of performance engineering in the education of computing engineers in Trondheim is greatly valued. Nonetheless, projects and systems everywhere often fall short in performance, sometimes with disastrous consequences. As system complexity rises, high-level software engineering becomes increasingly remote from its physical effects. Clearly, we need to do more education and more research.


Isabelle Dussauge
email: isabelle.dussauge@liu.se

Johan Gribbe
email: johan.gribbe@abe.kth.se

Arne Kaijser
email: arne.kaijser@abe.kth.se

Julia Peralta
email: julia.peralta@abe.kth.se

Gustav Sjöblom
email: gustav.sjoblom@chalmers.se

Björn Thodenius
email: bjorn.thodenius@hhs.se

Precursors of the IT Nation: Computer Use and Control in Swedish Society, 1955-1985

Keywords: Control, historiography, history of computing, IT-history, Sweden, users

This paper is a presentation of a research project that aims at writing the history of computing in Sweden in the mainframe age from a user perspective. Rather than beginning with the history of hardware, this project takes as its point of departure the way in which actors in different sectors of society used computer technology in order to achieve a higher degree of control over crucial processes, whether through electronic data processing systems, process control or technical/scientific computation.

Introduction

This paper is a presentation of the research project "Precursors of the IT Nation: Computer Use and Control in Swedish Society, 1955Society, -1985." 1 The aim is to draw upon the experience and sources accumulated in the project "From Computing Machines to IT" and to write the history of computing in Sweden in the mainframe age from a user perspective [START_REF] Lundin | From Computing Machines to IT: Collecting, Documenting, and Preserving Source Material on Swedish IT-History[END_REF][START_REF] Lundin | Documenting the Use of Computers in Swedish Society between 1950 and 1980: Final Report on the Project[END_REF]. The focus of this paper is on the wider context and central concepts, rather than the details of the work process.

In the last twenty-five years, Sweden has consistently received the designation as an IT nation. When the Economist Intelligence Unit made a ranking of IT competitiveness in 2009 with Sweden ranked third [START_REF]Economist Intelligence Unit: Resilience Amid Turmoil[END_REF]. Through the 1990s and 2000s, similar rankings by IDC and Forbes consistently landed Sweden in one of the top spots. 2 The high level of computer diffusion, internet penetration, and computer literacy has been a constant feature of the adoption of computer-based information technology in Sweden since the advent of the personal computer in the late 1970s.

When the PC became widely available in the early 1980s, digital computing already had a thirty-year long history. The purpose of this project is to provide the first comprehensive research on the way people and organizations used computers during this period. We will not deal explicitly with the continuities to the eras of personal computing and the internet or with any outright comparison with other countries. Rather, the project aims at providing an understanding of the first thirty years of computing in Sweden in its own right.

The history of digital computing in Sweden begins with the efforts of the state towards transferring computer hardware and skills from abroad after World War II. In November 1948, the Swedish Board for Computing Machinery was appointed and in November 1953, the first digital computer, the Binary Electronic Sequence Calculator (BESK), went into use. A group of young Swedish engineers, some of whom sent by the board to the United States on fellowships to study the new technology of digital computing constructed the BESK. At that time, BESK was an advanced computer, and leading computer scientists including John von Neumann, Howard Aiken, and Konrad Zuse, visited it [START_REF]Arninge[END_REF]. Due to BESK, Sweden became one of the leading nations in the development of this new technological field.

The BESK project often becomes the point of departure for the history of computing in Sweden. The main topic of discussion centers around the reason the national computer project failed in the early 1960s after such a successful start. Although BESK was ahead of its time and despite its high expectations, the project did not result in the development of an internationally competitive computer industry. In 1957, the chief engineer Erik Stemme and most of the technical staff left the project for the electronics firm Åtvidabergs Industrier (later Facit) to develop scientific and administrative mainframe computer systems for the commercial market [START_REF] Petersson | Facit and the BESK boys[END_REF]. They abandoned the project after only a few years as its proponents realized that Swedish firms would not be able to compete with IBM and other American firms. Instead, Erik Stemme and the progenitors of BESK later devoted themselves to a rather successful development of peripheral equipment to computers. Annerstedt has argued that the lack of government support was a key factor in this negative development [START_REF] Annerstedt | Datorer och politik. Cavefors[END_REF]. Other researchers have challenged his analysis but the overall emphasis remains on the issue of why a national computer industry did not materialize [START_REF] De Geer | På väg till datasamhället[END_REF][START_REF] Petersson | Facit and the BESK boys[END_REF].

The international historiography of computing is marked by a similar focus on the early development of large mainframe computers such as the ENIAC and the rise of the leading hardware manufacturers like IBM, Univac, DEC, and ICL. We now have an impressive collection of literature on the development of computer hardware [START_REF] Campbell-Kelly | Computer: A History of the Information Machine[END_REF][START_REF] Ceruzzi | A History of Modern Computing[END_REF][START_REF] Hallberg | IT-gryning: svensk datahistoria från 1840-till 1960-talet[END_REF][START_REF] Yost | The Computer Industry[END_REF]. Recently, the research has extended to software development [START_REF] Mowery | The International Computer Software Industry[END_REF][START_REF] Campbell-Kelly | From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry[END_REF]. However, there is a tendency in the existing studies to deal with the development of computers more or less in isolation, without relating them to the wide range of users of computers and their appropriation of computer technology [START_REF] Misa | Understanding "How Computing Changed the World[END_REF].

The focus on the manufacturing of computers rather than their use is especially misleading for small nations like Sweden, where it imported from abroad the vast majority of computers in use and computerization relied more on the appropriation of imported technologies than on domestic hardware development. Our ambition is to take computer users as the point of departure for a new and different historiography, which does not point in the direction of a failed computer industry, but to a Swedish tradition of rapid adaptation to computer technology. The most important long-term consequence of the activities was not the accumulation of expertise about the construction of computers, but the fostering of a considerable number of very competent users. In total, more than 1,300 people attended the board's training courses between 1952 and 1961 [START_REF] Sjöblom | The Programming Priesthood Comes to Sweden -Computer Training in the 1950s[END_REF]. Civilian and military scientists, engineers, and administrative personnel, who disseminated knowledge of the new technology to different sectors of society, used BESK and its various modified copies (SMIL at the University of Lund, SARA at Saab in Linköping, DASK in Copenhagen, and the Facit EDB machines sold by Åtvidaberg) extensively. For example, meteorologists from Stockholm University used BESK to carry out the first numerical weather forecasts. Moreover, in 1961 when the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOA) purchased an IBM 7090 mainframe computer for advanced scientific calculations, they could benefit from many years of practical experience of programming and use of advanced digital computers. From the late 1950s, the competence created by the training courses and technical-scientific computations was increasingly integrated with experience of other forms of information technology. Punch-card machinery for administrative purposes had been in use in Sweden since the 1910s and the installed value of IBM punch card machinery in Sweden doubled between 1956 and 1960. Numerically controlled machine tools and process control technologies increasingly integrated with digital computers. In parallel with the activities at the board, other processes prepared users for the computer age.

In the project, we follow this thread from the Swedish Board for Computing Machinery, from punch-card equipment and from early process control and industrial automation technology, and we analyze the subsequent development of computer systems in Sweden from the perspective of the users. Computer technology did not spread by itself; actors in different sectors of society appropriated it to achieve a higher degree of control over crucial processes. This appropriation often entailed the development of new applications that brought users in touch with computer suppliers, consultants, and the new professional groups of programmers and systems developers.

If we are to understand the early appropriation of computer technology and thus the historical roots of the IT-nation, we must look in detail at the specific traits that characterized computing before the personal computer revolution of the 1980s. Mainframe computing associated with the centralized and hierarchical structures of Fordism rather than the dynamic networks of the information age had characterized the first thirty years of computing in Sweden [START_REF] Appelquist | Informationsteknik och organisatorisk förändring: Teknik, organisation och produktivitet i svensk banksektor[END_REF]. Many economic historians and sociologists have identified the computer, together with microelectronics and telecommunications, as the core of a third industrial revolution or the coming of an information age [START_REF] Freeman | As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution[END_REF][START_REF] Magnusson | An Economic History of Sweden[END_REF][START_REF] Schön | En modern svensk ekonomisk historia[END_REF][START_REF] Castells | The Rise of the Network Society[END_REF]. Regardless of the particular perspectives, these scholars are mainly concerned with computers as we know them from the 1980s and onwards: distributed, networked, and flexible. We argue that while there certainly was a revolutionary turning point in the 1980s, there were also continuities from the age of mainframe computing which deserve further study.

Between the macro-level descriptions of information ages and industrial revolutions on the one hand, and the detailed orientation towards technology and manufacturing on the other, there is a huge gap, which this project intends to fill. We believe that historians have an urgent task in writing the history of how users of computers appropriated the globally available computer technology, adapted it to their own purposes, and constructed computer systems to extend their control of people and activities.

Computers and Control in the Fordist Age

The period covered in this project is the years 1955 to 1985, which corresponds to the era of the large, centralized, mainframe computers. The first computers of the 1950s were gigantic in size; they required very large investments and had limited storage capacity and compatibility with other systems. As a result, they were associated with large organizations, a centralization of information processing, and often with large projects for specific purposes. Over time, these characteristics became less marked, as prices fell, smaller computers appeared, and networked computing became more widespread. Nevertheless, we argue that the period from 1955 to the early 1980s characterizes an era of mainframe computing. While there certainly were currents pointing to the future paradigm of personal computers and distributed computing, the mainframe maintained its dominance of the concept of computing.

Because of the scale economies, mainframe computing was strongly associated with large organizations and large projects. Only large organizations were capable of the high investment and high volume of information processing necessary for owning and running a computer system. Small-and medium-sized organizations could gain access to computing only through service bureaus; therefore, they had a limited ability to develop tailor-made computer systems. Instead, they used computers for the mechanization of previously manual routines. In larger organizations, computer systems development often took shape in the form of projects to develop completely new capabilities. In a project, experts with different kinds of competence and different kinds of experience came together for a limited time in order to develop a certain endeavor. Tasks could evolve informally beside the ordinary hierarchies [START_REF] Hughes | Rescuing Prometheus[END_REF]. These projects were complex and people usually carried them out as collaborative efforts between a number of organizations, mostly involving both suppliers of computer technology and the future users.

We will study a number of large computer projects in different sectors of society. In many cases, the aim of such projects was rationalization for cost-cutting purposes, a mechanization of manual routines that did not fundamentally change the way of doing things. In other cases, the purpose of computer systems development acquired a meaning of developing new capabilities that allowed organizations to do new things in new ways. It is important to observe that the initial objectives were not always achieved -several of the projects studied failed or did not lead to the intended consequences, as systems development was influenced by external actors or by the forces unleashed by the new availability of information.

As described above, the central idea of the project is that actors appropriated computer technology to achieve control.

Appropriation refers to the way in which technologies are constructed in a negotiation between the original technology and the users [START_REF] Hård | The Intellectual Appropriation of Technology[END_REF]. The computer hardware used in the Swedish systems differed little from the one used abroad. Computer technology was available from a global pool and circulated globally. As noted above, previous research has tended to follow an American paradigm where a strong relation exists between domestic computer manufacturing and computer use. While Sweden had a domestic computer industry at the time, its total output amounted to only a tiny share of the Swedish market. IBM alone had a market share of two-thirds through most of the period of study and other foreign suppliers such as DEC, ICL, Bull, Univac, and Wang followed it. Therefore, computer diffusion is far more relevant than computer manufacturing from the point of view of computerization in a small nation as Sweden. The computer systems developed in the encounter between the mostly multinational suppliers and the domestic users, often in long negotiations and with the participation of other actors such as consultants and academic experts. This perspective also raises the question of the extent to which the computer projects that we study reflect a generic, international model of computerization and to what extent they reflect Swedish particularities [START_REF] Aspray | International Diffusion of Computer Technology, 1945-1955[END_REF]. While this issue can only be fully explored in a comparative study, it nevertheless raises important questions about the relevance of Swedish particularities within each of the subprojects (e.g. policy of military non-alignment, one of the world's most extensive welfare states, an unusual predominance of big business, a Swedish tradition of infrastructure governance) [START_REF] Hård | The Intellectual Appropriation of Technology[END_REF].

Control is the pivotal concept of this study. Following Cortada's perspective, computer systems constituted a digital hand by which certain actors acquired a new tool for the processing of information and controlling a wide range of activities [START_REF] Cortada | The Digital Hand. Volume 1: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation and Retail Industries[END_REF][START_REF] Cortada | The Digital Hand[END_REF][START_REF] Cortada | The Digital Hand. Volume 3: How Computers Changed the Work of American Public Sector Industries[END_REF]. At the same time, it must be stressed that the control efforts were ambiguous, often fostering counter reactions from those who subjected greater efficient control, sometimes leading to other outcomes than expected, and nearly always resulting in some degree of internal struggle for mastery of information control. Thus, control is not monolithic, and important questions are what forms of control resulted from these changes: Control by whom, of what, and over whom? Moreover, what were the consequences for those subjected to control? This question will be a connecting thought for all four subprojects.

To understand fully the relation between computer systems and control, we must define how the development of computer technology interacted with different actors and social groups. Since systems development took place within large projects, identifying the structures and boundaries of these projects will be a primary task of the project. Which actors entered and left the project? What were their relative roles? The new forms of control affected the relative power of managers, IT departments, finance departments, salesmen and workers within organization as well as the relations to a large number of external actors. The key issue here is to identify the articulation of ideologies of control and resistance based on computer technology. How did computer systems development mesh with different professional cultures? Different categories of users integrated computers in their professional identities in different ways, with huge ramifications for the development of organizations as well as computer systems. In other words, the era of mainframe computer projects was a social construction, as different actors appropriated the computer technology to achieve new forms of control. Through their efforts, they constituted and created the precursors of the IT nation Sweden.

Subprojects

Controlling the Citizens

Controlling the Citizens sheds light on the construction and implementation of computerized systems for the production, accumulation and processing of individual data within public authorities in the Swedish welfare state during the period 1955-1985. We have taken case studies from the Swedish Public Employment Services (AMS) and from preventive health care screenings.

Computers were an important tool in the rationalization of administrative tasks: for instance, for the British public administration, they became instruments for the control of welfare procedures and thereby for some aspects of the citizens' behavior [START_REF] Agar | The Government Machine: A Revolutionary History of Computing[END_REF]. In Sweden, politicians and civil servants saw computerization as a way to eliminate loopholes in the tax systems and to enhance welfare services. One major aspect of these developments was the establishment of computed files: records and information systems for the classification and retrieval of data over the citizens.

The hypothesis is that with the introduction of computerized systems, the institutions of the welfare state reshaped their practices of control of social problems (e.g. unemployment) and individual or public responsibilities (e.g. employability).

Controlling the Firm

In the world of big business, electronic data processing initially represented a continuation of that mechanization of clerical routines already under way, using punch card and other electromechanical equipment. However, computer-based information systems soon became the basis for new and extended control systems and they were integrated in the management of the firm, and thus in its power relations. The subproject deals with how different individuals and social groups -owners (especially Marcus Wallenberg), CEOs, vice presidents, line organization middle management, external consultants (notably Stanford Research Institute), rationalization experts, computing professionals, and labor unions -appropriated computer technology to extend their control of the firm and its environment. The focus is on the electrical engineering giant ASEA, a major user of computers for data processing, technical computation and process control, as well as an increasingly important supplier of systems for process control and industrial automation. The ASEA case complements the research by Atlas Copco and Volvo. The subproject, moreover, includes research on the service bureau industry as the main provider of computing services for small and medium-sized firms in the age of mainframe computing.

Controlling the Battlefield

Another area in which computerized systems were introduced during this period was the armed forces, where digital technology opened up new ways of controlling the battlefield. The main purpose of the subproject Controlling the Battlefield is to study the development and implementation of computerized command and control systems in the Swedish Armed Forces during the Cold War. More specifically, the project is articulated around two separate case studies: the introduction of digital real-time computers in the air defense system in the 1950s and 1960s, and the failed attempt by the Swedish Defense Staff to implement computerized systems in support of military decision making in the 1970s and 1980s. The case studies are the radar-based air defense network STRIL-60 and the computerized command system LEO.

Controlling the Flow

Castells' notion that the control of flows is the main source of power in the modern network society inspires this subproject [START_REF] Castells | The Rise of the Network Society[END_REF]. We focus on flows of different types and analyze how the introduction of computers enabled new forms of control of these flows from the mid-1950s onwards. The flows that are included in the study are flows of current (the electricity infrastructure at Vattenfall and Sydkraft), flows of money (interbank clearing, SIBOL, giro systems, and ATMs in the banking industry), and flows of goods (the distribution networks for goods).

The program is funded by Handelsbanken Research Foundations.

For example, Sweden topped the IDC/World Times Information Society Index (ISI) between 2000 and 2003.

Acknowledgments. We are grateful to Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser for supporting the research for this paper.