Janne Andresoo, Director General of National Library of Estonia

In 1991, after 50 years of foreign domination, Estonia returned to the map of Europe. The new democracy had limited legacy technology and virtually no corresponding resources, yet policy makers understood that starting from scratch presents a unique opportunity. In 1996, the Tiger Leap Initiative was launched with an aim to build a country-wide IT infrastructure development programme and to establish computer skills as a priority in schools. That initiative put a start to e-Estonia. Next landmarks soon followed – e-banking services, e-Tax Board, e-ID and digital signature, just to name a few. Today, most public services in Estonia can be used via smart devices. Libraries have become an integral part of public e-services network, making use of the existing solutions as well as developing their own innovative services which are available regardless of the user’s location. However, technical progress has also had its side effects that need special attention – the digital divide, digital competencies, cyber security.

Currently, the development of digital society in the country is governed by Estonia’s Digital Agenda 2030 which has set three main objectives: digital government, i.e. the use of digital solutions in the public sector (including AI-based government and proactive services), cyber security, and the development of electronic communication. In pursuing the first two objectives, the National Library of Estonia as the leader of the country’s library network has an important role. The entire library network in Estonia is undergoing an extensive transformation with the aim of re-thinking the library service in the digital context so that it would be uniform and easily available to each user.

1991年，在經歷了50年的外國統治之後，愛沙尼亞重返歐洲版圖。在當時，愛沙尼亞甫成立的民主制度幾乎沒有相應的資源，前期所遺留的技術也有限，但決策者知道，重新開始是一個很好的時機，並於1996 年發起了「虎躍計畫」，旨在建立涵蓋全國的 IT 基礎設施發展計畫，並將電腦運算技術在學校教育列為優先事項。這項計畫使愛沙尼亞成了「E-愛沙尼亞」。且下一個里程碑接踵而至——電子網路銀行、電子網路稅務系統、電子身分證和數位簽名……等。如今，愛沙尼亞的大部分公共服務都能透過智慧設備提供。圖書館已然成為公共電子網路服務不可或缺的一部分，並利用現有的方式同時開發隨時隨處可得的、專屬圖書館的創新服務。然而，技術的演進也有其需要特別留心的副作用——數位落差、數位權限、網域安全。

目前，愛沙尼亞的數位社會發展受「愛沙尼亞2030數位議題」的約束，該議題設定了三個主要目標：數位政府─即在公共部門使用數位辦公（包括以AI為主的公務服務及為民服務），網域安全以及電子通訊的發展。在實現前兩個目標的過程中，愛沙尼亞國家圖書館身為該國圖書館網絡的先驅，扮演著重要角色。愛沙尼亞全國的圖書館網絡正在經歷一場廣泛的變革，目的是在數位內涵裡重新思考圖書館服務，讓讀者使用數位服務時減少落差，增加便利性。