Our TIB Report provides you with interesting information from the world of TIB. I particularly recommend the interview with Dr Irina Sens, our Deputy Director. In her interview, she talks about the importance of libraries in today’s world and why TIB is more than just a library.
Many new projects were launched at TIB in 2023. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research alone funded five new projects to create a vibrant open access culture. By establishing the “Future Libraries & Research Data” Joint Lab, we are stepping up our collaboration with Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
The digitised prints and drawings from the Albrecht Haupt Collection went online and are now accessible to researchers and other interested users around the world. The “Documenting Ukrainian Cultural Heritage” (DUCH) project involves the photographic documentation of war-threatened buildings in Ukraine. In the event of their destruction, the photos will provide a solid basis for their subsequent reconstruction. Since 2022, local photographers have taken more than 3,700 interior and exterior photos of some 250 culturally valuable monuments, often in very difficult conditions.
What else? In 2023, BiblioCon was held in Hannover at long last, attracting 3,500 visitors. The conference was due to take place in 2020, but the pandemic threw a spanner in the works. As a virtual alternative, the Berufsverband Information Bibliothek (BIB) and TIB joined forces back then to create #vBIB: the virtual conference for digital library and information topics. The new format proved so popular that a fourth edition of #vBIB was held in 2023.
Yours,
Sören Auer / Director of TIB
More than 6,000 digitised works from the Albrecht Haupt Collection, including pen and ink drawings and copperplate engravings from countries such as Italy, Germany and France, are now available online at https://sah.tib.eu. The special collection comprises some 6,200 individual graphics on paper, including drawings by Albrecht Dürer, Gianlorenzo Bernini and Friedrich Weinbrenner. The works, mostly from the 16th to 19th centuries, cover a wide range of subjects including architecture, horticulture and crafts, and were collected over decades by the architect, building historian and university lecturer Albrecht Haupt (1852-1932).
In 2019, as part of the GESAH project, work began on digitising the graphics in this special collection. The project, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG), involved TIB staff and researchers from the Chair of History of Architecture and Urban Development at Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) working together for three years in an elaborate process to make the graphics accessible.
The outcome of this work can now be viewed: 15,000 high-resolution digital reproductions, including more than 1,000 unique hand drawings, are now freely accessible online for the first time to researchers and other interested users from all over the world. The digitised graphics and drawings can be freely used, distributed and processed, including for commercial purposes.
“Previously, people could only view these materials by making an advance appointment and going to TIB in person. Now that the works have been digitised and made available, they can be used digitally by researchers of architectural and art history from all over the world,” enthused Dr Irina Sens, Deputy Director of TIB.
Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts and TIB are pooling their expertise in the field of research data, among other things: Early April 2023 saw the launch of the Joint Lab “Future Libraries & Research Data”, which the two partners are establishing and developing together. The Joint Lab enables the two institutions to step up cooperation between them: The focus is clearly on the topic of research data and data science, as well as the future-oriented development of scientific libraries. This also includes targeted training to attract young talent from the relevant Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes offered at the HsH.
“We are delighted to be able to consolidate the successful cooperation between the HsH and TIB. Thanks to our joint focus on data-oriented issues, we are closing a gap in Lower Saxony’s scientific landscape when it comes to applied information science,” stated Professor Dr Ina Blümel, Deputy Head of the Open Science Lab at TIB and Professor for Linked Data in Information Science at the HsH.
A special kind of meeting with time for intensive exchange: A total of 3,500 participants from 18 countries were present when the 111th BiblioCon 2023 opened its doors on 23 May 2023 under the motto “Vorwärts nach weit”. For four days – from 23 to 26 May 2023 – the Hannover Congress Centrum (HCC) was the meeting place for library and information professionals.
There was ample opportunity for exchange: 400 or so lectures, workshops and poster presentations, a trade exhibition with 130 company stands and an extensive social programme. The latter included a big opening event, a reception for international guests in the town hall, a congress party, guided tours of Hannover’s libraries, an open access rally, readings and much more.
Almost everyone is familiar with ChatGPT by now. It is almost impossible not to have heard of the chatbot from US developer OpenAI. Just two months after its release in November 2022, it is said to have already attracted 100 million active users. This rapid development is of course of interest to TIB, where internal applications, privacy and copyright issues, and implications for the development of the TIB Portal and other TIB tools are being discussed.
There is also a special focus on teaching information literacy and how ChatGPT can be introduced and used in targeted ways, such as search training. The dialogue between students and teaching staff is important in this context. After all, the impact of the introduction of ChatGPT at universities has been immediate and has already led to many changes, for example in the way exams are designed.
Open access (OA) – free access to scientific and scholarly publications – should be the norm in scientific publishing. Most researchers, scientific institutions and funding agencies agree, because OA is a requirement for fast scientific progress. To achieve this goal, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding various projects that support the transformation of the publishing landscape and accelerate the establishment of a vibrant OA culture in German research and academic practice.
Five new BMBF-funded OA projects were launched at TIB in September 2023. The projects, some of which are being implemented by TIB in collaboration with partners, address different aspects of OA.
The projects involve
All five projects were launched on 1 September 2023 and will run for 24 or 36 months. A detailed description of the projects can be found on the TIB-Blog (in German only).
24 October is the Tag der Bibliotheken (Day of Libraries). A day that focuses on the role of Germany’s more than 9,000 libraries, be they academic, public, children’s/youth’s, specialist, archive or digital libraries.
Ms Sens, let’s start our conversation with a key question: Why do we still need libraries in the digital world? Aren’t libraries superfluous in an age when so much information is readily available on the internet?
Clearly, libraries are relevant in the digital age because they are much more than just collections of books. They are far from superfluous, given their role as places of knowledge and education. It is true that the internet provides an infinite amount of information, but it is disorganised and unreliable. “We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge” – this quote from the author John Naisbitt illustrates the problem of turning information into knowledge: information is abundant, but is it all relevant and presented in the right context? Libraries are trusted filters and neutral spaces, providing broad access to quality-controlled physical and digital information.
Over the last few years – or even decades – libraries have changed, evolving in and with the digital world. When it comes to openness – openness in science – for example, libraries are essential. In today’s digital world, libraries play a vital role in providing access to information and research findings for all.
We are committed to ensuring that all information is accessible – not only freely available but also fee-based information. But not only that – TIB is also a major player and pioneer when it comes to freely accessible publications, data and educational resources, as well as transparent and collaborative methods in the research process.
As a public information centre, we have been committed to openness in all its facets for many years, whether in the context of Open Science, Open Access, Open Data or Open Educational Resources (OER). After all, when researchers share their results, it also leads to better dissemination of knowledge and greater collaboration between scientists.
Printed books, photographs, leaflets, posters, films and audio recordings documenting the history of women’s and lesbian movements: The Digital German Women’s Archive (DDF) makes these and other materials available online. The materials are being indexed and digitised by the feminist remembrance institutions of the i.d.a. umbrella organisation as part of the DDF funding for digitisation projects. To ensure that these historically and culturally valuable materials on topics such as women’s suffrage, abortion, and women in the arts, culture and media are preserved for future generations, the DDF, as the aggregator of these extensive digital collections, also offers i.d.a. institutions the option of digital preservation. It is cooperating with TIB on this project.
“TIB is a reliable partner for us throughout the entire digital preservation process. TIB’s continuous support and high degree of flexibility with regard to the different requirements of the materials to be archived enables us to provide such a wide variety of formats for digital preservation,” remarked Anke Spille, research associate in the Digitisation and Standard Data Department of the DDF.
“We are delighted to be able to make an active contribution to the preservation of these extraordinary collections,” commented Thomas Bähr, Head of Preservation and Digital Preservation at TIB. “We estimate that we will digitally preserve over 30 terabytes of data for the DDF in the future. As part of this role, we advise the DDF on the delivery and transfer of items to be preserved, metadata enrichment, and archiving and preservation actions,” stated Bähr, describing the work undertaken at TIB.
Which digital collections of the Digital German Women’s Archive are being digitally preserved at TIB? What particular gems, some dating back to the 18th century, are included? What stories do the digital reproductions tell? How do the DDF and TIB collaborate and what are the challenges of digitally preserving the items? Several articles in the TIB Blog series “Digital preservation of feminist history” (in Germany only) explore these questions and the DDF’s various collections. We start by presenting the DDF and the Helene Lange Archive in Berlin.
More than a century ago, Elisabeth Boedeker was one of the first women to work at TIB, then known as the “Bibliothek der Technischen Hochschule” (Technical University Library). Today, more than 600 people work at TIB, almost 60 per cent of whom are women. Dr Andreas Lütjen, Head of Media and License Management at TIB, explains the role that women have played and continue to play at TIB in an article on the TIB Blog.
In his book “Bibliothekarische Frauenbiographien zwischen Weimarer und Bonner Republik” (Librarian Women’s Biographies between the Weimar and Bonn Republics), published in 2023, he outlines the biographies of two women – Elisabeth Boedeker and Dr Elisabeth Weber – who spent part of their working lives at TIB and how they contributed to the development of the library. After all, women have always made an important contribution to the development of the library.
→ The “University Collections on Architecture and Graphics as a Challenge for Research and Teaching” colloquium focused on making architecture and graphics collections at universities valuable as important study material.
→ The WikiRemembrance Barcamp in November explored digital interaction in the culture of remembrance. For an entire day, TIB offered a space for all those active in remembrance work to talk specifically about the role of online platforms in their work on National Socialism.
→ The twillo conference Open Up addressed issues related to visions, strategies and implementation concepts for the digitisation of Lower Saxony’s higher education landscape. Participants discussed aspects such as the support structures needed for open education in universities and how to organise them.
→ In September, TIB’s Open Science Lab and the Lower Saxony Section of the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (German Federation of Journalists) invited all interested parties to the aufhof to introduce them to the Fediverse that everyone was talking about in 2023. What is the Fediverse and how can you join it? Answers about Mastodon and co. were provided at the #FediParty.
Falko Mohrs, Lower Saxony’s Minister for Science and Culture, visited TIB Rethen on 1 September 2023 as part of his summer “Culture Tour”. Dr Irina Sens, Deputy Director of TIB and Head of Library Operations, gave the minister an insight into the wide range of TIB’s activities, from information provision and in-house research to the preservation, digitisation and dissemination of cultural heritage.
During the tour, Dawn Wehrhahn, who is responsible for the Rethen site, provided the minister with some interesting facts and figures: TIB’s closed stacks, formerly a carpet warehouse, hold around 5 million items over 17,000 square metres. Since 2008, the site has also housed the TIB Archives/Hannover University Archives.
To coincide with the start of the winter semester, TIB relaunched its Instagram feed. The result: more content about #DeineUniBib for students, answers to frequently asked questions, and lots of tips and advice on producing academic work.
In October, TIB Director Professor Dr Sören Auer accompanied the Minister-President of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, as part of a 50-strong delegation to Vietnam. The trip focused on cooperation in the development of renewable energy, the recruitment of skilled workers, and visits to German-Vietnamese business partnerships.
The German Documentation Centre for Art History – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (DDK) and TIB are jointly supporting the emergency photographic documentation of Ukraine’s architectural heritage. Since 2022, local photographers have taken more than 3,700 interior and exterior photos of some 250 culturally valuable monuments, often in very difficult conditions.
The photos document the buildings in their original state and, in some cases, after their destruction. One of the buildings documented with before and after photos is the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, which was severely damaged by Russian missile strikes in summer.
The project and the commitment of the DDK and TIB have been covered by numerous media, including Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stern, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Welt as well as many regional newspapers and radio stations such as NDR Kultur, MDR Kultur and WDR 3
