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The article presents the discussion on a piece of false information at the service desk or a license agreement chosen strategic goals of a library.

The cooperation between archives and libraries with regard to the cataloguing of autographs and papers has changed dramatically over the course of the last twenty years, mainly due to the use of electronic media. By now there are online data banks which contain information on the autograph and paper collections of the Federal Archives Koblenz and the Berlin State Library. Traditionally, there has been a gap in Germany between archives and libraries in this vital field. It is the task for the future to overcome this gap once and for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mit Blick auf das Jahr 2040 stellt der Beitrag die Auswirkungen der künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) auf die Bibliotheken dar. Mit der zunehmenden Fähigkeit von Algorithmen, Texte zu generieren, könnten Maschinen in der Lage sein, ganze Bibliotheken zu lesen und auf individuelle Bedürfnisse zugeschnittene Fragen in natürlicher Sprache zu beantworten. Dies könnte dazu führen, dass Informationskompetenz und der Rückgriff auf (veraltete) Bücher für die Nutzer gleichermaßen verzichtbar wird. Dieses Szenario stellt jedoch eine dystopische Zukunft für die institutionelle Informationsversorgung durch Bibliotheken dar; es wird davor gewarnt, zu pessimistisch zu sein. Vielmehr muss festgestellt werden, dass frühere Prognosen über die Auswirkungen der Technologie auf die Bibliotheken falsch waren. Dementsprechend sollte die Zukunft der Bibliotheken nicht in einem aussichtslosen Kampf gegen digitale Trends gesehen werden. Stattdessen sollten sich Bibliotheken an das sich verändernde Umfeld anpassen, indem sie ihre Rolle als Lern- und Wissensinstitutionen neu definieren, die Differenzierungswirkung der digitalen Transformation in den Blick nehmen und sich die Frage stellen, wie das Analoge sich im digitalen Umfeld verändert bzw. wie eine sachgerechte institutionelle Antwort auf diese Veränderung aussehen kann. Looking ahead to 2040, the paper outlines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on libraries. As algorithms become more capable of generating text, machines could be able to read entire libraries and answer questions tailored to individual needs in natural language. This could make information literacy and reliance on (outdated) books less important for users. However, this scenario represents a dystopian future for institutional information provision by libraries; it is important not to be too pessimistic. Rather, it should be noted that previous predictions about the impact of technology on libraries have been wrong. Accordingly, the future of libraries should not be seen as a hopeless battle against digital trends. Instead, libraries should adapt to the changing environment by redefining their role as institutions of learning and knowledge, looking at the differentiating effects of digital transformation, and asking themselves how the analogue is changing in the digital environment, or what an appropriate institutional response to this change might look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open access is a key utopian ideal for a large proportion of librarians, but before discussing libraries in 2040, it is important to define the term "library". For some readers, a complete shift to electronic reading would be a utopia, especially for those with dyslexia and other reading disabilities since electronic reading offers means for compensating. For those whose utopia is the library building itself as a long-term repository for bound paper volumes, the future offers little hope. The prevalence of book banning attempts and of fake news of all sorts is a symptom of a fundamental distrust in information that is the hallmark of the librarian's dystopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, interaction with clients of the library will be transferred in to the stage of a theatre. Our format is the improvisational theatre with the show taking place at the library information desk: the players (=staff) task is to perform with high flexibility when being confronted with the expectations, demands, wishes, and needs of library visitors. While it can be helpful to play with and emphasise certain individual traits staff, is also asked to implement strategies and case models in order to act and react satisfyingly for both involved parties. Here, it can be extremely rewarding to make use of the basics of improvisational theatre. Also knowing and using the own inner team can be of great asset. Let's party, let's act! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the role and potential of libraries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Both positive examples and wishful thinking in public and academic libraries are highlighted, as well as the impact of the lobbying activities of the library associations are highlighted. The final "outlook" is intended to encourage awareness of the potential of the agenda for libraries, their communities, and society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Der Prozess, in dem sich Hochschulen digitalisieren, bietet ein komplexes und widersprüchliches Bild. Im Folgenden wird zuerst versucht, einen Eindruck zu vermitteln, was Digitalisierung von Hochschulen bedeutet und wie weit dieser Prozess vorangeschritten ist. Angestrebt wird eine Darstellung des Prozesses im Überblick: Es sollen vornehmlich die Dynamiken und die Potentiale dieser Entwicklungen aufgezeigt werden. In einem zweiten Schritt richtet sich der Blick darauf, welchen Platz Universitätsbibliotheken in den sich digitalisierenden und digitalisierten Hochschulen einnehmen und welche Veränderungen infolge dessen notwendig sind. The digitization of universities is a complex and inconsistent process. In this paper a first impression is given what does digitization of universities mean and how much progress did this process make. In an outline without dealing with any details it is tried to look at the university and the process of digitizing it as a whole. The dynamics and potentials of this development will be shown. In a second step the place of university libraries in those digitized universities and the necessary changes will be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors – both of whom are library directors and involved in the contract negotiations with the bigger scientific publishers – present the conditions that formed the Dutch approach in these negotiations. A combination of clear political support, a powerful delegation, a unique bargaining model and fidelity to their principles geared the Dutch to their success in achieving open access. The authors put these joint license and open access negotiations in the perspective of open science and show that they are part of the transition towards open access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the results of a study of Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis 1977-2001 undertaken from the perspective of a foreign observer. The study was aimed to provide a retrospective assessment of the contents of the twenty five volumes and to contribute to outlining its thematic profile. For this purpose, an empirical analysis examining such issues and parameters as subjects covered by articles, types of libraries and institutions covered, the average length of articles, gender of authors, authorship patterns including co-authorship, academic affiliations of authors, the geographical dimension of journal papers, the language of papers as well as the number of papers with bibliographic references versus papers without references was conducted. A total of 546 papers were analysed. It is concluded that the aims and objectives defined by the journal's editors in 1977 have largely been met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Librarians want to know what users need and want from the library. Ethnography is a useful method for gaining insight into user needs and wants. Because of our presence both inside and outside of the communities we serve, librarians are uniquely well-suited for using ethnographic methods to observe and analyze how our users behave. This paper will therefore describe why librarians are ideal ethnographers and how ethnography provides unique data for library and information science (LIS) researchers. It describes two ways to enter the field: first it explains how to establish rapport with the wider study population and second how to begin fieldwork with a straightforward, low-risk data collection task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses hypotheses why women librarians are particularly resistant to and critical of new forms of culture and learning that young visitors of libraries find attractive. Based on several enquiries, the author concludes that libraries in France remain a feminine world which tends to be closed to intermixing sexual, ethnic and social barriers. She describes women's reaction to young people - qualified as 'non-readers', 'visitors', or 'tourists' - who prefer libraries with coffee shops, DVD rentals and internet services. Male teenagers legitimately find traditional libraries gloomy, and female librarians are particularly critical about their behaviour and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

400 lectures and company presentations as well as 150 exhibitors formed the technical framework for the 101st German Librarians’ Day in Hamburg in May 2012. Whether e-books, Discovery Services, Patron Driven Acquisition, or the latest offers of service partner, the rich palette of topics offered something for each of the more than 4,500 information professionals. This paper provides a summary of the professional part and let some of the participants report on what personal benefits they draw from “Librarians’ Day”. Due to the technical orientation, a summary of the rich entertainment program was intentionally left out here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Bundestag set up a Study Commission on „Culture in Germany", which presented its final results by December 2007. The areas on which the Commission focused include the tasks and the financing of public libraries. The paper discusses the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission from a political point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and application of modern science increasingly rely upon gigabit and terabit networks, allowing sharing of supercomputer resources and collaborate authoring of multimedia documents alike. University courses are given online, students use blogs, wikis and social networking sites to create information and thus become authors themselves. This paper reports about the 29th annual IATUL conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand, discussing diverse aspects of web 2. O, national and international e-science infrastructure projects and the role of libraries therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports a research project which intends to provide an overview of the digital reference services in German libraries. Within the project, web sites of 286 German libraries were visited, among which totally 62 libraries (21.7 %) provide at least one kind of digital reference service and 47 libraries replied to the researcher's inquiries via either chat or email. The project focuses on outlining the online reference service provided in these 47 libraries from various aspects. It is concluded that mostly the digital reference service in German libraries is at the primary phase for the time being. Though there are some problems resulting from the traditional service idea in German libraries, the good thing is that the situation is changing to the better direction. More and more German libraries start to recognize the necessity and importance of the online reference service and are taking actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, the library and information services (LIS) sector has become increasingly aware that people are the key drivers in the profession and that a strong professional future will depend on the effective management of workforce issues. The paper discusses some of the findings from an Australian research initiative, the neXus census, which examines the current LIS workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the changing role of the user in information systems in the Web 2.0 this paper critically questions the concept of information literacy. Five theses on information literacy 2.0 as well as suggestions for further reading offer the possibility to change the perspective of the view on information literacy predominating in German libraries in the direction of a more holistic view of information and learning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in many libraries with rare books in the Duke August Library uncertainty prevailed about the condition of their valuable holdings. Accidental negative feedback resulting from requests to the stacks alerted the responsible staff and fostered the feeling that one should examine more thoroughly. Is the security of the holdings still given? Are there volumes misplaced? Is the catalogue reliable? These and other reasons induced the Duke August Library to carry out a general stack review of its rare book holdings. This paper will discuss very briefly the theoretical background and then report in more detail about the preparation, the process and the results of the rare book stack review at the Duke August Library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the digital reference service, more and more single service institutions have been involved into consortia to participate in the collaborative online reference service. Nevertheless, to some extent it is still questioned whether the collaborative service is always superior to the single service. This paper reports a student research project that gives a reply to this doubt. During the project, the chat reference services provided by four categories of libraries in the United States were evaluated. At first, the author describes the origin, scope, methodology and limitations of the project. Then the workflow is briefly introduced step by step. Later some important results created from the project will be summarized. At last, the author draws conclusions including the advantages and disadvantages of both the collaborative and single library chat reference service and the experiences and lessons achieved from the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports selected results of an empirical study where library executives from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as from Great Britain and the USA, were consulted with respect to the future of the library system. The latter two countries were selected since they are frequently considered in international comparisons because of their model fonction. Apart from the evaluation of the current country-specific situation, the judgment of alternative future scenarios regarding their probability of occurrence constituted the main focus of this questioning. The concurrences and differences resulting from the individual estimates can be helpful when carrying out strategic planning in the German library system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A system for describing the material condition of library (or archive) collections is presented, which is based on selecting the samples in even distribution all over the whole collection, avoiding the little illustrative methods of mathematic statistics. Another characteristic is that on the spot, i.e. describing the samples in the stacks or after getting them out at the writing table, only real and material findings are registered, avoiding qualifying categories. Evaluation is done using the possibilities for selection and combination offered by a spreadsheet program via special macro-commands for navigation, selection and calculation. The relevant program is available (at this time only in German). A single characteristic is the author's polemic against repeated folding as means to define paper degradation. This method has resulted in heavily exaggerated ideas on the material condition in the libraries. A single fold is suggested instead, followed by inspecting the fold line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents some success factors and barriers of intra-business innovation projects. Several aspects are addressed, including the professional-technical process and the interpersonal process. The aim is an explicit representation of some concrete obstacles that can appear during reorganization in libraries and some strategies which should be considered to ensure the long-lasting success of the resulting changes. A particular emphasis is placed on handling interpersonal issues which arise in a library setting during the process of reorganization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to give an introductory information about the Turkish Librarians Association (TLA) which is the oldest and largest librarians association in Turkey. Main topics are items on the mission, vision, structure and professional ethical principles of the TLA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of papers related to library technologies, including "Significance of Information Within the National and International Challenge of Universities," "The Position of Universities Within the Information Society" and "Revision of Ancient Holdings at Duke August Library: A Progress Report."