Berry, John N.

English

Hochschulschriftenserver - Universität Frankfurt am Main

atantberry Technology has given us a smaller world The Lessons from  Germany IT IS A TRUISM THAT EVERY TIME YOU SPEAK IN public you learn 1110re than you teach. The event that proved that once again was the 8th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium on "21st Century Libraries: Changing Forms, Changing Challenges, Changing Objectives" in November. My spouse, Louise Berry, who directs the Darien Library, CT, and I par-ticipated, and the lessons we learned were manifold. The leal'11ing began long before the event ill a meeting withJeffHoovel', an architect we know with Tappe Associ-ates, whom we had asked to help us prepare. He generously shared both his pictures of  new libraries and his incredibly creative ideas on the relationship of  building design to library services and functions. Jeff  taught me how important the de-sign of  interior library spaces is to facilitating new collabora-tive learning, the "browsability" and convenience oflibrary use, and the enrichment of  the mer's experience. It resonated with mc when he said, "Preserving public libraries as relevant institutions in the average person's routine experience is fun-damental ill maintaining a free society." Among the lessons at the symposium itself was Sylvia Beiser's exciting view of  the varied array of  new public li-brary development in Germany. A vision of  proactive infor-mation service to students and f.'1culty marked Wilma vall Wezenbeek's report 011 the recently constructed library at the Technical University in Delft; her idea of  "mobilizing infor-mation" seemed close to our own 110tion of  a more proactive, evaluative information service in the United States. Americans Norma Blake, LJ's 2008 Librarian of  the Year and State Librarian of  New  Jersey, and David Ferricro of  the New York Public Library made us almost as proud of  the dy-namic changes in library service in that state and city as we were of  the incredibly positive reaction of  the Germans to our u.s. election. It was refreshing to be enthusiastically wel-comed as Americans again, not only by the librarians but by every German we met. Sabine HOlllulus, library director, and Jiirgen Engel, ar-chitect, toured us through their inventive cOllversion of  an empty bank building into a thriving, downtown, central pub-lic library for Frankfmt. They did that  job at costs most cit-ies could afford, an important lesson for library buildcrs in the current economy. [See how U.S. libraries confronted their own building concerns in Ollr architectural rOllndup, p. 36.] Berndt Dugall showed us his new library for two depart-10  I LIBRARY JOURNAL I DECEMBER 2008 ments at the University of  Frankful't. That exciting library clearly exhibits how a magnificent building can establish the importance and utility of  a campus library facility. The library was packed with students one day after it opened, and every one of  dozens of  comfortable, fully wircd, closed spaces for collaborative study by small groups of  students was in use. Nordlwestem University Library'sJeffGarrett, moderator for the Frankfurt symposium, delivered effective sUl1lmaries in Eng-lish that ensured that none of  those lessons were lost to us because of  our own linguistic lim  itations. After the Frankfurt sympo-sium, we spoke at U.S. consulates in Hamburg and Berlin. The whole trip gave us greater understanding of  the impact of  architecture and design on the future oflibrary service to any campus, city, or town. It also delivered the larger message of  how unbelievably small the world is now owing to techno-logical networks and easy communication. It was no surprise, for example, that Iibrariaus in Berlin and Hamburg were in regular communication with  John Blyberg, head of  technology at  the Darien Library, and many other U.S. librarians. One sllch librarian, Patrick Danowski from th~ State Library in Berlin, asked, "Why did Library Jour-nal welcome that anonymous blogger, the Annoyed Librar-ian (AL), to its web site?" I answered that I enjoyed AL, even though I often disagree with her (or him), and I admitted that we like it that the controversial blogger attl'acts readers like Danowski £i'om all over the world. The librarians in Germany face many of  the same daunting challenges as their U.S. counterparts. That includes outstanding library professionals like Nancy Rajczak, who runs the Infor-mation Resource Center at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, and her colleagues Miri:UllJaster in Frankfurt and Christiane Schaffel' in Hamburg. The good news is that it is a lot easier for all of  us, no matter where we are, to learn £i'om each other now. John N. Berry III, Editor-at-Large jberrY@l'eedbusilless.com I  WWW.LII:IRARVJOURNAL.COM  REVIEWS.  NEWS. AND MORE m 

Technology has given us a smaller world : the lessons from Germany

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Hochschulschriftenserver - Universität Frankfurt am Main