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Germany |
PULMAN COUNTRY report
INFormation on public libraries
This report brings together
information collected by PULMAN country co-ordinators and the results of the
NAPLE survey of public library authorities conducted during 2001-2
The organisation of public
libraries.......................................................... 3
Innovative projects in UKRAINIAN
public libraries.............................. 4
PULMAN COUNTRY Report
information on public libraries
The General Environment (top)
Today the German Federation consists of 16 States (Länder)
possessing a great deal of independence but held together by the Federal
Government (Bundesregierung). The basis of this is the idea of the so called
'subsidiarity principle', which states that each organ of the political system
is as independent as its powers allow it to be. It is often denied that the
subsidiarity principle has anything to do with the federal system, but its
existence is undeniable, especially in the cultural sector, where independence
manifests itself in varying degrees of intensity, with competence being
devolved down to the lowest level, reaching down to the States but, when it
comes to public libraries, right down to the smallest units of government, the
local authorities.
All cultural affairs, including research libraries, belong
to the responsibility of the States and, as far as the majority of libraries is
concerned, to the local authorities. Every village and city is completely free
to decide whether or not it should have a public library. Although the
university, polytechnic and State libraries come within the legislation
concerned with higher education, in Germany there is no nationwide library
legislation. Accordingly library services are low in the pecking order when it
comes to the distribution of public funds: In Germany only some 0.16% of public
funds is spent on public libraries.
There is
no national authority for public libraries: the former German Library
Institute, working for research and public libraries was dissolved at the end
of 2000 and it is not clear whether there will be a successor to that
institution. Various institutions and organisations are currently attempting to
carry out some of their former co-ordination tasks including the different State Libraries and the
professional associations. However, they have no specific powers or money to
undertake these tasks.
Some
states have established State Public Library Offices and in a few regions the
county administration organises and funds mobile libraries services for the
rural areas. In the State of Schleswig Holstein there is a special library
support scheme jointly organised and funded by the counties, municipalities and
the state.
Major
co-operation does not occur between public and research libraries, but is
mainly restricted to the joint organisation of the library congresses, the
creation of the umbrella organisation ‘BDB’ (Federal Association of the German
Library Associations) is seen as a success story in this type of co-operation.
Union catalogue centres combine the catalogues of several States: Munich,
Berlin, Göttingen, Konstanz, Cologne
The actual situation of German Public Libraries (top)
More obvious than in many other countries perhaps,
especially the English speaking ones, in Germany there is a rather strong
distinction between public and research libraries. The term "Public
Libraries" is used as a proper name because the larger research libraries
- particularly those of universities and polytechnics - are also open to the
use of the general public. Research libraries are all those libraries that
create, maintain and make available their collections and services principally
for the support of academic research work, and university teaching as well as
libraries which mainly have the function to archive the material published in
the region, State or even within the country. Although their collections have
been created for a restricted, academically orientated readership, they are
publicly accessible. On the other hand the Public Library, funded by the local
authorities, by churches, or by regional authorities offer collections and
services to the general public. This means that their main objectives are the
needs for cultural, educational and vocational information of the ordinary
citizens, including children.
In Germany there are about 11.300 public libraries. This
is only a grand total, of course, and does not say anything about the quality
or significance of the services provided there. It represents merely the total
number of all buildings and rooms someone claims to be a public library.
Another grand total is more meaningful: there are some
16.000 local authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany, but only about
2.000 of them provide public libraries with trained and fully employed staff.
All cities with a population over 100.000 have public libraries with trained
staff. In places with a population of over 20.000 the library net is only
relatively closely woven. Here only 10% of the communities are lacking a public
library with paid staff. By comparison, when we come down to places where the
population is between 5.000 and 20.000 not even half the authorities make such
provision.
Local authorities and the Church predominate in supporting
public libraries. In country areas especially, where local finances are not
great, higher regional authorities, alone or in co-operation with other
authorities, make financial provisions. This is done mainly by District
Authorities (Kreise or Landkreise), counties with self-governing rights,
particularly in the areas of social services, welfare and culture.
Brief mention should be made of public library provision
by the Church. With some 4,800 service points (including branch libraries) this
nominally comprises a relatively large number of libraries. The majority of
church public libraries are part time without thoroughly trained staff, about
4,800 libraries with 19.6 million holdings. It can be seen from these figures
that the average library collection in these libraries is very small and
provision is at the lowest level. Church library provision is concerned mainly
with guaranteeing or supplementing a book-loan service in areas with a
relatively small population. Such libraries are mainly situated in those States
with a predominantly Roman Catholic population, where they comprise up to 33%
of all holdings. In other States this
percentage is much lower, being about 15% and, in some cases, dropping as low
as 0.6%.
The federal principle of State independence in matters of
education and culture is the reason why it is not possible to form a general
evaluation about the quality of German public libraries. There is no general
standard for the range and quality of adequate public library services; and
where there are singular standardised measurements they are not generally
accepted and attained.
German public libraries as a whole cannot be considered to
be near the summit of provision when measured against international standards.
The wide range of equipment, types and quality of services are unusually large.
There are local authorities who care for their library services and then these
public libraries can provide a good service to their patrons. When these
libraries also have good and innovative managers they can even become
outstanding examples of best practice.
The history of the public libraries in Germany began with
the turn of the last century. From then on they developed from being orientated
mainly towards offering a lending service for those people lacking the means
for educational development into an institution with the Anglo American concept
an information facility for all, without however being in the position to carry
this concept to its conclusion.
From the middle of the seventies started a new conception
of the public library’s function: terms as 'communication centre', 'city
culture librarianship', 'social librarianship', 'reader support', 'collection
manifestation', and other cultural or socially striking ideas have found their
way into the consciousness of German librarians. So today the average German
public library presents itself as being modern and open-minded, but still away
from being a typical reference library and community information provider, not
anchored firmly in the minds of its users as an information centre. Mostly in
the bigger towns and cities the public library plays a major role in the provision
of information. In general terms it has to be said that, since World War 2, the
German public library has not yet been able to become the locally most
important and therefore indispensable information provider.
But public libraries and also their funding bodies now are
increasingly more interested in making a transition and show a greater openness
in the sphere of information provision.
Bearing in mind that total figures of service provision
give only a limited idea of the extent of library performance, the following
average figures might be of interest.
In the Federal Republic of Germany there is one public
library for some 22,000 people, with a collection of 1.2 media per head of
population. Every year 3.3 media per head of population is borrowed, the
collection being turned over 2.8 times. The local authorities spend an average
of Euro 8,39 per person on the public
library service each year.
On average, German public libraries are open 22 hours per
week and estimated 15 to 20% of the population use them. In some cases the service still is provided free
of charge but, especially during the past years, there has been an increase in
the levying of various types of fees. This development points clearly in the
direction of some form of cost sharing by actual users and potential users. So
far there has been no movement towards a general user or lending fee but it
seems likely that, in the near future, with the tight situation of the public
budget, public libraries will have to be develop income and introduce
chargeable products. Information services would be the most likely to be
affected by this.
The German public library is an open access library and
is, in general, organised from a headquarters or central library, with branch
libraries and, where necessary, specialised departments. The main library
provides a superstructure for marketing and controlling, steering the branch
libraries, as well as for all centralised activities for the system as a whole,
cataloguing, acquisitions, media collections.
German
public libraries contain printed material of any kind, CD, videos, CDROM, DVD,
games, works of art etc. Books, journals and newspapers are obligatory
holdings. All materials be lent out except for some CD-ROMs where access is
LAN-based and other electronic material where copyright is critical.
Much emphasis in library provision always has been geared
towards the needs of children and teenagers, as well as in the so called
'social librarianship' area especially services to ethnic minorities and
disabled. This still is an objective for the work of the German public library
but has to face severe budget cuts. Mostly librarians have to set priorities in
their work and to concentrate on the
core services of their institutions.
Funding
The national
budget contains no appropriations for public library activityPublic libraries
are funded mainly by their local authorities. Most public libraries have an
annual lending fee and charges are made for lending of some media types, for
example CD, CDROM, games and videos.
Most libraries which are connected charge for Internet access.
In some
states, municipal libraries receive regular funding for special tasks. for
instance in Northrhine Westphalia where they get special funding for materials
acquired in a subject specialization scheme.
Professional
development
Librarians
(certified and academic), library assistants, booksellers, bookbinders,
administrative staff, IT specialists, and marketing-specialists are employed in
the public library sector. Library Directors of metropolitan libraries mainly
from academic librarians – in smaller libraries mainly from certified
librarians. Public libraries who can hire new staff increasingly hire
IT-specialists - if they can recruit
and pay sufficiently - rather than librarians.
There is a librarianship training
programme for three levels: academic, certified (university of applied sciences
diploma), assistants as a three years apprenticeship. A distance learning
course for library staff to improve Internet competencies, called bibweb has
been developed by the Bertelsmann Foundation and ekz (the major German library
supplier)
There is no officially formulated vision or policy for the public
library service. The public library
area has never been subject to legislation. National strategies for public libraries in
the information society/network society have been formulated on the professional
rather than the political level.
The
former German Library Institute was previously responsible for library
statistics.In 2002 they were produced
by the State Library in Berlin, but the future position is not clear. The
statistics are mainly based on international standards
The
Bertelsmann Foundation is producing a benchmark ranking of some 100 – mainly
smaller - public libraries who voluntarily take part in their project called
‘BIX’ (libraries’ index).
Up-to-date statistics cab be found at www.bibliotheksstatistik.de
|
Municipal library systems: |
About 2000 |
|
Service points: |
3,756 (incl. Branches |
|
Holdings: |
96,8 mill. Volumes/Media |
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Loans: |
275 mill. Volumes/Media |
|
Turnover: |
2,8 |
|
Expenditure for Acquisition: |
152 mill. DM |
|
Total Expenditure: |
1,345 mill. DM |
|
Staff: |
12,118 FTE |
|
Users |
No reliable figures |
After small beginnings some 25 years ago automation of the
housekeeping functions in public libraries has increased enormously, especially
within the past 5 five years. particularly since reasonably priced software has
been developed for use in smaller libraries. Today computer programs are used
increasingly also in other areas of library management. The software used is of
a varied nature. More than 30 different systems have been introduced in the
German public libraries.
Almost all the larger public libraries and many of the
smaller one present their virtual OPAC on the net and have a homepage of their
own or are accessible through the homepages of their local authorities. Some of
these websites are interactive and offer a variety of services which in many
cases also comprise link collections.
http://de.dir.yahoo.com/Nachschlagewerke/Bibliotheken/Stadtbibliotheken/
Modern media such as CD ROM or computer software nowadays
are quite frequently offered in the more progressive and better-funded
libraries, although state-of-art CD ROM nets still are rather exclusive to
larger city libraries. There is
a project-based consortium in Northrhine Westphalia for the purchase of
licences for electronic information, involving 3 metropolitan public libraries
who participate in the pool of electronic information for the research
libraries of this state
A programme
called ‘media competence centres in public libraries’, established and funded
by the Federal government, has led to > 50 percent of German public
libraries being connected to the Internet. About 20 % of public libraries have
their own home pages. They mainly give basic information to the library or
otherwise access to the catalogue or collections of links. There is no Ask a
Librarian service. Internet-based education or e-Learning services are rare.
Starting from February 2002 there is a national project, called ‘the German
Internet Library’ which will offer selected Internet sites and an
Internet-based national 24-hour reference service.
Nevertheless most of the librarians have understood that
up-to-date provision of ICT is a necessary feature in a public library and they
are trying hard to get the money to cope with this challenge.
Digitisation
A national policy has been drawn up
only for not for research libraries, not public for public libraries.
A realistic perspective for German public libraries cannot
be described as very encouraging as there is a continuing pressure on public
funds. In order to make themselves indispensable, German public libraries need
to improve the range and the quality of their services. The conversion to
modern marketing methods and the introduction of new, result orientated working
methods is only one means to cope with the problem. German public libraries
must adapt their services to the needs of a changing networking information
society. This means that public libraries have to develop new services and
bring traditional services to a state-of-the-art quality. To be successful in
doing this it is necessary to look for alliances and co-operation partners within
the library world and also outside. And the public libraries and their staff
have to become aware of the need of permanent further vocational training.
Stakeholders for public libraries
As there is no national library policy or even strategy
the engagement of other institutions is very important. For Germany’s public
libraries there can be identified as stakeholders and key-players as well the
following institutions:
·
The Deutsche Bibliotheksverband (DBV) is an association
where the majority of all German libraries have applied for membership. The DBV
has special subgroups for public libraries and its members are also organized
by statewide sections. Some of the recent activities of the DBV have been quite
arduous attempts at the organization of cooperative working schemes in public
libraries.
·
The association of library professionals BIB also has
had a strong impact on the development of the public libraries. But during the
last 5 years BIB prioritized its efforts on the merger of different
professional associations. Perhaps hopefully in the future they will turn to
the professional key issues such as cooperation and the innovation of library
services.
·
The Bertelsmann Foundation with its department for
public libraries is a relevant partner when it is about innovation in public
libraries. The different projects initiated by the foundation already had an
impact on the implementation of new ideas and practice in Germany. The
foundation is working on the principle that it gives money only for the
development and the enhancement of the practical in public libraries. It does
not aim at supporting the operational work.
·
The ekz (Einkaufszentrale für Bibliotheken) is the
major nationwide supplier for public libraries and therefore feels obliged to
support the development in this sector. But being a commercial enterprise,
owned by the States and local communities, it has to concentrate on the selling
of its products at the first place and it can spend money for innovations only
if there is a turn-back of investment.
The regional union cataloguing
centers originally almost only cooperated with the research libraries. Since
the mid nineties some of them have started a policy of involving public
libraries into common projects. They themselves sometimes even have turned into
institutions providing infrastructure to the libraries within their States, but
everything is very traditional, still. An outstanding example in this context
is the Hochschulbibliothekszentrum (HBZ) in Cologne. formerly only responsible
to host the regional union catalogues of the States of North Rhine-Westphalia
and Rhineland-Palatinate. Nowadays its
tasks have been very much extended and it has become a central
institution for the development also of public libraries of North
Rhine-Westphalia. It offers training for the new skills needed in
librarianship. A short time ago it took on the role of the host for a project
developing e-services for public libraries (see below).
·
The
national standard for electronic bibliographic format: MAB2 established by the
German national library. There is
discussion of changing this to UNIMARC.
·
Special
German cataloguing rules exist, called RAK. There is discussion of changing
this to AACR2
The library
service is not a member or active participant in ISO.
New trends in
establishing new services
Maybe it is too optimistic to really call it a trend what
is happening right now in Germany but since the middle of the nineties there
have been several activities of individual public libraries which indicate that
there is a growing awareness of the need for establishing new innovative services
in the information age.
The public library of Stuttgart was the leader of an
EU-funded project called CHILIAS=Children in libraries: improving multimedia
virtual access and information skills. Between 1996 and 1999 a consortium of
four European public libraries and other institutions developed special
e-services for children. This international cooperation resulted in a
successful project but it did not enhance the German public library community
to be proactive in looking for new cooperativealliances.
www.stuttgart.de/chilias/
Another project producing an e-service was carried out by
the public library of Bremen together with the department of computer and
communication technology of Bremen university and funded by the Federal
ministry of research and technology; it was called BINE
(Library+Internet=Navigation+Indexing). This project aimed also to involve
other German public libraries in creating a virtual Internet library like the
fng in Denmark, Internet Public Library in the USA. In its last phase the
project had to be renamed in ILEKS (Internet service by subject librarians). Up
to now there is a very small nationwide participation in this project. Beside
Bremen, only six other public libraries form the ILEKS-consortium. There is
quite a lot of positive response from the public libraries in general to the
idea of establishing a cooperative e-service to navigate the Internet but they
cannot be convinced to donate money and staff time to that purpose. Many of the
larger German public libraries offer very detailed individual link collections
on their homepages – they could do a much better and more recognized job if
they could be stimulated and convinced to put all their competencies together
into one e-service product (http://usp1-051.gbv.de/cgi-bin/nph-wwwredir/usp1-051.gbv.de:53716/).
Now the DBV and the Bertelsmann foundation together with a
computer firm took the effort to take a final run-up to establish a German
portal for public libraries and to integrate a kind of an Internet service like
ILEKS, combine it with the local OPAC and offer in addition an online reference
service. The first pilot version is going to belaunched in February 2003.
Project of jointly
offering electronic services – building up consortia
An unsuccessful attempt at installing the basis for a
cooperative e-service is the work which was undertaken by some major city
libraries to build up consortia for licensed online-databases. There were so
many mainly formal and administrative problems brought up from the individual
libraries that even among the 20 largest public libraries in Germany there was
no consensus in that issue.
Digital Library NRW
The HBZ of North Rhine-Westphalia has been the networking
center for research libraries and is now gradually developing a respective
function for the public libraries in this State. In this context it has
established a cooperative pilot scheme together with the public libraries of
Cologne, Dortmund and Dusseldorf. These libraries have access to the databases
offered by the HBZ to the research libraries of North Rhine-Westphalia and can
use them in their reference work. This service principally is also directed to
the general public. So far it is restricted to the members of universities or
users with a special permission. But nevertheless it is the start of a
cooperative working scheme between public and research libraries.
The Bertelsmann
Foundation (www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de)
has initiated very innovative projects to enhance the quality of German public
libraries the most recent of which are:
bibweb – the Internet Training for Public libraries
bibweb is a distant
Internet training tool for the staff of Public Libraries (launched in 1999
together with the library supplier ekz of Reutlingen). It helps library staff –
both librarians and assistants – to acquire and develop competencies in
offering new innovative services to their customers. Now new modules are in
production; the first one to be launched is on customer orientation.
www.bibweb.de
BIX the Library index
This project (launched in 1999 together with the German Libraries
Association) aims at describing the efficiency of public libraries in a
meaningful way and at producing transparency of performance profiles. Only a
comparatively very few central performance and quality indicators, assigned to
four size categories, can present the performance ratings in an easy-to-digest
form.
http://www.bix-bibliotheksindex.de/
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/devision.cfm?lan=en&nId=628
Branch Libraries – Optimization of Offers and Organization
This project (1999 till 2000) aimed at presenting new solutions for the best
design and operation of branch library systems. Especially by modelling the
innovative types of neighbourhood and theme libraries the project will enable
public libraries to be aware of new concepts of branches.
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/devision.cfm?lan=en&nId=634
Public Libraries and Schools – New
Forms of Partnership
In this project (1995 till 2000) the Bertelsmann Foundation co-operated
with six public libraries in order to develop and test new ideas and concepts
in the intense co-operation between public librarianship and schools. The
project’s objective was to create more readers out of the school children
involved and to establish long-term reading habits. A follow-up is the project
"Reading and Media competence" in North-Rhine Westfalia started in
autumn 2002.
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/devision.cfm?lan=en&nId=582
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/project.cfm?lan=en&nid=419&aid=5640
International Network of Public
Libraries
Exceeding the boundaries of Germany, oriented towards a global view onto public libraries the International Network of Public Libraries concentrates innovative know-how of library practitioners in order to promote the concepts and practical solutions to the professional public.
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/project.cfm?lan=en&nid=71&aid=1104