JACOBS UNIVERSITY BREMEN

Jacobs Library Receives Donation of 30,000 Books

   

Last week the Library took delivery of 30,000 books from the former European campus of the University of Maryland, until recently located in Schwäbisch Gmünd south Germany.

[ Aug 06, 2007]  The technical services librarian Julia Graepel of Jacobs University's Information Resource Center (IRC) spotted the unique offer in June on the InetBib listserver, a German cross-organizational Internet platform for libraries. It had been posted there by the city of Schwäbisch Gemünd, which had taken over the entire library stock, when the University of Maryland closed down its first overseas branch there in 2002.

After Jacobs University's president Joachim Treusch gave his go ahead for closer investigation, Graepel travelled to the old Swabian city near Stuttgart for a physical check. The collection, built up between 1992 and 2002, consisted almost entirely of English books and showed a high degree of topical overlap with subjects of interest to Jacobs University. Therefore the donation was accepted.

Upon arrival on campus the highly welcome windfall of books proved to be in an excellent condition, and a first survey showed them to come from established academic publishing houses. In addition the books use the same classification system as Jacobs' library, and their barcode and security system is compatible with Jacobs' system, so the IRC systems librarian Anja Kakau discovered.

Together with Facilities Management a dry, well ventilated, temporary storage area was found in the IRC basement. The collection is about the same size as Jacobs' current collection. Three trucks were needed to transport the 50 to 60 cubic meters of boxes. The costs of acquiring the collection were limited to Jacobs University's paying for their removal.

Library director Hans Roes expects the donation to contribute to his strategic goals. "The better our collection, the better we will be able to support the main activities at our university: teaching, learning and research. It also should reduce one of the main complaints we frequently hear about our library: the lack of books. That again fits in very well with our goal of making the Campus Center the preferred place for students and faculty to meet, work, and learn."

 


Author: wlaine. Last updated on 09.08.2007. © 2007 Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen. All rights reserved. No unauthorized reproduction. http://www.jacobs-university.de. For all general inquiries, please call the university at +49 421 200-40 or mail to info@jacobs-university.de.