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Competition is Growing / Interest in German Language and Culture Declining in USA – but Rising in Asian Countries (Brigitte Döllgast) (pp. 214–217)

The German language and culture are on the retreat in the USA. Numerous universities are reducing their German program or dropping it altogether. Translations of German literature are seldom to be found. Stock of German books in public libraries has dropped dramatically. But fortunately there are happier trends: in academic libraries German-language books continue to be held in high regard. Yet books in other languages, mainly Asian, are gaining in importance. Brigitte Döllgast, director of the Information and Library Section of Goethe-Institute in New York City provides an indepth look at the current status of »the Germans« in the USA. One indicator of the diminishing influence of German is the situation of German as a school subject. In the USA there are currently 53.8 million pupils in 100,000 schools. Nearly half the schools offer foreign language instruction; about 400,000 pupils are learning German in about 6,000 schools. This takes third place, but is considerably lower than Spanish (4,750,000 pupils) and French (1,270,000 pupils). The state of German-language collections at university libraries varies considerably. In many cases they have historically enjoyed high status, but are losing importance today for financial reasons and/or due to internal policy decisions. At Harvard University, for example, German is still the most important language (after English) within the library collections. But the situation is gradually changing to the advantage of Asian languages. Though still holding a stable position in academic libraries, there is a clear downward trend in public libraries. Requests for literature in other languages, such as Chinese, Russian, etc., are much more numerous than for German.

Middle of the Action / Experiences as a »Librarian in Residence« in New York City and Washington, D.C. (Jan-Pieter Barbian) (pp. 229–235)

From September 16th to October 10, 2009, Jan-Peter Barbian sniffed a bit of American library air as a »Librarian in Residence«. Under the sponsorship of the Goethe-Institute and »Bibliothek & Information International« he visited various libraries in New York and Washington, D.C., to study their ideas on lobbying. In Germany, library politics lays in the hands of the elected officers of library associations, library advisory agencies, and the directors of libraries. Depending upon their adeptness, political agencies and academic bodies place a value to their respective libraries and provide financial support. Systematic lobbying at the political arena has been a failure for many years. In the USA one can learn how it can be organized professionally and effectively. Not only politicians, but also leading figures in business, finance, and industry, in executive positions and universities, are provided with evidence of the value of libraries on a regular basis. No one enjoys hearing laments about lack of funds. But when decision- makers see what happens with the budgets they have passed, and realize that not only the general public but also they themselves benefit from library programs, they are more prepared to finance libraries – or at least refrain from budget cuts. The magical word in this case is continuity. Libraries keep drawing attention to themselves and cultivating the »friendships« which began in initial conversations or seminars. With such measures the Brooklyn Library System and the Queens Public Library were able to ensure that the budget cuts originally planned for 2009/2010 were limited to five percent.

Working Round the Clock / The Campus Library of the University of Leipzig Now Open 24/7 (Charlotte Bauer) (pp. 256–259)

On October 23, 2009, the Campus Library of Leipzig University became the first 24-hour library in Saxony. With holdings of 500,000 volumes and 550 work stations, it is the second largest branch library within the system (after Bibliotheca Albertina) and the successor to the branch library for humanities and social sciences which had existed on the same location since 1978. Planning for the new campus offered the library an opportunity for renovations. The reconstruction of the Bibliotheca Albertina and its designation as the central humanities library were further reasons to revise its mandate. It also appeared reasonable to merge the autonomous libraries of the Economics, Mathematics and Computer Science Departments. The close physical vicinity of the Communications and Media Sciences, which is one of the university’s designated national collection focus areas, led to its inclusion in this new facility. To solve the problem of creating a larger open stacks area, the previously closed stacks area in the lower floors had to be renovated. An atrium measuring about 200 square meters in the middle of the building helped to solve this problem; it creates a bright, lavish and friendly stacks area at the two lower levels. The library is staffed from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. by trained personnel. At least one staff member is available at the service desk during those hours. After 7 p.m. the library is run by two guards. The library is visited daily by between 3,000 and 4,500 users.

Translated by Martha Baker