Záznam konference Knihovny současnosti 2023
den 1. – 12. září 2023
program: https://sdruk.cz/knihovny-soucasnosti-2023/
Ulrike Krass – Německé veřejné knihovny po pandemii, na příkladu knihovny ve Freiburgu – trendy a výhledy
Záznam akce byl pořízen za podpory Ministerstva kultury ČR díky programu VISK 1.
They speak keyot speak Ang Ura has been working in public libraries in Germany for many years now as deputy director in fryborg at city near the Black Forest and close to the border of France and Switzerland after con concentrating on marketing she is now focusing on organization and customer
Services further she is also responsible for the branch libraries including mobile Library section for children music and reference services in the Cent Library her main motivation as a librarian is to enable people participating in society through free and equal accesses to information of any format this is her vision for a
Progressive forward-looking avability for libraries since the beginning of her professional career professional career sorry she has been active in the German Association of information and Library professionals Bib and her main emphasiz is to support Prof professional development at libraries in general so I’m now about to to give Ora her floor
And the same time uh uh I invite you to to to to use slido to uh to ask your questions if you have any you can do it during the presentation you can do it at the end of the presentation As You Wish Ora your is a floor [Applause]
So thank you very much for your friendly introduction [Applause] to as you mentioned did you you mention I am member of the ifla public library section and Lena brova and I from our colleagues in this section hi Lanka let me give you a short overview over the next
Minutes first of all I’m going to give you some information about fryberg and my library after that I will talk about Trends and news we observed during the last year when we could return back to normal was it really back to normal any surprises did we save something from the
Activities we created during the pandemic let’s see fryberg is a not in the triangle of three countries France Germany and Switzerland they are common Roots which give the region across border Consciousness geographically the river rine is a link you can see it in the graphic the Blue
Line Switzerland in the South France in the west and Germany East but there is also a common humanistic tradition for example in arasmus of Rotterdam the famous humanist of the 16th Century Century he lived in Basel and Friberg with influences into the alzas in France on top the language the dialect
Spoken in the different parts is alanic so people can understand each other fryberg has about about 234,000 inhabitants and about 33,000 students so fryberg is a young and growing city with a wide range of cultural events concerts theater and literature I’ve learned that aluts is similar smaller but also a historic
Setting with many students the fber Public Library is a library network with a Central Library in the city center at the 700 yearold Cathedral you see the cathedral and the few from the cedral to the library this was an extra activity by myself climbing up on top of the
Cathedral Spire to take this picture especially for you [Applause] there are three branch libraries and one Ferrari red mobile Library additionally we are responsible for 40 School libraries most of them in school for children from 6 to 10 for the younger kids the Europe direct Center is part of our library
Just for your orientation there are some basic statistics just have a look and compare the bottom line is in fryborg we make a lot of our resources I’m going to talk about the trends in German libraries now on the background of the last two or three years in March 2020 libraries around the
Globe were closed and all of us had to be very creative in finding solutions to stay connected to our users one aspect was organizational one how could we protect staff and users and how could we open libraries safely in Germany we had a wide variety in opening conditions like click and
Collect which means order your media by mail and collect it at an fixed appointment in the library sometimes media were given via an open window or click and meet visitors had to pre-book their visit in the library at a fixed time then a small number of visitors were allowed to enter the
Library at the same time additionally we had to check the vaccination or testing proof of our visitors really challenging one aspect was on the organizational side the other was a question of content what could we offer on online the answer was a big push for more ebooks e-journals e-papers this was relatively easy
Because most of German public libraries and fyber 2 have a stock of edia on a platform we only had to buy more additionally we started with films and music on additional platforms to facilitate access to our online stock we made online tutorials for our users and online storytelling but we wanted to do
Something for the kids who were at home with homeschooling and missing their friends so we bought a lot of board games for the families sounds old-fashioned but was very popular and the best publicity we ever had was our bike Courier you can see him on the slide children could order books DVDs
And this brand new board games by email we collected the items and one of our colleagues this colleague with excellent Fitness delivered it at home the pandemic years had been a cut in our daily work and our Visions concerning the role and function of the libraries in our
Communities I suppose it is similar in your country and Germany that many people are questioning the public library itself noticing that internet seems to be so easy to use for everybody and there are affordable streaming services like Netflix some people ask if Li are longer needed last year we could slowly return
To our normal opening hours we put the chairs back to the library finally the mobile Library went back on the road question was what about our libraries as third place will our users still need the library as a real place or only virtual what about the use of digital and printed
Media we expanded the number of digital media media very much do we still need them will the printed media disappear totally what shall we keep what shall we reverse these key topics were quite interesting last year let us think about Trends we saw expected and unexpected digitization users especially children
Sustainability role our place in the community International perspective from the perspective of my library sorry you yep maybe yep next yeah the key question was what happened to to our young users the children will they come back to the library the answer is is back sorry no sorry I’m a bit
Confused I think this is a yep y maybe yes one bag one no no let let it leave it at it is oh I have the answer sorry about that thank you yeah we were not sure which development the digital media will take after the reopening of the
Library what we could see is that the use of digital media remained on a high level respectively increased after the reopening people could borrow our printed books and they did but nevertheless the number of digital use increased continuously and became higher and higher you see the numbers from 19 to 2022 only the
Downloads we have to observe this development this year and onwards but I’m quite sure that it will remain on a longer Trend will remain a longer Trend so on the long ha all we have to expand our digital stock continuously during the pandemic the German government launched a digital initiative called vens
Wandle libraries and archives could apply for projects with a digital reference the given space was wide libraries wanted to buy robots to build maker spaces or Digital Labs to order databases integrate RFID technique or open Library Solutions we applied for support to set set up open libraries into two branches 24 million
Euro which is hope you get it translated in check currency were distributed on 750 projects Nationwide during the pandemic the libraries took a giant step improving digital skills many Library teams freshed up their digital skills and refuted The Stereotype that Librarians are experts only in books by publishing online tutorials
Useful D databases and much more we pointed out that we are competent in the digital world the key question was what happened to our young users the children will they come back to the library the answer is yes children are back we have a boom with loans on children’s books for me
This is a surprise comparing with 2019 we exceeded the number of loans of children’s books last year you see the numbers first is children section all kinds of media and second is only books 2019 to 22 and we have these result results despite we did enlarge our ebook collection for children as
Well what are the reasons for this development in the moment we only can speculate about the reasons concerning children in the library there are some options libraries are third places for children they have missed over the past few years a lot and many families have to save money because of inflation
High costs for energy and go to the library but one is absolutely clear this positive development shouldn’t stop our initiatives we can’t relax not everything is fine there are many parents who are not aware how important reading skills are and who are not bringing their children to the
Library we know that 20 96% of the children in fryborg in the age of 6 years are not able to speak German related to their age so they need additional support we as libraries are an important factor to level the playing field what we pushed in the last years
Was the establishment of 40 School libraries in fryberg especially in schools I mentioned for the younger kids from 6 to 10 if the kids don’t go to the books the books have to come to the children we are a team of three in the library to provide the school libraries
With media lists with software and trainings the school libraries get the new books ready to land out so we provide full service for them additionally I want to talk about a project initiated by the German reading Foundation Le shifton Len acts as a stakeholder with a picture um whoops for reading promotion it
Contributes to it through programs and political recommendations one of these programs is laser start start reading it supports early infant development in the family families got three little bags you see it on the slide with a picture book when the toddlers are one two and 3 years
Old bag one and two at the pediatrician you remember when the children don’t come to the books the books has to come have to come to the children the third B is in the library parent parents will be made aware of the relevance of Storytelling and developing reading
Skills we distribute hundreds of these little bags and hope we will be successful this topic is not new in Friberg the city of fryberg calls itself Green City protection of climate has priority priority for the city council that is why fryberg has good public transport many many many
Bikers and sustainable or even energy plus buildings so the city of fber participated early in working with sustainable goals in the last years libraries support the thought of sustainability ke to the point and in detail because of climate and energy crisis people are more aware about the resources and think of sharing instead
Of owning and we as Librarians are experts in organizing it library of things has been a trend in German libraries with a variety of things music instruments sport equipment or it hardware and recommend for small libraries with not many space seed on the left the seed Library petons can take the seeds with
Them let them grow and bring back seeds the next year this is very efficiently we in fryberg we started small with energy meter that was for practical reasons because last winter when the costs for energy exploded people want to know how they can save energy and this was very appreciated by
Our users and now we are on the way and we go ahead let me start with two Impressions I joined the ifla conference in Rotterdam in August you know I’m member of the section for public libraries in our business meeting we present reports about the situation in our countries to inform the colleagues
To see what are similar developments or different ones this year in every country country report it it was mentioned that libraries are under pressure because of media collections or events related to sex education questions of gender and diversity second impression is a brand new study of the berlman foundation in
Germany about attitudes and worries of young people in Germany 2023 it says that young people with lower education level don’t appreciate democracy as the best form of government only 40% what we as libraries stand for is free access to information freedom of speech these are values for librarians I
Never thought that we as Librarians have to defend the values we stand for nowadays an example in Germany Nationwide noticed was an event for children with a drag queen Queen in a branch library in Munich which took place with demonstrations in front of the library door of Pro and Contra
Representatives and all this with police protection this was extreme in Germany libraries can work independently but there are signals that our independent work is threatened as a reaction for this negative developments the Library Association in Germany gives support to the libraries with papers how to tackle with people try to influence the acquisition
Policy in addition the Library Association support the libraries in organizing trainings for libraries as especially in the smaller villages in the program libraries can learn how to organize such events how they can Network in their community and how they can improve the dialogue in fryberg we were not yet
Infected by these troubles in a relevant way but what we see is that especially young people don’t have the awareness of the problem of unquestioned dissemination of false news this has to be created among pupils we organize trainings with school classes where pupils learn to deal critically with news
Reports I suppose this is a field where you are all active in the same way in Germany there’s an initiative from the sches Holstein library center the fake hunt ERS during the simulation game the young people learn to uncover fake news they work in a small team as
Detectives with the help of the fake checking tools and various reliable sources from the internet databases and libraries they are to check facts and verify them for strengthening strengthening democracy International contacts and crossborder exchange help being open-minded and keep dialogue running this is the reason why I appreciate the ini initiative of the
Czech German Partnership of libraries a lot and as one result the participation of a group of young German colleagues at this conf conference where are you [Laughter] hi in fryberg we have two legs in international Affairs one is the Europe direct Center which is directly located in the main
Library so many people notice its information and events the other leg is our cooperation with our partner library in mulus in France for many years for 30 years our mobile libraries have an exchange one Friday afternoon per month the biblus of mulus is in front of our library and people can borrow French
Media one Saturday per month our mobile library is in mulu in front of the main library the good news is that the interest in the other culture cross border stayed strong but I stop here in this issue because we are going to talk about crossborder cooperation in the work workshop
Tomorrow let me end and summarize libraries are back and more important than ever libraries one digital competency and standing users want both printed and digital media so libraries have to fight for enough budget to provide users challenges are the relevance of libraries in society increases in relation to sustainability in relation to
Democracy thank you very much for your attention [Applause] if we are running out of time now to answer your questions I’m here today and tomorrow so come to me I’m looking forward to talking to you and share sharing experiences thank you thank you very much please stay at
The boot because we do have some questions so the very first question I have here for you what is a Europe direct library at the public library of fryberg um Europe direct um Europe direct these are information centers spread all over Europe maybe there is one in ol yes it is
Um in all the European countries and they are a bridge between the European commission the institutions and the citizens there are questions in frck our special setting is people uh live in France work in Germany what do I have to think about it to think about or
Um about other for students to do some to get get some funding like erasmos and these practical things and it’s absolutely perfect that the Aurora of direct is in the public library because in my library uh we have about 2,000 visitors per day so they are aware of this Europe direct Point thank
You okay I have another question here for you do you have anybody in your library who studied bibliotechs pedagogic do you think it would be helpful for working with children and young people uh we don’t have a specialist in pedagogic education we are Librarians but in Germany we have a lack
Of librarians we have so many problems to find um Librarians for the jobs so we extend the qualification um so we have some yeah some others um like teachers or yeah have studied literature and similar um subjects and we try to integrate them we try to benefit from their
Special knowledge and we teach them our yeah special things thank you actually I would ask to ask my question as well um you mentioned that beside all the other things you do and that’s very impressive uh you also have 1 million circulations a year right 400 uh 400
Th000 of uh which are actually children circulations and all that activities uh is backed up by 38 full-time equivalent right this is true this is true yeah but um what what what what kind of magic is behind that because that’s very impressive actually yeah it’s self-service so the
Returns and the loans it’s all uh self-service we don’t do this on our desk okay thank you um okay that seems to be no other questions so thank you very much and any other questions you have you can you can contact Ora and I she will she will
Answer your questions thank you very much once more thank [Applause] you