Albertina reading room.
Leipzig trade fair. Photos © Lauren Cummings.
Where do libraries stand? A key thread through many of the pres- entations was the role of libraries in a democratic society, particularly in the age of digitalisation and populism. Where do libraries stand as communal spaces in an increasingly individualised socie- ty? Hans-Christoph Hobohm from the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam presented some findings of the ALMPUB (“The ALM-Field, Digitalization and the Public Sphere”) project, which is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and involves researchers from seven European countries and the USA. The project asked members of the public and workers in the library, archive and museum sector how the role of these institutions is changing and how they can contribute to an open, democratic society, with the results to be published in 2019/2020. Staff and students from the Humboldt University
April-May 2019
Conference time at the Leipzig Congress Center.
of Berlin presented a project on the public library in the year 2030, which explores ways in which the library could become a platform for participation in democracy. Mathijs van Otegem of Erasmus Universi- ty Rotterdam implored us to consider how “filter bubbles” and implicit biases affect our work as librarians and what ethical dilemmas these may present. And of course, it wouldn’t be a library conference in 2019 without discuss- ing fake news – a discussion between librarians and journalists about how we can work together to identify and fight disinformation rounded off Wednesday afternoon.
Speech is not always free With these political issues fresh in my mind, on Thursday afternoon I took the tram to the German Museum of Books and Writing (housed in an extension of
the German National Library building) for a tour of its exhibits on censorship. The Leipzig branch of the German National Library (known until 1990 as the Deutsche Bücherei) has seen two dictatorships in the last century, and as a state institution was in fact instru- mental in practicing censorship. For example, we saw a list of books that had been categorised as “anti-democratic” in the German Democratic Republic, and kept in a closed collection at the library. It’s easy to take democracy for granted when you’ve never known anything else, but this served as a reminder that libraries are not always spaces where freedom of speech can be guaranteed.
Visiting university libraries I spent the unseasonably warm Friday visiting some university libraries in Leipzig and its smaller neighbour Halle
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