Lesetipp des Tages in verschiedenen Sprachen: Ultimi giorni dell'umanità - Les derniers jours de l'Humanité - The last days of mankind - Die letzten Tage der Menschheit

Remarkable libraries, part III: the "Fachbibliothek für Germanistik" (special library for German language & literature studies) is part of the Vienna university's library and collects media in the fields of German-language literature from its beginnings to the present, philology, onomatology & dialectology, German as a foreign language, nordic and Dutch languages & literature... It offers about 145000 items, nearly 200 serials and a really nice reading room.

Recently, I bought an issue of the "Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine". It contains a really charming story that keeps me smiling whenever I think about it: "The Unpleasantness at Le Château Malveillant" by John Morressy. The text is part of a series about the sorcerer Kedrigern and his wife Princess.

I hereby continue my series about remarkable libraries. Today: the Vienna University of Technology's library (short: UBTUW). The library was founded in 1815, its current premises were finished in 1987. It has a very pleasant working atmosphere (which is not self-evident in Austrian academic libraries), it offers an extensive open-access shelving area (which is not...), and the staff is very friendly (which is not...).
One of the most remarkable features is the so-called "Eiserne Kassa" (~iron till). It is a vault where the really valuable books are stored. During my internship in 2001/02, I had the possibility to glance at its content, and I did some research on the authors, the books and the prices that similar items were dealt with by antiquarian book-sellers; e.g. early editions by the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler. But normally, users don't have the opportunity to look at it. So I content myself with other books about quantum physics (alas only the more popular ones), the relation of philosophy & science and information retrieval.

Der Arbeitskreis kritischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare im Renner-Institut KRIBIBI und die Sozialwissenschaftliche Bibliothek der Arbeiterkammer Wien laden herzlich ein zur Veranstaltung "kalt warm. Bibliotheken zwischen spektakulären Eröffnungen und unbemerkten Schließungen".
Früher oder später werden HistorikerInnen dem Phänomen des Bibliothekssterbens am Beginn des 21.Jahrhunderts nachgehen. Während weltweit architektonisch ansprechende Bibliotheksneubauten gebührende Beachtung finden, sehen sich gleichzeitig abseits öffentlicher Wahrnehmung wichtige Teile des Bibliothekswesens in ihrer Substanz gefährdet.
- Lesung: Christine Linzbauer und Erwin Wögenstein - Texte über Bücher und Bibliotheken
- Gespräch: Peter Huemer mit Ferdinand Lacina und BibliothekarInnen
- Kleines Buffet
Ort: Lesesaal der Sozialwissenschaftlichen Bibliothek, Prinz Eugen-Straße 20, 1040 Wien
Zeit: Mittwoch, 24. März 2004, 19 Uhr

Via the weblog of the institute for library science at the Humboldt university Berlin (IB), I discovered there's an interesting comics library in Berlin.

In the summer term 2002, I attended an online seminar about female librarians. Now we have the possibility to publish the results in form of a book. I was in a group writing about female librarians in literature & movies, and I specialized on anglophone children's books.

At the weekend, I read the latest volume of the Miss Zukas mystery series by Jo Dereske, namely "Miss Zukas shelves the evidence". It was a real pleasure. It is very funny to see when the little rebel being hidden in every librarian comes out.