In co-operation with the Hong Kong Library Association, the library of the Goethe-Institut (http://www.goethe.de/os/hon/) held a seminar on 25 May 2001 on structures and trends in the German library system.

45 experts from public and specialised libraries in Hong Kong and students of HKU SPACE (School of Professional And Continuing Education) came to hear the lecture by Dr Claudia Lux, General Director of the Berlin Central and Regional Library (http://www.zlb.de/bibliothek/index-e.htm), which was given in the studio of the Goethe-Institut on the 14th floor of the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

The participants were welcomed by Jürgen Keil, director of the Goethe-Institut Hong Kong, who then introduced the work of the Institute's library and its information centre, the focus of which is the development of on-line information services for topics related to Germany.

Dr Lux began her lecture by describing the structure of the library system in Germany.  This is based on the one hand on the state federal system and on the other on a division into four levels designed to cater to the population's diverse literature requirements, ranging from the basic to the highly specialised.  In this part of the lecture, Dr Lux also introduced the Berlin Central and Regional Library and its tasks before explaining further aspects of Germany's library system.  These included the functions of a national library, which are carried out by three different libraries, the co-operation between the libraries and librarians and the various possibilities available to be trained as a librarian in Germany.

Dr Lux then went on to describe the most important trends emerging in the German library system, in particular direct electronic inter-library loan systems, such as the "Subito" service (http://www.subito-doc.com/), which are increasingly complementing and replacing traditional inter-library loan services.

In another development, university libraries in particular are building digital libraries in order to store and make available electronic works.  To solve problems arising in this area, these libraries have joined forces with the universities’ computer centres in the Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation DINI (German Initiative for Network Information) (http://www.dini.de/)
What's more, the university library in Konstanz is now offering a new service: the 24-hour library.

Other trends are related to the cuts in financing that the libraries have suffered.  In order to bring in funds, libraries are presenting cultural events, offering further training courses and seeking to attract sponsors, endowments and legacies.  There is also an increasing specialisation within the library networks of the larger cities, with individual branches redefining themselves for example as youth or computer libraries, as international libraries providing foreign language literature, or as music libraries.  As a result of the advent of new media and the provision of customer-oriented services by the libraries, it is becoming necessary for library staff to undergo further training, while new management strategies are also required in the libraries.  These developments are also a precondition for the shaping of further changes in the German library system.

Following the event in Hong Kong, Dr Lux also presented her lecture at the Guangzhou Library in Guangzhou as well as in Shanghai and in Beijing.  The text of her lecture plus her answers to the questions that were put to her will be made available on the homepage of the Goethe-Institut in the very near future.  If you would like to be informed when the text is available, please send a message to the library of the Goethe-Institut in Hong Kong (by e-mail to info@hongkong.goethe.org or by fax to 2802 4363).

Further information on the status of the public libraries in Germany can be found in the "Public Library” section on the IFLA homepage (http://www.ifla.org/VII/s8/annual/country.htm) and at "Telematics for Libraries” (http://www.cordis.lu/libraries/en/plis/germany.html).

If you have other questions on the book and library system in Germany, please feel free to contact the library of the Goethe-Institut in Hong Kong.